Later, we took in a third--another of Adversity's brood, who, like
Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy, had a chronic inability to
adjudicate the rival claims (to himself) of Frost and Famine.
Between him and the grave there was seldom anything more than a
single suspender and the hope of a meal which would at the same
time support life and make it insupportable. He literally picked
up a precarious living for himself and an aged mother by
"chloriding the dumps," that is to say, the miners permitted him to
search the heaps of waste rock for such pieces of "pay ore" as had
been overlooked; and these he sacked up and sold at the Syndicate
Mill. He became a member of our firm--"Gunny, Giggles, and Dumps,"
thenceforth--through my favor; for I could not then, nor can I now,
be indifferent to his courage and prowess in defending against
Giggles the immemorial right of his sex to insult a strange and
unprotected female--myself. After old Jim struck it in the
Calamity, and I began to wear shoes and go to school, and in
emulation Giggles took to washing his face, and became Jack Raynor,
of Wells, Fargo & Co.
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