Produced by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, Karen Dalrymple and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE TRANSFORMATION OF JOB A TALE OF THE HIGH SIERRAS [Illustration: (portrait of author)] _BY FREDERICK VINING FISHER._ [Illustration: (decoration)] DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING COMPANY ELGIN, ILL., AND 36 WASHINGTON ST., CHICAGO. Copyright, 1900, By David C. Cook Publishing Company. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. If one will take the trouble to tramp with staff in hand the high Sierras, he will find not only the Yosemite, but Gold City and Pine Tree Ranch, though perhaps they bear another name. Most of the quaint characters of this tale still dwell among the vine-clad hills. To introduce to you these friends that have interested the author, and to tell anew the story of the human soul, this work is written. Out of love of never-to-be-forgotten memories of Pine Tree Ranch, the author dedicates this book to him who once welcomed him to its white porch, but who now sleeps beneath the shadow of the mountains--Andrew Malden. FREDERICK VINING FISHER. THE TRANSFORMATION OF JOB, A TALE OF THE HIGH SIERRAS. _By FREDERICK VINING FISHER._ CHAPTER I. THE NEW ARRIVAL AT GOLD CITY. The stage was late at Gold City. It always was. Everybody knew it, but everybody pretended to expect it on time. Just exactly as the old court-house bell up the hill struck six, the postmistress hurriedly opened her door and stood anxiously peering up the street, the loafers who had been dozing on the saloon benches shuffled out and leaned up against the posts, the old piano in the Miners' Home began to rattle and a squeaky violin to gasp for breath, while the pompous landlord of the "Palace Hotel," sending a Chinaman to drive away a dozen pigs that had been in front of his door through the day, took his post on the sidewalk to await his coming guests--who generally never came. There was a time when Gold City had been a great town-- "In days of old, In days of gold, In days of forty-nine." The boys often hung around the saloon steps and listened with gaping mouths while Yankee Sam and the other old men told of the golden age, when the streets of Gold City were crowded and Tom Perry made a fortune in one day and lost it all gambling that night; when there was more life in Gold City than 'Frisco could shake a stick at; when the four quarters of the globe came in on the stage and mined all day, danced all night and went away rich.