the presentation ceremonies Cherokee's claim played
out. He had located a pocket instead of a vein. He abandoned it and
staked others one by one. Luck had kissed her hand to him. Never
afterward did he turn up enough dust in Yellowhammer to pay his bar
bill. But his thousand invited guests were mostly prospering, and
Cherokee smiled and congratulated them.

Yellowhammer was made up of men who took off their hats to a smiling
loser; so they invited Cherokee to say what he wanted.

"Me?" said Cherokee, "oh, grubstakes will be about the thing. I reckon
I'll prospect along up in the Mariposas. If I strike it up there I
will most certainly let you all know about the facts. I never was any
hand to hold out cards on my friends."

In May Cherokee packed his burro and turned its thoughtful,
mouse-coloured forehead to the north. Many citizens escorted him to
the undefined limits of Yellowhammer and bestowed upon him shouts of
commendation and farewells. Five pocket flasks without an air bubble
between contents and cork were forced upon him; and he was bidden to
consider Yellowhammer in perpetual commission for his bed, bacon and
eggs, and hot water for shaving in the event that luck did not see
fit to warm her hands by his campfire in the Mariposas.

The name of the father of Yellowhammer was given him by the gold
hunters in accordance with their popular system of nomenclature. It
was not necessary for a citizen to exhibit his baptismal certificate
in order to acquire a cognomen. A man's name was his personal
property. For convenience in calling him up to the bar and in
designating him among other blue-shirted bipeds, a temporary
appellation, title, or epithet was conferred upon him by the public.
Personal peculiarities formed the source of the majority of such
informal baptisms. Many were easily dubbed geographically from the
regions from which they confessed to have hailed. Some announced
themselves to be "Thompsons," and "Adamses," and the like, with a
brazenness and loudness that cast a cloud upon their titles. A few
vaingloriously and shamelessly uncovered their proper and indisputable
names. This was held to be unduly arrogant, and did not win
popularity. One man who said he was Chesterton L. C. Belmont, and
proved it by letters, was given till sundown to leave the town. Such
names as "Shorty," "Bow-legs," "Texas," "Lazy Bill," "Thirsty Rogers,"
"Limping Riley," "The Judge," and "California Ed" were in favour.
Cherokee