L. "I will, for she needs a mother's care. Good-bye!
Leave me to weep and wash the baby's face and hands alone."

ACT I.--_Scene, a California mining-camp. Various miners of assorted
nationalities--one of each--hard at work lying on the ground._

1ST MINER. "I want more whiskey."

CHORUS. "So do we."

2ND MINER. "MAY WILDROSE won't sell any more."

CHORUS. "But she gives it to her lover."

3RD MINER. "He looks clean; he must have found a nugget. Let's kill
him."

4TH MINER. "Sh--we will." (_Enter_ MAY WILDROSE--_which her name it is_
MISS LOTTA.)

MAY. "Here comes my darling LIONEL. Let me get you some brandy, love."

LIONEL. "Certainly, my dear. How full of forethought is a true woman's
love!"

CHORUS of MINERS. "She gives it to him, but not to us. Beware, young
woman, or we will go back on you."

MAY. "No you won't. My father earns a laborious living by making me keep
a whiskey shop. We have a monopoly of the business, and you will have to
buy of us, whether you like it or not. Get out of my sight, or I'll lick
the whole boiling of you." (_They fly, and she returns to the parental
whiskey shop._)

LIONEL. "Night is coming on. I will go among the rocks; why, I don't
know, but still I will go." (_Goes. Three miners follow and attack
him._)

LIONEL. "Save me, somebody."

MAY. _Appearing suddenly with a revolver_--"You bet." (_She shoots the
miners and brings down the curtain triumphantly._)

ACT II.--_Scene--the whiskey shop of the_ REASONING ANIMAL.--LIONEL
_asleep on a bed evidently borrowed from some boarding-house--since it
is several feet too short for him_.--MAY _engaged in peeling
potatoes.--Enter_ REASONING ANIMAL.

REASONING ANIMAL. "My daughter! I see you are passionately in love with
LIONEL. Therefore, as I know him to be a fine young fellow, you must
never see him more." (_Enter_ COMIC YANKEE.)

COMIC YANKEE. "Here's your new banjo, Miss MAY. Play us something comic
and depressing."

MAY. "Thank Heaven, I can get at the banjo at last" (_Plays and is
encored a dozen times._)

COMIC YANKEE. "Miss MAY, you must go and take a walk." (_She goes._)
"LIONEL, you are well enough to leave this ranche. Get up and get."

LIONEL. "Farewell, beloved whiskey shop. Tell MAY I am going to leave
her, and give her my sketches. If she once looks at them, she can love
me no longer." (_Goes out to slow music. Re-enter_ MAY.)

MAY. "The wretch has left me without a word. I will bury his infamous
sketch