Analy High School - Azalea Yearbook (Sebastopol, CA)

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JWrt Rat MO knew where be came from or when he arrived in AM Bodxe ’ nor dld anyone care. After he had hung around L camp long enough to gain the sobriquet of Useless and to be grubstaked he set out in the search of the Great Mother Lodge. tt aft er day, with his two burros for his companions, Useless picked inquiringly at the dull rock surface, and many a time had the blood rushed to his head and his heart beat wildly when he dug out a rich shovelful of pay dirt, but the next shovelful would be barren, and the next, until he knew that was a touch of irony on the part of Nature. But when the blistering sun sank over the desert, leaving the great waste of sand and sage brush sharply defined in the clear air, and when the stars shone like huge candles, there arose a feeling of peace and happiness in the heart of Useless, and as lie fried his bacon he addressed his remarks to his .lacks, who always answered him in the affirmative by wrig¬ gling their ears. s Time passed, leaving little of its mark upon Useless ex¬ cept that he became a little more bent and more hopeful, until head SP ° ke ° f h ‘ m laughed and P oin ted to their For truly the desert had gripped him, gripped him with her tenacious hold, and while hating her and her merciless cruelty, tor ’tis only on her bosom can the strongest survive yet he loved her as his home, his as much as that of the wolf and the buzzard. Then one momentous day Bodie was stirred clear to her foundations, for the rumor had spread that Useless, the “Rat of the Desert,” had struck it rich on a huge vein of ore. Surely this was enough to startle any of the natives, for Useless had so long been deemed a harmless lunatic that the thought of him striking pay dirt was surprising. Then came another surprise. Useless and his grubstaker a local saloon man, had sold out to the Bodie Mining Co. for one hundred thousand dollars, and had set out to see the sights ot ban b rancisco and, as Useless expressed it, “to see what a tree looked like and where water wasn’t the color of coffee.” After they had nearly asphyxiated themselves by blowing 13

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have always been my friend. Here, I give you these to keep always, Senor,” and he handed O’Farrel his silver spurs. “My father’s father’s grandfather had them, Senor; they were taken from the heathens many years ago, my father told me. My ancestors were great men, Senor Judge.” “But—but, Jose,” said the old man, trying to make his face belie the mist in his eyes. “But, my boy, I sentenced you to be hanged. Why do you give me these?” “Yes, Judge Jasper, you sentenced me to death, but you did not believe me guilty. Those dogs,” he said, with a contemptous gesture of his hand, indicating the small group of men in the distance, “They said Guilty! What do they know of truth? You know I was innocent, Senor, but you could do nothing with them. Why do you put on that tiger look? It cannot fool me, and besides your eyes make it lie. Death is pleasing to me, Friend Jasper, when I know that you know I’m innocent.” Without saying a word, Judge O’Farrel accepted the prof¬ fered spurs, and then gazed intently away at some distant landscape. The first rays of sun lighted the morning heavens in the west. A brown bird twittered in a nearby bush, and a far-off quail whistled to its mate. Higher and higher climbed Old Sol, until finally his old bald head poked over the rim of Eng¬ lish Hill and looked disdainfully down at a quiet group of men and a gnarly old oak. “Adios, Senor Judge, you will see me again with my father and little Pat,” said Jose. But the Hon. Jasper O’Farrel’s retreating form had passed around a turn and out of hearing. A rope creaked over a rough oak limb. —Roy Williamson. 12

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out the gas, and when they had gotten gloriously drunk seen all the sights that this cosmopolitan city could offer, Useless became lonesome and expressed a desire to see his relatives in Springfield, Connecticut, and he accordingly went with his old carpetbag, his high boots and his big sombrero, becoming an object of curiosity to the passengers on the trains in the East. , . . , In Springfield he found some nephews and nieces who looked upon him as a profitable investment, each trying to outdo the other in entertaining him. But he soon became tired of the fol-de-rols, for the stilt collars choked and chafted his neck, the tight-fitting shoes hurt his feet, and he was eternally letting slip some cuss word that made it rather confusing for the party. He could never eat without using his knife instead of his fork, and when it came to the soup he always made enough noise to drown the con¬ versation. The family at length despairingly left him to his own resources, and he soon found a beanery at the lower end of the city, to which he would go and gorge himself upon his favor¬ ite dish. As winter drew on the stuffy houses with their red-hot s+oves stifled and gagged him, the numerous people bothered him, the food choked him and the extravagance with water, for a quart of the precious fluid may mean your life on the desert, worried him. He wanted his old clothes, he wanted his jacks, and, Oh! he wanted the desert. A few days later he did not come down to breakfast, and one of his nieces, half comforted in the thought that he had passed away in the night, went up to find the cause. On enter¬ ing she found the bed unoccupied and her estimable uncle vanished. One morning there arrived in Bodie an old familiar figure who was joyfully hailed by the inhabitants. How good it was to be affectionately cussed and to be marched up to the bar, and have the bartender address him in the old familiar way. Useless again startled the natives of Bodie by giving to a San Francisco Orphan Asylum his entire fortune, retaining only enough to grubstake himself. Then one morning, as the heat waves were beginning to dance over the waste, there came down the lone trail a man and two burros, and disappeared in the sage. That was the last seen of Useless. 14