MY WESTWARD TREK Chapter 18

They Struck it Rich
courtesy free clip art

 

Morgan having spent the last three months just about snow bound it was good to see the sun melting the snow.

He had a surprise visit from Virgil who came up with the pack mule and the dog. The fresh supplies were surely appreciated, and seeing the dog was also a welcome sight though the dog was cold, wet and dog tired.  It was still difficult to do any mining but Morgan was probing around looking for a new vein of gold.  There were some veins that at first looked hopeful but they played out after a little digging.

He figured if the weather stayed the same they could get back to work in a couple of weeks. This sounded good to Virgil and they made plans to get some new equipment to speed up their operation. Morgan gave Virgil what gold he had found figuring that it would be enough to pay for the supplies and new equipment without taking money from the bank.

Two weeks later, Virgil showed up with the pack mule loaded, and he had a man with him to take the mule back because they didn't need his help.  They would have had to feed and care for him which would have taken them away from their work.  

Over the next few months they took out a good amount of gold, enough to make each of them rich by most men’s standards. They did so well that a commercial company wanted to buy them out. With winter coming on neither of them wanted to keep mining so they agreed on a price and sold the claim.

When they bought it from the old miner they had never dreamed they would be so successful. Morgan was thinking about Bessie and getting married. It had been two years since they parted, and he had promised to marry her about now.

His plans were to get married and return to New York and rejoin his father in his business.

 

He said his final goodbye to his best friend Virgil for they had been through many hard times together.  Morgan thought to himself, “How do you say goodbye to your friend whom you will never see again?”  There would surly be an empty spot inside him he knew.

He said a special goodbye to Virgil's wife for she was like a second mother to him and lastly it was goodbye to dog who had warned them of danger more than once.

Morgan went to San Francisco and boarded a ship to Portland.

There he found out where Bessie's folks lived and he wanted to see them as soon as possible. He shopped around for some gifts he thought they might need and hired a buggy to make the drive to their place.

He rehearsed what to say when he met them again, and wondered if he should grab Bessie and kiss her or just take it easy until everyone had time to relax.  She would now be sixteen, and he was twenty, two years older than when he saw her last.

He wondered, and expected her to have filled out and to look more womanly than she did at fourteen.  

As he neared their place their watch dog announced his arrival, and the dad came out and greeted him and said; “We never expected to see you again.”  

Morgan thought that was strange.  When the mother came out, she also said; “We never expected to see you again.”

He kept looking for Bessie but didn't see her.  Morgan was getting more anxious by the second, and he called for her to come out.  Her father echoed the plea; “Bessie come on out!”

To be Continued