e bunk whereon she lay,--seen it winding like a
silver thread until it was lost in the stars above.

A fire of withered pine-boughs added sociability to the gathering. By
degrees the natural levity of Roaring Camp returned. Bets were freely
offered and taken regarding the result. Three to five that "Sal would
get through with it," even, that the child would survive; side bets as
to the sex and complexion of the coming stranger....

In the midst of an excited discussion an exclamation came from those
nearest the door, and the camp stopped to listen. Above the swaying and
moaning of the pines, the swift rush of the river, and the crackling of
the fire, rose a sharp, querulous cry. The pines stopped moaning, the
river ceased to rush, and the fire to crackle. It seemed as if Nature
had stopped to listen too.

The camp rose to its feet as one man! It was proposed to explode a
barrel of gunpowder; but, in consideration of the situation of the
mother, better counsels prevailed, and only a few revolvers were
discharged; for, whether owing to the rude surgery of the camp, or some
other reason, Cherokee Sal was sinking fast. Within an hour she had
climbed, as it were, the rugged road that led to the stars, and so passed
out of Roaring Camp, its sin and shame, forever....

I do not think that the announcement disturbed them much, except in
speculation as to the fate of the child, "Can he live now?" was asked of
Stumpy. The answer was doubtful. The only other being of Cherokee Sal's
sex and maternal condition in the settlement, was an ass. There was some
conjecture as to fitness, but the experiment was tried. It was less
problematical than the ancient treatment of Romulus and Remus, and
apparently as successful.

Strange to say, the child thrived. Perhaps the invigorating climate of
the mountain camp was compensation for maternal deficiencies. Nature
took the foundling to her broader breast. In that rare atmosphere of the
Sierra foot-hills--that air pungent with balsamic odor, that ethereal
cordial at once bracing and exhilarating--he may have found food and
nourishment, or a subtle chemistry that transmuted asses' milk to lime
and phosphorus. Stumpy inclined to the belief that it was the latter
and good nursing, "Me and that ass," he would say, "has been father and
mother to him! Don't you," he would add, apostrophizing the helpless
bundle before him, "never go back on us."

[Footnote 59: Prominent among the more recent Amer