The Bell-Ringer of Angels | Page 3

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THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S

by Bret Harte

CONTENTS
THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S
JOHNNYBOY
YOUNG ROBIN GRAY
THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU
A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE
THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA
CHU CHU
MY FIRST BOOK

THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S





CHAPTER I.
Where the North Fork of the Stanislaus River begins to lose its youthful
grace, vigor, and agility, and broadens more maturely into the plain,
there is a little promontory which at certain high stages of water lies
like a small island in the stream. To the strongly- marked heroics of
Sierran landscape it contrasts a singular, pastoral calm. White and gray
mosses from the overhanging rocks and feathery alders trail their
filaments in its slow current, and between the woodland openings there
are glimpses of vivid velvet sward, even at times when the wild oats
and "wire-grasses" of the plains are already yellowing. The placid river,
unstained at this point by mining sluices or mill drift, runs clear under
its contemplative shadows. Originally the camping-ground of a Digger
Chief, it passed from his tenancy with the American rifle bullet that
terminated his career. The pioneer who thus succeeded to its attractive
calm gave way in turn to a well-directed shot from the revolver of a
quartz-prospector, equally impressed with the charm of its restful
tranquillity. How long he might have enjoyed its riparian seclusion is

not known. A sudden rise of the river one March night quietly removed
him, together with the overhanging post oak beneath which he was
profoundly but unconsciously meditating. The demijohn of whiskey
was picked up further down. But no other suggestion of these
successive evictions was ever visible in the reposeful serenity of the
spot.
It was later occupied, and a cabin built upon the spot, by one Alexander
McGee, better known as "the Bell-ringer of Angel's." This euphonious
title, which might have suggested a consistently peaceful occupation,
however, referred to his accuracy of aim at a mechanical target, where
the piercing of the bull's eye was celebrated by the stroke