Name: The Luck of Roaring Camp
Author: Bret Harte

Roaring Camp was the noisiest gold mining town in California. More than one-hundred men from every part of the United States had come to that little camp – stopping there for a short time on their way to getting rich.

Many of these gold miners were criminals. All of them were violent. They filled the peaceful mountain air with shouting and gun shots. The noise of their continual fighting finally gave the camp its strange name.

On a sunny morning in eighteen fifty, however, the men of Roaring Camp were quiet. A crowd was gathered in front of a small wooden house by the river. Inside that cabin was "Cherokee Sal," the only woman in camp. She was all alone and in terrible pain. Cherokee Sal was having a baby.

Deaths were not unusual in Roaring Camp. But a birth was big news.

One of the men turned to another and ordered: "Go in there, Stumpy, and see what you can do." Stumpy opened the cabin door, and disappeared inside. The rest of the men built a campfire outside and gathered around it to wait.

Suddenly, a sharp cry broke the air…the cry of a new-born baby. All the men jumped to their feet as Stumpy appeared at the cabin door. Cherokee Sal was dead. But her baby, a boy, was alive.

The men formed a long line. One by one they entered the tiny cabin. On the bed, under a blanket, they could see the body of the unlucky mother. On a pine table, near that bed, was a small wooden box. Inside lay Roaring Camps newest citizen, wrapped in a piece of bright red cloth.