the Creole Belle," sez he.

"Creole Belle!" sez I. "Well, tell it, tell it. Why don't you tell it?"

"Oh, fudge," sez he; "it's been long enough on the way, an' I reckon
it'll keep a minute longer. The Creole Belle was a gold-mine named
after a woman."

"Good or bad?" sez I.

"Good," sez he. "Paid two hundred dollars to the ton in spots."

"I meant the woman, confound ya," sez I.

"Well, it seems that she was a purty square sort of a woman," sez Ches,
"but I didn't suppose 'at you'd care much about her. The mine--" I
groaned. "Well, you fool me," sez Ches, seein' I was in earnest. "The'
was a purty florid romance mixed up in it too; but I didn't suppose you
was interested in such things, an' I didn't pay much heed to that part
of it."

"That's allus the way when a boy does anything," sez I, with
peevishness. "Now you set there an' think up all you can about the
deal--everything."

"Well," sez Ches, slowly, "it seems that a couple o' young Easterners
came out to find their fortune. They was the true Damon an' Pythias
brand o' partners, an' stood back to back durin' a protracted spell o'
good, stiff, copper-bottomed misfortune. They finally located a mine
that looked good-natured an' generous; but it was a fooler. One day it
coaxed 'em an' next it give 'em the laugh. Finally they each got down
in turn with mountain-fever an' a beautiful young girl nursed 'em. She
was there with her father, who was workin' a claim near by. He was an
odd sort of chap to be minin'--though come to think of, that's not
possible, seein' that all kinds o' men--"

"Ches," I breaks in, "will you kindly get on with that tale, or must I
shake it out o' you?"

He seemed mightily surprised, but he went on: "Well, the girl was a
beauty, an' she had a gigantic maid--"

"Monody!" I shouted.

"Keeno!" shouts back Ches, some exasperated.

"Now that wasn't slang nor sarcasm what I was usin'," sez I, smoothin'
it over. "That gigantic maid you mentioned is part o' the tale that you
don't know yet."

"Well, naturally, while they was bein' nursed they both fell in love
with her--"

"With Monody?" I yells.

"No, you ijot, with the girl!" Ches was gettin' flustered. "She was a
corkin' handsome girl, an' they all called her the Creole Belle. To be
strictly honest though, they didn't really fall in love with her. They
both loved the same girl back in Philadelphia, an' they just took to
the Creole Belle as a sort of a substitute. Now the ol' ma