Rocky Mountain Sam — page 60: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

/ ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. 51 ‘“‘Now,” said the professor, rubbing his hands and smiling in his peculiarly ghastly way—very much like a death’s-head at a picnic; ‘‘here’s a capital chance to improve upon the superstitious horror in which these copper-colored loafers regard my simple balloon. How much water did we lay in with our provisions, Sam ?”’ 3 ‘“l'wo kegs and a barrel,” replied Sam. “Good enough!” said the other, stocping and raising a small trap-door, which opened a hole about twelve inches square in the bottom of the car. ‘‘Now, sling that water- barrel over here, so that the spigot will be directly over the eenter of this hole. I’m going to see if we can’t puzzle those fellows a little before they succed in making that pot boil.” In the meantime the Indians below, utterly oblivious of enemies or mischief-makers in their vicinity, kept strik- ing away at their flints and puffing away at their rather damp tinder with a will. At length one of them succeeded in cultivating the much desired spark, and applying it to the dead leaves underneath the heap, and all gave a grunt of satisfaction as the bright fiames leaped and writhed among the dry twigs and branches. But their joy was of brief duration. : 3 Suddenly a stream of water, about half as thick as a man’s wrist, and descending from Heaven alone knew where, came pouring down, extinguishing the blaze. and scattering the dry sticks in every direction, in the twinkling of an eye. The savages, in utter amazement, looked first at each other and then aloft; but the stream of water having eeased and the fleece-clouds having drifted between them and the balloon, of course they were at a loss to account for the re- markable occurrence. _ They made up for their lack of knowledge by soundly abusing each other, and went to work building another fire- heap in a dry spot. ; Again the flint and steel were brought into requisition, and again the cheery blaze began to mount, and crawl, and crackle among the leaves and twigs under the stew-pot, and the hungry fellows began to rub their hollow stomachs in anticipation of a hearty meal, when down came the minia- ture water-spout again, scattering fire and fagots right and left. , The Indians set up a howl of consternation, and the ut- most hubbub prevailed, as they could see nothing overhead GComichboo (ele)