Tall Tales of Ole’ Johnny Mudd
Chapter 3a: All that glitters
The days in the desert were long and hot. There was always a lot of work, especially for a cowboy like Ole Johnny Mudd. To be sure, his horses were always with him, keeping company. They had very interesting names: the white horse with the brown head was named “Pinto.” The other one, the brown one with a white head, was named “Otnip,” which is “Pinto,” but backwards.
Ole Johnny Mudd worked all day long trying to find water for his animals. In a gully he dug and he dug but no water came out of it. Finally toward evening he saw something yellow pouring out of the gully. At first he thought that it could be a river of cheese like that spring of curds and whey that he had found. But the more he dug, the more that the yellow river glittered. Ole Johnny Mudd had found a river of gold!
When he realized that it was a river of gold that he found, Ole Johnny Mudd grew very excited. He no longer felt the weight of the day. Even though gold is very heavy, for him, the sacks of gold felt like pillows of feathers. He started loading the all sacks of gold on his horses in order to take them to the bank. He smiled thinking that he was going to be a very rich man. He started to load all the sacks on his horse Otnip while his other horse, Pinto watched from afar.
That night Ole Johnny Mudd lay down to sleep using his sacks of gold as mattress. He couldn’t sleep though because he was so excited. With so much gold he wouldn’t have to work so hard in the heat of the day. He would be able to relax in the cool evening and eat great snacks and drink cool beverages in the shade. Whenever he gazed up at the sky, all the stars seemed to be diamonds.
On the following day he loaded the sacks of gold on his horses Pinto and Otnip so that he might continue his way through the desert. It had been a very hot day but this time, Ole Johnny Mudd did not feel tired at all. He had already crossed the desert and he had made his way to more gentle territory. He was crossing the Rocky Mountains.
Just at about noon he found a puddle full of fresh water. He lay down on his belly to drink some water but then he realized that there were so many little shells underwater. It was then that he remembered that his grandpa, Mano Chango Narango Fango, had once told him that there were certain puddles in the hills where the famous Rocky Mountain Oysters could be found. It was true!
Ole Johnny Mudd had discovered a puddle full of Rocky Mountain Oysters and in each of the oyster shells there was a pearl. He smiled thinking about the fact that pearls were even more precious than gold!
Ole Johnny Mudd was so happy that he even forgot to drink some water. Rather, he began to pull out handfuls and handfuls of Rocky Mountain Oysters from the puddle. He still had to shuck them open, one by one. Each of them had a pearl and every pearl meant more money in the bank for him. At first Ole Johnny Mudd had started to fill his pockets with pearls but soon his pockets were so full that he couldn’t fit any more in them. “Soon I won’t be able to walk if I put them all in my pockets,” he said to himself.
Suddenly he remembered that over on his horses’ saddles he had tied his sacks of gold with a long string. Quickly he went over and he brought back a piece of string. He inserted the pearls one by one unto the strings and soon he had many necklaces of exquisite pearls on his hat, on his neck, on his arms, on his hands and even on his shoes.
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