to smack her gum; the missionary and the
Indian Agent were tense with emotion.
Who was going to win? Where should
the odds be placed?
Again came the inguiry from the Indian
Agent, “Gitemdultz what have you pro-
vided for your former wife?”

THE CHIEF Pays ALIMONY?

This was the supreme moment for which
the Chief haa been waiting. He rose to his
feet; cast a glance around the room to assure
himself that he had everyone’s attention;
assumed a poise of triumphant dignity and
proudly proclaimed.

“I got her job to cut cord wood for the
Hudson's Bay Company steamboat.

LIE DETECTOR

WHEN George cut down the cherry tree,
And wrote a page in history,

He said, “I cannot tell a lie;
The one who did the deed was I!”

And so for near two hundred years
Each generation duly hears

Of George’s fine integrity,
And what an honest lad was he.

But times have changed, and modern youth
Now seldom needs to tell the truth,
For just as he begins to chop
He looks around. . . and there’s a “cop!”
—Los Angeles Police Assn. Bulletin.

CHEAP LITERATURE

A recent case seems to prove that bad
literature can influence the
mind. A telegraph messenger read that a
trouser pocket, elongated to the knee, pro-
vided an excellent hiding-place for “mer-
chandise,” as investigators never searched
down low.

The young pilferer boasted no policeman
would ever catch him. Meanwhile petty
thievery was rampant in various offices in
War Supply Buildings at Ottawa. <A
clever ruse on the part of the investigator
brought about the miscreant’s disclosure.
He was caught with the goods despite the
deep pocket.

It is to be hoped that now the youth
realizes “crime doesn’t pay.’ —R.C.M. P.
Quarterly.

PORT HARDY HOTEL

JOHN J. DUMAS, Proprietor

Refreshment Parlour
Comfortable Rooms, $1.00 and Up

Good Meals

Port Hardy, British Columbia

Page Forty-six

adolescent °

Gold Is Where You Find It )

By W. W. BRIDE

“CHEECHACO HILL”

“SAY, PAL.” asked the tenderfoot .with
the Cockney accent, “We've walked seven
miles up this ruddy creek and haven't seen
a foot of ground that is not staked. Do
you know of any place that is open and
that has pay-dirt on it?”

The miner straightened up from crank-
ing the windlass that raised dirt and gravel
from the bottom of the shaft and stared
at the. newcomer.

“Of all the fool ”. Then he looked
at the man. He was in earnest. These
‘cheechacos’ never would learn the ways of
the Klondike.

“If I knew of a place like you want, I
sure would be there right now,” replied
the miner as he started cranking the wood-
en handle again.

“By Yiminy, I think there’s lots room
up on hillside there. What's the matter
with that?” asked the other new-comer as
he stamped his feet on the frozen ground.
“Can we stake claim up there, jus above
yours?”

This was too much for the old timer.
He stared at the speaker. Any darn fool
knows that gold does not run up hill, that
the likeliest place to prospect is the creek
bottom where the heavy metal has settled.
The temptation was too much for him.
With straight face and serious manner
he gave the suggestion thoughtful con-
sideration and ponderously gave his deci-
sion.

“You're right, boys, there’s plenty of
room on the mountain there. There’s
plenty of trees to build your cabin with
and another thing, you'll be above the fog
that bothers us here. Go right ahead, stake
your claims there if you want to. You'll
be nearer heaven there, too.” He added as
an after thought.

The chechacos were delighted with these
signs of friendliness. They pestered the
miner with questions, as to how to stake
claims, how to build cabins, how to record
claims until the prospector thought he
would never get rid of them. The tugs on

the rope from his partner in the shaft were
growing more and more vicious.

That night, in the cabin, the miners
roared and howled at the gullible pair of
newcomers. Great was their surprise, a day
or two later to see smoke drifting from a
fire on the mountains above them. The fel-
lows had bit. They were really going to
stake the side of the mountain. During
the course of the next few days, the miners
in the creek-bottom saw quite a bit of
their new neighbours.

One was a Swedish music-hall comedian
and the other was a London cabby. They
kept the entire camp in an uproar by their
antics. So popular were they that none had
the heart to tell them of the error of their
ways.

The construction of the cabin was a
major undertaking for the cheechacos.
Without the advice and help of the miners
they would have been in a sorry plight.
As the building grew apace, the miners
began to regret their practical joke. How-
ever, they figured that the pair had to
build a cabin somewhere and they might
as well build it there as any place. They
gave the comical pair every assistance,
planning to tell them in the spring that
their choice of location had been a poor
one and that they had better try some place
else. It seemed the easiest way out of the
predicament.

The cabin completed, the Swede and
the Cockney were anxious to find the gold
that they were certain lay beneath their
feet. A wide patch of snow was cleared
and a fire lit in the approved manner.
The thawed surface was shoveled away
and the process completed. The new
miners had been told not to bother pan-
ning the surface muck, but to wait until
they struck gravel. They toiled like beav-
ers and threw bucket after bucketful of
dirt away. At ten feet they stopped to
construct a windlass. They were really
miners now and could talk of the layers
and the hoists and the whole lingo.

The first pan of gravel they brought up

HARDY BAY HOTEL

J. NICHOLSON, Proprietor

Refreshment Parlour
EX GEhLice NI ROOMS

Reasonable Rates

Port Hardy, British Columbia

THE SHOULDER STRAP