and he had evidently
taken a severe cold, and occasionally he would groan, when he moved his
body, and place his hand to the small of his back. His pipe and tobacco
were far away on the mantel, though he could smell them, and the odor so
satisfying to him when he was well, almost made him sick, and when the
red-headed boy came in the room the first thing the old man said was:

"Take that dum pipe and terbacker out of the room, and put it in the
woodshed. Your Uncle Ike ain't enjoyin' his terbacker very well,"
and the old fellow made up a face, and looked as though he was on a
steamboat excursion in rough weather. The boy took the pipe by the tail,
and the tobacco paper in his other hand, and went out, and soon returned
with a heavy blanket coat on, a pair of felt boots, and a toboggan
knit-cap, and a pair of yarn mittens on, though it was late in July, and
the weather was quite hot. Uncle Ike looked at him in wonder, as though
he was not sure but it was winter, and he was so ill as not to know that
summer and fall had passed without his knowing it.

"What you got them sliding-down-hill clothes on for, in July?" said the
old man, as he put one puckered-up bare foot on the other, in the water,
and sozzled them around in the mustard in the bottom of the tub. "You
will have me sunstruck yet, if you wear those clothes around here. What
is up, anyway?"

[Illustration: A lot of us boys are going to the Klondike 093]

"A lot of us boys are going to the Klondike," said the red-headed boy,
as he took a big hunting knife out of a sheath, "and I came in to see
if you would grubstake me. We have been reading about the millions of
dollars in gold nuggets and dust, that is being brought out, and we are
going to have some of the gold. Want your corns cut?" said the boy, as
he sharpened the knife on Uncle Ike's boot that lay on the floor.

"You ducks have been reading about the gold that has been brought out,
but you forgot to read about the corpses that stayed in the Klondike,
didn't you?" said the old man as he took a drink of the hot lemonade,
and pulled the bathrobe around his hind legs. "You tell the boys you are
not going, and that Uncle Ike will not grubstake you. Tell them you have
found out that for every dollar in gold that comes out of the mines,
a hundred dollars is spent to find it. Tell them that not one man in a
hundred that goes there ever sees anything yellow, except the janders.
Tell them that seven out of ten men