THE
Transformation of Job
A TALE OF THE HIGH SIERRAS
ELGIN, ILL., AND
36 WASHINGTON ST., CHICAGO.
By David C. Cook Publishing Company.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
If one will take the trouble to tramp with staff in hand the highSierras, he will find not only the Yosemite, but Gold City and PineTree Ranch, though perhaps they bear another name. Most of the quaintcharacters of this tale still dwell among the vine-clad hills. Tointroduce to you these friends that have interested the author, and totell anew the story of the human soul, this work is written.
Out of love of never-to-be-forgotten memories of Pine Tree Ranch, theauthor dedicates this book to him who once welcomed him to its whiteporch, but who now sleeps beneath the shadow of the mountains—AndrewMalden.
The Transformation of Job,
A TALE OF THE HIGH SIERRAS.
By FREDERICK VINING FISHER.
CHAPTER I.
THE NEW ARRIVAL AT GOLD CITY.
The stage was late at Gold City. It always was. Everybody knew it, buteverybody pretended to expect it on time.
Just exactly as the old court-house bell up the hill struck six, thepostmistress hurriedly opened her door and stood anxiously peering upthe street, the loafers who had been dozing on the saloon benchesshuffled out and leaned up against the posts, the old piano in theMiners' Home began to rattle and a squeaky violin to gasp for breath,while the pompous landlord of the "Palace Hotel," sending a Chinamanto drive away a dozen pigs that had been in front of his door throughthe day, took his post on the sidewalk to await his coming guests—whogenerally never came.
There was a time when Gold City had been a great town—
In days of gold,
In days of forty-nine."
The boys often hung around the saloon steps and listened with gapingmouths while Yankee Sam and the other old men told of the golden age,when the streets of Gold City were crowded and Tom Perry made afortune in one day and lost it all gambling that night; when there wasmore life in Gold City than 'Frisco could shake a stick at; when thefour quarters of the globe came in on the stage and mined all day,danced all night and went away rich.
But Gold City, now, was neither large nor rich. The same eternal hillssurrounded her and the same great pine trees sh