-field 
 
 Selections from 
 
 Quien Dalle's Qaltl-^ie 
 
 BY REV. R. W. BIGHAM, 
 
 Of the North Georgia Conference. Author of ''Vinuy Leal's Trip to the Golden Shore.' 
 
 Introduction by A. G. Haygood, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN1V.;<S!TY 
 
 Nashville : 
 
 Southern Methodist Publishing House. 
 1SSG, 
 
~ 
 
 EDITOR'S NOTE. 
 
 THE "California Gold-field Scenes" will give many 
 pleasant hours to the traveler by land or sea. The Au 
 thor's style is peculiar, but it was inspired by his surround 
 ings in the strange and marvelous country that has opened 
 many new chapters in the history of the world. There are 
 no dull descriptions, no tedious notes of travel, no weari 
 some reflections. Every thought is fresh and bright and 
 new, and as striking as the scenery depicted in the volume. 
 Young readers will be amused and instructed, and'those of 
 more matured experience will recognize the thrilling 
 power of the Author's pen. 
 
 W. P. HARRISON, 
 
 Nashville, April, 1886. Book Editor. 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, 
 
 BY THE BOOK AGKNT.S OF THK MKTHOIHST KPISCOPAJ. CHURCH, SOUTH, 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 (2) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. A Wail Shriller than the Storm's 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. His Jeweled Fingers Pressed the Harp. 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. If Leina were Here 20 
 
 CHAPTER IV. You Trample Fragments of Gold 2G 
 
 CHAPTER V. As Though Furies were in Them 82 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Heart Yearned for the Rifles to Hush. 41 
 
 CHAPTER VII. The Dead Man's Ghost 48 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Gratingly Athwart the Peak's Face. 56 
 
 CHAPTER IX. He'll Leap, Leap Lost! G7 
 
 CHAPTER X. Miriam Thinks, Yes! 72 
 
 CHAPTER XL The Plaza D' Armas Quivers 80 
 
 CHAPTER XII. Pike That Echo Rehearses with a 
 
 Music so Strange 91 
 
 CHAPTER XI II. Phantom or no Phantom, he shall 
 
 not Die in the Cold 104 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. He's Follerin' Sattan 115 
 
 CHAPTER XV. Snow-balling with Snow-clouds 119 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. That Lion were a Girl-lion 125 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. In a Tangle of Dream I must See 
 
 that River of Stone 130 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. Tangled in the Coral Reefs -'Cept 
 
 She 's Possesst o' Sattan 141 
 
 (3) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. The Gleaming Blade of his Naked 
 
 Bowie 147 
 
 CHAPTER XX. O it was a Sweet, Pure Face ! Every 
 
 Thing but Life, the Dance of Life 154 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. Dress an Isthmus Monkey 164 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. Out of which Came to us Sorrowful 
 
 Whispers 171 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. I'm Evermore Kissing Her in the 
 
 Air 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. Dark -eyed Senoritas Waiting their 
 Coming The Dead One in the Heart of the 
 Flames 193 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. Her Eyes was Mighty Stretch t, an' 
 
 Seart-like 213 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. Appeared as though the Dead 
 were Risen, and were Moving, Grouping, Part 
 ing in Noiseless Awe 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. Bonapartean 230 
 
 CHAPTER XX VII I. With Songful Winds Amongst 
 
 the Bowing Flowers 241 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. This King of the West On the 
 
 Shape Came Clinging 252 
 
 CHAPTER XXX Bolls of Bervl and Gold.. . 268 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT was years ago the good fortune of the 
 writer of this introductory note to bring to 
 the acquaintance of the young people of the 
 firesides and Sunday-schools in the South a 
 little book that made more friends than almost 
 any other that has been issued by the South 
 ern press. "Vinny Leal" and her "Trip to 
 the Golden Shore" has held the fascinated 
 attention of many thousands. As the book 
 sellers say, "Vinny " had "a great run," many 
 thousand copies having been printed and sold. 
 It found a place in most of our Sunday-school 
 libraries, and was read and read till worn out. 
 And no wonder; for, while its author bound 
 himself by none of the conventional rules of 
 book-making, he somehow "had a knack" of 
 making people see what he had seen, hear what 
 he had heard, know and love the people he had 
 known and loved. The writer of this Intro 
 duction saw in the Publishing House at Nash 
 ville what he never saw elsewhere a printer 
 break into tears while " setting up copy " for 
 "Vinny Leal;" and he confesses to a similar 
 
 (5) 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 experience while "reading proof" as the book 
 was "passing through the press." 
 
 The scenes, incidents, narratives, and char 
 acters that make up the body and soul of the 
 " California Gold-field Scenes " will if people's 
 tastes and dispositions have not changed very 
 much during the last fifteen years make for 
 this little book among the young people of to 
 day fully as many friends as learned to love 
 "Yinny Leal;" while many who laughed and 
 wept with the saintly maiden long ago will for 
 their own sakes read what "Quien Sabe" has 
 to tell them of the wonder-land on the Pacific. 
 And not a few of these children of 1873 who 
 took delight in " Vinny Leal " will now find a 
 sweeter pleasure in reading the "California 
 Gold-field Scenes" to their children of 1886. 
 
 The regulation critics will hardly approve 
 the style and manner of our author. One 
 would be glad to please them, if it did not 
 cost too much; yet their approval is not 
 necessary to the success or usefulness of a 
 book. The conventional publisher's manu 
 script "taster" does not always know a book 
 when he samples it. The history of books 
 "declined with thanks" by prudent publish 
 ers would itself make a large and entertaining 
 perhaps instructive volume. We may be 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sure that Bunyan's "Pilgrim" was not ap 
 proved when first he sought acquaintance with 
 publishers. It is almost incredible, but the 
 informed on such subjects tell us that "Bob- 
 inson Crusoe " was declined by publisher after 
 publisher and returned to its author. After a 
 long waiting a plucky publisher, who had little 
 to lose by his venture, braved the critics and 
 gave " Kobinson Crusoe " to type and leather. 
 Thackeray failed to find a publisher of " Van 
 ity Fair," and was obliged to bring it out as a 
 magazine serial story. It is said of the most 
 charming of story-tellers of our times Hans 
 Christian Andersen that his first venture was 
 declined by every publisher in Copenhagen. 
 
 It is vain to criticise the structure of " Qui- 
 en Sabe's " sentences, or the peculiarities of 
 his idiom; it is as irrelevant to measure his 
 "style" by the classics of English composi 
 tion as to test the merits of a poem written in 
 a newly invented meter by the verse of Virgil 
 or Pope. Enough for his purpose he has of 
 style; he makes us camp with him, dig gold 
 with him, see the cascades and the sunsets, and 
 hear the many voices of the day and night in 
 the California gold-fields, as he saw and heard 
 them. 
 
 So many evil things creep into young peo- 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 pie's books nowadays that careful fathers and 
 mothers must watch to see what manner they 
 are of, just as they watch new play-fellows and 
 acquaintances. But they need not be afraid of 
 " Quien Sabe " and his friends not the rough 
 est and most uncouth of them. The spirit of 
 the book is good; it will suggest pure thoughts 
 and inspire noble sentiments ; the gospel is in 
 it all, because pure thoughts, noble senti 
 ments, and the living gospel are in the author 
 of the book, the Kev. Kobert W. Bigham, an 
 honored member of the North Georgia Confer 
 ence, and one of the first missionaries to the 
 gold coast in the early days of California. 
 
 ATTICUS G. HAYGOOD. 
 OXFORD, GA. 
 
CAUFOBHU 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A WAIL SHRILLER THAN THE STOliM'S. 
 
 |IFE has its phantoms that tangle 
 it in brambles. Yet the wounds 
 of the brambles sometimes im 
 part to life a grace and a joy that 
 painlessness and ease can never 
 bestow. So we will not dispel the gold-phan 
 tom because it enchants and draws us through 
 jangles before admitting us within the gates 
 to see the castles vanish and to collect the few 
 real pearls their delusive structures contained. 
 No phantom charmed like it. Its stretches of 
 thorn are painted in hues of beauty and filled 
 with songs to cheer us as we journey through 
 them; and we almost forget the cares of the 
 way for the caresses of the pure, glad scenes 
 and sounds it places among the brambles. 
 It pictured life and riches on the California 
 gold-fields so deftly and thrillingly that infat 
 uated multitudes gathered there from all climes 
 
 (9) 
 
10 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 to revel in the witchery of gold. I went ashore 
 among them one bright morning in 1850 on the 
 sands of San Francisco. 
 
 The phantom's halo was upon every thing. 
 The white-winged gulls, the gleaming atmos 
 phere, the bluffy columns of the (golden Gate, 
 the laughing bay, the dreaming isles, the misty 
 brows of the Coast Kange, the wrinkled prongs 
 of Mt. Diablo, the excited faces of the surg 
 ing passengers ship, sea, land, sky seemed 
 tinged with gold. Albeit, the tinge was all; 
 itself, the gold, was far away snuggled, rock- 
 locked, under the Sierra snow-crags. 
 
 Thither, exchanging the scalpel for the im 
 plements of the mineralist, I hurried on with 
 the tumultuous throng, and pitched camp be 
 neath a jetting ledge of coarse marble. My 
 partner had been chosen with exceeding care, 
 I thought Tom Eothleit, an impulsive law 
 yer, whose forefathers, I learned from himself, 
 had been distinguished for industry. The 
 blood certainly had eliminated that quality 
 before he felt its flow in his veins; yet he con 
 ceited that he and diligence would some day 
 leave the world together, so closely were they 
 allied. He was fond of resting, and I often 
 queried, as the fitful months grated by, how he 
 had redeemed time from that loved employ to 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 11 
 
 learn to read and converse in several foreign 
 languages, and to store his mind with the lore 
 of many philosophies. His heart too was 
 gentle as a mother's, and David's was no braver 
 when he leaped to the fray with the gigantic 
 hero of Gath. 
 
 The abyssmal placer we mined recoiled from 
 the sky down deep among the roots of the 
 beetled heights, and moaned in the throes of 
 tempest and avalanche. A river clear as a 
 diamond laughed at its gram features, and 
 splashed them with icicles as it frolicked 
 through the storm, and hissed us with defiant 
 jeers as it swirled down its crabbed channel 
 toward the far-away sea. We had toiled for a 
 month, and only rare pebbles were the gems 
 we had found. But Tom was persistent per 
 haps I should say sullen and we widened the 
 pit, seeking the golden lead. 
 
 The day was the drearest. The thunderless 
 storm shrieked along the gorges, or, falling 
 down the mountains amid floods of sleet, froze 
 upon bluff and chasm. I was prying a chiespa 
 from a crevice in the bed-rock when a wail 
 shriller than the storm's and the crash of the 
 mine's steep bank told me that Tom was buried 
 alive. I had repeatedly warned him to quit 
 gouging about under there with his Bowie- 
 
12 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 knife, and to help scale up the bed-rock with 
 a pick; but he said the point of the pick would 
 slip on the ice and trip him, and he could al 
 most see a big nugget, he thought. So he 
 kept on in his industrious way, and now the 
 catastrophe had him. Not a motion of the 
 debris upon him guided to the spot where he 
 lay. But as I rolled aside bowlder after bowl 
 der in frenzied haste, a stranger leaped into 
 the pit; and plunging here and there in the 
 deepening slush we soon found him, and ten 
 derly bore him to the camp; for we thought 
 he was dead. It was only a few minutes after 
 we had deposited his burly form near the fire 
 when he revived; and so nonchalant was his 
 leisurely yawn, as he sat up and glanced at 
 the visitor inquiringly, that but for the huge 
 bumps upon his forehead and scalp we might 
 have thought that he had lain so still under 
 the pebbled debris only to dupe us into the 
 labor of lifting him out and bearing him to 
 the camp. He was several days in regaining 
 his appetite, however; and by that token, as 
 much as by any other, I knew that he had suf 
 fered intensely; for the pleasures of eating 
 moderately were known to him only when sick 
 or through what he had read of and admired 
 in the habits of others. He had too a way of 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 13 
 
 giving no signs of his pains, lest they should 
 inflict care upon others, though any pain in 
 another met in him the nicest sympathy. Ev 
 ery thing we did, however awkwardly, pleased 
 him. So we nursed him anxiously till he could 
 straighten himself up and walk about the 
 ledgy placer safely; and in a few weeks he 
 was as well as ever. 
 
 Our visitor grew restless when Tom had 
 passed the crisis of his hurt. He was quite 
 young, of slender build, thin, pale, save now 
 and then a flush clung first to one cheek then 
 to the other; and he declined to share the 
 mine with us on the plea of inadequate health. 
 Leaving his name Hal S. with us, he de 
 parted whither we knew not, nor did he appear 
 to care. 
 
14 CALIFORNIA 6 'OLD-FIELD SCKXKS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS JEWELED FINGERS PRESSED THE HAEP. 
 
 VEN at that early period, Cali T 
 forma was infested by gambling T 
 hells in the cities of the valleys 
 and in the towns that grew as 
 if by magic along the gloomy 
 canons by which the mountains were cleft in 
 twain. Though sinks of infamy, they were 
 usually attractive. Their lights were brilliant, 
 great log-fires blazed upon the hearths, choice 
 lunches lured on convenient tables, newspa 
 pers from many States were free to all, music 
 waltzed through their aisles; while piles of 
 gold and the courtesies of the proprietors al 
 lured to their deadly circles men of every 
 grade to be wrecked forever. One of them, 
 like an outpost of Satanism, sentineled the 
 trading-post whither Tom delightedly jour 
 neyed on occasion after supplies his special 
 ty was gastronomy. I know not what his 
 " socialness," he said led him within its 
 doors, whence he managed to escape alive, but 
 just alive, and how he could never tell. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 15 
 
 Though often a bedlam, such a place was 
 now and then stilled as each votary of its mock 
 ing goddess was awed by Vesper, and no sounds 
 were heard save the soft fall of the cards and 
 thb subdued click of the dice. It was in the 
 silence of such an interval, while Tom sat be 
 holding the various groups in breathless con 
 test for the piles of gold between them, that 
 the notes of a harp floated upon the scene. 
 They seemed to ravish simultaneously every 
 ear, to touch to gentleness each heart; and aft 
 er a short prelude the sounds, like music in 
 ecstasy, were mingled with a young voice low, 
 brave, sad that entranced dealer and diceman 
 in mid-throw, and drew all eyes to the girlish- 
 looking youth of nineteen summers as his jew 
 eled fingers pressed from the harp its utmost 
 melody. He looked as though he was con 
 scious of having stepped from an Eden into a 
 scene where no fruit pleasant to the eye or to 
 the taste survived, and was throwing back 
 across the separating gulf he had just passed 
 to the loved ones he had left the last holy notes 
 of a lost heart weeping over its ruined life. 
 As the last chord of the song, "The Old Folks 
 at Home," was struck he leaned the instru 
 ment against the rough column where he had 
 found it, and stood some moments contemptu- 
 
10 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 ously observing the scene. Many a storied 
 tear had shaded the eyes of the hardened sons 
 of chance as the old song's sentiment, like the 
 angel of Bethesda, troubled their hearts; and 
 they seemed for a moment to be dazed by the 
 visions of childhood the song had recalled, and a 
 few of them went out of ''the hell " to return no 
 more. But directly the banker's quiet invita 
 tions to the games were answered by the gold 
 en nuggets upon the hazard again. And as 
 Hal, forgetful of his song, pushed into the 
 thick of the sporting groups and placed a 
 golden eagle upon a card, old Judge T., who 
 had intently watched him, said: "So he falls 
 falls this time forever. He is a bold, kind, 
 cultured lad from a polished Western home, 
 and but lately vowed by his dead mother's 
 name to gamble no more. What a vice! Fa 
 ther living, mother sainted, not any friend 
 nor dearest memory can break the spell upon 
 him now. It is out of a heaven into h 1 the 
 princely boy has plunged." 
 
 But ere the Judge's monologue had died 
 upon the clinky din of the saloon, Hal's purse 
 had doubled by the turn of a card, and he sat 
 watching his alternately increasing and dimin 
 ishing pile of gold as though only it were 
 worth a thought beneath the studded sky. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 17 
 
 While so absorbed a self-poised miner entered 
 the saloon and coolly scanned the many tables 
 till his eye, resting on Hal, blazed as if it 
 would sink the place to the perdition that 
 names it. Moving to the youth's side and 
 bending over him, he quietly said: "Come, 
 Hal; let's go now. We have far to walk 
 through the jungle, and the night wears away. 
 Let 's start." 
 
 Without lifting his eyes, he replied: "You 
 here! Thought you would not venture out to 
 night. Indisposed, you said." But, pondering 
 a moment, he added: "Wait till I play one 
 more game, then I '11 go." 
 
 The miner looked ruefully upon him, but 
 lounged away to a reading group where Tom, 
 as it happened, was remarking the incident. 
 When the game ended he returned to Hal, and 
 pleasantly said: "It was well played; but 
 come, the moon is hiding behind the mount 
 ain; let's go tentward." 
 
 Hal half rose from his seat, but quickly sat 
 down again as the tables of gold swam before 
 his eyes. His face hardened till each feature 
 appeared like chiseled marble. Prouha's fa 
 mous statue, " La Verite Vengeance," exhibits 
 no more implacable purpose than that which 
 chilled him to his place next the glistening 
 
18 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 piles of gold. The phantom's wand was upon 
 him. Its voice of golden melody had whis 
 pered him into an ecstasy of hope and pur 
 pose to own the glowy heaps that, like the 
 treasures of enchantment, unfolded their rich 
 es to his witched gaze. His soul now had nei 
 ther vision nor ear nor thought for any thing 
 but gold. 
 
 Laying his hand lightly upon his arm, his 
 friend added: "You promised, and I waited; 
 come!" 
 
 Drinking deeply of a goblet of brandy by 
 him, he replied in a bitter tone: "I will not 
 go. You vex me; you do so incessantly. Why 
 be so concerned about me?" 
 
 "No wrath, Hal; no wrath," he answered. 
 " I may need your aid winding among the dark 
 cliffs; and of late robbers infest the trails, you 
 know. I shall feel greater security with com 
 pany." 
 
 "Ah!" he retorted; "you afraid of Mexican 
 outlaws, and among the first to scale Chapul- 
 tepec a few years ago, held by their picked 
 troops? And I never heard before that you 
 were wont to totter from crags. The grizzly 
 is not surer of foot among his natal chasms. 
 No ; that 's a ruse. You have foiled my gam 
 ing as often as you shall. Go." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 19 
 
 ''You are right!" exclaimed several voices 
 in the group. "Besides, you have won heav 
 ily of us, and must give us a chance to recover 
 our losses." 
 
 "But," said the miner to him, not noticing 
 them, " the choice to retire is yours. You can 
 return whenever you will." 
 
 The gamblers now fiercely interposed, click 
 ing their revolvers in the miner's face, and Hal, 
 whose anger fired as they threatened his friend, 
 felled the bruskest with a huge nugget; and 
 Tom leaping to his help, the fierce fray of blows, 
 shots, and stabs ceased only when the lights 
 were quickly extinguished as the promptest 
 means to quell the frantic melee. 
 
20 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IF LEINA WERE HERE. 
 
 I HE next day a Mexican burrero 
 neared our camp, picking his way 
 carefully through the rude fis 
 sure, leading three donkeys the 
 head of one tied to the tail of 
 the other, each burdened with a helpless man. 
 After the Mexican and I had laid the two 
 guests upon all the blankets in the camp, Tom 
 said, as we were taking him off his donkey: 
 " I know you think me a greater ass than the 
 one I ride; but I could not help it." And 
 glancing to the wounded guests, he added: 
 " They massed against them in the gambling- 
 hell, and I tried to rescue." 
 
 "You mean that you rescued!" exclaimed 
 Hal as he sprung to his elbow, but fell as sud 
 denly prone again from utter exhaustion. 
 
 We placed Tom upon an old rubber coat or 
 two, and as we wiped the gush of blood from 
 his mouth a faint smile sickened on his cheek, 
 and he whispered: "It's nothing, Quien; I'll 
 be ready for the mine to-morrow." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 21 
 
 Albeit, he lay like the dead for many hours 
 after that. But his words, " I tried to rescue" 
 and " It 's nothing," were the key-notes to his 
 character bodied a spirit that never faltered 
 to peril for the weak or to cheer others, what 
 ever the torture that wrung himself. He had 
 recognized Hal S. the moment the harp's notes 
 had turned his eyes upon him in the saloon 
 as the person who had helped to extricate him 
 from death when the mine "caved in" upon 
 him. 
 
 The magic of the gold-field, two years be 
 fore this incident, had hazed Hal in an Atlan 
 tic college and wafted him to California, where 
 the vice of cards promptly spunged from his 
 heart the high purposes that adorn the aver 
 age college-boy. Dissipation was rapidly min 
 ing out his life, for already consumption had 
 paled and splotched his cheeks when the fatal 
 wounds befell him in the gambling rencoun 
 ter. 
 
 One night as we nursed him he grew colder 
 and clammier, and weak to extremity, despite 
 every care ; and he whispered to us eagerly in 
 a rhapsodic way: "You can't help me out 
 of this. It is death. Van often warned 
 me of it; warned me that sin and life 
 are too unlike to abide long together, in me 
 
22 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 at least; and there is no help for me 
 now,? 1 
 
 The sounds that phrased the last several 
 words were like one imagines the tones of the 
 soul would be if it were bruised into sobs. 
 And he lay very still, looking from face to 
 face as if to catch a gleam of hope from one 
 or another. But he closed his eyes as though 
 our despairful looks made gloomier his drear 
 wretchedness. Presently he said: " The shad 
 ow on the silent river darkens now, and in 
 its awful hush of life no sweet note 
 comes -to cheer me in the thickening 
 dark." And his eyes widened as he sighed 
 out the words, and were dimmed too as if life 
 were just then gone; but it was not, for he 
 murmured, with long pauses between the words : 
 "Innocence is peace; but crime it makes life 
 a tangle-wild of thorns, and infuses death with 
 the bitterness of hopeless remorse." 
 
 His cold lips scarcely moved, yet his words 
 echoed in the ear definitely, though whispered 
 softly almost as a flutter of the death-angel. 
 He said: "How fatal the arrows that bowman 
 sin doth shoot! They wound to death quickly 
 body and soul. Soul! What is soul? Thought's 
 fountain, passion's electric sky, the likeness of 
 God. The angels shivered at sight of the an- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 23 
 
 guish the pure Christ suffered to save it. But 
 I, frenzied with gambling and brandy, have 
 deemed it a trifle; mocked its upward long 
 ings; maddened it with a life of guilt till, on 
 eager wing, it is flitting away forever I know 
 not whither." 
 
 Then he lay so motionless we thought he was 
 dead. We could not see nor hear him breathe. 
 But only the angel of sleep had touched him; 
 yet we were conscious that a soul was disen 
 tangling itself from the ruins of its earth- 
 home. The moon had dipped below the ho 
 rizon, the skies had pulled thick vapors between 
 them and the scene, and from the darkness of 
 the chasm gusts of wind leaped about us as 
 we kept vigil by the dying youth. The day 
 broke and shed upon the crags its pale light, 
 and brighter grew coming dawn to us, tinting 
 and waking up all nature, and floated into the 
 tent and fell about the dying one. It seemed 
 the voice of the light, was it? to say some 
 thing to his soul that startled and amazed it. 
 For his eyes opened wide and wandered sol 
 emnly, intently from space to space, while 
 tears and smiles joyfully commingled. Tom 
 bent toward him, and asked, " What is it, Hal ? " 
 
 "My mother, Tom," he answered; " my mel 
 ody-voiced mother, who died a year ago^ She 
 
24 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 was here a moment ago. I felt her hand upon 
 my brow as it was wont to rest there, Tom, 
 when I was a child. And her loving lips sung 
 her favorite hymn 
 
 Just as I am, without one plea, 
 
 But that Christ's blood was shed for me. 
 
 Ha! here again? Mother! Hist! she sings." 
 And wistfully, attently listening, as if catch 
 ing with the heart syllabled mercy, each death- 
 line on his cold face lit with joy, he whis 
 pered: 
 
 'Just as I am, and waiting not 
 To rid my soul of one dark hlot. 
 To thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, 
 O Lamb of God, I come, I come!' 
 
 Precious blood shed for me! . Saved, saved 
 by my mother's Christ. Praise!" 
 
 And his face was a vision of rapture as he 
 turned, gasped, and was dead. Our reveren 
 tial posture was not changed, for we had knelt 
 beside him as he died, till Tom said: "If Le- 
 ina were here she would say, * Thank God!' 
 and I will say it for her. The mercy he sought 
 day and night this painful month came to him, 
 but at hell's margin." 
 
 We were sacredly affected by Tom's words, 
 but could not help the trill of amusement that 
 mingled with our shock of awe at his emphatic 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 25 
 
 caution in giving thanks. We often noticed 
 that he always liked to have his wife between 
 him and the Great White Throne. The brave, 
 warm, large heart felt safest that way. He 
 knew that the throne had no controversy with 
 her; that she was secure in its presence. But 
 himself? Well, the readers can see him for 
 themselves, for he was sincere and true as light 
 is bright. 
 
 Life has its mysteries; death his. And this 
 was strange to me the dying young man's de 
 spair for a ruined life, wrapped in the death- 
 sleep, awakened by whom? His mother, he 
 said, who had died a year before across the 
 continent, and hymned to him of Jesus in the 
 valley of the shadow of death as he bordered 
 hell till in the triumph of hope and peace he 
 escaped to heaven. 
 
 A few friends gathered from the canons, and 
 we buried him in a hollow of the mountains 
 where the attrition of ages may cover him deep 
 er and deeper; but the everlasting hill shall 
 yield him up when Christ shall bid him rise. 
 
26 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 YOU TEAMPLE FRAGMENTS OF GOLD. 
 
 N those days persons in the mines 
 were seldom known except by a 
 sobriquet; and often friends met 
 who had been many years sepa 
 rated without recognition. But 
 one day, when Hal S.'s comrade Van was 
 able to sit up he caressed a picture, and said: 
 " Her beauty cannot vanish. It derives from 
 the heart more than from form and feature." 
 
 Tom barely glanced at the picture before he 
 exclaimed: "Ella H.! It was ten years ago 
 when I met her last, and then in Berlin; thence 
 to Borne, she said." 
 
 "About that time," he replied, " I crossed the 
 Mediterranean from Cairo, meeting her by ar 
 rangement at Florence; and amid its statuary 
 and paintings she and I were made one. In 
 our Pennsylvania home, training our little girl, 
 she bides my return from the gold-fields." 
 
 The picture had revealed them to each other; 
 and in the light of its dreamy eyes they re 
 membered that they had been boys together, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 27 
 
 though more than a score of years had mapped 
 their faces with cares since then. After this 
 many a whimsical tale, sparkling with pranks, 
 laughed their painful wounds into health 
 again. The crags, the dumb rocks, the sun- 
 shine turning "somersets" in the air, the leap 
 ing river, the singing spring, the whistling 
 quail in the jungle, seemed to share their joy. 
 
 What a blessed elf is childhood! It is fresh 
 evermore. While the wild flowers tangle our 
 feet along the school-path winding among flut 
 tering birds and chattering squirrels, it stores 
 in the depths of the heart soft memories to 
 float up and come to light and joy life, when 
 hard years have clustered griefs about us and 
 stripped hope of all its winsomest myths. No 
 marvel the sublime Christ loved to be in its 
 circles with hand and voice of blessing only, 
 and painted from it the sheeniest, sweetest 
 picture of the many immortelles which illus 
 trate the wisdom that comes down from heaven. 
 
 Though separated when boys, the education 
 of Rothleit and Van had been matured in the 
 German schools. Each had traveled Europe, 
 and Van had been advantaged by a commer 
 cial residence of a few years at Cairo, the 
 mart of the Nile. Yet he had not succeeded 
 as a merchant, and Tom was, wonderful to tell, 
 
23 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 a self-confessed failure as a lawyer. But here, 
 among the gnarled Sierras, Yan had amassed 
 several thousand ounces of gold; and a few 
 months after he and Tom were thrown togeth 
 er he arranged to return home by "the next 
 steamer." 
 
 Tom's accumulations were balanced by a 
 few penny weights; but, fascinated by the gold- 
 phantom still, he strove to arrest his friend's 
 homeward purpose. For he said to him : " Why 
 go home with little more than a hundred thou 
 sand dollars, while here, wherever you walk, 
 you trample fragments of gold as one does 
 granite-liags on the Philadelphia pavements? 
 Wait till at least a million of dollars crumples 
 in your pocket as a bank-check." 
 
 Van's eye swept the vast area of rocks as he 
 replied: "Fragments of gold, where? [Here 
 are huge jumbles of rocks that appear to have 
 been chipped by the gods off a hidden world 
 while polishing it into symmetry and dumped 
 on these chasms and peaks; but the gold?" 
 
 " Under them, under the rocks" said Tom, 
 "or clasped in their hearts, are tons of gold. 
 The gods covered it so as to test man's pluck. 
 A few lucky strokes and it envelopes him in 
 splendors like a world of meteors." 
 
 "That's a dream," Van replied. "The gold- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 29 
 
 phantom wove it of gold shreds and everlast 
 ing mountains of granite; and in the gleams 
 of the infinitesimal shreds you forget that the 
 mountains of adamant must be ground into 
 dust before the shreds are yours. Whether 
 by pearls of the sea or gems of the hills life is 
 tissued, it is brain and muscle force, irksomely 
 plied, that weaves the rich plaid. The castles 
 that the gold-phantom builds are beautiful, 
 but their bright blocks are only the jewels of 
 a dream. Once as I journeyed the sea misty 
 twilight built upon the waves a city of cloud- 
 palaces. The work was done in a few minutes. 
 They rose like magic creations upon the deep. 
 Azure, purple, gray, golden, many-colored, 
 they stood up upon the sea like castellated 
 wonders of materiality. But they were but 
 gorgeous vapor molded into temples and homes, 
 unique, charming, that a sigh of Zephyr in a 
 moment dissolved. Such castles does the gold- 
 phantom build. They are phantasies ; they pass 
 away like the city of vapors. They are not 
 habitable. No tenantry develop their domains ; 
 they yield no rentals. Not a fruit nor a flower 
 ripens or unfolds in their borders. No child- 
 voice breaks with cheery sound upon the si 
 lent mystery holding court there. They never 
 echo a footfall, the merry ring of laughter, nor 
 
30 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 the brawny thud of labor. They are exquisite 
 nothings that shine only when the sun com 
 mon sense dips to sleep in the rustling waves 
 of actuality. Leave the phantasm. Its lures 
 are spread here upon peak and plain like a 
 sky of wonders, and many are the eagles it 
 snares till they pine away and die. Return to 
 the Atlantic Slope with me. Cling to law. Its 
 toils are adapted to you; those of mining are 
 not." 
 
 Tom appeared to be astounded as he told 
 me afterward by the supreme folly of the 
 argument, and seemed never to have heard any 
 thing so absurd as the proposal with which it 
 concluded; and said in reply, in a sort of hope 
 less, jerky, rhapsodic way: "Can't; can't think 
 of it. Borrowed gold to come to the gold- 
 fields; am borrowing gold to gather the gold 
 scattered all over them to pay back. Broke ! 
 Eeturn to the Atlantic States! go to nothing 
 with nothing and be nothing forever! Impos 
 sible ! Tired of law to death. I want to rest. 
 It hardens nature. Wrecked a heart and fort 
 une by it somehow. Must recuperate. I 
 shall soon ' strike it rich ' unveil a gemmed 
 vault of incalculable deposits among these 
 rocks. Stay with us, Van, and share the pro 
 digious quantity of gold we shall gather." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 31 
 
 "Do, Van," said I. "The quantity already 
 is 1 with a period preceding, followed by a 
 world of ciphers, to which we shall soon add, 
 by Tom's showing, a Jupiter full of units on 
 the left. Stay." 
 
 Said Tom, rather pertly, I thought: " I dis 
 covered in old Zach's Mexican campaign that an 
 army surgeon had little practical sense except 
 when extracting bullets from dead soldiers or 
 ordering one to be buried. My arguments are 
 unanswerable, as Van knows. We cannot fail 
 to unearth a cave full of gold in less than a 
 month's time. Van, stay. "We '11 third it with 
 you, and add half a ton to your part." 
 
 An incredulous smile rippled Van's face as 
 he shook his head and discerned how hopeless 
 the effort to break the phantom's spell on Both- 
 leit. 
 
32 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AS THOUGH FUKIES WERE IN THEM. 
 
 (HEN morning flooded the jungle 
 with light we watched Van from 
 oiir camp climbing along the ab 
 rupt face of the mountain by the 
 perilous trail, buoyantly rising 
 now visible, now hidden two thousand feet, 
 scaling the height, "going home." An eagle 
 to his right gyrated from a sun-bright crag per 
 pendicularly up higher and higher in the un- 
 flecked ether till a speck, a moment on quiver 
 ing poise it fell spirally down, down, like a 
 gray bolt of shimmering steel, and flashed its 
 pinions in our eyes, between him and us, as it 
 swooped athwart the drear abyss and perched 
 upon the ragged crest of an opposite crag. 
 We hailed the brave bird with a wild shout, 
 for we felt the fourth of July leaping from 
 peak to peak in fetterless liberty as its defiant 
 swoop up, down, athwart the canon, on high 
 again, caught our eyes and snatched us to our 
 feet. As we intently watched it, it dropped 
 over on helpless wing, sprawling, tumbling, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 33 
 
 falling a thousand feet into the dismal gorge. 
 The puff of smoke that whiffed up just beyond 
 its aerie told us that a hunter with fatal aim 
 had pierced the shining mark. In a few mo 
 ments we beheld him standing where the eagle 
 had stood, peering into the abyss, and we al 
 most wished to see him too topple from the 
 height. But he cautiously drew away from 
 the frightful brink. 
 
 Van had paused on the farther summit be 
 yond the river, viewing like a spelled artist the 
 cragged scenery by which we were interlocked, 
 painting on his brain each wonder that nature 
 here was lifting to the clouds upon her chasmed 
 bosom. He was obviously aware that at his 
 altitude he appeared like a dwarf to us, for he 
 bent to the ground to make sure to our sight 
 his last salutation, and passed out of sight for 
 ever, we thought, round the white dome of the 
 snow-capped Sierra. 
 
 As we stood gazing toward the space whence 
 Van had disappeared, our attention was attract 
 ed by the sound of a panther-like tread coining 
 from the mouth of the gloomy rift next to us. 
 Presently the intertwining shrubbery noiseless 
 ly opened, and the huntsman stepped rather 
 glided out upon the narrow plateau we occu 
 pied. He greeted us courteously, and appeared 
 
34 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 to be about thirty years old. His bearing be 
 tokened one used to cultured life; yet even a 
 casual glance descried a f ugitiveness in his eye 
 and a lynx-like gleam in his placid, beardless 
 face that indicated, amid seeming virtues, a 
 shrewd guile capable of little or monstrous 
 trickery. Such was his tact and demeanor, 
 however, that the unwary would as soon look 
 for poisonous fangs in a dove's beak as for el 
 ements of the miscreant in him. He spent a 
 chatty hour with us, and inquired, en passant, 
 after Van, stating that he had heard that he 
 wished to sell a mining claim; and he went 
 from us across the pathless mountain south 
 ward. 
 
 The next day the mule-back expressman had 
 barely left us to our " letters from home " when 
 we were startled by the return of Van, look 
 ing like an apparition from Dante's gloomy 
 hell. His usually joyous, animated face was 
 impassive, pale, haggard, drear, hard. His 
 lips were compressed as if his teeth were 
 ground into one another. His eyes w r ere 
 gleamy, dilated, fixed, yet appearing as though 
 furies were in them. His form at brief inter 
 vals shook as though convulsed by resistless 
 electric shocks. His air was that of frenzied 
 desolateness. And his voice, when at last we 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 35 
 
 heard it, was discordant, harsh as hate, yet 
 strangely mournful. We grasped his hand, 
 but it gave no return pressure. It was dry, 
 hot, nerveless. And he leaned against the 
 tent-post like a form of marble. He appar 
 ently heard nothing, uttered nothing, noticed 
 nothing, replied to nothing; appeared uncon 
 scious of creation around, looking fixedly, 
 fiercely into some fathomless horror on crea 
 tion's verge. 
 
 To me the interview was intolerable. The 
 picturesque spot whereon we stood, the song 
 ful spring near, the whizzing river; the gray, 
 rent, huge rocks; the blue ravines; the hum 
 ming forests; the ether-robed mountains; the 
 majestic heavens every object seemed to im 
 age him in horror's confounded amaze, and 
 to press him chilled yet afire to my very 
 being. My own brain began to seethe; my 
 teeth clinched; my blood leaped, paused, then 
 bounded crazily again; my heart stood still, 
 then beat in convulsions; my senses were 
 numbed. The abyss, the eternal hills, the 
 heavens, whirled around, and, whirling me, 
 seemed to totter, topple, tumble together in 
 the supernatural gyration. I felt that my eyes 
 too and face were taking on that strange look 
 like his; that I was going crazy, I almost 
 
36 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 shrieked with the frenzy. Had I been Job I 
 could not have prayed then for my friend; had 
 I been "a son of Belial" I could not have 
 cursed his foe. For my whole nature seemed 
 to have been transmuted into the condition 
 of horror that Van's wrong, whatever it was, 
 had thrust upon him. 
 
 Hothleit possessed an inexplicable virtue; 
 men leaned upon him at once in trouble they 
 trusted in him. He appeared unconscious of 
 the quality, yet it sat as chief in the armies of 
 his heart till distrust confided to him and de 
 spair clung to him with the sense of rescue 
 and relief. Remembering this, I turned aside, 
 leaving him alone with Van, who, I hoped, 
 would speak to him if I were gone. But I 
 paused near to interfere on occasion in a 
 group of marble busts chiseled by the tem 
 pests; for a rankling dread that Van would kill 
 him had seized me. Van soon tossed a letter 
 to him, upon which his glance had fallen but a 
 moment ere he shook it from him as he would 
 an adder, and, with a fierce exclamation, sprung 
 to his feet. But quickly he was quiet as the 
 Sea of Galilee stilled by Jesus, and read the 
 letter as though its contents were the veriest 
 commonplace. Lifting his eyes from it to 
 Van, ho said, "There is some mistake here." 
 
v CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 37 
 
 "No," said Van. 
 
 "The statements must be false; the letter 
 may be a forgery," he suggested in slow, calm 
 tones. 
 
 Clutching the letter, he answered with hiss 
 ing vehemence: "I tell you no. By every 
 stroke of the pen I vow her own father wrote 
 it. She is false. She!" 
 
 And his hand nestled like lightning on Tom's 
 breast; and, holding him off at arm's length, 
 his fiendish eye danced the reveille of the pit. 
 But Tom very quietly said: "Impossible. 
 Think. Her blood is without taint as far back 
 as you can trace it. Indiscreet, possibly; not 
 impure. Van, that 's the worst of it." 
 
 " But," replied he, " at the trading-post dif 
 ferent persons from my section in the East 
 have received similar statements in letters. Her 
 marriage and flight to Australia are assured." 
 
 "Alas!" said Tom; "it is inexplicable. I 
 do n't believe it. When such a woman is in 
 volved it is wise to hope, just to wait time's 
 light upon the mystery." 
 
 Van gasped and tottered. The surges of 
 fiery passions had stricken him to the sward 
 like lightning; and we bathed his brow and 
 lips that seemed now sealed forever. The let 
 ter that had met him at the trading-post the 
 
38 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 day before and turned his heart to flames was 
 from his wife's father, revealing her secret di 
 vorce, then marriage and departure from New 
 York for Australia. 
 
 It was a sad sight, that mad struggle of the 
 stricken man with the demon insanity. And 
 one night as he raged bitterest in stark deliri 
 um the hunter came again, and craved lodging 
 till morning. As he sat watching with us till 
 a late hour, we noticed that when Van was 
 wildest, and uttered with maniac emphasis the 
 name of him who had eloped with his wife, 
 a flitting sneer glared on his face. And dur 
 ing the hours that he slept we observed that 
 his dark hair was a wig that, disheveled in 
 sleep, betrayed a suit of auburn hair more 
 properly his own. Next morning he spiced 
 our breakfast of quail that his skilled gunnery 
 had supplied with pleasant anecdotes, in which 
 military phrases were noticeable, and, as he 
 bid us good-by, said: "If Van dies, please 
 announce it in the Sacramento dailies. I will 
 watch for it." 
 
 For several days sleep forsook Van's eye 
 lids. He was fiercely alive, yet dead to every 
 thing save the disclosure concerning his wife. 
 That coiled about his being like a serpent of 
 fire, wringing him in its burning folds till his 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 39 
 
 eyes glowed in their sockets like focused per 
 ditions. The thought home enraged him inde 
 scribably. Before the horror befell he built 
 upon it many joyful anticipations, traced to 
 it many delightful memories, and constantly 
 spoke of it with exceeding pleasure. And the 
 bright morning he parted with us to journey 
 to it he appeared like one in an exultant trance; 
 but ere noon had come he wished the hours 
 were forever that kept him away from it. 
 
 Home. How exquisitely pleasing the trains 
 of feeling that bound through the heart when, 
 among strangers and distant scenes, the soul 
 trances the separating spaces and rests in its 
 borders again, and breathes the air and feels 
 the sunshine that huzzaed its childhood! But 
 it is essential agony to have the soul barred 
 against those richly freighted trains, their sig 
 nals unheeded; their puff, puff of kindly ap 
 proach disregarded ; its palace darkened by the 
 black smoke rising from the heart burning up 
 itself; its ears noting not a pleasant melody in 
 all the joyful sprites that make home the mu 
 sic of life ; only the paining chorus of the fiery 
 agony is heard by it evermore day, night, 
 rain, shine as crisper and more charred the 
 burning heart becomes. And this was Van's 
 condition now. 
 
40 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 We alternated in watching by his side, yet 
 it was so often that our united strength was 
 required to control him that one day we fell 
 asleep at the same time from insupportable 
 weariness. When we awoke Van was gone. 
 We traced him to a huge rock that, like a 
 basking Gorgon, stretched boldly out into the 
 river, compressing its floods into a narrow, 
 down which they rushed in spiteful shrieks, 
 fretted by the jagged channel into bounding 
 billows. Opposite the rock's point grew a wil 
 low that bent over the rapids, vainly striving to 
 rest its quivering boughs upon the rock. Sever 
 al branches had been freshly torn from it, and 
 itself was wet, as though beast or man had 
 leaped from the rock into its slender limbs in a 
 wild struggle to cross the boiling waters, and had 
 been lost in the attempt. We could not trace 
 our friend from that spot. From neither side 
 did any foot-print guide away. And after days 
 of painful search we concluded that he had been 
 beaten to death by the maddened rapids upon 
 their granite bed, and tossed derisively on to 
 the far-off tule-quags, to sleep in their mystic 
 imsh forever. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 41 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HEART YEARNED FOR THE RIFLES TO HUSH. 
 
 HORTLY after we had lost Van 
 an old comrade of his found the 
 way to our placer. I first beheld 
 him on the mine's brink observ 
 ing Eoth at work. As he caught 
 my glance he said: "I would like to be his 
 partner. He dreams gold, I know, and be 
 lieves that every next pry of the pick will 
 break into a tentful of it.' 
 
 Roth greeted him in the same humor, and 
 we sauntered up to the camp. He appeared 
 to have but one real anxiety not to own gold 
 long. Yet he labored with energy for it. It 
 obtained, he got rid of it with sunny indiffer 
 ence. He kept it busy by " staking, ' as he 
 called it, every broken miner he met; and, 
 considering that most miners kept themselves 
 broke, he "had a time of it." He spoke Span 
 ish and French, and wrote each accurately, 
 having been educated in New Orleans and 
 brought into habitual association with persons 
 
42 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 using those languages. His adventures among 
 the Comanche Indians and in the war with 
 Mexico had imparted to him an air of melan 
 choly, with physical and intellectual dash and 
 self-reliance. A few weeks' mining on this 
 placer made his pocket very like our own- 
 empty not because of its outflow, but for lack 
 of inflow. Yet he lounged of evenings in the 
 purplish halo that lolled down between the 
 mountains as carelessly as though the reverse 
 was true. We were not so complacent, and I 
 disturbed the quiet of the camp one day by 
 announcing the purpose to take to the mount 
 ains with pick and pan and prospect for richer 
 diggings. 
 
 Both only lifted his eyes above the distant 
 snow-peaks mournfully. Mack, supine on the 
 ground, his head pillowed on a rock, his rub 
 ber-booted heels stuck as high up a hemlock- 
 tree as he could get them, made no sign, only 
 he puffed a whiff of smoke sheer up among 
 the boughs and watched it thinning, floating 
 higher and vanishing like a phantasy in thin 
 air. Then he whiffed upward other puffs, with 
 long pauses between. Presently he tossed his 
 pipe after the smoke and said: "Prospect! 
 I 've prospected from San Diego to Yreka and 
 back this far. I'm a-weary of it. I'll wait 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 43 
 
 here until a huge nugget trips me up, then 
 I will pick it up may be, and be rich 
 enough to turn Tom's air-castles into realities 
 when he comes back broke down and mourn 
 ful as that donkey out there. I shall wait 
 here." 
 
 "Wait!" exclaimed Tom. "Wait is the 
 thriftless child of laziness, and industry has 
 not the folly to dally with it. I go with Quien." 
 
 "You are a logician, Tom," rejoined Mack. 
 "Seneca discovered the riches of poverty in 
 the light of his jeweled table, and, extolling 
 its blessedness, was no less consistent than 
 you. You have dinned 'wait, -wait' into our 
 ears so long that we call this the ' Wait Mine.' 
 And now you would have us think that they 
 who wait are atypic grunts of humanity, adipic 
 sloughs on the waves of progress, 'deads' on 
 the veins of toil that thrill the world. Verily, 
 not to swear, they who wait are pompous, puffed, 
 poor, fond swells, pouring saturnalia upon the 
 pure currents of brain and muscle that digni 
 fy man. Beshrew the dank bloats! Rich, 
 poor, placid, low let them uncoil, get to some 
 thing, prospect, or their friend Lucifer will 
 make them thralls to do his bidding. But I 
 will wait for all that; the 'Wait Mine' is 
 
44 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 As his cool, tantalizing tones ceased he in 
 deed looked like he would wait till the death- 
 sigh of time. But presently a large bear wad 
 dled without a thicket, and ascending a bluff 
 looked curiously down at us. We watched his 
 queer observations till he prowled off into a 
 jungly gulch. 
 
 "Let him go prospect," said Mack;" "he '11 
 return, for Tom is the fattest nugget he can 
 find. He will come back for him." 
 
 He was barely silent when the bear came in 
 view again and squatted on the bluff. He 
 stepped into the tent, passed to Tom a rifle, 
 shouldered another, and, nodding to bruin, 
 they wheeled silently into the chaparral. They 
 soon gained a covert in fifty paces of the bear, 
 who the next moment leaped high into the air 
 and fell over the marble ledge into the whirl 
 ing rapids. Only Koth had fired, had missed 
 the mark, and Mack, uttering a jubilant shout, 
 stood leaning on his rifle gazing on the affright 
 ed beast as he struggled in the fretted current, 
 and near the tent came ashore, disappearing in 
 the gorge that here opened its dark mouth to 
 the tortured floods. When they had returned, 
 Both said to Mack: "Why didn't you shoot 
 him as he was swimming? You had a dozen 
 opportunities ere he was beyond bullet- range." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 45 
 
 "I know it," Mack replied; "but I could 
 not shoot. When I was a boy I went with 
 some Texan Bangers to flush a band of Co- 
 manches. They ambuscaded us. The two 
 soldiers who escaped the massacre with me 
 were slain the following night as we huddled 
 around a few coals in a tempest. I again es 
 caped in the thicket. The next day, worn, 
 weary, fevered, hungry, I stood, as the sun was 
 setting, upon a bluff washed by a swollen river. 
 It had stormed all the day. As I looked up 
 and down the stream to detect some means of 
 crossing, a volley of bullets whistled by my 
 head and heart. I leaped far out into the 
 rushing flood, and swam and dived and plunged 
 amid bullets and arrows to the flat swamp op 
 posite. How my heart yearned for the rifles 
 to hush, for the arrows to whiz no more! 
 When the bear turned his somersault into the 
 river, I remembered that incident. How could 
 I shoot him? I felt that he was me scring 
 ing, plunging in the water with a heart-wail 
 for life. About midnight a sense of safety 
 came over me, and I stopped in the darkness, 
 stood upon my head, walked upon my hands, 
 feet up, and played * turn the wheel ' in the 
 young cane, and wished to yell with delight at 
 my escape. But a racket to the right scared 
 
46 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 me, and I glided on till daylight showed me 
 the plains. I had scarcely entered upon them 
 when I heard my father's whistle of danger in 
 a ravine. I fled toward it as a bullet cut 
 the grass under my feet. Then another rifle 
 cracked, and I heard a groan near me, and 
 glancing back saw a Comanche rising and fall 
 ing, but he was still ere I reached my father, 
 whose aim had been sure. Bruin is safe. I 
 rejoice with him. And Both, when you fight 
 a duel that men about your caliber are some 
 times not wise enough to avoid see that your 
 enemy is as good a shot as yourself; then nei 
 ther will spill blood. You missed the bear a 
 a foot or two at least. I was sure you would 
 do so when I nudged you as you were aim- 
 ing." 
 
 *'So you jostled me as I shot of pur 
 pose," laughed Tom; "I thought so at the 
 time." 
 
 "Yes; and huzzaed when your bullet flat 
 tened on a rock to the bear's right," replied 
 Mack. 
 
 The next day Both and I, with a brown don 
 key, were threading a rough-visaged route 
 prospecting. Summits conic, truncated, sym 
 metrical, ragged; snow-crowned peak kings 
 that the shocks of many seasons had not dis- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 47 
 
 crowned, with gloomful abysses between, and 
 vast shadows lengthening, widening, darken 
 ing about them like mystic creations, mar 
 shaled about our pathless course. 
 
4.8 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE DEAD MAN'S GHOST. 
 
 HE third week of our prospect 
 ing trip brought us many miles 
 from our starting-point high up 
 on Dead Man's Creek that pushed 
 its snow floods in leaps from 
 ledge to chasm, over bowlder and pebbled chan 
 nel, in shout and hiss, and murmur and splash, 
 as though a regiment of school-boys were rol 
 licking in its pools and falls. Great rocks 
 locked to the bluffs by columnar links of gran 
 ite overhung its depths. And bleak crags 
 grouped close about it whose shadows dark 
 ened it. We knew not that any one was in a 
 day's journey of the solitary place, and we 
 pitched camp for the night. 
 
 I was very tired ; Tom said I was always so ; 
 and he was very blue. We sat upon the bank 
 thirty feet above the stream watching the isin 
 glass glisten on the rocky bottom ; and he was 
 delighting me, he thought, by describing to 
 me the hundredth time his wife and children. 
 Tom his namesake he said, was the image 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 49 
 
 of himself; but I could see by the pictures 
 that he was just the reverse very like his 
 mother; and desiring a change of subject, I 
 dropped a nugget, and managed that his eye 
 should catch its glitter in the water. He at 
 tempted vainly to make me see it too; so he 
 scrambled down to the pool where it lay laugh- 
 ling at its owner; for the beautiful specimen 
 was his own. Many miles away, and several 
 months before, he had pried it from a crevice 
 and given it to me to keep till he could send 
 it home. But such was his exultation that he 
 knew it not. Hope's reactionary gas fairly 
 sparkled in his face and crackled in his leap 
 ing voice as he secured it and held it up for 
 my inspection. 
 
 "I '11 prospect awhile," he said; and the rap 
 id thuds of the pick told me he was at work 
 under the bluff. And I rejoiced that he had 
 found something else to do besides to talk. 
 He loved to talk; and I had learned to think 
 and dream dreams or make elaborate calcula 
 tions amid his most charming bursts of talk, 
 not noting a word he said. But it was all the 
 same to him so lie talked, for it never entered 
 his mind to conceive so preposterous a thing 
 as that any one could be otherwise than raised 
 into nearly divine raptures by the music and 
 4 
 
50 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 wisdom of his words. After awhile I called 
 him repeatedly, but could get nothing of him 
 but "wait." So I concluded to break up his 
 business. A few yards from the spot where 
 he toiled were rents in the bluff, and thrusting 
 a pole into one of them, several tons of rub 
 bish lumbered to the bottom. He uttered a 
 wild yell as the avalanche broke loose, and 
 fled, leaping through the creek as if an earth 
 quake were after him. I hurried to the camp 
 and busied about supper. In a few minutes 
 he came to the camp, and, girding a blanket 
 about him, hung his clothing to the fire to dry. 
 In answer to my query, " What 's the matter, 
 Tom?" he replied: "O nothing! nothing 
 much; I just stepped into the creek a lit 
 tle." 
 
 I had a notion about the " just stepped " and 
 the " a little;" but he brought to me his pan, 
 and in the gleam of the ounce and more of 
 gold his hour's work had unearthed we forgot 
 the incident. 
 
 That night the moon put on her shiniest 
 robes, and laughed in the heavens in a glee of 
 glory. The wilderness was like a silvery illu 
 mination. A wolf now and then trotted across 
 the purple haze of our camp-fire, and a fright 
 ened deer leaped past. Besides these, nothing 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 51 
 
 disturbed the splendid solitude save the moon 
 beams shattering on woods and rocks and the 
 muffled sighs of the dreamy wind. True, 
 Dead Man's Creek murmured in our ears re 
 frains of the murdered man whose corpse 
 named it; but we transmuted the doleful mel 
 odies into golden anthems, and, soothing our 
 loneliness in the hopeful chorus, fell asleep to 
 rhythms of imagination sweeter than Orpheus 
 struck from his golden shell. For fancy whis 
 pered to us wonderful things concerning much 
 goods laid away in store by the daughters of 
 gold waiting for us among the rocks and cas 
 cades under the bluff. 
 
 About midnight Tom awoke me, whispering 
 in my ears: "There's the dead man's ghost 
 groaning and muttering right across the creek, 
 keeping watch on us." 
 
 I doubt if a battle of thunder-storms could 
 have stirred me sooner. And sure eno.ugh, 
 thirty steps from us, a pale, distorted face 
 glistened beside a quivering clump of manga- 
 nite. Presently we traced the full outlines of 
 the shape; for it was restless. It clutched the 
 air, moaned, gnashed its teeth, but slept all 
 the while it seemed, however anguished, mut 
 tering words of rage and murder. During 
 the while Tom appeared dissatisfied with him- 
 
52 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 self uneasy and strolled up the creek. In 
 a few minutes I saw that lie had crossed over 
 and seated himself beside the fierce, pale 
 sleeper. He touched him, shook him. He, 
 waking with a drear roar, seized him, and a 
 wild, struggle to save life and to take it began. 
 I knew not what to do. Ere I could possibly 
 reach the crossing one or both would be dead. 
 I screamed but who heard me? In a few 
 moments he darted to the precipice with Tom 
 lifted in the air as if he were a cork to hurl him 
 into the jaggy chasm, exclaiming: "Fiend! 
 fiend! to hell with you! " 
 
 I knew the voice, and shouted, "Van! " 
 
 He drew back from the dismal brink, and 
 said, "Quien." 
 
 And said I pointing to Eoth, whom he 
 still held throttled" Tom." 
 
 He laid him down tenderly, kissed his ashy 
 face ?< and wrung his hands in agony over him. 
 Hurrying to the crossing, I soon gained the 
 scene of the rencounter; but they were gone. 
 I peeped into the dank chasm, but heard noth 
 ing save the splash of the fretted waters. But 
 from along the mountain-side over me sounds 
 like staggering footsteps fell upon my strain 
 ing ears, and I sped after them, thinking that 
 Van's frenzy had returned, and that he was 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 53 
 
 scaling the crag with Tom to hurl him, in 
 prankish madness, from its moon-lit height 
 into the awful gorge that yawned at its base 
 like a bottomless hell. Now and then a stone 
 loosened by his ascent bounded down by me 
 ns the leaves and twigs rustling beneath his 
 tread guided my pursuit. Five minutes that 
 seemed an hour intervened ere I overtook him 
 under Tom's dead-weight pressing, straining 
 up the mountain ; and, laying my hand upon 
 his shoulder, said: "Put him down, down!" 
 
 But he leaped away from me with a wail, 
 and with mad strength and agility climbed on 
 up the crag's face, over log and rock and fis 
 sured gorge. And still above and just beyond 
 him I heard the groaning of a water-fall as it 
 fell ceaselessly over a glum precipice, and its 
 white f.ace gleamed like pale death waiting for 
 us. I tripped him, and, as he rolled twenty 
 feet down the steep, wrested Both from his 
 eager clutch, and ere he regained my side was 
 laving his dead face at the basin of the water 
 fall. He stood by me speechless, watched with 
 awed eagerness each m'anipulation, stooped, 
 peered into my eyes, touched the ashy-pale 
 face, and whispered, "Dead?" 
 
 "No; not yet," I replied. 
 
 And silent, quick as thought, he plunged 
 
54 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 into the boiling flood with him across, up, and 
 away with him with a frantic yell, toward a 
 cliff that gleamed like a grand dome near the 
 summit. But he sunk to the ground in a few 
 minutes, exhausted by the contrary frenzies 
 that had surged in his soul and by his bur 
 dened, reckless rush up the height. 
 
 I again knelt over Roth. His pulse flut 
 tered and was still. His heart trembled, then 
 went to sleep. But as we rubbed and called 
 him the pulse leaped and was at rest again ; the 
 heart throbbed, was lost to motion, throbbed, 
 throbbed, throbbed. Tom sighed and sat up. 
 Van's eye danced delightedly, and he stretched 
 himself beside him, limber as a molten form; 
 but the pathetic " Thank God! " he uttered told 
 me he was in his right mind. 
 
 Koth looked from one to the other, felt his 
 wet garments, touched the blood upon them 
 softly, inquisitively, and said: "What docs it 
 all mean?" 
 
 "It means," I replied, "that you are your 
 self the stark fool forever, been fighting 'tho 
 dead man's ghost,' who flitted up here with 
 you, and went in a-washing with you as he 
 came by the falls. Couldn't you have let the 
 haunt alone? Why have you gone over there 
 to disturb it?" 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 55 
 
 A wave of happy humor rippled Van's face, 
 and he knelt up in the moonlight by Tom, who, 
 with boy-like joy, recognized him, and said: 
 " So you are the ghost. Well, I was scared a 
 some, I think, and am hurt a little; but it's 
 nothing. I would go through it again to find 
 you." 
 
 And so he would have done. Indeed, had 
 he been Dante among the infernals, instead of 
 storing his brain with their horrors to detail 
 in a book, he would have turned himself into 
 a cinder trying to loose the fired devils. 
 
 We helped him up the peak to a cliff on its 
 side that appeared in the moonshine like a 
 castle of silver. In its heart was Van's cave, 
 whither he was hurrying Tom when I over 
 took him. There we bestowed him on a bed 
 of grizzlies' skins, and, leaving him asleep, we 
 walked out upon the promontory that jutted 
 sheerly from the crown of the height athwart 
 an abyss whose depths, like the mythic river 
 of sighs, were hidden in fathomless dark. 
 
56 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GRATINGLY ATHWAET THE PEAK'S FACE. 
 
 HE scene was wondrous. The stu 
 pendous rocks; the zigzag spurs 
 bald, wooded ; the solitary peaks 
 snow-robed in solemn valleys; 
 the piled ranges leaning against 
 the star-lit horizon drooping its glittering cir 
 cle on every side; the hoarse calls of the winds; 
 the sough of the vast waste; the moan of the 
 drear abyss; the whispers of pale ether wor 
 shiping between earth and sky, imparted to 
 the heart a delightful awe. 
 
 Yan appeared to be oblivious of the scene, 
 intent on peering far beyond. A river, tossing 
 its floods amongst far-away Atlantic hills, held 
 upon its bosom his memories and his dead 
 hopes, and he was floating now upon its far- 
 off current. His heart had tranced the conti 
 nent to swim upon its waves with the ghosts 
 of the past, and as one and another of them 
 glided to the surface he voiced the thoughts 
 they evoked. 
 
 "Life was sweet as peace then," he said. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 57 
 
 "Bright as joy. Hope smiled. Miriam was 
 the ideal of loveliness; our little girl was fair 
 to look upon. I prospered. Misfortune befell 
 in the course of years. My father passed 
 away; my mother quickly crossed the cold 
 stream after him to God's shore. Debts came 
 to light mortgages dusty with age. And to 
 redeem the old homestead I hurried to these 
 gold-fields. But the sacred prize is blurred 
 by the naked woe that grew in its soft shad 
 ows, hushing for all time the spirits of joy in 
 its groves and halls while it was being re 
 deemed with gold gathered here. Redeemed! 
 Alas, it is lost! Not all the jewels of the Si 
 erras can light it with smiles again for me. 
 Why did I come hither? Fatal land, death- 
 place of all sunny dreams, shall I thank you 
 for gold? It is but fine dust in the balance 
 against the happiness it costs. Why did I 
 come to thy dizzy heights and dreamy valleys? 
 Yet these silent glories have not injured me. 
 The horror was born elsewhere. At home its 
 wail arose, and leaped a continent to damn me 
 while hurrying there to look upon the fairest 
 picture in all the world to me. The picture? 
 Marred. The joy? Fled. A life-woe born; 
 home expunged from the soul. How? A heart, 
 instead of sparkling at anchor in purity's ha- 
 
58 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 ven, admits a profane feeling to dally with her 
 white wings, and waft her out upon the turbid 
 sea forbidden to pure voyagers. Can she be 
 recalled? The storms are black with fury 
 there. Spirits from the pit lash its waters. 
 In vain the heart lightens her load; the pilot, 
 innocence, is dead. She becomes stained like 
 the billows which toss her. She drives with 
 the tempest awhile. When she would return, 
 there is no way back for her from the black 
 sea she sails. Her signals of distress are 
 mocked by sailors on that main. Her lurid 
 rockets, unheeded by the safe ashore, die in 
 the thick night that shrouds her. No beacon 
 on rock shines for her. Beaten, shivered, 
 forsaken, adrift, in the swoop of the storm and 
 crash of breakers, she must sink in the inky 
 waters. She is lost. Only One is good enough 
 to throw a bow of promise athwart the dark 
 gulf, and great enough to sail a life-boat over 
 its boiling surf for her rescue. Will she heed 
 His promise and be found of him ? God help 
 the poor voyager to Christ who stoops from 
 heaven to hell to 'save a soul! Lost? " 
 
 I stood shivering at his side, for he seemed 
 like a talking corpse, the stars bending from 
 above, the yawned abyss waked up from be 
 neath, listening to him. Obviously, he was 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 59 
 
 oblivious of me and of every object about 
 him. His form was rigid, not a muscle quiv 
 ered, and his wide-open eyes stood still as his 
 form, as his burning heart dropped out in 
 words that hissed as they hid in the pale ether. 
 
 "Lost," he repeated. "Who is lost? A 
 woman, gentle as love, trusting as faith, un 
 suspecting as hope, beautiful as chastity. She 
 lost! Damned! " 
 
 His voice here was a whisper; yet it sounded 
 to me like a lorn, stark shriek leaping over the 
 icy Sierras from crag to cloud, to wilderness, 
 to plain, to river, to city; across continents and 
 seas here, there, everywhere seeking, like 
 zigzag lightning, some certain object to fall 
 upon. I imagined that Miriam, his wife, heard 
 him in her hiding-place, and quivered, as I 
 did, at the fiendism that irked and fired and 
 shot out his last word like a hell in aspirate in 
 quest of her. But she had no need to startle. 
 The heart whose hot haste projected the meas 
 ureless " damn " lodged no spite for her, yet 
 excused her not while it pitied, but mourned 
 her with a fiery mourning. He was still rig 
 id, save that his eyes burned in the moon's 
 glint as if a fury afire were in rhapsody in 
 them as he continued: "Which is the perdi- 
 tionable? Man says, * She is.' Man, glowing 
 
60 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 with might and honor, ermined with justice 
 and mercy, says, 'She is the damnable one,' 
 and garlands him who hurled her from inno- 
 cency ; laureates the fiend, but whips his victim 
 forth into night. That's his justice, honor, 
 might, mercy -damning the ivronged. Woman 
 says, * She it is who is perditionable,' Woman, 
 like Christ, touched with the feeling of our 
 infirmities, beautiful, brave, loving, who be 
 wailed the Christ in the face of spiteful hell, 
 adored at his tomb almost as early as the an 
 gels, and acclaimed his resurrection to Eome's 
 sneering savages and Jerusalem's crucifying 
 ingrates .s/nz says that it is she that is beyond 
 pardon. She scouts her to the pit pitilessly. 
 She assigns her to eternal scorn, and hisses 
 her eternally. But him that beguiled her? 
 She smiles on him, welcomes him to hearth 
 and heart; weds him. Hiss him! Why? 
 What evil hath lie done? Lured to perdition 
 only a woman. Shorn her of that grace that 
 makes her so like a heavanly visitant. Crushed 
 her good heart. Gloomed her life with tho 
 abyss's night. Hiss him for that? Not so. 
 Kiss him rather, laud him, love him, wed him. 
 O sweet logic! Heaven for the devil, hell for 
 tho victimated of his pestilent wickedness. O 
 sweet logic! The hell of humanity enlarges 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 61 
 
 its choicest Satan, and for the ruin he inflicts 
 tortures woman with an infinity of anathema, 
 and saints him" 
 
 The fierce sneer of his sentences entered in 
 the soul, the vividest image of the intense out 
 rage perpetrated against the beguiled in the 
 given circumstances; an image that turned 
 from her the merciless hates that beat her be 
 neath the surf turned them to their proper 
 mark, the inexpressible wretch who pilots her 
 into the sea of shame. They are 7??'s, not 
 hers his, fetidest corruption of humanity 
 that he is. 
 
 Satan rubbed out the garden planted by 
 God. Its fruits and flowers and trees, its tree 
 of life, at his touch disappeared. And earth 
 bristled with thorns as a testimony against 
 him. But the man who blurs the heaven of 
 woman's heart, and sends her strangling with 
 woe to mate with fiends, is caressed in tribute 
 of his victory, and welcomed into earth's sa- 
 credest bowers. Nature cries to heaven against 
 the unnatural crime. The hurtling scorn should 
 center upon the brute-beast man instead. It 
 was after him that Van's jagged "damn" 
 leaped. And the unspeakable pathos of his 
 prayer that God would help her to Christ gave 
 a fury to the naked lightning of the curse upon 
 
62 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 him that flamed like a bolt of doom. He had 
 paused at the sentence, " Tortures woman with 
 an infinity of anathema, and saints him;" his 
 face paler than the dead, his haughty form 
 quivering as in the throes of some tumultu 
 ous passion. But he quickly resumed, saying: 
 "Ay, but beast sheltered by society, your in 
 famy tinseled by the favor of those who, like 
 the goddess truth, should spurn you farthest 
 into the realm of reproach your sin, yours, 
 will find you out. God, who quietly moves 
 when he will into your rankling circles, though 
 panoplied by hosts in arms- for you, will crush 
 you as though you and they were veriest trifles. 
 It is the Almighty who says, 'I will repay.' 
 Your brassy heart, soon or late, must ring 
 wails to the metal of his wrath. Two spirits 
 commune with me. One urges to slay, slay 
 him. And I often leap in sleep to grapple 
 him, but to find it was only a phantasy of the 
 brain I had met. To-night I thought Tom 
 was he, and that retributive Nemesis had con 
 veyed him to me that I should hurl him into 
 pitiless death. Why am I here? Why not 
 bounding in pursuit? The other spirit enticed 
 me. Its voice is not for blood. It is a gentle 
 thing, yet it braves revenge in his fiercest mood, 
 and tells him he is a criminal of Satanic hue; 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 63 
 
 that to murder is monstrous. In the haunts 
 of men its voice is smothered. But here, 
 where all nature speaks of God, I hearken to 
 its pleadings. Not the eagle that rends, but 
 the dove traversed the deluge on good bent. 
 Close to the awful waves, adown their dank 
 chasms, over their glowering crests, in the 
 spray of their thunders, she sped, till, finding 
 the leaf of peace, she retraced her brave path 
 to the ark and trustingly fluttered against its 
 window for admission with the life-promise to 
 its inmates. So this gentle spirit has fluttered 
 about me in this horror. It allured me to 
 this wild. It induces me to seek rencounters 
 with beasts instead of man ; to study the rocks 
 and plants; to hearken to the stars; to heed 
 God in the tumbling falls, the rustling forests, 
 the flashing avalanches, the quiet heavens 
 ministers of his that do his pleasure. What 
 is it? It is gentle as the angel of mercy, and 
 mighty. It trips hell and hustles it from the 
 heart, but touches each delicate flower there 
 into softer, sweeter, lovelier mold. Is it God ? 
 It is oft so utterly tender that I think it is my 
 mother come from the dead to quell with her 
 gentleness the fury that earth-wrongs have 
 stirred. Do departed spirits of the good come 
 to earth again, trace the way of mortals, min- 
 
64 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 ister blessings? Who doubts it but a carnal- 
 ist sneering at divinities? But coining, why 
 invisible, without voice? Bather, do we not 
 hear them with the soul, spirit to spirit heed 
 ing." 
 
 He looked away to the farther chasm pale 
 above with moonlight, black below its jungle- 
 brow up to the spangled sky, into the sheer 
 abyss at our feet, and reeled to a bust of glinty 
 quarts peeping above the granite like a Titan's 
 head, and sat upon it. There was a crazy 
 white flame in his eye that I could not read, 
 and the wide-eyed stars seemed to stoop down 
 to catch the expression of his face and to shiv 
 er, hearing words like fire from a man of ice 
 as he added: "Yet I often think it were hap 
 piness to drop off the height upon the rocks 
 in the abyss's fatal depths. Fearful images 
 wring my brain. Vengeance convulses me, 
 and gloats on a coming meeting with him 
 whose sin, dyed in woman's heart-break, shapes 
 before me like the bolt of fate to drop him into 
 perdition. Blood starts in 'the air, drips from 
 my hands, curdles at my feet." 
 
 Here he sprung to his feet as if pierced by 
 his last words, exclaiming: "What if I had 
 killed Tom for him to-night? Curse, curse 
 upon the serpent who has crazed me!" 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 65 
 
 His tones were jagged and hissing like hurt 
 ling aerolites falling. He shuddered. His 
 face grew whiter like the essence of rage. 
 His eye gleamed like a maddened beast's. He 
 rolled upon the ground like a convulsed ma 
 niac. He screamed in fury, and frenziedly 
 tore himself. He leaped away as if in pur 
 suit of some one from ledge to ledge, down 
 from gorge to gorge, unconscious of friend 
 ship's or danger's presence a poor, wildered, 
 frantic wretch. And sky and jungle held their 
 breath in an ecstasy of alarm as the raving 
 specter bounded from the crag into the shadow 
 of death. 
 
 As he skipped like a pale ghost out into the 
 chasmy darkness, Tom, drawn to the spot by 
 his mad exclamations, stood on the verge of 
 the promontory, his face puffed by the night's 
 throttling. He leaned over into the weird 
 gloom, and from its depths a shriek, like a 
 tiger's raging scream, leaped up and passed 
 gratingly athwart the peak's face, and died in 
 the sky. 
 
 " Not dead ! " he gasped. " Good heavens ! 
 Come." And adown the peak, picking the 
 way rapidly, swinging over from rock to rock, 
 now tumbling, leaping here, sliding there; 
 hesitating over a fissure, dropping in; scramb- 
 5 
 
66 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 ling on down, we were soon buried in the abyss 
 searching everywhere for Van. 
 
 The day-break glowed in the east, the sun 
 rise purpled deeper and deeper the horizon 
 and tinted the ice-like skies with blent pink 
 and orange; the fresh airs of morning trooped 
 in merry waves over canon and cliff, and puffed 
 refreshing ether into every thing; star after 
 star fell asleep in the damasked vault; and full- 
 orbed day smiled in heaven and earth as if 
 neither crime nor horror, nor aught save pu 
 rity and peace, had ever tossed about in the 
 lap of time. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 67 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HE'LL LEAP, LEAP LOST! 
 
 HE clay passed in a hapless search 
 for Van. So, leaving him to his 
 fate, we built a brush tent in a 
 group of nutmeg-trees, and mined 
 in a cramped placer on the creek. 
 Several days had elapsed when, weighing our 
 gold, we had many ounces to jewel our girdles. 
 We were wakeful the following night with ex 
 ulting hopes. It was moonless, but the stars 
 held levee, and we watched their glittering 
 ranks arrayed in silvery robes as they passed 
 and greeted and whispered and danced in the 
 firmament, as if in a jubilee that restless earth 
 soothed by Lethe lay dreaming. The mid- 
 night hour had sighed itself away, and still 
 we were awake watching the pale love-flashes 
 they exchanged, when a shrill whoop from far 
 up the nodding crag that slept over us sprung 
 us to our feet; and we peered up the abrupt 
 steep to detect the fool-hardy adventurer es* 
 saying its descent. We could not distinguish 
 him from many a shadowy appearance that 
 
68 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 clung to its bald bust; but lie evidently de 
 scried us in the glare of our camp-fire, for he 
 saluted our eager watch with a succession of 
 screeching yells that hideously echoed along 
 sky and chasm as he came down, down toward 
 us. Every few minutes stones or fragments 
 of turf fell from the gnarly crag into the mut 
 tering creek, when abruptly from a fissure u 
 hundred feet above us a form, clad save boots 
 like Adam before Eve fig-leafed him, glided 
 out upon a buttress and stamped in madness, 
 uttered a tempest of stark screams, and, lean 
 ing over, leered down upon us. The stars 
 seemed to float into groups over him, and to 
 hush their shuddering circles lest their rust 
 ling should startle him. Dead Man's Creek 
 muffled its lorn melody till each note was a 
 stifled sob, and the dark crag grew black with 
 awful horror that he recked not the peril. 
 Tom's ruddy face was aghast as he whispered: 
 * Van, Van, wild as the fiend! Watch. He '11 
 leap, leap lost! " And he glided into the 
 crag's shadow like a speeding specter, and I 
 noted him scaling its steeps toward him. 
 
 On diverting my eye again to the buttress, 
 Van was gone. I listened for a gnashing thud 
 in the creek, but heard nothing only Tom's in 
 cessant, quiet scramble up toward where he had 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 69 
 
 stood. While scringing round a protruding 
 rock, he looked aloft and discovered that he 
 had disappeared. He looked down, bent over, 
 listened, looked to me. I motioned him on up, 
 and watched thither, every nerve a tortured 
 tremor, when, right at my ear, pealed, like a 
 blast from the pit, a maniac " Ha, ha, ha! " 
 
 It tore my bones seemingly out of my flesh, 
 and landed me a thousand feet from the spot, 
 I hoped, but found that I had been so appalled 
 as simply to fall in my tracks. And the mad 
 man's blazing eyes and furious grip told me 
 death was near. I either heard, or thought I 
 heard, Tom's groan of sympathy from the 
 cliff's face, and, like impersoned fear, I kept 
 Van too busy holding me for any chance to 
 strike. About the first thing I remember after 
 the struggle began is Tom upon Van's breast 
 holding his right-arm and I kneeling on and 
 lancing his left with dispatchful zest; and I 
 was very thankful for my little knowledge of 
 surgery. He bled refreshingly fast, I thought; 
 and though his eyes were like globes of fire, 
 and his struggles fierce, he weakened rapidly, 
 and was soon in a faintish sleep, out of which 
 I feared he would never awake. We dressed 
 him in a ragged suit best we had, part Tom's, 
 part mine and about day-dawn he woke up 
 
70 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. - 
 
 with a feeble yawn. His recognition of us 
 was instant, and he tried to stretch out his 
 hand to greet us, but was too faint. He was 
 moody at intervals most of the day, but toward 
 evening he listened to a rehearsal of his last 
 night's pranks and perils, for he insisted till 
 we told him the worst; and ere night fell we 
 had packed him on the donkey by a circuitous 
 route up to his cave. He showed us therein 
 his cache of provisions and gold; and in the 
 gloaming, whose soft tints were nestling in the 
 dark between the crags, we spread down griz 
 zlies' skins under the leafy nutmegs at its 
 mouth, and talked by snatches or dreamed 
 with open eyes the balmy hours far into the 
 solemn night. 
 
 "I have been alone here," he said, "three 
 months. The solitaire, as well as others, I 
 find, needs labor to relieve of unrest. Res 
 pite or diversity is longed for. So I have 
 spiced solitude with toil. It rests the eye, the 
 mind, the muscles even. Sleep is sweeter, 
 and the wakeful day looks like a newer glory, 
 when labor makes merry music for the throng 
 ing hours. The heart wrings out its sorrows, 
 and rings in hopes which delight it amid the 
 quiver and jostle of physical thuds. The 
 placer I am mining is but a short distance 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 71 
 
 above yours, and I have gathered among its 
 crevices a fraction less than a thousand ounces. 
 Unless you have done better, you must mine 
 with me." 
 
 To this we acceded, and the days of the 
 following month were golden for us. During 
 the while Van was often restless, took sudden 
 trips for days at a time into the sequestered 
 jungle, and finally became resolute to voyage 
 to Australia. Some phantasm on that distant 
 shore seemed to call to him incessantly, and 
 the vast stretch of sea between appeared at 
 times but a step to him. And we remembered 
 the letters had said that thither Miriam had 
 been borne. 
 
72 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MIKIAM THINKS, YES! 
 
 |E appeared, of late, to be haunted 
 by the image of his wife; and 
 transient thoughts, like stray rays 
 from angels, led him into glimpses 
 of hope that some explanation ex 
 isted that would condone her course and leave 
 her to him as a pure memory at least. It was 
 seldom, indeed, that he mentioned the trouble. 
 But now and then he briefly spoke of it, and 
 we, with bated speech, would suggest the pleas- 
 antest things possible germane to it. And so 
 it became mingled with the c?mp talk one mid 
 night and to little purpose, except to make him 
 silent for a long interval after mentioning it. 
 In his silence, sight too seemed to have repressed 
 all her mysteries, and so to have hushed them 
 that the soft step of a beast or man crept to us 
 from a thicket a hundred paces distant and then 
 was still so long we forgot it and became en 
 thralled in reverie. But out of the strange 
 hush* upon every thing there bounded to us a 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 73 
 
 short fierce roar, like that uttered by a savage 
 in dire rage. It was followed by a furious rust 
 ling of the feathery boughs of the chaparral 
 and hurried pistol-shots, and a dark body sprung 
 from the covert across a broad bare rock and fell 
 heavily upon the shrubs, thirty feet below its 
 brink. In the instant a hatless man stepped 
 to the rock's edge, and peered down as if anx 
 iously watching some object. His form was 
 distinctly outlined by the forest background 
 and starshine, the pistol still gleaming in his 
 hand. In answer to our hail, he said: "It is 
 only a strange animal that disputed my pas 
 sage through the jungle, where I have been 
 wandering all day. It hurt me but little, -and 
 is past injuring any one now. I wish it had 
 fled. I 'm sorry I killed it." 
 
 It was Mack from the "Wait Mine." And 
 Van, laughing, said: " Well, I 'm glad it is quiet 
 at least, for its scream made my pate grate as 
 though some savage ghost had torn off its 
 scalp." 
 
 Mack let himself down the rock's face by 
 clinging to its wrinkles, and we examined the 
 symmetrical brownish California lion he had 
 slain, while he related how fortunately his first 
 bullet arrested its arrowy leap upon him, when 
 so near his person that its contortions rolled 
 
74 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 it against him as he repeatedly fired till it des 
 perately plunged from him over the rock. 
 
 He and Koth lingered near the lion when 
 Van and I returned to the camp. And when 
 presently they followed us, an unusual anima 
 tion was noticeable in Both. Mack zestfully 
 partook of the supper we hurriedly prepared 
 for him ; and leading the camp chat into good 
 news from home, said quite naturally: "Van, 
 I met awhile back a young man some twenty 
 years old in San Francisco just from the Atlan 
 tic States. He claims to be your brother Will, 
 and says that a letter from Koth to some one 
 near your home in the East had led him to 
 come to the gold-fields to meet you. He went 
 on to the trading-post where you and Both first 
 met in this country, hoping there to get tidings 
 of you. He said your wife was well except 
 being heartsick to see you, and your little Mir 
 iam is as beautiful as the bird's song is sweet." 
 
 During the last statement Van had risen to 
 his feet and had leaned against the huge rock 
 next the cave, one hand clasping his heart; and 
 in his eyas shone the eagerness that one in a 
 desert ready to perish would likely feel if near 
 him living waters should suddenly murmur. 
 But Mack, seeming not to notice the intense 
 posture, added: "We arranged a plan of com- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 75 
 
 munication, and two weeks ago he had turned 
 this way on Koth's path. He says all is well 
 at home. The old place redeemed by your re 
 mittances is all your own; and that in it has 
 been waiting and longing for you, all the weary 
 months of your absence, as noble a woman, as 
 true a heart to you, Yan, as ever pulsed death 
 less love. The letters to parties on this coast 
 are base forgeries." 
 
 There Yan stood mute, motionless, slightly 
 leant toward Mack; only the flush of face and 
 awing eagerness of his eyes tokened life. And 
 Mack continued, his tones tremulous and clear 
 with faith's passion in the words: "He asked 
 me to say to you, if I should meet you before 
 he did, that by the kindred blood which warms 
 his heart, you may rely upon this statement as 
 pure truth; that aught adverse to it is utterly, 
 utterly false." 
 
 There was a quiver in Van's frame; he looked 
 squarely into Roth's face, now suffused with 
 tears as well as unusual animation, and the old 
 classmates bounded together. 
 
 "And that 's not all, Van," said Tom, as they 
 resumed their places in the bear-skins. "Will 
 has married Miriam's sister, and she and Mir 
 iam are in Sacramento with their father, vow 
 ing to kill you on sight." 
 
76 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 "Is it so, Mack?" sharply queried Van. 
 
 " Yes," Mack answered quite dryly, " except 
 the vowing." 
 
 " Well," said Yan, " killing is a greater favor 
 than my injustice to Miriam merits. But, Tom, 
 I never revealed to you and Quien the evidence 
 of the story's truth that was to me the convinc 
 ing witness. It is Miriam's own letter avow 
 ing the affair and tearfully resigning to me our 
 little girl. The style and chirography are so 
 entirely her own that to doubt its genuineness 
 never occurred to me until now. 
 
 The hours tripped away unnoticed, for we 
 were happy in the peace that had come to Yan, 
 who, in its quieting melodies, entertained us by 
 the rarest conversational powers within forma 
 tion and incidents so foreign to himself and 
 scenes about us that we forgot that sorrow had 
 ever cast a shadow on his life. 
 
 The morning broke upon us while we were 
 yet awake, and its sunrise sung us to sleep. 
 We were roused by an old pioneer and his 
 young comrade, upon whom Yan's eyes rested 
 with caresses as he greeted him with, "God 
 bless you, Will!" 
 
 Will had collected; at the trading-post near 
 our first mine, two or three of the forged let 
 ters, and we compared them with those Yan 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 11 
 
 had cached with his gold. The same hand was 
 evinced in each, and those to ^an, when com 
 pared to genuine letters, were so nearly perfect 
 imitations that even the expert could scarcely 
 have rejected them. 
 
 " Van," queried Will, as Van folded the let 
 ters and put them aside, " whose treachery is 
 it? Think you, brother, that Lieutenant W. 
 can have become so utterly vile as this? Mir 
 iam thinks, 'Yes.' He threatened vengeance 
 the hour your marriage in Florence was known 
 in America. Her brother, you remember, gave 
 you notice of it while you were yet in.Europe." 
 
 " But," rejoined Van, " he met us on our re 
 turn with many pleasant expressions of good 
 feeMng, and often as we were together nothing 
 to the contrary appeared. He removed with 
 his large fortune, within the year, to his home 
 in England, and I never heard if he ever came 
 back to America." 
 
 " When I was a boy," said Will, "'I thought 
 him glorious, and remember well his splendid 
 equipage and fine person and manners; his 
 hazel eyes and light curly hair, too, are in 
 mind. Dr. P. once berated him for his 
 mockery of the poor, and said his heart was a 
 hyena's, while his mien was a lion's. I know 
 that the old did not trust him, with all his fair 
 
78 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 seeming. And I have heard your old college 
 chum, Col. R, say that he was a heartless 
 flirt, and base in resentments, equal to garland 
 with favors those he had designs upon till they 
 trusted him, while using others to bring them 
 annoyance; that Italian revenge is honor to 
 the masked cruelties his heart is base enough 
 to execute. He certainly loved Miriam; and 
 though you smiled at his rivalry, you dreaded 
 lest his artfulness should supplant you; so 
 at least F. used to say. And Miriam used 
 to say that he could bide a life-time to find 
 advantage to gratify a grudge." 
 
 "Where is Col. R?" Van inquired. 
 
 "In Germany, when last heard from," he re 
 plied. "And at the time the forged letters 
 state he and Miriam were married, Ms mar 
 riage with Lieut. W.'s elegant cousin, Miriam, 
 was celebrated, and they took steamer for the 
 Old World. W. had been invited to the mar 
 riage, but excused himself on the plea that he 
 was about to sail for Africa on a hunting ex 
 cursion of months." 
 
 "The wretch! " exclaimed Both; "he was on 
 this coast four months ago. He it must have 
 been, Quien, who killed the eagle the morning 
 Van left our camp for home, and came down 
 into the fissure inquiring for him ; whose light 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCKNES. 79 
 
 curly hair appeared under his black wig when 
 it was awry the night he lodged with us ; and 
 went back across the mountains to the trad 
 ing-post, where, no doubt, he had personally 
 repeated the forgeries of his infamous letters. 
 You called my attention to his military style 
 and phrases." 
 
 I cannot word-paint the expression in Van's 
 face when Roth's disclosures followed the pre 
 sumptions of Will. But any one beholding it 
 would say that a meeting between him and W. 
 would drop on the wings of the wind the he 
 roic philosophy of self -repression in his prom 
 ontory monologue, and reenact the scene of 
 the moon-lit gulf, where Tom encountered him 
 as the murdered man's ghost, and nearly lost 
 his life for his wisdom. 
 
 With Will and the old pioneer he sped from 
 the peaks toward the plains that afternoon, 
 journeying to Miriam at Sacramento. No plea 
 for rest could induce him to wait till next morn 
 ing. Love's smoldering fire had returned at 
 the altar of wifely honor, and by its witchery 
 was causing him to leap like the hart to the 
 presence of that unequaled enchantress a 
 pure, self -immolating, loving wife. 
 
 Mack remained to mine again with us. 
 
80 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE PLAZA D'ARMAS QUIVERS. 
 
 NDUSTRY not being the special- 
 ty of either of us, as it had been 
 of Both's forefathers, we could 
 promptly improvise a hunt or a 
 a ramble among the labyrinths 
 and mountains to inspect the stones and plants 
 and enjoy the beauties of leisure. In an ex 
 cursion of that kind we were arrested, on a 
 rough summit, by a cracked voice in which the 
 "carrajo" of Mexico, the "sacre" of France, 
 and the abrupter profanity of the United States 
 were ludicrously intermixed. The voice ap 
 proached us, then receded, and its mad jargon 
 left no doubt that its owner was terribly in 
 earnest about something. We glided a feAV 
 paces southward, and again heard its raving 
 imprecations. Presently the frantic jabberer, 
 with a hop and a skip, pranced along a boaten 
 path in thirty feet of the rocky clump in which 
 we were *hidden. His eyes stood out with 
 fierceness; his long white hair, matted, flopped 
 about his faco as lie leaped on; and his cloth- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 81 
 
 ing dangled in tatters about his stubby per 
 son. In a minute or two he rushed back mut 
 tering, his hands clasping several stones; and, 
 turning behind a massive rock, we knew by 
 his voice that he had stopped, and judged by 
 the whiz and smash that he was stoning some 
 object. We were soon in position to see his 
 crazy work. Eight or ten paces from him, 
 leaning against a large pine, was the motion 
 less form of a bleeding Indian, with bow and 
 arrows near him. The tree was barked in sev 
 eral places next his breast and cheek; and be 
 tween throws the maniac, leaping up and down, 
 screamed in the very ecstasy of rage. We 
 were but little aside from the range of his dev 
 ilish eye and its apparently dead object. As 
 he hurled the last stone he galloped back in 
 the path described, and Mack dashed to the 
 lifeless Indian and bore him, with our aid, 
 across a ravine into a tangle of young firs, 
 where we were scarcely concealed ere the ma 
 niac was at his post again with another sup 
 ply of stones. Dropping them at his feet, re 
 taining one, he drew back to hurl it, when he 
 was transfixed with surprise that his victim 
 was gone. Now his manner wholly changed. 
 He crouched and crept slowly, softly to the 
 tree, came down upon his hands and knees, 
 6 
 
82 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 and wormed himself with unspeakable cau 
 tion peeringly round it, sprung to his feet 
 aghast, and sped away noiseless as a shadow, 
 exerting every muscle to escape from the spot. 
 
 We hurried with the Indian down the mount 
 ain, and on reaching a branch tried to resus 
 citate him. Poor fellow! he had gone nearly 
 too far toward the eternal jungle of game the 
 Digger Indian's heaven to be recalled; but 
 when at last he opened his gleamy black eye, 
 and knew he was receiving friendly care, it was 
 worth much to the heart to see the unmistaka 
 ble joyfulness that printed its glad image upon 
 his tawny face. By signs and grimaces he 
 made us to understand that he was resting at 
 the tree when, before he knew he was near, 
 the madman rocked him; that he was rising 
 to fly when a stone smote him on the temple 
 and felled him; that he couldn't get away, but 
 comprehended every thing till, after many 
 throws, the maniac hit him in the forehead. 
 He imitated his screams and fantastic leaps, 
 and conveyed to us, by dismal groans and con 
 tortions, the horror he experienced ere he be 
 came insensible. 
 
 The following afternoon Tom climbed a steep 
 to kill a deer we had observed to pass that 
 point several evenings. Becoming impatient, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 83 
 
 he pushed on to the crags of Crazy Mountain, 
 as we now called the one a mile east of us; 
 and, killing a deer near its crown, he sought 
 the haunt of the maniac to leave him a por 
 tion. Beaching the Indian's tree, he pursued 
 the path till it ended in a clump of hut-like 
 rocks, among which were bones and feathers, 
 but no sign of fire, evidently tokens of the 
 maniac's feast on raw game. Depositing part 
 of his venison there, he had proceeded a third 
 of the distance tentward when he was stag 
 gered by a blow from behind, and was furious 
 ly grappled by the madman, uttering screams 
 of rage throughout the conflict. It was near 
 ly sundown when we heard mournful calls 
 far up the labyrinth; and Mack exclaimed, 
 "That's Tom, and he is in trouble!" 
 
 We ran rapidly till we met him, tottering 
 under the maniac's dangling body. He ex 
 claimed: "I have killed the poor old man! I 
 didn't mean to; wished only to stun him to 
 save myself." 
 
 He remained speechless after the few words 
 of explanation, and looked like the statue of 
 grief while we stanched his wounds that were 
 bleeding profusely. As we turned quickly to 
 examine the maniac, he knelt at his head. 
 "Life," I said, as the heart fluttered against 
 
84 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 my fingers; and tears gushed from his eyes, 
 and he whispered: "If the mountain were a 
 pearl, I would give it that the old man should 
 live. I smote him only when I thought my 
 self dying in his strangling grip. For a world 
 of crowns I wouldn't be his slayer." 
 
 We hurried with the insensible form to 
 the tent. His struggle with mad death was 
 fearful. Shrieks of rage, howls, fierce efforts 
 to beat us down and escape; feigned quiet, fol 
 lowed by precipitate attacks upon us; eyes of 
 monstrous glare leaping and fastening upon 
 one, then another; sleeplessness, railings of 
 hot hate, were on the third day bound by the 
 soft breath of sleep, whose sprites flooded him 
 with subduing harmonies. For smiles rip 
 pled in his furrowed face till it lost its furious 
 glow and wore a tender, cheerful expression; 
 and he said in his slumber: "Play it again, 
 Joli. Nothing, child, is so sweet to me as 
 your voice and harp." 
 
 Mack whispered to us: "I thought so. I 
 know him now. 'Joli' pretty is what he 
 called his little girl; her brother, 'Phonse;' 
 her mother, 'Verite.' His revolutionary prin 
 ciples forced him from France to New Orleans, 
 where he taught me French. He left there 
 for Cuba." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 But we were again listening to tile old dream 
 er on his bear-skin pallet, as he murmured: 
 "The Plaza d' Armas quivers to-night with 
 merry beauties, and the flowers vie with their 
 gems to tint them with witchery; but thou, 
 Jolij art prettiest of the Havandras." 
 
 Then he breathed quicker for a little while, 
 and was quiet. But soon we heard him whis 
 per: "Sing it again, child; sing! It was your 
 mother's song Verity's song. Verite, my Ve- 
 ritel" 
 
 And heaven gushed in his wrinkled cheeks. 
 Not heaven, but the love of long ago, when 
 those cheeks were young and florid, lived again 
 in his gray heart till it forgot that it was old 
 and dreary now, arid made his gladdest mem 
 ory a present reality. 
 
 An hour plunged from the sun's face, and 
 the maniac's sleep was too deep to be disturbed 
 by its flight into oblivion, for as it traced its 
 swift course he rested seemingly as rest the 
 dead; and his face grew paler, and the veins 
 grew blue upon his fair old brow ; and marble- 
 like repose drew its white, hard sheet over his 
 features; and through their half-opened eye 
 lids his eyes shone glazed and still, and his 
 form moved not. But a glossy feather that 
 had quivered on a quail's crown, when held 
 
86 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 to his nostrils, veered softly to and fro as if 
 bathing in an infant's breath. So we knew 
 that life yet kinged the struggle, and we watched 
 in hope, moving noiselessly, like dumb chil 
 dren, about the gray misfortune who slum 
 bered in our care. 
 
 Then the sun dipped behind a peak and left 
 sunset on its brow, and cast upon the sky va 
 pors of pink; and soft- winged twilight drooped 
 upon the cliffs and ravines, and sung a dreamy 
 lullaby to nature till she fell asleep in dark, 
 who opened her weird bosom to give her rest. 
 And the stars peeped through the dusky pines 
 upon us, and their glances melted in the dim 
 haze ; and the air whispered to the old sleeper, 
 and, drawing its ether robes about it, floated 
 on till midnight came, and early dawn; and 
 yet he slept. And sunrise laughed at him 
 from Crazy Mountain, and rolled down upon 
 him floods of glory-beams that piled in pur 
 ple bubbles over him, and woke him up, and 
 tossed him up on his elbow. He looked ear 
 nestly, like an astonished child, at each of us, 
 at his own garb, his hands, the tent, slowly 
 twirled his beard, and rested his wondering 
 eye upon Mack. We held our breath. Some 
 power perhaps the mysterious flame in his 
 eye made us know that the passing mo- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 87 
 
 ment was the crisis with the lost old man, who, 
 sheeiiy exhausted, fell to the pallet, and whis 
 pered: "It 's Mack; it can be no one else." 
 
 We bathed his hands and face in warm 
 water, and brought him drink from the cold 
 rill hard by that seemed to bubble the merrier 
 as the fainting old maniac, a maniac no longer, 
 slept again. 
 
 " He '11 die now,' ' said Tom. And his rough 
 face looked beautiful for the womanly tender 
 ness that suffused it and gave to the words the 
 heart-melody that thrills like notes from an 
 other, better world. But it was not pale death 
 with the old Frenchman; for he awoke in his 
 right mind, and very much strengthened. 
 
 Unhappily his story was the oft-told one. 
 What little reason gambling losses had left 
 him was crazed by " the flowing bowl," till de 
 lirium tremens one night hustled him out into 
 the jungle. His son Phonse, who we soon 
 brought to him, had vainly sought him many 
 days, and had given him up as lost forever in 
 some abyss, like many another whose life and 
 dream of wealth together had perished in the 
 gold jungle, when, where, how, none shall 
 ever know. A few days after he and Phonse 
 had begun to mine near us, he came into our 
 pit incapable of speech for a time, but pres^ 
 
88 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 ently said: "You deem me silly, I know, and 
 dread that I am going crazy again. But not 
 so, not so. I have had hideous thoughts like 
 rude dreams of late. Desolate loneliness, dark 
 mountains, doleful abysses; granite clumps 
 like crumbled towers, peopled with horrible 
 forms and sounds; sleeplessness, mad ravings, 
 struggles with fiends, murder, have been re 
 hearsing in my brain. Tell me, boys, where 
 you found me. What doing ? How surround 
 ed? Was blood upon my hands? Had I slain 
 any one? Speak out. This suspense, this toil 
 ing back through memory's wilds of grating 
 forms and voices, will kill me." 
 
 And he wept only as the aged weep not 
 struggling with the grief, nor murmuring that 
 it is, but as if sorrowing most of all that it 
 had fallen upon others. Mack had stepped to 
 his side, and with a woman's intuition that 
 never errs when it seeks to allay the tumults 
 of the heart, replied: "We'll tell you every 
 thing ; will go to the places with you. You spent 
 several weeks lost in the mountains before we 
 met you. But be assured that you have killed 
 no one. You did knock an Indian senseless, 
 and would have sent him on the eternal hunt, 
 but when you turned from him to procure more 
 rocks to stone him with, we fled with him to 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 89 
 
 our camp. He left us the next morning happy 
 as a chief, loaded with provisions and old cloth 
 ing." 
 
 His face mantled with delighted relief, but 
 he said, "Well?" 
 
 "Well," answered Mack, smiling, "Koth, 
 there, always feels tired when heavy work is 
 to be done, so he left us to pry up bowlders 
 the following afternoon and went hunting up 
 your mountain, for which you knocke'd him 
 down as an intruder, and were strangling him 
 when he stunned you with a knot, and started 
 here with you. We heard him whooping, and 
 went to his aid. When your brain-fever died 
 out you recognized me, and have made us hap 
 py ever since by tarrying here with us. We 
 will go up the mountain with you when you 
 wish and examine the places where you lived." 
 
 Luckily a few months dropped into his 
 hand many pounds of gold, and wafted him 
 back to Cuba happy as a Frenchman can well 
 be outside of a revolution. Indeed, it ap 
 peared that all he lacked to make him ecstatic 
 was to be in Paris manipulating a jubilee of 
 barricades. His articles of faith were two 
 only : 
 
 1. Roman Churchism and monarchy are the 
 bane of France. 
 
90 
 
 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 2. Kepublicanism is felicity. 
 
 His words of the first were Heclaian slag 
 at white heat. His words of the last were 
 phrased ecstasies. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 91 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PIKE THAT ECHO REHEARSES WITH A MUSIC 
 SO STRANGE. 
 
 OTH and the brown donkey were 
 accompanied by another donkey 
 when they returned from the 
 nearest store, whither they had 
 gone fifteen miles, over spurs and 
 ravines, to make gastronomic discoveries. He 
 said, as we were discussing the new donkey's 
 good points: "We shall need both, and many 
 more, to pack our gold, after awhile, to some 
 point that wagons can reach." 
 
 Mack's eye twinkled at this naive revelation 
 Qf Tom's gold dream, and danced as he observed 
 the flood of reciprocal humor that washed the 
 face of the Missourian a tall, swarthy, frank, 
 quiet yet sprightly specimen, whom also he had 
 brought with him, and called Pike. He had 
 helped him out of a desperate affray with some 
 "claim-jumpers," near the store, who had 
 clubbed to kill him, as he would not peaceably 
 yield most of his mine to them. His wounds 
 
92 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 were slight, and he was soon in the placers delv 
 ing for their hid treasure with us. But they 
 failed to pay in a few weeks, and making no 
 new discoveries we moved many days south 
 ward. 
 
 Pike left us much to ourselves on the route, 
 for he often diverged to prospect, or hunt, or 
 converse with the scattered miners; but never 
 failed to find our camp of nights. His wood 
 craft was a marvel, and he convoyed us safely 
 out of many a tangle of thicket and cliff. 
 
 Once, about an hour after night-fall, he came 
 to camp and displayed a quartz specimen of 
 singular beauty and richness. The blent blue 
 and white quartz, thickly studded with gold 
 through and through in every part, caused it 
 to sparkle in the fire-light like a clump of com 
 pressed stars. It weighed more than a pound. 
 And Pike, as he held it in one and another po 
 sition, to show its value and varied beauty, 
 said: "If a chap were to send this chunk o' 
 beauty to his sweetheart, would n't it entrance 
 her? An't it a memento? She 'd stow it away 
 snug enough in her keepsake drawer, but she 'd 
 wrap the chap up in her heart for good and 
 alias/ 
 
 I give Pike's words, but not as he would spell 
 or pronounce them. He would spell "memen- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 93 
 
 to," for instance, mi-men-ter, and so pronounced 
 it. Yet I am sure we will not catcli the fresh 
 ness of his spirit so well on this plan as we 
 would were he admitted to our presence in his 
 own vernacular; for the reason that no trans 
 lation can give all the phases of the original. 
 His speech put a spell upon Both deeper and 
 sweeter by far than the specimen had, for his 
 eyes were dewy as if a softest memory had 
 shaped a loving face in them, and he said in a 
 flutter: "Pike, I '11 give you three hundred dol 
 lars for it, for Leina."' 
 
 "No," lie answered, "can't sell it. A wea- 
 zel-headed Mississippian gave it to me to-day 
 about ten o'clock. I was telling him who was 
 my partners, and when I said Tom Rothleit, 
 he sprung up out the pit, and looked about 
 wild-like and said flutterously, 'Where in 
 h 1 is he?' So you see, Tom, he thinks you 
 belong to the hot place, if you an't there. 
 But I told him you were n't there yet, but were 
 on the way with Mack and Quien somewheres 
 in the jungle, and that it was no use trying to 
 head you off. He give me this yellow rose 
 quartz, and said: 'Give it to Tom for his little 
 girl, and tell him that he saved my life on the 
 Isthmus when my comrades deserted me to 
 die with cholera on the Chagres River.'" 
 
94 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 "Aha! it is Skelt," Tom replied-, "but lie 
 would have got well anyhow." 
 
 " Yes," said Pike, "may be so; I do n't know 
 about that, But when he give it to me to 
 bring to you, he said, ' It 's nothing to send him, 
 I know;' and his face twitched and he turned 
 his eyes up a tree to keep me from seeing the 
 drops in 'em. And may be so I would have 
 been living too, for all the knives and pistols 
 of them claim-jumpers; but it's mighty fortu 
 nate, anyhow, that Tom Eothleit's lively thumps 
 and numb skull was atween me and some of 
 'em." 
 
 Pike's speech had an abrupt turn here, for 
 a grizzly waddled along the side of the spur 
 in pistol-shot ot us, and he added hurriedly, 
 " Do n't shoot, do n't shoot! " 
 
 The grizzly's dunnish hair looked glossy in 
 the star-light, and though he stood up full 
 breast to us to survey us, he gave token of 
 neither any great surprise nor of any fear nor 
 rage. He appeared like a huge old darky, 
 full of fun, waiting for a company of boys 
 whom he loved, to begin a frolic. We gave 
 him no signal, so he sauntered on over rock 
 and log and spur hunting, may be, his beloved, 
 who, true to the sex, was leading him a race. 
 When he disappeared, we restored our unused 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 95 
 
 revolvers to their belts, and listened to a nar 
 rative from Pike, as follows: "There's game 
 in grizzlies, boys. Don't provoke 'em 'cept 
 you are safe. Unless you brain 'em, or heart 
 'em, or shiver their backbones, or unj'int their 
 necks first shot, you are bound to go under. 
 That 's why I told you not to shoot just now. 
 If you had n't killed him first fire, thar would 
 have been more skeletons than his left here. 
 
 "Old Eackansac pulled trigger with me 
 among the Comanches an' in Mexico. He were a 
 brave one, and as cool and as hot in a scrimmage 
 as Sattan would hev him. He could lay his bul 
 let on a dime, at off-hand a hundred yards, four 
 out o' five times. He got mad arter grizzlies 
 when he come to this country, and was allus 
 a-slopein' through the mountains lookin' up a 
 carouse with 'em. He trimmed the hide off a 
 heap o' 'em too, and sold enough o' their keer_ 
 cases to keep him a-going. One Sunday he 
 were a-fixin' his rifle mighty keerful, an' we 
 knew he were for bars that day. We told him 
 to stop it and stay in camp Sundays anyhow, 
 but you might as well have cavorted roun' a 
 hithen. I follered him over the ridge an' 
 tried to decoy him back, for I felt sartin he 
 were wrong, and if he took that hunt it were 
 his last one. 
 
96 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 " My mother used to say to me when I were 
 a boy, ' Eacket, quit your pranks when Sun 
 day comes. Feed your dog well, an' let him 
 sleep all day. No rabbits of Sundays, Eacket, 
 do you hear. Ef you hunt o' Sundays, some 
 thing bad will come of it.' And all the time I 
 was inducin' old Eackansac to turn back, I 
 seemed to be a-hearin' her blessed voice talkin' 
 it all over to me. But at last he told me to go 
 to well, som'ers, and he would go a-huntin' 
 ef he went thar, too. An' he went to both of 
 'em may be, a-huntin' anyhoAv. 
 
 " Night arter night come, and no Eackansac 
 were heered of. But not long arter that, some 
 hunters found a skeleton ; a bone here, another 
 thar, a broke rifle, an' close by another skeleton 
 of a big bar with a bowie-knife stuck in the 
 skull. He 'd shot that bar through the shoul 
 ders, for thar was the bullet-holes, and druv his 
 knife into his brain, for he were game anywhere ; 
 but the bar killed him for all that. An' the 
 wolves had gnawed all the meat off them like 
 they had been beasts together. Bat that bar 
 would never hev got him without help." 
 
 "Stuff!" sneered Tom; "you know nobody 
 helped the bear." 
 
 " It was n't nobody," he retorted," it were a 
 misfort'nate providence taking keer of Sunday 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 97 
 
 and leaving its despiser unprotected-like to 
 perish. I hev bad luck, plenty of it; but it 
 come in a honester way than insultin' Sundays 
 to bring it on. Eackansac would hev killed that 
 bar afore he growled, ef it were on his own 
 day. He knew he were wrong, for he told me 
 so just afore he told me to go to som'ers. It 
 are better to rest on Sunday instid o' trampin' 
 on to it like hithens." 
 
 As a rock from the bluff splashed in the 
 branch near us, an alarmed deer bounded past 
 chased by coyotes. We fired into the pack 
 that scattered with affrighted yelps in every 
 direction. 
 
 " Them creeters," said Pike, " allus 'mind me 
 of politicians and editurs that puffs whisky, 
 and them that sells it, but howl and snaps at laws 
 and folks anent it. Them and Sattan laps at 
 the same puddles." 
 
 "Doubted," interjected Tom; "for Satan 
 do n't use water by drops even." 
 
 " Ef you 'd ever noticed," he rejoined, " them 
 that writes up whisky-shops an' them that run 
 'em, you 'd a known I did n't mean puddles o' 
 water. They look like they 'd sucked brandy- 
 bottles until they was puffed with red Sattans. 
 Free whisky an' free lunch, without water, is 
 their choice dishes. A kag o' brandy will buy 
 7 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 'em. They put p'ison, tlieirn, on all that's 
 good, an' honors the wust things; like coyotes 
 that fondle wolves, an' gnaw in pieces fawns." 
 
 "You will never get to Congress, Pike," re 
 plied Tom. 
 
 "I am not a-wantin' to," he said. "Editurs 
 make Congressmen, an' the pure editurs can 
 make too few on 'em. So the wust can'dates 
 goes thar. Old Zack Taylor couldn't stand 
 them; they smelt him to death in a year, and he 
 were a hard one, seasoned in the Mexican war. 
 It takes lawyers like you to stand Congress; 
 they is soaked fur it." 
 
 The reports drawn from our revolvers by the 
 coyotes were repeated several times by echo, 
 who threw airily back to us every halloo we ut 
 tered, as though the sprites of dell and hill were 
 pelting one another with exhilarating ether 
 from the faces of the cliffs. By this time the 
 coyotes, very like small, trim, light-brown dogs, 
 flanked us, and had gathered on the thicket's 
 border eastward. They were not in position 
 to be echoed, so we escaped a multiplex riot 
 of shrewish howls adapted to evoke imps and 
 set them firing rock and air in a fury of disgust. 
 Our echo would not echo them. 
 
 On changing our position a score or more of 
 steps, we were greeted with two other echoes 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 99 
 
 in addition to the first one of which, far away 
 in the labyrinth, threw back our words to us 
 in tones so musically soft that we closed our 
 ears to every other sound and stood hearken 
 ing for its tones as the infant listens for the 
 mother's voice. Mack said, after we resumed 
 our seats: "That echo rehearses with a music 
 so strange that the heart goes out after it as 
 after some sweet hope long lost, throwing back 
 tenderest calls to approach and be blessed. 
 Echo is a word's ghost. The word dies, but re 
 peats itself in echo. Echo is life's ghost. 
 Life hushes in death, but over in the regions 
 beyond repeats itself in echo, and moves on in 
 echo, in purity in the strange land of spirits if 
 it had been pure in the body. For as the sound 
 is here, so is it on yon crag in echo. If it be 
 musical and clear here, it is the same over there 
 in echo, only more so. If it be the reverse 
 here, so is it there in echo." 
 
 "I thank you for the thought, Mack," said 
 Roth ; " it is tender and chaste like woman. And 
 how many good lives are here that shall exist 
 beyond the boundaries of time-, in added tints 
 of glory by God's hand, to adapt them best 
 for residence in heaven but should be echoed in 
 other lives here ! Once upon the sea, in a pal 
 ace-steamer eight or ten days from port, wo 
 
100 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 saw, at the setting in of darkness, far away di 
 rectly in front of the ship's prow, a lurid star 
 rise out of the billows and dip back, rise and 
 re-dip for many minutes, growing larger and 
 larger each bath. Then it shone steadily just 
 above the billows, enlarging, dropping into the 
 sea, springing up again, quivering, nodding, 
 staring, flaming, brighter and larger meeting 
 us. We climbed upon chairs and benches and 
 rope-coils, and into the cordage of the myste 
 rious masts throwing their arms about wildly 
 above us; and all eyes were bent upon the 
 witching wonder walking the dark waves. It 
 nestled on them, oscillated, expanded, rolling 
 toward us, looking in the darkness like some 
 magic wonder riding the sea. 
 
 " Presently one whispered, 'A burning ship! ' 
 and the words moaned from heart to heart till 
 the agony voiced them in a shout of many voic 
 es, 'A burning ship! a burning ship! ' Then, 
 dumbed by the horror, still we watched. Soon 
 the thunder of its machinery and laboring 
 furnaces and the crash of its frantic w T heels 
 were heard in the thick night, and wild, brave 
 calls from its signaling whistle shouted athwart 
 the dark and the deep. Still right onward it 
 rushed, and right onward we plunged to it. 
 Now we had so nearly approached that the star 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 101 
 
 had severed into many great fragments, pour 
 ing shine out of and about the brilliantly lighted 
 ship, from as many rifts in its white sides and 
 glowing roof, till itself and objects on its gal 
 leries, the men, women and children peopling 
 its decks, were visible to us. And these were 
 observing us as eagerly and as safely as we were 
 beholding them. And all the way, thirty-six 
 hundred miles, and all the time day, night 
 that and this had been bounding, on the wings 
 of steam and storm, over an ocean air-line, 
 rushing together; wiien, as we thought, 'They 
 will surely crash into each other and sink to 
 gether here,' this veered to the west, that to the 
 east. Each tossed rockets into the night's 
 cloud, and their masters trumpeted messages 
 to each other as they passed, and the passen 
 gers cheered across the yawned wave. Then 
 each veered into the watery air-line again, and 
 away, away over mountain and chasm of sea, 
 each strained to its destined port, bearing its 
 life-freight safe to shore at last. Each seemed 
 an echo of the other. 
 
 " To me, the incident was a reminder of pure 
 characters on the sea of life each to trust true, 
 neither in another's way, though the same path 
 pursuing; voyaging this way and that, increas 
 ing knowledge, hopefully signaling each other 
 on the throbbing billows." 
 
102 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 "It is a joy to look upon such characters," 
 said Mack, "to hear the flutter of their sails, 
 to see the plunge of their prows, the dip and 
 plunge and roll, their onward push, the stretch 
 and swell of their taut cordage, the glint of 
 their portly sides for all within is peace and 
 good-will to God and man. They are floating 
 havens, illuminated and furnished to save the 
 wrecked on the main, to brave the tempestuous 
 breakers till the tossed voyagers are safely tided 
 to the quiet shore. 
 
 " Such men, such women are shower and sun 
 shine to the world. They invest wastes with 
 verdure, make the desert heart to blossom as 
 the rose. They bind up, build up, pacificate. 
 Everywhere some greater, some less upon 
 life's seditious floods they sail. In fog, in clear, 
 in belt of calms, in belt of storms, off on the 
 trade-wind currents, farmed by the breeze, 
 rocked by the hurricane, each in place strug 
 gling forward, drifting life-boats after the lost, 
 availing all means for the ministry of happi 
 ness, dispensing life and light in storm and 
 quiet 4 J11 they shall knock at the eternal docks, 
 course finished, sails furled, steam off, wheels 
 at rest, the ' Good Master ' aboard inspecting, 
 saying, ' Well done.' This world were happi 
 er echoing their pure principles." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 103 
 
 In the lull of conversation now, we were 
 startled by the grating rattle of a serpent that 
 struck over the spot whence we had leaped at 
 the warning. It coiled in a moment again, 
 its tremulous rattle whizzing in its ire; but 
 Pike's revolver flashed bullets through its spot 
 ted folds, and it stretched itself out and died; 
 and Pike said: "Tom, I heerd you say onct, in 
 one of your tantrums, that ' demagogues in 
 Church and State, like them that tarries long 
 at the wine, was rancid moralities, cancerous 
 intellectuals, poisonous serpents, effluviating 
 the sea of humanity; an' that the wise should 
 keep apart from them.' This spotted fellow is 
 one of their sort, and I will drag him to the 
 coyotes at the thicket. Them snappy, snarly 
 howlers will soon put him out o' sight, more 'n 
 you are likely to do with your 'demagogues in 
 Church and State,' as you call 'em. Thar 's too 
 many to echo them brazen, imperdent, piznous 
 kerakters. An' nothin' ekels 'em on arth in 
 'front'ry, 'cept your 'maginary tons o' gold." 
 
104 
 
 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PHANTOM OB NO PHANTOM, HE SHALL NOT DIE 
 IN THE COLD. 
 
 HE gold phantom beguiled us in 
 to unfrequented placers, in a re 
 gion so rugged that even Indian 
 trails had disappeared, and bus 
 ied us in collecting their nuggets 
 of gold, which, whatever their virgin purity, 
 were small and scarce as tears of joy. Yet we 
 noted little else. Even November was pass 
 ing freezingly away, and still gold's song, from 
 among the ice-coated rocks, made us heed 
 less of the thickening mists marshaling among 
 the heights, videttes of the storm, rising out 
 of the sea to break in sleet and snow upon the 
 dwellers among the peaks. 
 
 The maniac tempest now rolled over us, bank 
 ing the snow -clouds upon the cliffs where, 
 breaking in pieces, they leaped into the placers 
 like sheeted thunders, and congealed in white 
 waves upon every thing; and in a few days the 
 jungle of mountains appeared like a stranded 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 105 
 
 snow- world, upon which icy blasts incessantly 
 poured foaming breakers that froze to it us if 
 to sink it in a sea of ice. We took the alarm 
 at last, and struck out in the tempest in quest 
 of a softer clime. We had tramped two days 
 through the sleety wilderness, and, bewildered 
 by the blasts, had turned again and again upon 
 our trail in the sunless, tempestuous days. 
 Mack had sprained his foot by an evil slip upon 
 the ice, and Pike had tumbled into a gorge, 
 and sunk to his shoulders in the snow-drift 
 at its bottom, bruised and stunned by the fall. 
 And we had just entered a vista winding along 
 precipices and dismal canons when he fell 
 again, tripped by a little snowy hillock; and 
 puffing the snow from his lips, he exclaimed, 
 " It are a dead man frized by himself, sartinly! 
 Unkiver him, boys, unkiver him quick! " 
 
 On opening the mound we found the pale 
 sleeper yet with life; and we rubbed him 
 roughly, no doubt, but with kindly intent, till 
 his breathing was healthful; and wrapping 
 blankets round him, we kindled a fire and 
 camped for the night. The snow-man seemed 
 quite restored in an hour or two, and told us 
 that he had wandered from a hunting party 
 escaping out of the mountains. In the inter 
 vals of the storm he walked along the crest of 
 
106 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 the ridge and peered into the gulches as if 
 watching for the coining of some one or essay 
 ing to settle the question of our whereabouts 
 restless, though we strove to make him at 
 ease with us. 
 
 The night was black, but the winds were at 
 rest for awhile; and though the snow fell thick 
 er, our brave fire shot red sparkles among its 
 white flakes as though cheering night trying 
 to soothe the sobbing storm upon her bosom. 
 We had improvised a brush tent, whose twigs 
 in their robes of sleet looked like jets of shim 
 mering glass, and we had closely grouped up 
 on our blanketed- ice-couch ; and all was hush 
 save the soft patter of the snow-flakes fall 
 ing into bed upon bough and rock. Ere 
 bus himself seemed satisfied with the rare 
 gloom of our situation, when a quick shriek, 
 like that of sudden death, shivered through 
 the icicles over our heads and echoed from 
 glon to glen. We sprung to oar feet, but stood 
 motionless. Earth's dead seemed to be tramp 
 ing lightly, running to and fro around us. 
 Each snow-robed shrub appeared in the mo 
 ment to be a sheeted ghost started from its 
 grave by the horror, and the dark full of sor 
 rowful whispers. 
 
 A glance revealing to me that Koth and 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 107 
 
 Snow-man were gone, I ventured into the eddy 
 ing dark, where the flash and report of a pis 
 tol guided me toward the place of the scream. 
 Siiow-man was expostulating with Koth and an 
 angry Mexican, who lay grappled on the snow 
 too fiercely to use their weapons again. We 
 separated them, and as they rose up Tom said: 
 " I do n't believe a word of it. It was not a 
 tiger's scream; it was a human voice." 
 
 " No," replied Snow-man; " I know the Mex 
 ican, I tell you; believe him." 
 
 Finding that neither was hurt, we moved to 
 the fire, where the Mexican stated that, trying 
 to pierce the mountains to where a few com 
 rades awaited him to move southward, he was 
 nearing our camp when some animal bounded 
 upon him with a scream, but, missing its mark, 
 sped on down the spur; and as he rushed for 
 the fire Tom met him, denied his explanation, 
 and the fight ensued. 
 
 "Never mind it, Senor," said Both pleas 
 antly; "you are cold and hungry. I am glad 
 the ball missed you. Draw nearer the fire. 
 Here is a pan of venison and bread; welcome; 
 help yourself." 
 
 He ate eagerly, and in a short while appeared 
 to sleep soundly by Snow-man. It seemed but 
 a few minutes after that I Avas roused silently, 
 
108 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 and beckoned aside by Tom, who said, " I have 
 found him." 
 
 " Found who?" I queried, vexed at being 
 waked from a much-needed sleep and led out 
 into the whizzing snow. 
 
 " Why, the man who shrieked," he whis 
 pered. " He 's coiled up at the foot of the 
 precipice down yonder crazy, I guess near 
 ly dead." 
 
 " Tom," said I, " you are forever at some 
 folly. Have you been groping about in this 
 storm and darkness, where one can scarcely be 
 secure by day, hunting a phantom of your own 
 frenzied brain ? " 
 
 "Yes, I have," he retorted; "and if you 
 won't help me bring him to the fire as Pike 
 and Mack are both lame I '11 drag him here. 
 Phantom or no phantom, he shall not die in 
 the cold." 
 
 I have thought since that even at that time 
 it had become a mental habit of mine to ques 
 tion Hoth's sanity without being conscious of 
 it. His conduct on occasions was so apart 
 from the customary channels of human nat 
 ure that are cramped and selfish, seldom fill 
 ing up and flooding over with prompt, free, 
 fresh, brave concern for the unfriended tot- 
 terers along life's way, that at least he was 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 109 
 
 unique to me; and though he controlled me 
 usually, I imagined it was strength humoring 
 weakness. So I skirred out into the icy chap 
 arral with him; and, aided to pick our way 
 among the bent sleet-clad underbrush by the 
 snowy sheet that earth had drawn over her 
 bosom, we soon came to the senseless man, and 
 bore him up to the camp. In our absence the 
 Mexican and Snow-man had vanished. 
 
 The wound upon the victim's head, inflicted 
 by his fall over the bluff, caused his insensi 
 bility; for that in his side, betraying the Mex 
 ican's knife, was upon a rib. The knife had 
 passed through a girdle of gold and glanced, 
 so the gash next his heart barely sundered the 
 skin. Only the depth of snow where he fell 
 saved his life. His slumbers were fitful, and 
 he murmured as he slept of the treachery of 
 his comrade. We tended him anxiously till 
 smiles from the fountain of dreams bubbled 
 in his face; and the words he muttered were 
 of home and boyhood and dear faces. The 
 hope in his voice, the life and quiet of his 
 smiles, carried us back across the continent 
 through the moaning tempest to childhood's 
 scenes of peace and safety. And the melodies 
 of the hearth and play-ground, that were in 
 the early barbaric clays of the gold-fields dews 
 
110 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 to the fevered miners, were crisply sung by us; 
 and their notes seemed to impart to those of 
 the fitful tempest a prankish dash that divest 
 ed it of gloom and filled it with fun. We al 
 ternated in keeping guard and sleeping sleep 
 ing mostly; for when the camp was astir in 
 the morning we discovered that Both and the 
 wounded man were gone. Pike thought they 
 were in pursuit of the Mexican, and said: 
 "Tom's saft - headed, specially about other 
 folks's wrongs. He 'd as lief foller Sattan 
 himself ontil they 's rectified. He 's right on- 
 til his heart saftens like a gal's; then he's 
 onreasonable-like, and will do that way that 's 
 got the least sense in it. He 's toled the man 
 off arter them chaps, and like as not the Mex 
 ican's knife are in his ungumpsious heart afore 
 now Ef he's not dead, he are arter some 
 thing cleverish, though; and,' he added after 
 a moment's reverie, " ef thar 's any chance to 
 make trouble of it, he '11 do it, and be in the 
 middle of it himself, like the nateral he are. 
 He might er took me along to help him out 
 on it." 
 
 " Perhaps," I suggested, " the man became 
 crazed while we slept and wandered away, 
 and Both is trying to beguile him into camp 
 again." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. Ill 
 
 "Like as not," he answered, "like as not: 
 for it 's like him a-wanderin' over these snow- 
 quags in the marssyless storm arter a fren 
 zied man with a insane sperit. The man will 
 naterally run into the wust places, and he'll 
 follow him or die, and palaver with him every 
 where he goes. He'll outfool the fool, and 
 break both o' their necks." 
 
 Pike was active as a catamount, though he 
 appeared gangling and clumsy. He never 
 flinched in danger, though at times he seemed 
 fearful; for occasionally he would laugh off 
 serious provocations or be silent, till, not read 
 ing him rightly, parties presumed too far, and 
 were surprised by fierce frays, in which he was 
 certain to manipulate victories. His attach 
 ment to Koth was ardent, and the more so for 
 the very traits he was now decrying. We im 
 mediately followed on the nearly effaced tracks 
 of Kothleit and the wounded man through the 
 thickening tempest till they diverged, and, 
 leaving the stranger's foot-prints to me, Pike 
 pursued Tom's. I traced the white tracks zig 
 zagging from bluff to bluff till it led to the scene 
 of the Mexican's treachery. Here I saw the 
 man looking about in the ravine below, and, 
 attracting his attention, he looked to me and 
 said: " I have given you more trouble; sorry 
 
112 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 you came after me. I was seeking the spot of 
 last night's peril. This is it. I must have 
 fallen from the bluff to your right, for I found 
 my pack lodged in the brush at its base. Noth 
 ing lost. It has twenty pounds of gold in it 
 besides my blankets. 1 '11 meet you round the 
 angle." 
 
 As we sauntered to the camp he told me he 
 had left Both asleep, he supposed, and said: 
 
 " I am going to , to meet my partner; am 
 
 a Virginian; been lost in the mountains two 
 days. In my wilderment every vista in the 
 jungle seemed a trail. Several times each day 
 1 crossed my own tracks; and the first time I 
 did so I pursued them hastily, and shouted to 
 the man ahead of me, as I supposed, from 
 time to time before discovering the mistake. 
 I came upon the Mexican intent to cross a tor 
 rent. He politely replied to my inquiries, and 
 proposed, as I was far astray, to pilot me to 
 his friends' camp to spend the night, whence 
 I could proceed safely and without difficulty. 
 On nearing your camp, after worrying in the 
 darkness through tangles of spurs and chap 
 arrals some hours, he said it was the camp we 
 were seeking. But he seemed to be restive 
 and paused proceeded, paused. I cannot ac 
 count for it, but I felt in the moment an al- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 113 
 
 most tangible horror seize me a sense of mur 
 der's presence; its red corpse with stretched- 
 open eyes seemed to glare at me, and in the mo 
 ment his thuggee-stab staggered me, and I knew 
 I was falling from the precipice, when sensibili 
 ty fled. The next things I remember are a sharp 
 pain and a feeling of being wrapped in a blank 
 et, and the words: 'There, an't you more com 
 fortable so ? I am Tom Eothleit. I'll stick 
 to you like a brother. You shall be at the fire 
 presently.' I could not speak, could not move; 
 but 1 recalled every thing. My heart gave a 
 bound of strange joy, a tender hand glided over 
 my wounds, my brain reeled, whirled, whirled 
 and T was insensible again. The rest you know. 
 But is not the Mexican's conduct unaccounta 
 ble ? If robbery was his object, why did he de 
 lay till we neared the fire? If murder only, 
 his opportunities were many, and where human 
 intervention was impossible." 
 
 As the day wore away, he and Mack tested 
 their strength by climbing up the mountain 
 two hundred feet or so to a bench from whose 
 points, in intervals of the snow-fall, they 
 could behold the wonders the frost had 
 painted on crags and peaks and forests near 
 and distant. It was an hour to night when 
 Pike returned with a fine deer. He replied to 
 8 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 my query concerning Both by saying: "The 
 ornery wretch is all right, except he 's been be 
 side himself more'n ever all the time; an' he 
 are nearly frized and starved. He seed Mack 
 and the stranger upon the side o' the mountain, 
 and he are gone thar to lead 'em into another 
 fool scrape, as he has me to-day. I 've limped 
 nigh on to fifteen mile, for'ards and back'ards, 
 a-huntin' him in this hurricane to fetch him in. 
 He were goin' right from camp when I spied 
 him ; and he stands to it that he were a-goin' 
 right all the time. He were the wust lost man 
 you ever seen. When I showed him the camp 
 smoke he stuck to it, it were a ice-spout and 
 nothin' else, till he saw the man up thar on the 
 bench on the mountain with his head bound 
 up. He carcumvented him this morning on- 
 til he seen he weren't cibbemted, he called it; 
 and then went to hunt Snow-man and the Mex 
 ican. But here they come now." 
 
 "Who?" said I, jumping up; "Snow-man 
 and the Mexican?" 
 
 " No, you wood-head ! " he snapped out ; " but 
 Tom and t' others. He says when the uncom- 
 monest fool were made, I were the specimen 
 turned out; that you would hev been but for tho 
 reason nothin' can't be made out o' nothin'." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 115 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HE'S FOLLERIN' SATTAN. 
 
 JN a day or two we journeyed from 
 "Tempest Camp," as we had 
 named the place, and at noon 
 lunched standing, using the don 
 keys for tables, the waltzing snow- 
 flakes giving the air of sprightliness and neat 
 ness to board and contents. Having, Califor 
 nia-like, christened the wounded man Virgin 
 ia, the name of the State he hailed from, Pike, 
 munching a bit of frozen venison, said: "Vir- 
 giny, ef Mexico had 'ave plunged his knife, the 
 last blow, a inch or two nearer his aim, you 
 could n't 'ave been here a-eatin' deer-steak off 
 of donkeys. You 'd 'ave been under a big snow 
 drift friz harder nor a icicle." 
 
 Happy smiles suffused his face at Pike's cool 
 recall of the perils he tiad survived, but his re 
 ply startled the group, not because Providence 
 was habitually sneered at in the gold-fields 
 for the reverse is true but by reason of the rev 
 erence and intensity of faith and feeling his 
 Bimple reply conveyed, as he said: "Yes, but 
 
116 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 Mexico's knife in the snows of the Sierras was 
 foiled by a father's whispers in the far-away 
 mists of Chesapeake Bay, speaking my name 
 in the ear of God." 
 
 "It were curious whispers," Pike replied, 
 "that turned aside that Mexican's knife. His 
 sort are true to Sattan, and together murder is 
 almost easier to them than mercy is to God. 
 There are many clever Mexicans, but he were n't 
 one." 
 
 "Only soul- whispers," he said, "that God 
 answered by the angel that dropped me off the 
 precipice from the stab of Mexico that grazed 
 next the heart." 
 
 " But it looks to me," rejoined Pike, " ef a 
 angel had interfered atwixt you and Mexico, 
 he 'd a-drapped him instead o' you over the bluff 
 and friz him thar 'tarnally. I believe, though, 
 that prayers brings heavenly folk to keep arth- 
 ly ones safe sometimes. Esau were injured by 
 Jacob, but Jacob prayed and the angels of 
 God met him afore Esau did, and saftened 
 Esau's heart to forgive, till he ran an' kissed 
 Jacob. I have allus sided with Esau in that 
 family trouble. The bold, poor, keerless, big- 
 hearted fool Tom, thar, is just like him." 
 
 "Some teach," I interposed, "that Bible 
 statements of angelic rescues are as preposter- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCXE8. 117 
 
 ous, as charming, as replete with chimera as 
 with beauty, and should be eliminated from 
 the faith of man." 
 
 "Such counsel should have no following," 
 said Virginia. "In its last analysis it is only 
 brassy brilliance. And he who teaches it would 
 rid his race of a pestilence, were he to enact 
 Ahithophel in a Bible statement suggested by 
 these donkey tables; it reads: 'When Ahitho 
 phel saw that his counsel was not followed, he 
 saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to 
 his house, to his city, and put his household in 
 order, and hanged himself, and died, and was 
 buried in the sepulcher of his father,' " 
 
 "And," suggested Tom, "it was not the skep 
 tic literati, whose effrontery scarcely equals 
 their absurdities and shallowness, who said to 
 the king, 'My God hath sent his angel, and hath 
 shut the lions' mcuths, that they have not hurt 
 me,' but Daniel, 'skillful in all wisdom, tinder- 
 standing science, and kneeled upon his knees 
 three times a day, and prayed before his God.' 
 And, Quien, with the doubts you rehearse, you 
 may as well take Virginia at his word, go like 
 Ahithophel and die, and be buried in the sep 
 ulcher of your father; it will be warmer than 
 this snow-storm." 
 
 "Tom," interposed Pike, "you are flutter- 
 
118 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 Bomer of words nor a flutter-mill are o' water- 
 draps. Why did n't you tell him at onct, and be 
 done with it, that the Scrip tur says thusly and 
 BO; an' ef he 's no sensibler than to believe rock- 
 head sciencers afore Scriptur, he's follerin' 
 Sattan and agoin' to him. That 's your mean- 
 in', the whole on it." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SNOW-BALLING WITH SNOW-CLOUDS. 
 
 HE next day's slow course filled 
 us with dismay* Alp-like groups 
 environed us. We were going 
 into instead of out o the Sier 
 ras. The clouds, like moving ice- 
 worlds, grated and fretted over us. Stalactic 
 icicles fell in fragments along our frigid way, 
 or depended from the saplings to the snow- 
 beds. The iced firs and pines, whose foliages of 
 prismy leaves, like snow-blossoms, were ever 
 whispering the tempest, dropped their pearly 
 petals upon us. The clumpy thickets, each twig 
 a crystal, limbs interlocked, holding specimen 
 brilliants of varied shapes molded by the ge 
 nius of the frost, made the waste look like a 
 "World's Fair" of fine glass each tiny and 
 larger vessel ringing melodies at pleasure of 
 /Eolus; while creation bathing, ever bathing 
 in the snow-floods, throwing upon every thing 
 shrouds woven by the spirits of the storm- 
 waited above, beneath, about us, till we felt like 
 muffled sighs tossed from blast to blast. 
 
120 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 We were lost in the wild of ice, floundering 
 in the Sierras' sea of snow. Pike stood upon 
 his head "to git the right bearin'e," he said; 
 Virginia whistled " Yankee Doodle;" Tom fol 
 lowed Mack and me from shrub to shrub as 
 we chopped tender branches and frailed the 
 sleet off for the donkey's forage, and charged 
 us to embalm and send him home to Leina; 
 "for," he said, "she would n't like for me to be 
 buried in any such a devilish country as this." 
 
 Just then we were arrested by Pike's shrill 
 whistle, and looking in the direction he pointed 
 we beheld a splendid buck bounding across the 
 plateau; and, as he passed a thicket, a grizzly 
 darkened his pale path, quick as a twinkle, and 
 slew him in mid-air. Between foot-lift and 
 footfall glowy with life, rigid in death, bruin 
 sprung to his victim and placed his paw upon 
 him, then bent over and took his neck between 
 his jaws and crunched it, and reared upon his 
 haunches and leered at us. 
 
 "He's a Sattan!" exclaimed Pike; "come, 
 we '11 speak to him with rifles 'bout that trick." 
 
 As we -approached, the bear started into the 
 thicket, but dashed suddenly back with a fierce 
 growl, bounding upon us amid pelting bullets, 
 and was in less than twenty paces of us when 
 Pike's rifle was leveled and fired, apparently in 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 121 
 
 the same moment, and he tossed back a quiv 
 ering mass for the bullet had crashed through 
 his brain. 
 
 "That shot saved us," said Mack, "for not 
 another pierced him. I shot for the heart." 
 
 "And you did n't miss it fur," said Pike as 
 he pointed to a little red spot; " that draps from 
 mighty near your mark. A old Texas-ranger, 
 though, do n't often make as bad a shot as that, 
 Mack. You an't in practice of late. Shot 'mos' 
 too quick. An Injun would a-got you, ef your 
 pistol hadn't a-follered up your rifle quick, and 
 truer o' aim." 
 
 Taking from him his robe of fur to sleep upon, 
 and a few pounds of steak, we left the carcass 
 with the greater part of the deer, and a half- 
 mile farther on camped in an angle of huge 
 rocks. Shortly after dark the howl of hoarse- 
 mouthed wolves, mixing with the shriller voices 
 of the tempest, assured us that bruin and his 
 buck were soon to be no more, even in carcass. 
 Several crept across the fire-line watching us 
 with glarry eyes, whose glances we answered 
 by bullets to the death of one of the band. He 
 fell when about to attain his wolfy ambition, 
 a fat carcass; like man halted by death's bolt 
 in the very glitter of the carcanet he rejects 
 heaven for, but is never to wear. Indeed, we 
 
122 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 were all near concluding that we would ex 
 change all the linked wonders of gold to be out 
 of the congealed wonders of nature, that froze 
 us in on every side. 
 
 At times through the night the tempest sough 
 ing through the jungle, growling round the crags, 
 was appalling. Every now and then a monster 
 crash wailed in the darkness as a peak shook 
 from his brow a midnight avalanche; while 
 occasionally the awful rush and roar were sev 
 eral times repeated in quick succession, as 
 though the gods dethroned in Olympus had 
 refuged here and were snow-balling one another 
 with snow-clouds. Amid their lumbering ca 
 rousal, Pike said : " Ef we jest had a par o' com 
 passes, we'd skeet out o' this muss like monk 
 eys out o' cocoa-nut-trees. Them ar little things 
 is smart as Both thinks he are. They says noth- 
 in' and pilots right; he's 'tarnally directin' and 
 allus wrong." 
 
 Before Tom, in his low-spirited condition, 
 could reply, Virginia took from the cover of a 
 small book a jewel not larger than a thumb 
 nail, and placed it in Pike's hand, having in the 
 wilderment of all the tempestuous days forgot 
 ten it. Pike held it in his leveled palm and 
 its diminutive needle clipped, whirled, trem 
 bled, then stood quivering, pointing due north. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 123 
 
 " Hooray ! hooray ! ' ' exclaimed Pike. " Whar 
 did you git it?" 
 
 " Two years ago," replied Virginia, " when I 
 was starting to the gold-fields a blue-eyed 
 Kentucky lass gave me the Testament with the 
 golden compass in its clasp." 
 
 "And you an't read it neither," said Pike; 
 " it 's bright as the compasses." 
 
 " O yes I have, but with washed hands," re 
 plied Virginia; "read it again and again." 
 
 "But with washed hands!" said Pike; "that's 
 as much as to say to me, ' Do n't you tech the 
 book until you run a bushel o' snow through 
 your smoked hands.' " 
 
 " Not a word of it," he said pleasantly ; " there. 19 
 
 Pike took the book, handling it tenderly as 
 though he thought it to be a flower from heaven, 
 turned a few pages, and exclaimed: "Waal! 
 an't she a critter for beauty? What's you 
 a-sayin', Mum?" 
 
 And she was beautiful that blonde Ken- 
 tuckian whose picture he had found between 
 the book's pure pages; and sheltering it from 
 the snow-flakes he scanned, by the fire-light, 
 her sun-print, with the clear eye of as gentle 
 and brave a heart as ever flashed admiration. 
 
 We were all happier after beholding the se 
 rene shadow. She noted not the storm nor 
 
124 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 heeded the gods carousing among the crags; 
 but looked quietly, cheerily, trustingly into our 
 eyes amid the flutter of the tempest and the 
 riffcless gloom of the dark night. On her right 
 a vase of japonicas, roses, and lilies stood; and 
 in her lap a bunch of smaller flowers nestled 
 in green leaflets. Her left-hand rested upon 
 an open book, her right clasped a locket; and 
 from her neck a medallion drooped on her 
 bosom. She said nothing, yet there were the 
 fresh lips that had spoken words of love, sung 
 many pure sentiments, and said, " Our Father 
 who art in heaven." There were her eyes that 
 had showered many smiles, and possibly many 
 tears for even gentle woman weeps this side 
 heaven. I never saw it so that I did not feel 
 that sin is an ungallant monster. 
 
 That which makes woman weep other than 
 tears of joy, or sympathy, or saintly penitence, 
 is an unmitigated shape of evil; and he who oc 
 casions it is a wretch, though purpled \vith pow 
 er and fame and worldly pleasures, and hon 
 ored by her love. She is God's smile upon the 
 path of man. However fallen, hou'ever fallen, 
 the germ of the angel lies budding in her heart. 
 And when robed in knowledge and innocence, 
 her presence is a charm that attaches man to 
 the heavenly and the trtio. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THAT LION WERE A GIRL-LIOtf. 
 
 [P was an hour to day-break ere 
 we were out of our frosty bed. 
 The storm had taken on a darker 
 hue ; the snow was harder, round 
 er, like white shot. We had 
 given our faces a snow-bath, and were turning 
 one cheek to the fire, then the other, when Pike, 
 quietly catching up his rifle, stepped between 
 the blaze and some object, trying to catch an 
 aim on it. Again and again he tried, while 
 we were intently peering into the darkness. 
 Presently we beheld the fierce, beautiful glare 
 of eyes flashing full upon us a moment like 
 fiery stars, then disappearing, now appearing, 
 now gone out; and for a minute's space the 
 startling specters went and came, when the 
 crack of the rifle started us from almost under 
 our scalps. There were a few leaps toward us, 
 and within the fire-circle the writhing form of 
 the California lioness rolled upon the ice floor, 
 and bounded back into the darkness as the 
 ready volley of pistols echoed in "the jungle. 
 
126 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 We listened to the irregular bounds of the 
 lithe creature speeding into the thick night 
 till its crash upon the snow could be heard no 
 more. Pike turned to the fire, and said: "I 've 
 killed many deer at night by shining their 
 eyes; but that brownish varmint shot red coals 
 out o' hers at me too onconstant for me to 
 draw a bead atween 'em; so she's 'scaped. 
 She were arter the donkeys, but Tom's pretti- 
 ness aside of them struck her all aheap, and 
 while she were a'mirin' of him I saluted her. 
 She are a gal, you may be sure; for they is 
 allus a-pryin' into things, a-gettin' into mis 
 chief. They's been curious ever sence and 
 afore one on 'em bit a apple. Ef I were mar 
 ried to one o' them consarns, I 'd keep her allus 
 mighty loving. I 'd let on that I knowed some 
 what that ought n't to be told nohow to no 
 body, and she'd honey me to crack o' doom 
 a-hopin' to fuddle it from me. I tell you, boys, 
 that lion were a gal; for nothin' but gal curi 
 osity could 'ave drawed her out her cave in sich 
 a storm. They 's allus bent on goin' where 
 and when they oughtn't to, I've heern tell. 
 She 'd better been in her pa's parler among the 
 rocks; or ef she's married, she'd much better 
 been brushin' her husband's furry coat and 
 whiskers at home. But that 's the last thing 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD -SCENES. 127 
 
 they ever is, satisfied to stay at home. They soon 
 curious through home things, an' must prance 
 round in their pretty gear to see e all the 
 fools is married yet, or to see the sights, an' 
 diskiver the secrets of their own kind. Won 
 der they do n't run theirselves off their insteps 
 a-curiousing into things. But one thing are 
 sartin, they 's the beautifulest thing in natur. 
 That lion's eyes an't a carcumstance o' splen 
 dor aside of theirs. And arter all, they 's the 
 best things in natur. Their voice is music, 
 their tech is life. I were wounded once in 
 Mexico, and one o' them black-eyed Mexican 
 critters brought me the things I 'd axed for, 
 but I did n't have sense enough to know I want 
 ed 'em. She were cream-colored, except each 
 cheek were a pink. She had orange-blossoms 
 in her black hair, and allus carried a han'ful o' 
 boquays. She 'd be round a dozen on us at a 
 time. A kind word, a smile, a bright flower, 
 a saft tech, a sasserful o' just the things we 
 needed, an' away she tripped, like the inner- 
 cent she were, to make another squad feel bet 
 ter and think better of her race. Arter that, 
 ef I sighted a Mexican in battle, and he were 
 at all like her, I'd shoot somebody else; for 
 her eyes would 'pear to be thar a-sayin', ' That 's 
 my brother,' or 'That's my sweet' art;' and I 
 
128 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 couldn't a-shot 'em ef old Zack Taylor had 
 been thar sayin', ' Shoot 'em, Kacket; shoot 
 'em ! ' But that 's neither here nor thar. That 
 lion were a girl-lion, curiousing around in her 
 brown furs, a-seein' what she could see." 
 
 "Missing your lionly mark, Pike," said Vir 
 ginia, " makes you piquant. Curiosity, unless 
 it pries and is unkind, discounts neither the 
 lioness nor one of those black-eyed Mexican 
 creatures with hair full of orange-blossoms. 
 Polished, reticent, chaste, it is a grace that 
 should note and report only charming discov 
 eries." 
 
 " It should be the humming-bird," suggest 
 ed Mack, "observing the sweets and beauties 
 of each flower, fluttering soft music, pausing 
 on tremulous wing to chirp a song of the elix 
 irs not the poisons it uncaps. Here, there, 
 everywhere, touching every thing gracefully 
 that is sweet and beautiful, this fairy of the 
 flower-yard is delightedly welcomed by the old 
 and the young. Each is quiet lest the tiny 
 grace miss a blossom or chirp a note less ere 
 it disappears to wake May-day in other hearts, 
 humming none but cheery stories of the sad 
 and glad flowers it had shimmered before. 
 Voyaging from sweet scene to sweet scene 
 only, it darts around or skips over from sight 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD- FIELD SCENES. 129 
 
 of all that is not fragrant, lest its nice ear 
 should catch a harsh sound, or its sensitive eye 
 be smitten by a blightful color, or its chaste 
 wing be burdened by an ill, or its flossy bosom 
 be ruffled by a rude breath, find its dainty 
 tongue give an evil and not a kindly note." 
 
 "When it's that way," rejoined Pike, "it 
 are good and right. But more 'n like that I 
 mean too of'n it are like a sarpent trailing 
 through the flower-gardens of serciety break 
 ing down and pizining the sweetest blooms. 
 And womankind an't got the most on it neither. 
 Lestways I Ve seen a heap o' men as spouts it, 
 as like enough they might be sea-sarpents in 
 that line. They 's to be targets for Indian ar 
 rows at short range, wus nor the lion a-tryin' 
 to make even a innercent donkey a prey." 
 9 
 
130 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 IN A TANGLE OF DREAMS I MUST SEE THAT 
 RIVER OF STONE. 
 
 UIDED by the little compass, we 
 turned westward. Depth nor 
 height nor tempest veered its 
 bright point from its polaric 
 mark; for like woman's heart, 
 however it throbbed and vibrated at the tumult, 
 as if repulsion to evil inhered, it was defiantly 
 true to its invisible love. 
 
 At times the dervishes of the storm tripped 
 us from our footing as they leaped by, deco 
 rating our path with white garlands; or the 
 snow-queen threw he.r foamy veil over us in 
 folds thick enough to blind us. But at night 
 we halted in a group of tough oaks, and bank 
 ing the snow around us four or five feet high, 
 we collected logs and limbs for an all-night 
 fire. About midnight the roar of the tempest 
 ceased, the winds were at rest. The jungle 
 was noiseless as Tyre's forest of marble col 
 umns dreaming in the pale sea, except at long 
 intervals a sleet-clad pine unbound his snow- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 131 
 
 crown, and shattered it upon the white forum. 
 In the mystic calm our senses were keen yet 
 soothed. The quivering din of the storm was 
 replaced by the silent flow of lethe flooding its 
 wake, and bathing us in a freshet of soft sen 
 sations. Yet the snow fell, but so quietly we 
 knew it not by sound, and in the hush the wil 
 derness, like a nearly drowned Triton escaped 
 to shore, breathed sighs of -relief, till the stars 
 flooded the cleared heavens and the icy earth 
 with brightness. Our hearts became as quiet 
 as nature's sleep, amid the softness and beauty 
 of the downflow of tho star-flood; and we 
 stepped without tho circle of the fire-light to 
 drink in the scene's witchery. The thousands 
 of icicles were like crystal prisms bathing in 
 and reflecting pale flames, and the tree-boughs 
 and all shrubs drooping with ice momentarily 
 imprisoned and loosed from their shimmery 
 caresses the sky rays, till every thing seemed 
 arrayed in diamonds of changeful glamours. 
 
 I unconsciously moved on till a ridge was 
 placed between me and the camp, and was be 
 holding the pale waste, and listening to the 
 music the zephyrs, like invisible bell-ringers, 
 w^ere ringing from the silvery ice-bells, when 
 an unearthly " Halloo-o-oo ! " startled me, till I 
 rolled pell-mell down the hill, loosening as I 
 
132 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 went hundreds of shattered icicles, scaling, 
 ringing, clattering into the frozen gorge. I 
 picked myself up industriously, however, and 
 answered the call. A hatless German at ones 
 advanced to me. A blanket, through whose 
 center he had thrust his bald head, dropped 
 in frozen folds about his fat form, and he 
 said: "Lose mein way. No stopt; no preat, no 
 lager, no schmoke, no nuclding, but stirm since 
 yester morn; find plenty wulfs, pite preeches- 
 leg, pite hat; coldt hedt, foot, potty, all over; 
 whew! Peen mining one fool gulch, no golt; 
 want lager, start to trade -post, snow thick, 
 wind blowt hedt all wrong, no know nudding, 
 go all 'pouts, wulfs roat, pite at me up tree, runs 
 me pout veer meucht, gits hadt; whew! " 
 
 Pike's face twitched with humor as the Ger 
 man repeated his story at the camp; but as he 
 was appeasing his hunger with coffee and deer 
 and bread, Pike said: t "When the troops 
 were marchin' atween Saltillo and Jalapa in 
 the Mexican scrimmage, I fell out. of ranks 
 with the army cramps, that was cholery or 
 something as bad, and the ambulance missed 
 me. That night as I lay alone expectin' to 
 die with the stars awinkin' and laughin' at 
 me, a Dutchman lifted my head and put his 
 coat under me, and kivered me with his 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 133 
 
 blanket, and poured a mixter down my throat 
 that wern't hard to swallow; an' next day got 
 me to a safe place. He were chubby, an' his 
 head were bound up like Virginy's, for a Mex 
 ican lance had gashed it, and the hithen 
 creeturs were scrougin' through the country 
 in bands. I told him to vamose, or some o' the 
 Sattans would ketch him ef he staid by me that 
 night, and drift a spear into his saft heart. 
 He said: ' Dat nudding, I stickts der you; I safes 
 you, den I runs midt all mem foots.' " 
 
 "Yah, Racket," said the German, who had 
 recognized him by the story; "I no runs dat 
 nighdt, safes mein foots to run dis nighdt from 
 dere wulfs dat pites de preeches veer meucht 
 up dere tree." 
 
 "Well, Heinrich," Pike replied, "you are 
 about the welcomest lost man that ever got to 
 a friend's camp. Ef it wern't for your coming 
 we might believe we was in the valley o' death 
 among the mountains where the silence deepens 
 on a mortal till he comes to a dead halt." 
 
 "Dat one forebode," answered Heinrich, 
 "dat never git into mein hedt. Dis no dedt 
 valley. It one flower vorld. De trees, dey 
 flowers of ice. Dere twigs, dere pig and schmal 
 limbs, pe nudding but white flowers, like pig 
 white clumps of flossy feathers. De shrubs 
 
134 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 pe ice-blossoms dat sing if you touch 'em ; and 
 de snow pes sky-flowers clipped off de clouds, 
 singing troe de air coming to de vorld to dress 
 it mit white raiments. No dedt valley; one 
 flower vorld." 
 
 "That," said Mack, "is at least Germanic. 
 Your tribe not only fight well, but invest every 
 thing with music and flowers." 
 
 "And lager," added Pike. 
 
 "And literature," said Tom. 
 
 "And labor," said Yirginia. 
 
 "An' safes der foots der run from de wulfs, 
 wid der preeches-leg pite oil in de stirm," 
 answered Heinrich, looking at his tattered 
 trousers. 
 
 Heinrich was scarcely thawed and warmed 
 ere the south-west blast was again soughing 
 through the rugged congelations, piling dark 
 clouds over us, pushing them against the crags, 
 hurling them through the clefts in the mount 
 ains, grinding them together, till in fretted 
 helplessness, dissolving in the elemental strife, 
 they snowed, as Pike said, " thicker an' faster 
 nor I ever see afore." 
 
 Virginia, the while, was in a tangle of dreams 
 it seemed; for though his eyes were open 
 and bright, his lips were sealed, and he replied 
 to queries even by signs instead of sounds. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 135 
 
 Pike, trying to shell him out, said: "Virginy 
 'minds me to-night o' a Cherokee human we 
 called Eiver Dick. He mined, or rather 'bibed, 
 nigh onto a river of rock not fur from Sinora. 
 He 'd watched fur a stranger to be a-comin' by, 
 an' meet him outside o' the crowd, an' say sor- 
 rowfuller nor death: 'I-I-are near-lee starved; 
 had nuthin' fur gwine on three days; seeh-how 
 my v-voice trembles an' han's shakes; can't 
 scacely talk, s-so weak. L-le-let me hev a 
 ha-half d-dollar ter git so-some cheese an' fo 
 b-bread afore death c-c-comes, plase.' " 
 
 " In course he got the money, an' he 'd go 
 to whar the bread an' cheese was, but allus 
 'vested the funds in whisky; an' then be a 
 dyin' the same way ag'in. Virginy is solernner 
 nor Biver Dick a-dyin' arter grog." 
 
 Virginia's dream being too sad or too sweet 
 to yield to Pike's grenade, Mack said: "That 
 river of stone is one of the gold-field wonders. 
 I was skirring up a picturesque gorge north of 
 it when I first beheld it. From the head of 
 the gorge to its top is more than a hundred 
 feet. Its sides are perpendicular for much of 
 its outcrop at that point; its surface level, ex 
 cept conglomerate bowlders, some sealed to the 
 surface as if melted to it, lay about like huddles 
 of black cattle sleeping on its bosom. It is 
 
136 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 over three hundred feet broad. It is a river 
 of rock without banks, whose stone current, 
 swirled bluffy up, flows on noiselessly toward 
 the great plains that bank the San Joaquin 
 tules. On its south side a beautiful little 
 plain rolls against it twenty or thirty feet below 
 its brink. Its walls and surface and wind 
 ings and scoria suggest that in a fused state 
 it had run down the channel of a river, burying 
 its waters, or tossing them into another bed, 
 by its red floods cooling there. It appears 
 that the hills had been pulled away from it by 
 the hands of many centuries; or the throb of 
 an earthquake had heaved the huge serpentine 
 mass up above surroundings, and left it so, to 
 attest its awful power, whose throes tumble 
 mountains, or raise them, grind the rolling 
 plains and fill the earth with quaking till its 
 populations die amid falling groves and col 
 umns." 
 
 The description was lost upon Tom at least, 
 except to suggest to him one thought. For he 
 exclaimed: "There lies our pile! A tunnel 
 drifted under the foundations of that river of i 
 stone will bring us into the gold deposits ac 
 cumulated by ages; or, likely, uncap to us the 
 original smithy where the precious metal was 
 first made on this coast; and wo shall have to 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 137 
 
 charter the line of steam-ships to convey our 
 tons of gold home." 
 
 His early -clay phantasy possessed him with 
 wild visions, and made him a tony again. His 
 eyes and voice quivered with delight, and his 
 face was wrapped in ecstasy. I should have 
 regretted Mack's matter-of-fact way, had it not 
 been plain that Tom was too bewitched by the 
 gold -phantom then to consider any thing. 
 Mack replied: "Probably a shaft must be sunk 
 two thousand feet before the drift under the 
 river-bed can be made ; and your son, Tommy, 
 will be a great-grandfather before the work; 
 may be accomplished. I prefer lighter and 
 more accessible diggings." 
 
 "I must see that river of stone," said Vir 
 ginia; "though amid its description I have 
 been a journey upon memory's river. Just 
 before we were graduated a classmate called at 
 my room. Nothing could bring a smile to his 
 face; and I urged him to let me share his 
 trouble. He said: 'It is my chosen calling for 
 life that almost unmans me the ministry. If 
 the leaders in Church affairs were like Chris 
 tianity, loving and large-hearted, the people, 
 who follow, would be likewise. But they sadly 
 cramp ministers by captiousness, and doled 
 salaries, and leaving to them many Church 
 
138 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 cares they would be happier and more useful 
 to share. There are exceptional congregations, 
 but unhappily the rule bears hardly upon min 
 isters. In other professions equal attainments 
 and toik lead to bountiful and pleasant sur- 
 roundingb for families. When my father, who 
 was a minister, died, an old friend of his, not 
 a member of the Church, proposed to put me 
 through college, and give me time to repay his 
 advances. He did it so nicely it would have 
 been almost insulting to have declined. I re 
 ceived a letter from him to-day inclosing my 
 notes receipted, and a sum of money besides, 
 stating that he had heard I should preach, and 
 it would help me start a library. I can accept 
 neither the notes nor the inclosure. For apart 
 from other reasons he has had reverses of late, 
 and his family is large. But his letter has 
 forever settled my purpose to preach. There 
 may be many spirits like him; possibly I may 
 be useful to some of them, and to others.' 
 
 "Two years after that I was visiting in a 
 Kentucky village, and on Sabbath, to my joyful 
 surprise, my old classmate rose in the pulpit. 
 He closed the service by inviting to Church- 
 membership. An old farmer was received into 
 the Church, and said: ' Friends, from a child 
 we have known this young man who has 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 139 
 
 preached to us to-day. His father went up to 
 heaven from amongst us, and when he died I 
 determined to follow him as he followed Christ. 
 I know I can never be like him; but help me 
 to try.' 
 
 "I got my old classmate to dine with me; 
 and when we entered our room he stood wiOi 
 his hand upon my shoulder, and said: 'Jack, 
 he that joined the Church to-day is the man 
 who helped me through college. I made by 
 book-keeping money to pay him all he had 
 advanced to me. When I took it to him, he 
 said: "Frank, boy, don't do that. I can't take 
 it. I have always wished to do something 
 good; indeed, I think nearly everybody does. 
 Don't you spoil my hopes, lad. When my 
 little Carrie, your playmate, died, your father 
 soothed her mother's heart and mine with many 
 a kind word and delicate attention. And for the 
 love I bear his memory, lad, let me have my 
 way in this." So he placed the money in a 
 small Testament, and gave it back to me, and 
 said, The book is for your sister.' " 
 
 "And," added Virginia, " she is the blonde 
 Kentucky girl I showed you, the other night, 
 among the Sierra heights; and the book is that 
 Testament. She said when she handed it to 
 me: 'Jack, I only lend you this book; it's 
 
140 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 part of my heart; you must bring it back 
 safe.'" 
 
 " I wish," said Tom, " Frank were here, and 
 Leina, too. She would be delighted to meet 
 him; her grandfather was a preacher. 
 
 "Whew! " said Pike, "that beats! What a 
 fool, a-wishin' your wife were in the Sierry 
 Mountains in the heart of this f rizzen harricane 
 to see Frank that ain't here, 'cause her grandpa 
 were a parson, an' he the wanderin' son o' one." 
 
 In the instant that he closed his gibe, Pike 
 emptied his revolver at objects we had neither 
 heard nor seen, but amidst the "oughs" of re 
 treating wolves one of them leaped upward and 
 fell over dead in a few feet of the donkeys, and 
 Pike added: "Thar's one o' them keerless 
 prnfessors now, Tom. Come help dash him 
 in the gulf jest beyant him, or we'll hev 
 more 'n him to kill afore day comes. For the 
 rest on 'em will come back to eat him they 
 loves their like." 
 
 Tom heeded the counsel; and we were all 
 soon asleep, regarding neither rush nor lull of 
 the tempest. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 TANGLED IN THE CORAL BEEFS 'CEPT SHE 's 
 POSSESST O' SATTAN. 
 
 [HEN we awoke the sky was again 
 clear, the morning-star sifted its 
 purpling rays upon gray morn, 
 and the sun, clinging to the tops 
 of the crags, threw millions of 
 sparkles upon the frosted jungle, till height 
 and abysm appeared to be wrapped in a con 
 flagration of ether. And as he pushed his 
 face up full above the snow-crowns, and scat 
 tered his rays directer and warmer upon every 
 thing, white vapors, like waves of bridal-veils, 
 tangled in the tree-tops and unwinding from 
 the icicles, wafted slowly up the iced crags, and 
 drooping around them awhile floated on up 
 ward higher and higher into the bosom of the 
 blue vault. But we had journeyed only a few 
 miles ere the heavens were again overcast with 
 hard, pale clouds that moved into position 
 between us and the sun, till the canopy above 
 and around us seemed to be a vast shroud 
 
142 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 about us, and again we were whelmed in gusts 
 of snow and sleet. 
 
 Pike said: "This are a suddint change. 
 Both, may be we 've got into the windy sea o' 
 Jewery that you talks about, specially ef you 's 
 scart and solemn, and are a-walkin' among its 
 white waves in the foamy spray of one of its 
 tempests, as you would say." 
 
 "I like that sea fancy," said Virginia; "the 
 pale billows over us, the outspread sleet, the 
 bottom of crumpling corals, the swimming 
 snow-flakes drifting between, like polyps, 
 wreathing garlands on coral tree and shrub 
 and mound in the ether deep; and like divers 
 seeking pearls, we grope in the white depths 
 from object to object." 
 
 "But," said Mack, "I hope we shall be un 
 like some divers, who with handfuls of pearls 
 get tangled in the coral reefs, and with glassy 
 open eyes sleep forever in the bed of their 
 gems, shrouded in their glitter. The tides 
 chant chorals in the reefs, the busy polyps 
 sing low, soft strains in the windows of the 
 palaces of coral, and the pearls of great price 
 are strewn about them; but the pale sleepers 
 heed not the weird melodies, the charming 
 dazzle, nor any glory." 
 
 "And," suggested Both, "there are many, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 143 
 
 though, alive, faces still as stone, brain and 
 heart stunned massing and summing gold, eyes 
 glazy rays of eagerness for more, souls narrowed 
 to the circle of its shine, blind to the true light, 
 who neglect to buy of Jesus ' gold tried in the 
 fire,' till death buries them in grasping the 
 illusive riches that fail. How are we other 
 than fatal blunderers who, for the treasures 
 that flood us here, lose the heavenly that lie 
 beyond the death-sea?" 
 
 "We were grouped together the while in an 
 open space, Both between the donkeys leaning 
 on one, his right-hand on the other's sedate 
 brow. They seemed to be listening to us, our 
 only auditors except the driving snow whose 
 flakes appeared to ricochet above and about 
 us, in many fantastic curves and twinkles, as if 
 to put us in merrier mood. Heinrich seemed 
 amazed by Roth's thought of any other gold 
 than the visible, of any other life than the 
 earthly; but Pike came to his relief by saying: 
 "Tom 'minds me of two parsons I used to 
 hear. One we called ( Blossom ; ' and he were 
 a thumperer. I've heerd him lots. The 
 beautifulest, unarthliest words you ever seed 
 popped out'n his lips, an' busted afore the 
 crowd like a armful o' sky-rockets. He were 
 edicated for a lawyer, an' come nigher makin' 
 
144: CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 white black than arry judge you ever heern. 
 He jumped about, run fore an' aft in the pul 
 pit, turned up his eyes, rolled 'em, popped 'em, 
 slung his voice up the mountain-top, an' d'rectly 
 you 'd hear it rumblin' in the chasm, and won 
 der how it got thar, an' what it were a doin' 
 down thar 'mong all them arm-throwin's and 
 unhuman gesturs an' figgers. He kivered his 
 pint, ef he had any, with a bushel o' feathers, 
 red, blue, black, white, yaller, spotted and 
 streaked, so he never teched a targit. 
 
 "The other one we called 'Blunderbuss." 
 He were a sight. Ef you heern him once, 
 you 'd feel unarthly mean from head to heel, 
 that ef you did n't change about you were goin' 
 to Sattan an' no mistake; and I always noticed 
 when he were done my heart were a-throbbin' 
 arter a better life. But when Blossom were 
 through sermontizin', I felt like I were tolerble 
 good, a-needin' nothin' but wings to make me 
 a angel." 
 
 "Dat vier goot," said Heinrich, "but ve is 
 gone wrong. Drade-pose no clis way. Ve vier- 
 meucht loss in de stirm." 
 
 "Can't help it," answered Pike; "Virginny's 
 got a little gold creetur that dances to the 
 north star day and night, a lass give him. We 
 are a-follerin' it for her sak^; an' T never 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 145 
 
 knowed a addle-head man to go far wrong 'cept 
 he went contrary to women-kind. Foller a 
 woman-kind, 'cept she's possesst o' Sattan, 
 which ain't likely, an' you 's sure to find your 
 self all right afore long." 
 
 "Adam no dinkt dat, when he tare through 
 der torns for doing like von vomins say." 
 
 "Adam," retorted Pike, "were wrong. He 
 ought to have staid more in her company, in- 
 stid o' wanderin' round, like a Californy hus 
 band, leavin' her to the marcy o' Sattan. Ef 
 he'd staid at home, she'd a been all right 
 mebbe, an' we mought a been in the garden of 
 Eden to-day instid of in this whizzy snow an' 
 icy 'glommerations, as Tom calls the frizzen 
 things." 
 
 Tom winced a little, for he had been a long 
 time from his wife, and disliked the fragment 
 ary style in which Pike quoted him. So he 
 said: "I said 'icy conglommerations;' and 
 Leina is as safe and happy where she is as if 
 I were there too." 
 
 "Yes," he rejoined; "an' more so. Ef she 
 wern't better nor a goddess, you 'd 'ave gone 
 below to warm 'tarnally afore now. She are 
 the 'sprisenest creetur I ever see, only I never 
 seen her yet, to find any good or pritty about 
 you to 'maze her so. I know'd it were spme 
 10 
 
140 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 inhuman word stretcliin' to sundown, without 
 you wastin' the day in callin' it over. Ef Blos 
 som ever gits that word, he '11 'glommerate the 
 folks with it till they 's deef enough not to hear 
 a arthquake. Why didn't you say 'frizzen 
 things,' then everybody would onderstand 
 you?" 
 
 Tom moved on through the blasts without 
 further parley; and about twilight next day 
 we stretched a Norwegian tent, we had pro 
 cured from a flitting company, amidst beautiful 
 live-oaks on a point that a few feet from us 
 dipped its granite face in the Stanislaus River, 
 a few miles above Knight's Ferry. 
 
 The long, tortuous descent from the peaks 
 and abysses of massy congelations had con 
 ducted us into a mild climate. The clouds 
 broke in rain, or most of the feathery snow- 
 flakes, softening in the warmth of their fan 
 tastic mid-air waltz, rapidly dreamed them 
 selves away as they swooned upon the sward. 
 And contenting ourselves with mines border 
 ing the valleys, though yielding but a few 
 dollars a day, we gathered a few books and 
 many newspapers about us, and forgot, in their 
 light and peace, the dangers we had escaped. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 147 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE GLEAMING BLADE OF HIS NAKED BOWIE. 
 
 EINKICH, after a few weeks, de 
 parted for Stockton or to get 
 nearer an unfailing supply of 
 lager, rather; and the restful 
 scenes of the foot-hills becoming 
 tame to us, Tom and Mack, and myself, went 
 farther into the mountains prospecting. 
 
 The third night out we attended a mock 
 temperance meeting. Perhaps two hundred 
 men, belted with weapons and adorned with 
 beards ten or twelve inches long, graced the 
 occasion. The platform consisted of empty 
 kegs, heads up. There were no seats; all stood. 
 The president was a cool old sailor. A Dutch 
 man, a Frenchman, a Michigander, and an 
 Irishman, had spoken, extolling every drink 
 except water amidst an uproar of applause. 
 
 When the fifth speaker ascended the kegs he 
 was greeted with wildest huzzas ; bottles peeped 
 from his pockets, and his voice, as he acknowl 
 edged the honor, was akin to the tremolo key 
 of an organ out of tune. He emptied a bottle 
 
148 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 at a draught, while the crowd gathered closer 
 about him, and said: "Gentlemen and ladies." 
 
 "Hello, Kaintuck!" yelled an Irishman, 
 "tharre's not one o' the last sax herre." 
 
 "Well," he answered, "there ought to be 
 in this dacent company, surely." 
 
 "Say ladies and gentlemen, then, Commo 
 dore!" exclaimed many voices. 
 
 He uncorked his second bottle and took a 
 long drink. The fluid gurgled, gurgled down 
 his throat. All eagerly watched him till, as 
 the bottle tilted to a perpendicular between 
 his teeth, some cried out: "He 's good as dead, 
 boys! That's too much for two sober men." 
 
 "Who says 'good as dead?'" he asked, 
 dropping the bottle at his feet. "Is it intem 
 perance that destroys? When did that become 
 an article of faith with you? It is temperance 
 that palsies the nerves, loosens the joints, un 
 strings the muscles, gives the body a zigzag 
 motion, numbs the brain, deadens the kindlier 
 feelings of the heart, and wakes up fiends 
 in it. 
 
 "It is temperance that quarrels with the 
 best friend, spends all its store in rioting, feeds 
 on hunger, clothes in rags, beats woman, breaks 
 her loving heart, frightens children and makes 
 them weep when God intended their little faces 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. M9 
 
 should be brave as innocence, and smile like 
 cherubim. 
 
 " It is temperance that poisons the blood, 
 bloats the form, gives wounds and bruises 
 without cause, reddens the eye and blears its 
 vision; fouls the air with profanity, mocks 
 sacred things, guillotines honpr, provokes dis 
 cord, stirs to murder, wrecks energy, stifles in 
 dependence, and disgraces a State by adding 
 to its prison registry a long list of dishonored 
 names. 
 
 "It is temperance that taxes the sober for 
 the drunken, the pure and peaceable for the 
 fiendish, and turns grain needed for the hun 
 gry into liquor that laughs at calamity and 
 sows sorrows. It transmutes wisdom into in 
 sanity, and stripping the soul of all that's 
 purest and best in the casket of immortality, 
 leaves it mean, and virtueless, and fitted for 
 perdition. It twines gray hair with woes, fills 
 sweet old mother's heart with floods of desolate 
 grief; and opens an early grave, a grave of 
 shame, a pauper's grave, a grave of crime, a 
 grave over which no sigh that the buried one 
 is gone ever sheds its pathetic murmur." 
 
 During his speech the crowd had become 
 still as a desert, and from the moment that he 
 dropped his bottle his voice was musical and 
 
150 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 clear. Each phrase was articulate irony whose 
 presence, like electricity, was felt by his audit 
 ors. But if they strove at all to shake off its 
 spell, they utterly failed, till the speaker stood 
 mute, pale, watching a boy just in the teens 
 pressing to the platform. There was a deathly 
 pallor on the lad's face as he stepped to his 
 side, and the voice was inimitably tender as 
 he said: "Father, please go to the tent." 
 
 "Certainly, my boy; yes, at once." 
 
 The boy whirled upon his heel, facing the 
 wild crowd, and said: "You are fiends!" 
 
 I saw Tom move close to him; but had no 
 time to think. Several were already yelling, 
 " Knock that boy on the head ! down with him ! " 
 
 He did not quail, but said: "I say it again. 
 You are fiends! You are making mockery of 
 my good father. You have led him to drink 
 again, and brought him to this accursed com 
 pany to make sport, by his eloquence, for your 
 sottish souls." 
 
 Angry voices railed at him again, and I saw 
 the old man fingering his bowie. A half dozen 
 irritated men were approaching him, when a 
 clear voice rang across the cursing throng: 
 " The boy shall speak ! Touch him who dares ! " 
 
 I knew the voice at its first note for Tom's, 
 but its silvery defiance had scarcely split the 
 
CALIFORNIA G OLD- FIELD SCENES. 151 
 
 air before blows, like the thuds of the catapult, 
 were falling, that made the heart sicken and 
 rage. Presently the thoughtful men present 
 had secured a truce, but not before Both and 
 Mack who had sprung to his side had felled 
 several of the chief assailants. 
 
 The president, when the truce obtained, was 
 sitting precisely as he was when the first blow 
 was struck; but the old man, whose speech had 
 been interrupted, was standing upon the first 
 row of kegs with his left arm tightened round 
 the boy, a little in advance; and the gleaming 
 blade of his naked bowie glittered in his steady 
 right-hand. No eye that beheld him then but 
 knew that to touch that boy was death; and 
 the reckless revelers, as the posture caught 
 their glance, involuntarily cheered, till the old 
 Kentuckian, becoming conscious of the heroic 
 tableau he was presenting, placed the boy on a 
 cask and sat down by him. 
 
 The first word, after the fight was checked, 
 was from Tom, of course. I expected him to be 
 shot every moment. He had planted himself 
 in tho very tracks he stood in when the first 
 blow was struck, and, exactly in the same key 
 as before, said: "The boy shall speak!" 
 
 "No," said the old man, jumping to his 
 feet, "he has said enough. And, friends, I 
 
152 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 regret to have occasioned any thing unpleasant. 
 Many of you know how ruinous to me intem 
 perance has been. I am sober, have not tasted 
 liquor in five months; hope never to again. 
 The bottles you saw me use held only lemon 
 ade. My intention was to have made you a 
 temperance speech in my way, when my boy's 
 face amazed me coming through the crowd; 
 and knowing how he was suffering because, 
 like you, he thought me again drinking, I lost 
 my self -poise. Your president knew my plan, 
 and approved it. Let me be done with it, by 
 expressing the wish that you will all be friends, 
 and join with me in exiling your palates from 
 whisky forever." 
 
 As he ceased, the old sailor rapped with his 
 big jack-knife on a cask, and said: "Bound to 
 thar; round to, my hearties! Come to order. 
 If you'll say intemperance whar Commodore 
 Kaintuck said temperance you'll have his 
 spache as he mint it. You 're bound to h ave your 
 fun. But as cap'n of this ship, I say throw 
 o'erboard such lumber as making sport of a 
 good thing, and quit grog, or you will go down, 
 under full sail, to blue blazes. I declar this 
 ineetin' 'jarned Over to, to, to judgment-day." 
 
 On our return to camp Both discovered that 
 he had swallowed a tooth, and maintained that 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 153 
 
 my skull had knocked it out, trying to get from 
 the fighting circle. Professing to be a boxing 
 expert, he disliked to own to a square blow 
 from an antagonist; but the only blow he could 
 give w r as one at a venture, and his skill in 
 fencing was to receive a blow on the spot it 
 was aimed at. 
 
 Finding a rich gulch among the taller foot 
 hills, we located claims; and Both and the 
 brown donkey went to pilot the gray donkey 
 and Pike and Virginia to the placer. 
 
154 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 O IT WAS A SWEET, PURE FACE! EVERY THING 
 BUT LIFE, THE DANCE OF LIFE. 
 
 UB new camp was in a sequestered 
 portion of the jungle. The hills 
 about us, however, were generally 
 less than five hundred feet above 
 us, and were inlaid and underlaid 
 by gray rocks whose brows, when long exposed, 
 had become dark and rent and rugged. The 
 placer broke away from the abrupt base of 
 one of the lower hills, and was divided in its 
 length by a branch whose supplies of water, 
 when the winter rains had ceased, we increased 
 by uncapping several springs and turning their 
 streams to that of the placer. The fall in the 
 water channel was comparatively great, and, 
 together with the narrowness of the hill- 
 pent mine, made our labor the less worrying; 
 and the gravel "panned out" richly, and the 
 bed-rock richer. So we were contented to 
 cheerfully "pitch in;" and as the fine days of 
 approaching spring flooded us with sunshine, 
 to break the weeping spells of dying winter, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 155 
 
 we were fairly rid of the gloom the hard win 
 ter had imparted to us. 
 
 In those days a fine suit of clothes was 
 scarcely ever seen in the mines. We were 
 surprised by the appearance of one such, at 
 our tent door one evening, piloted by a miner 
 we had met on the Stanislaus. But when we 
 beheld the joyful greeting with which Bothleit 
 welcomed its wearer, we were satisfied to have 
 it about. He was an old law friend of Both's, 
 from New York, called to California in the 
 interest of some large old Mexican land 
 grants; and wishing to see the mines, before 
 returning east, was pushing south to the Fre 
 mont Claim, which was then exciting some stir. 
 Chancing to hear of Both through the miner, 
 whom he had met in the stage, he had turned 
 aside to greet him. 
 
 He spent two or three days with us ; renewed 
 his boyhood rifle-practice by some successful 
 shots at deer that were now gliding back to the 
 mountains from the valleys; and blistered his 
 hands mining for nuggets, to show to friends 
 at home as having been dug by himself from 
 the gold-fields. He was n genial visitor, and 
 imparted to us a wishfulness for the soft garbs, 
 the nice conventionals, the civilized surround 
 ings of the Atlantic Coast; but this died out in 
 
156 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 a few days, and we and the gold-phantom were 
 cousinly as ever. Tom staged it with him to 
 the head of the Mariposas, and kept us awake 
 many hours, the night he got back to the tent, 
 by his restlessness and narratives, bringing, the 
 light of the snow-crags about us again. He said : 
 " Snow-man was a passenger with me in the 
 journey back to the Stanislaus crossing, bound 
 for Jamaica, his home. He has been fairly 
 successful, and will sail from San Francisco 
 in two or three days. The story he told 
 us at Tempest Camp was not all the truth; 
 miner-like, he concealed the golden reason of 
 his being lost. He and the Mexican had mined 
 together. Afterward, in a fandango, he had 
 struck aside a pistol from his heart, not an in 
 stant too soon; for the bullet plowed under 
 his skin, and fired his clothes. He had shown 
 real gratitude; and, after a separation of 
 months, had arranged, by letter, to meet him 
 at a trading-post ten miles west of Tempest 
 Camp, to direct him to a rich gulch. Snow-man 
 had purposely turned from the hunting party, 
 but losing his way, had failed to meet him till 
 they unexpectedly met at our camp. The 
 Mexican observed when I withdrew from the 
 tent in the storm, and awoke him; and when 
 they were without the tent, induced him to 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 157 
 
 leave at once, to return early in the morning. 
 The plea was that he knew the jungle so well 
 that he could thread it safely, and that his 
 brother awaited him in camp a mile or two 
 away, to start with him back to Sonora, Mexico, 
 whence they had come, and was fearfully un 
 easy, as he was a day or two behind time. As 
 they groped their way, he detailed to him how 
 to find and know the gulch, which was fifty 
 miles off. They slept at a brush tent, under a 
 cliff with another Mexican ; but when he awoke 
 next morning he was alone, and not a trace of 
 the Mexicans to indicate the direction they had 
 taken. In seeking to find us, he. luckily wan 
 dered toward the valley, and so escaped the 
 fearful experiences that had tortured us. He 
 had mined the gulch that paid largely. 
 
 "At the foot of a beautiful mountain we left 
 the stage, with other passengers, to walk on by 
 a trail, while it made a circuit to avoid some 
 rough ravines. The day was charming; the 
 sleepy sunshine threw a soft trance upon every 
 thing. The mahogany-hued manganites, the 
 low-branched oaks, the winding trail, the old 
 gray great rocks, the pebbly gulches, the 
 mountains with their shadowy labyrinths, the 
 songful birds, the plumy flowers resting their 
 cheeks upon the ether, or dallying with the 
 
158 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 grass, were suggestive of peace and life. But 
 a few steps farther brought us in the shadow of 
 an oak upon whose boughs two human forms 
 hung. They were Mexicans, and we stepped 
 beneath the tree to examine the dead sons of 
 an evil destiny. 
 
 "As they turned to and from each other in 
 the noiseless waltz of death, in mid-air, one 
 swung lower than the other. He was poorly 
 clad, of graceful build, and appeared to be a 
 man of toil. His head, as he swung to and fro 
 solemnly, then spun round and round slowly, 
 as the zephyrs played with his hair, inclined a 
 little to one side and drooped. A soft expres 
 sion ineffably sad, resigned, forgiving, mourn 
 ing in itself in utter helpless friendlessness, 
 was upon his dusky countenance, and on his 
 placid brow innocency was so plainly writ in 
 death's strange letters that we marveled why 
 He, without whom not a sparrow dies, had 
 yielded him to so sorrowful a fate. O it was a 
 sweet, pure face, looking as though innocence, 
 in unpitied heart-break, had painted herself 
 there, and died! 
 
 " The other was neatly dressed. A miner's 
 shirt of green flannel, jacket-like; black cassi- 
 mere trousers, clasped round his waist by a 
 bright leathern girdle; a flaunty necktie, and 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 159 
 
 fine, close-fitting boots, all new, were his cos 
 tume. His head was erect; his face bloated as 
 from recent debauch, was contorted with stark 
 horror, while in every lineament were coiled 
 masses of snakish hate and guilt. His brow was 
 corrugated, and a hideous scowl upon it seemed 
 to be communing with many murders. His dead 
 eyes were wide open, fixed in dread gaze, as if 
 on appalling specters flitting with his bodeful 
 soul. No one who looked upon him but felt 
 that his, though a stern, was a just doom. 
 
 "It seemed to me that I had seen him before, 
 and as we moved on to meet the coach, memory 
 was busied with many faces, when Snow-man 
 said: 'That's the Mexican you charged with 
 murder the night of the storm in the mount 
 ains; the fiendish-looking one back yonder, 
 hanging highest. I have never seen nor heard 
 of him since then until now. What a horrible 
 face! and yet he had been grateful to me.'" 
 
 "And assassinous to me," said Virginia, in 
 terrupting the narrative. 
 
 "We learned at the next stage-stand," con 
 tinued Tom, "that they had been lynched the 
 night before, as one was a notorious robber and 
 murderer, and the other had interfered to save 
 him, and was treated as his accomplice. Judge 
 Lynch, specially when in a hurry, is sure to 
 
160 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 blunder till at his illegal hands sometimes the 
 comparativly guiltless suffer the doom of the 
 guiltiest." 
 
 "In a soul," said Mack, "close together imps 
 and angels abide. They strive with each other, 
 and, the soul's nature being like the imps, these 
 hold it until one mightier than imps and angels 
 comes the Christ; then the imps must go, or 
 the soul. If it persist for the imps, it is loosed 
 by the Great King to mate with them only, and 
 together they hurry to the fearful doom of sin. 
 If the Mexican had heeded that angel, Grati 
 tude, till its pure calls had gathered to him 
 penitence, faith, hope, love, his life would have 
 been a thing so useful and noble that though 
 his death had been by violence, by the sins of 
 others, it would have been peaceful to him. 
 But instead, his life was corrupted more and 
 more as he harbored added imps, and none can 
 ever know here the evil that he did. His poor 
 friend's death, as his own, evidently was caused 
 by his life of crime. "What a curse is a wicked 
 life!" 
 
 "And how disastrous often," said Virginia, 
 "one evil life is to another! and quickly comes 
 
 the disaster! I knew , in the 
 
 mines, a reticent, courteous young man. Those 
 who knew him in his tropic home, ere he 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 161 
 
 touched this shore that infatuates so many 
 with the vices of gaming and drink, tell many 
 pleasant things of him. In a dance-house, 
 over a mountain whose blue top and green 
 sides witch the eye, he chanced to overhear a 
 curse a Mexican breathed against Americans. 
 Pausing in the dance, he resented it by a slap 
 in the face; but meeting no resistance, he 
 turned away, and again was whirling in the 
 frantic pleasure of the waltz. The flush upon 
 his cheek was rosy with life, the eye glowy 
 with delight; and care had fled to to-morrow 
 from the thrill of music and motion. The 
 magnetism of the sensual revel suffused him 
 body and soul with its sensuous spell, till 
 every thing but life, the dance of life, was a 
 whisk of nothingness to him. The crack of a 
 pistol at the door, a thud to the floor of his 
 form from the whisking circle, a gush of blood 
 from the white bosom, a convulsive shudder, a 
 gurgling gasp, and life was gone his eyes 
 stretched after his ghost gliding away from the 
 quivering company. A minute before the in 
 sulted Mexican had crouched, from the scene 
 of light and life, into the darkness, and sent 
 death to take his place within, whilst he fled 
 deeper into the mountains. Several days 
 passed; but the friends of the slain man were 
 11 
 
162 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 busy. One evening lie watched the red sun 
 burying himself in the distant sea of valleys, 
 and turning down the shrubby height was pen 
 etrating to a tall pine whose brow glowed with 
 the purple of sundown painting cliffs and 
 rocks and thicket and firmament. Every 
 object seemed breathless with joy. The red 
 manganites, robed in silvery foliage rubied 
 with sky glints, were motionless with excess of 
 peace; the birds were at rest upon the golden 
 leaf-cups, viewing the blush of bush and air 
 ere fluttering to sleep for the night; and the 
 wild deer paused as they crept from their 
 coverts, marveling at the red flush suffusing 
 every thing. He looked sad, as though death 
 spoke to him from the crimson wave of clouds 
 in which the sun had buried himself; and as 
 he edged the chasm to near the pine, to obtain 
 tidings and provisions from his friends, he 
 halted and peered about, glided on, paused, 
 watching in the soft twilight like a startled 
 panther, fearing, about to go back, pondered, 
 then on again a few hesitating steps, and list 
 ened alert, as if foreboding ill. Blue puffs 
 whiffed up in the ether, a volley of fire-arms 
 crashed among the shrubs, its black smoke like 
 veils of crape floated upon the ruby thicket, a 
 husky groan from a dusky form writhing in 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 163 
 
 blood upon the sward; a few men rose up from 
 among the rocks, painted by the ghost of the 
 buried sun as they grouped where the smoking 
 blood lay curdling, and the dead man's stare 
 and ashy face told them how true their aim 
 had been. So crimes followed crime. And 
 evermore it is so until He who ' stopped dying 
 to save a soul' takes sin away." 
 
164 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 DEESS AN ISTHMUS MONKEY. 
 
 HE moonless night sprinkled with 
 stars was dozing upon the lone 
 mountains, and we caught the 
 silence of the solitude as we 
 thought of Tom's narrative. Nor 
 did our improvised stone lounges seem hard to 
 us, for we had just read " letters from home " 
 that he had brought from the post; and were 
 languidly puffing some rare Hay anas, dream 
 ing dreams and seeing visions of the persons 
 and objects in our dear old home across the 
 continent. 
 
 However, Mack presently broke up our rev 
 erie by reading to us the following letters from 
 
 Clay S and "Wyche L , who had mined 
 
 with him soon after he came to California. 
 They had gone back home, but reminded Mack 
 of their miner-life by an occasional letter. 
 Clay's was as follows: 
 
 " , KENTUCKY, - - 13, . 
 "Dear Mack: I have been married ever since 
 I got back from the gold-fields, nine months 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 165 
 
 and twenty-seven days, about. You have seen 
 Minnie's picture, so I need not describe her to 
 you, only she has been growing in beauty and 
 goodness to me, from our marriage-eve. This 
 morning she is very, very beautiful. 
 
 " The baby is two weeks and five days old, 
 and now sleeps upon her arm under a rainbow 
 of smiles reflected from her face. And, Mack, 
 there is no mistake about it, the baby is incom 
 parably pretty and smart. From present in 
 dications, we think he is destined to exceed 
 * Harry of the West' himself, for whom I am 
 named, in stateliness of form, wisdom, sprightly 
 wit, and eloquence. Were you to see him as he 
 lies in ribbons and ruffles, looking about at 
 things, I know you would agree to what I say. 
 He had a glorious red color the first few days 
 of his life. We were very much delighted, 
 Minnie and I. For we expected he would 
 grow up real rosy, graceful, and plump, in 
 stead of bony, impish-looking, like other boys. 
 But after two or three days he began to whiten 
 in spots, which made us very uneasy; for we 
 feared very much he was taking the leprosy, 
 which you know whitens one wonderfully. 
 
 " Minnie discovered it first, and was near go 
 ing distracted abo at it at once. For her mother's 
 favorite darky, old Aunt Hetty, as kind a nurse 
 
166 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 as ever stole sugar for the children, or danced 
 at a Christmas frolic, has been turning white 
 in splotches the last twenty years ; and Minnie 
 said she knew the baby would look just that 
 way when he was a man a streak of white and 
 a streak of red, like old Hetty, a streak of 
 white and a streak of black. 
 
 " We sent for the doctor, who told us when 
 he came that it was nothing much, yet not 
 entirely usual; but that the child was so un 
 common anyhow we might expect unusual 
 things of him; to watch closely, and if he 
 whitened regularly, only here and there a tinge 
 of pink, it was all right. 
 
 " He left a small vial of some colorless fluid, 
 tasteless unless it tasted like water, with direc 
 tions to give ten drops of it to the baby every 
 five hours, when awake, till the sixth day, and 
 by that time he would be a soft, natural, creamy 
 white. And it was so. And I advise you, if 
 you ever have a child that 's very red for a few 
 days after birth, to send for Dr. - , or one 
 of his pupils, at once. We like the fair skin 
 of the baby better, I believe, than we did its 
 color red before we sent for the doctor, 
 thanks to him. 
 
 "Minnie's mother says that the whitening 
 was all natural, that Minnie herself was the 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 167 
 
 reddest thing alive when only one or two days 
 old. But she 's a great talker any way. 
 
 "His head, the baby's, is round, except it 
 may bulge somewhat behind, and his hair is 
 already nearly black. We are glad that's so; 
 for we talked it over, and agreed that we never 
 could stand it if he were to have a white head. 
 The hair is soft as floss of silk. Short neck, 
 long eyelashes, blue, flashy eyes, and about 
 them, too, is a most deep, profound look that 
 denotes genius. The doctor seems to agree 
 with us in that; especially my wife's mother 
 and mine do. His nose is a fac-simile Grecian 
 nose; I wish you could see it. His cheeks are 
 plump, a little red yet; and his ears are the 
 most symmetrical I ever beheld. His mouth 
 is a rare grace; it puckers, a little I mean, and 
 large with thick lips I do not mean much so, 
 just enough so to resemble the grand ' Harry.' 
 His chin curves, indicative of masculinity, and 
 is dimpled. His armc and legs are exquisite 
 models; so Minnie and I think, and are sus 
 tained in the opinion by Minnie's old college 
 victims so she tells me; they have been very 
 kind in calling to see him. 
 
 " 'We thought yesterday he had a tooth com 
 ing through ; but the doctor said he thought not, 
 as children were seldom so smart as to cut 
 
168 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 teeth under three months old; and as our boy 
 is not three weeks old, it's possible that we 
 are mistaken. His hands and feet are small, 
 the sign of blood. Indeed, Mack, he's the 
 handsomest, most perfect child, I ever heard 
 of. Minnie says that all the ladies who have 
 called, and they are many, say that he is the 
 prettiest, cunningest they mean intelligent 
 and finest - looking child they ever saw. 
 We are greatly troubled about naming him. 
 I prefer Washington Greene Gates, after the 
 three most distinguished generals of the Rev 
 olutionary War. Minnie inclines to ^Esop 
 Cicero; but she 's afraid the impish boys, when 
 he goes to school, will call him Sis, or Sop; 
 and she never could stand that. And she says 
 that Aunt Clink says that if she consents to the 
 name I have chosen, the boys will call him 
 nothing but Greene Gates. 
 
 " Uncle Tobe says that we are the two biggest 
 fools in America, and he '11 bet his blue-grass 
 farm against a blue paper of pins that the 
 child will be a bigger fool than both of us 
 put together. But he's an old fossil, so you 
 needn't believe what he says about the baby. 
 
 "I have had to stop writing to consult about 
 the boy's name. We have agreed to name him 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 169 
 
 Tobias De Wittle, after Uncle Tobe, who is 
 clever as they make 'em even in Kentucky. 
 He said this morning that we were exactly 
 right that there never was such another baby 
 in the world as ours, who has certainly grown 
 nearly an inch since yesterday." 
 
 This letter is scarcely in accord v:ith the ex 
 tract below from a letter of his Cousin AVyche. 
 And not being equal to view the difference in 
 " n dry light," what could we do but leave it 
 where we found it? Wyche wrote: 
 
 "I shall be in California again in two 
 months. Called the other day to see Clay. 
 His wife is rarely beautiful. How she ever 
 fancied Clay is an enigma; perhaps amiability, 
 courtesy, and business habits make a man, 
 however ruggedly featured, handsome in wom 
 an's estimate. They have a boy baby now of 
 whom they are very proud. Clay gave me a 
 voluble account of his perfections, before 
 taking me to the crib to see him. Of course I 
 could say nothing to discount a grace, however 
 imaginary, from the little fellow. It takes 
 something to set me back, you know; but I met 
 something in that child. Mack, he 's the ugli 
 est thing in mortal shape. I was amazed at 
 the sight. His head is long and one-sided; 
 hair, tow-colored; ears, purple and large like a 
 
170 CALIFORNIA GOLIt-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 valley rabbit's; frog-eyed; his nose, like a flat 
 piece of fresh beef dumped carelessly just 
 over his mouth in which he was cramming both 
 hands; and he screwed his face till I drew 
 back, fearing he was about to turn outside in. 
 If you would dress an Isthmus monkey in a 
 slim ruffle-shirt, wrap it up in white flannel 
 rimmed with pink ribbon, and wash its face in 
 chalk and red paint mixed, and mash its foot 
 till its face was set to a hundred screeches, you 
 would have as fair a picture of Clay's baby as 
 can be given. But I believe babies are all 
 alike, only this one is more like the ugly of all 
 the rest." 
 
 By the time the reading was finished Pike 
 had a midnight stew of canned oysters ready, 
 and said: "Virginny, pass them ar iceters to 
 Clay's baby." 
 
 Virginia thought a moment, then plumped 
 the stew-pan down by Tom, who quietly emptied 
 about half the oysters into his prospecting pan, 
 and ate them, filing no disclaimer to his baby 
 hood. 
 
 " Waal," drawled Pike, " your handsome par 
 will be arter you d'rectly with a tumbler full 
 o' paregoric. You are bound to be collict." 
 
 But he was n't. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 171 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 OUT OF WHICH CAME TO US SORROWFUL 
 WHISPERS, 
 
 HE banks of the mine grew taller 
 and more rugged with jutting 
 rocks, as we pushed the pit nearer 
 the base of the hill. And as the 
 warmth of April played with the 
 snow that yet capped the highest hills about 
 us, the days were balmy, though fresh and 
 cool; while the nights were so cold that we 
 kept .good fires, in whose winking light we told 
 stories of the past, or interchanged thoughts. 
 As he leaned against the tent-pole, propped 
 upon his elbow, musing, Pike said: "When I 
 were wounded in Mexico, and left by the doc 
 tors to die afore mornin', a little pale-face man, 
 that looked like a corpse, crawled off his pallet 
 to me, and nursed me all night. Once, when 
 the spasms wrung me so I thought I was a- 
 goin', he wiped the death-sweat from my face 
 with the nicest part o' his shirt-sleeve, and put 
 his hand upon my heart. A minute arterwards 
 I missed him, and looked about for him best I 
 
172 CALIFORNTA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 could, for I shuddered to die by myselL 1 saw 
 him crawlin' away fast as he could out o' the 
 dingy room, but d'rectly he were back ag'in 
 with a red-face surgeon I never see afore. He 
 said to me: * Comrade, never give up till it's all 
 over. This doctor will watch with me, and if 
 there 's a chance you '11 be all right yet.' He 
 drug his pallet close to mine, and they .got me 
 and mine onto it gently as they could, so I 
 could die saf ter. But they kept tryin' to better 
 me, ontil in a day or two I were improvin', and 
 in a month were ready for to march. I used 
 to go to my old pallet-place, and hobble along 
 the track o' blood that flowed from his own 
 wound, as he crawled arter the doctor to come 
 help him revive me, and wonder whar he were. 
 The watchers had told me that he were removed 
 one night while I were out o' my head, and he 
 were delirious, too, and they had to force him 
 away; and that's all I could larn about him. 
 Arter that, in the battle o' Molino del Eey, I 
 saw a soldier cheering a company that were 
 waverin'. He said, 'Never give up till it's 
 all over;' and a shot cut him down afore you 
 could say huzza. But I knowed him by them 
 words. When the order come to move position, 
 I sprung over the ditch frontards into the corn 
 whar he were a-lyin' dead-like, and bore him 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 173 
 
 along with us. The captain told me to carry 
 him out o' danger, and come back at double- 
 quick. He groaned a time or two, as I were 
 a-toatin' of him, so I knowecl he wern't quite 
 dead; and when I laid him down among t'others 
 where the doctors was a-cuttin' of 'em wus, 
 gougin' for the bullets in 'em, I gave him some 
 water and bathed him off. When he come to, 
 I said: 'An' yer don't know me?' 'No,' he 
 said, 'but I will; my head ain't just right yet.' 
 'Yes,' said I, 'but yer heart will do to bet on 
 any time. Do n't you mind in Jalapa a-crawlin' 
 arter a doctor one night, fur a f iirsaken fellow 
 gin up to die, and bleedin', as you crawled, 
 puddles of blood from your own wounds?' 
 'Ah!' he answered, 'it's Jim; glad you got 
 well. I'm sick, sick;' and he fainted away 
 suddint ag'in. 
 
 "It were worth while to be thar, to see the 
 glitter o' joy on his filmy eye when he called 
 me Jim; but he were mistaken. I told him, 
 arter he got 'most well, my name wern't Jim, 
 but Racket; for I knowed some secret were on 
 his heart that warmed it wrongly to me. 
 'Well,' lie said, 'you are just like Jim Knight 
 who dragged me from under the Mexican spears 
 after we were both wounded, when Col. Clay 
 was killed, and brought me safe off the field.' 
 
174 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 . . , ,^- 
 
 But lie never told me he got wounded under them 
 lances a-savin' Jim's life, but 1 knowed it, for 
 Jim were my twin brother, and when he told 
 me about it, he said: 'And Eacket, ef ye ever 
 
 can get a chance to do Sam M a good turn, 
 
 lad, put him through heart-like; bless him, 
 Eacket, kinder like mother would bless him/ 
 And Jim were in arnest about then, for his 
 tender, true hand were on my shoulder, and a 
 tear were in his eye when he said it. Anyhow 
 I double-quicked round Sam instid o' back, for 
 the battle were won afore we got out o' range; 
 and he were fightin' a battle now all alone with 
 death, and I tried to make one with Sam ag'in 
 death; and he pulled through; and I toated 
 him out o' the hospital one day and laid him 
 down on some fresh fodder under a tree. He 
 were crazy enough for awhile, but he slept 
 mighty deeply presently, and woke up while I 
 were a-lookin right into his face; and he 
 smiled, and said, 'Jim.' 'No,' said I; 'Eacket 
 for Jim.' 'Well,' said he, 'it's both.' 'Yes, 1 
 said I, ' for me and Jim is one for such a fellow 
 
 as Sam M , forever. Now sleep ag'in, and 
 
 git well to rescue some more o' your comrades. 
 " Never give up till it 's all over." I 'm a-goin' 
 to be right by you, Sam ; sleep sleep.' And 
 lie did, and got well at last. Marssy, boys, to 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. lV5 
 
 be clever were or'nary with that pale scrap of 
 a man. He 'd give his blood for a comrade 
 any day." 
 
 Here Pike's eye wandered over a broadcloth 
 suit athwart the projecting end of the rib-pole 
 of the tent above him, whither Tom had tossed 
 it the week before, when he got back from his 
 Mariposa trip. The fragrant smoke of our Ha- 
 vanas, gray streaked with thin blue, hugged 
 it coquettishly ere twirling higher in the air 
 that seemed to stretch its laughing eyes upon 
 it, too; and he said: "Tom, you brought a 
 armful o' newspapers, an' five boxes o' cigars, 
 and that cloth suit up thar you is so keerful 
 of, when you come back from Mariposa. You 
 are bound to be rich a-goin' on in that style. 
 The Gov'ment ought to 'pint you univarsal 
 spendthrift, to show now big a blossom in that 
 line Ameriky kin grow." 
 
 Tom ground the end of his cigar between his 
 teeth, and hurried up two or three puffs of 
 smoke, but said nothing. He had often in 
 sisted, in his series of camp-fire lectures, that 
 neither of us knew aught of economy but him 
 self; and that fine suit, that we had already 
 made a towel of on occasions, gave Pike a 
 chance to retaliate, too good to let slip; and he 
 continued: "You need them ar sort o' clothes, 
 
176 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCPJNES. 
 
 puddling in the mud and water waist deep 
 every day mining, an' you hangs 'em thar to 
 show ' the fitness in things,' as you say." 
 
 Tom flipped the spire of ashes off his cigar, 
 and replied: "I felt shabby in miner's garb 
 with my New York friend, and a clever gentle 
 man told me he was selling off at cost, in Mar- 
 iposa, and let me have the suit for eighty dol 
 lars it was priced at a hundred." 
 
 "Yes," said Pike, "that clever gentleman 
 were marciful to you; he made you pay only 
 thirty dollars more 'n anybody else." 
 
 " Nearer forty," he answered, owning he had 
 been overreached ere he thought, "as I dis 
 covered on pricing suits for Snow-man at an 
 other store. But I '11 trade with him no more." 
 
 "No," said Pike, "but you will with some 
 other clever gentleman till you are no more, or 
 your gold 's all gone, for all your lecturs to the 
 balance on us about prudence, and 'conomy, 
 as you call being stingy." 
 
 Pike's case against him was too clear for 
 Tom to rally, and he good-humoredly beat a 
 retreat into the realms of reverie; and the camp 
 was still as the snow yet crowning a mountain, 
 that overtopped the taller hills or spurs just 
 about us, and appeared in the sky-shine like a 
 white cloud sleeping upon a long, high bed of 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 177 
 
 ebony. Pike said: "Boys, that mountain 
 'minds me of a monster giant dead, under a 
 shroud too narrow to kiver him round good. 
 I 've been reading Tom's Bible. Somebody 's 
 marked a varse which reads, 'Be ye therefore 
 ready also, for in such an hour as ye think not 
 the Son of man cometh.' More 'n twenty folks 
 I 've known in this country was called aboard 
 the death-ship suddint-like. Ef I 'm overtook 
 any whars near you, do n't let me be buried like 
 a hithen. Send for a parson, and have a hime 
 an' a prayer at my grave, or read 'em your 
 selves, ef he can't be got. It will be more 
 comfort to my mother's good heart, in old 
 Missouri, when she hears on it than 'most 
 any thing else. I have sent h&r nigh onto ten 
 thousand dollars to have for her own; and she 
 writ me six months ago not to trouble about 
 sendin' her any more, for she had more'n 
 would make her comfortable." 
 
 The solemnity of Pike's manner, perhaps 
 more than his words, impressed us; and some 
 how every eye was on his face when his voice 
 hushed. We knew it was a kind, brave face 
 that twitched with sympathy for every thing 
 true and good, and that weakness and suffering 
 could not look to it without being blessed, and 
 with a niceness almost as rare as delightful. 
 12 
 
178 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 It was earnest and quiet and sad, as his voice 
 had been. But presently we all slept, and the 
 dreams of the night, and the brightness of the 
 day that followed, put away from our minds 
 the soft words he had spoken. The second 
 day, however, Mack and Virginia went hunt 
 ing, and I lingered about the tent. On looking 
 toward the mine, an hour before noon, I saw 
 Tom staggering toward me with a man in his 
 arms. When I met him, he said: " He 's gone, 
 Quien; bank caved in on him!" 
 
 As I helped to lay Pike upon a blanket under 
 shelter of an oak near the stream, I saw, indeed, 
 he was quite dead. His back was broken, his 
 breast crushed; besides, there was a mortal 
 contusion of the skull. I asked Tom why he 
 didn't come for me to help bring him to the 
 tent? 
 
 " I tried to," he replied, " but I could n't. I 
 couldn't leave him down there by himself, 
 though I knew he was dead. He never spoke, 
 never breathed that I could see, after the great 
 rock rolled over him. But, Quien, he looked 
 like he was still alive; his lips appeared part 
 ing to utter some pleasantry, and the old smile 
 preparing to send its ripples over his face. All 
 the morning he has been even more buoyant 
 than usual, What a bubble is life ! We scarce 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 179 
 
 see its form fully on the river of time ere, 
 shattered by the unexpected blast, it disap 
 pears. It is like the music of a rill, barely 
 heard ere it is hushed in the folds of the sigh 
 ing wind forever." 
 
 A Tennessee parson, who occasionally had 
 shared our camp in the foot-hills, read the 
 burial-service descriptive of the resurrection; 
 and piling over the place large rocks, that the 
 coyotes and wolves should haunt it to no pur 
 pose, we left our genial, fearless comrade alone 
 in the shadow of the great hill, in a cluster of 
 manzanita whose shiny limbs formed about 
 him a dense hedge. 
 
 But at the tent that night something was 
 missing. The humorous gibe, the tender story 
 uniquely told, the hopeful words, the soft 
 though gleeful laugh, the gray eye that talked 
 more than the tongue, the inhering courtesy 
 that as naturally considered and conferred joy 
 upon others as the diamond shines, the broad- 
 breasted, tall form with womanly heart, of un 
 pretentious courage, was gone. And in the 
 tent, and around the fire without, and in the 
 shadow next the thicket, there seemed vis 
 ible a space in the spaces, where Pike was 
 wont to be, out of which came to us sorrowful 
 whispers constantly bewailing his absence. 
 
180 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 And we talked of the pale one in the thicket 
 of the dead. And niayhap you will not be re 
 pelled by our weakness when you read that 
 hardened as we were, by rough scenes in the 
 mines that I hide from you, as we thought and 
 talked of him, one and another would turn his 
 face to the dark, and try to repress the weep 
 ing that would sob in our hearts for him. 
 
 However, after awhile Virginia said: "Once 
 I stood next the guards of a palace- steamer far 
 out at sea. The breath upon the deep was soft, 
 the fathomless waters still and clear. The ship 
 was at rest like a white fragment of sky on 
 the quiet wave ; its flag of stars and stripes 
 drooped at half-mast like glory lamenting mis 
 fortune. Upon a plank lay a young physician 
 who the day before was rosy with life. The 
 cholera had stricken him down in the presence 
 of his wife while, with a thousand others, they 
 were voyaging to the golden shore. A sail was 
 wrapped and sewed tightly round his body, 
 leaving exposed only his head and face; a 
 mass of stone-coal was bound to his feet, and 
 his hair lay smoothed back from his dead face. 
 About him many passengers were grouped 
 on the wheel-house, on the deck, upon chairs, 
 or benches, or rope-coils they stood, awed; 
 for among them the noiseless plague was pass- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 181 
 
 ing to and fro, and already scores of the com 
 pany had shivered into death at its touch. 
 The plank was tilted by two sailors, and the 
 doctor glided feet-foremost down into the deep 
 blue sea a few fathoms, and paused a moment, 
 sunk deeper, paused, then deeper, and quivered 
 and stood erect, motionless; buried at sea. 
 The steam - whistle wailed, the bell tolled, 
 strong men sighed, the machinery groaned, 
 the engine awoke the wheels to rapid evolu 
 tions, the steamer moved on, and in the vibra 
 tory waters the doctor, down in his clear, blue 
 grave standing, bowed again and again, his 
 back to us a ' good-by ' from the dead to the 
 living. And then he was alone waiting there- 
 waiting, deaf to every sound save that trumpet 
 signal that sea and earth shall hear, and lift to 
 their bosom all their dead children, to be 
 caught up to meet the Lord in the air. To be 
 buried in the sea of waters, or beneath the 
 motionless rocks in the sea of mountains, what 
 does it matter, so our houses of silence shall 
 echo in the morning of Christ with salvation's 
 sound ? Shall we be ' ready ' when he cometh ? " 
 Education has much to do with reputation, 
 if not with character as well. It is a refining 
 basanite. Pike had never polished under its 
 culturing touches, but such was the native 
 
182 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 princeliness of his taste, impulse, and manner, 
 such the brimful sprightliness and force of his 
 mind, and so high-graded his emotions, that he 
 had twined himself around our hearts like the 
 vine of pure gold round the column of the sa 
 cred temple at Jerusalem . And when Virginia's 
 story closed, Tom's face lit up with something 
 like a blush, and he said: "When Leina con 
 sented for me to come to the gold-fields, she 
 wept so much that in trying to soothe her I 
 promised to adore God about twilight every 
 day. She as much expects me to do so as she 
 expects the devil not to be a saint; and I have 
 disappointed her in so many things, if she 
 could believe it, that I am trying not to in this. 
 One twilight as we came down the mountains, 
 last winter, Pike entered the icy thicket and 
 quietly knelt near me, as he did daily there 
 after till his death. AYe never exchanged a 
 remark concerning the habit all the months we 
 observed it together. He said shortly after we 
 opened this mine: 'My heart is a surprise to 
 me. Its hates are gone; peace and love make 
 me glad all the time; and I think of God, 
 eternity, and death with hope, without dread. 
 My little sister Jnle, who went to heavsn when 
 we were children together, has latterly come 
 tripping about me in my sleep, and played with 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 183 
 
 my hair as she used to in life; and last night 
 when she left me she beckoned me to follow, 
 and said, Soon. So she '11 come for me before 
 long; and it's all right here, Tom, right with 
 the heart. It loves the earth and its folks, 
 and would be glad to throb a long while among 
 'em; but it loves heaven and its angels, and 
 believes it 's a-goin' there to be among 'em for 
 ever.' " 
 
 Mack and I went up to the gray rocks lying 
 upon Pike's grave. The night was bright with 
 the April skies. The air was fresh, though 
 nearly motionless. In the dell, at the camp- 
 fire, Virginia and Tom chatted, and now and 
 then their voices broke upon the cairn where 
 we sat like the monotones of invisibles. Huge 
 rocks lay in enchanted meditation on shrubless 
 knolls, and the raylets twinkled merrily upon 
 their wrinkled faces. The hazy patches of 
 chaparral on the mountain over the hills 
 peered from their lonesome beds into the som 
 ber ravines whose brinks they bordered; and 
 thirty feet from us a leafy covert quivered 
 and bent about quietly, then was at rest again ; 
 and another farther on did likewise, and yet 
 others; it was only the muffled zephyr greeting 
 them on its journey from sea to mountain, and 
 passed on, climbing down gorges, up precipices, 
 
184 CALUVRNIA GOLD-FIELD 
 
 over heights, and awny, away. A hundred feet 
 above us, and as many y arris beyond, a stream 
 let tossed about on sleepless bed, and drummed 
 hurried strains to air and plant and mossy 
 shore, then leaped into the chasm, and floated 
 up clouds of spray that hung above its splash, 
 like a snowy veil woven for its bridal with the 
 valley. Just at us a water-oak stood stretch 
 ing one budding branch, like a hand of bless* 
 ing, over Pike's cairn, and its twigs glided re 
 peatedly as if fanned aside by a gentle sprite 
 in noiseless ramble o'er the scene. The crickets 
 chirped in the brush-wood, and near the roots 
 of the tree glow-worms kindled their pale fires. 
 A. fawn bounded across a clear space into a 
 shadowy one, and hied to a dense thicket, and 
 a moment Inter g, coyote leaped after it, and a 
 startled rabbit sped to the cairn and hid at our 
 feet. From the many-voiced streamlet, and 
 thousands of twiggy lutes and rocky harps, 
 ^Eolian hymns low, adoring, reverential- 
 mingled with the seeming hum of the worship 
 ing stars, till the jungle, the dead under the 
 cairn, and the living above it, were lost from 
 thought, and only God appeared. 
 
 Mack seemed to have observed the scene 
 closely, for he said: "This is a phase of earth's 
 night-life, in the golden solitude, that is en- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 185 
 
 trancing. Yet just now an innocent fawn was 
 fleeing from covert to covert for life, and a 
 harmless rabbit fled from its burrow to escape 
 death there, and hid here in Pike's cairn, where 
 it trembles at every softest sound as if it shall 
 be its death-knell. Is death everywhere, pur 
 suing every thing, nor resting at midday nor 
 midnight? What is it, that all animated nat 
 ure pales in its breath, perishes in the way if 
 but touched by it? As it relates to man, is it 
 the ceasing to be of his being? Then that 
 heart-flower, immortality, is a dream; and 
 those brilliant devils Voltaire and Robespierre 
 calling massacre justice, the guillotine gentle 
 mercy, and the submergence of religion and 
 liberty in the red floods of tyranny patriotism, 
 death an eternal sleep were the world's bene 
 factors; and the lessons of the good Christ were 
 dreamy lies. To believe that is to lodge in the 
 soul the most preposterous absurdity. And 
 yet the fact recurs, death is. What is it? It 
 comes slowly sometimes, like the invincible 
 soldier mining the citadel's foundation; swiftly 
 sometimes, like the cloud's bolt; and the ear 
 becomes deaf, the eye blind, the lips dumb, the 
 brain, the heart, the body still, and we bury 
 or burn it, or leave it unurned to bleach to 
 dust in the weather of ages. But ourself, the 
 
186 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 soul, eternity's heir, still lives, waiting in the 
 mysterious shade beyond death to hear the 
 voice of Christ reuniting it and its body to 
 assign it its eternal destiny." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 I'M EVERMORE KISSING HER IN THE AIR. 
 
 I HE laughing sun had pushed the 
 snow off the mountain, and warm 
 zephyrs had fanned from the 
 scene wintry airs, and spread it 
 with tissued mantles of grasses, 
 buds, and flowers, when our mine refused to 
 yield any more golden grains. Its crevices, 
 that hitherto had opened lips to show us mouth- 
 fuls of nuggets, were now gemless, and we 
 wandered through the echoing rifts and gorges 
 prospecting for new deposits. 
 
 Tom became intolerable. He would go to 
 the shady side of the thickets, and stretch him 
 self upon the soft sward, crushing down a 
 broad swath of wild flowers, and with a stone 
 for a pillow rather two stones, for he took 
 two, putting the smaller ends together, forming 
 a hollow in the middle for his head dream 
 away the bright days. There he would lie 
 motionless, fat, strong, personified health; 
 awake, yet asleep to every thing- about him. 
 Or he would take his pick and pan into the 
 
188 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 shadows of the bluffs among which we pros 
 pected, and sit upon a mossy bowlder with 
 about a hundred of Leina's old letters on the 
 moss at his feet, and read them. He did not 
 read them with any method, not consecutively 
 as to dates, too much trouble to sort 'em; but 
 as his hand happened to clutch one from the 
 pile he read it, turned back, read it again, and 
 re-read it, sitting still, in one posture, like a 
 ruddy, long- whiskered, pensive, puffed corpse. 
 It did not occur to me at first what ailed him. 
 I knew he was at times subject to fits of lazi 
 ness. So for a week or two I said nothing 
 remindful of his career. But it grew worse 
 and worse. He neither dug in the pits, nor 
 cooked, nor brought wood nor water, nor 
 kindled fires, nor set nor cleaned the table- 
 log rather nor washed dishes; but he ate. 
 However, about the tenth day of this role his 
 appetite failed some, except when Mack killed 
 a deer; and might have failed much more with 
 out specially diminishing the toils of his gastric 
 juices, to whose thorough exercise he ever 
 deemed it venial to devote much time and care. 
 He grumbled more than a farmer. And a 
 farmer peace and plenty to him! grumbles 
 at rain and dry, sun, moon, stars, day, night, 
 cloud, clear, hay, barley, wheat, flocks, herds, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 189 
 
 oats, corn, cotton, earth, weather, and nothing, 
 year in and year out. In this Tom was already, 
 what he thought himself to be in every thing 
 prospectively, a model farmer though of farm 
 ing he knew nothing; he grumbled at every 
 thing. The trees, though full of leaves, were 
 leafless and cast no thick shades; the water, 
 though the best, was brackish. The cheery 
 skies were dismal, the hills of beauty were 
 hideous. The graceful birds and their songs 
 were unmusical, pestiferous little imps. The 
 flowers were ugly, their odors poisonous, though 
 of odor they were devoid. And every one ancl 
 every thing were obnoxious, outrageous. 
 
 So I went to one of his trysting-places 
 one day, and said: "Tom, you are going to 
 die." 
 
 "I know it," he replied; "I have been feel 
 ing it coming on me a long time, ever since 
 Pike left us. I am going to get out of this 
 miserable, sickly, sterile, heathen, hateful 
 country soon, if I have strength enough left, 
 and die among civilized beings and objects. 
 If I ever get away from it, I '11 never come to 
 it again till eternity wraps it in flames. And, 
 Quien, you had best leave, too. I 've been tell 
 ing Virginia and Mack, the last month, that 
 you are looking pale, thin, like a bloodless 
 
190 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 skeleton, like a castaway mariner bound to a 
 rock to starve by a thousand miles of waves. 
 You have fallen off nearly as much as I have; 
 and I'm so weak I can scarcely walk, much 
 less work. It hurts me to talk; something's 
 the matter with my lungs; my breath is short." 
 And falling over upon his back in a thicker 
 part of the shade, he groaned, and made out 
 by dint of exertion to put his giant-like wrist 
 in my hand, and said: "Examine, please, and 
 tell me what is the matter with me." 
 
 I felt his pulse, laid bare his broad, fat breast, 
 thumped it heavily with the sharp points of 
 my knuckles, put my ear on his solid chest to 
 listen to the regular rhythm of his perfect 
 lungs, felt his steely muscles, had him put out 
 his tongue as far as he could get it scraped it 
 with his bowie-knife, and looked down his 
 sound throat, tickling its palate and glands 
 with a grassy spray till he had several parox 
 ysms of coughing, made him spread his feet 
 wide apart as possible, and looked at him. 
 
 He watched me mournfully the while; and 
 as my face hardened and grew sad, his became 
 gloomier, and he said with betwixt-a-sigh-and- 
 sobtone, "Well!" 
 
 "Well," I replied, "the case is unmistakable. 
 How long have you been so? " 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 191 
 
 "I think it struck me," he said, "about last 
 Christmas. But what is it? Is it fatal? " 
 
 "The malady," I replied, "is like Clay's 
 "baby's whitening a natural one. It is deeply 
 seated, fearful in your case; the deadly fit is 
 on you now." 
 
 "In the name of Leina, Quien," he said, 
 "and all that's good, tell me what it is, and 
 how long I can last." 
 
 "It's an attack," I replied, "of incompar 
 able laziness and befuddled nostalgia." 
 
 Springing to his feet, he muttered the word 
 "fool," and walked away rapidly toward the 
 mountain, and we saw him scale a monster rock, 
 with the agility and strength of a grizzly, and 
 disappear in the shady dell beyond. 
 
 That night he said to me: "You are right. 
 I am homesick unendurably. Leina is ever 
 before me; I'm evermore kissing her in the 
 air, and talking to her. The children are 
 constantly climbing into my lap, upon my 
 shoulders, or yelling delightedly about me. 
 1 see them all, awake or asleep. I know they 
 are weary of boarding. Leina always insisted 
 that a family is never so happy as when in a 
 home of its own. One's own house, trees and 
 grass, and flower-plats, one's own folks and 
 birds within and without doors, one's own 
 
192 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 home is a heart-garden though a wilderness is 
 its bower, a waste its outlook, and poverty its 
 purveyor. I settled it on the mountain to-day. 
 I am going to Leina. I have been figuring it 
 up; I have sent to her the last few years not 
 quite twenty thousand dollars;" like all his 
 figuring, wrong, and this time by as much again 
 in his favor; "it's little enough to begin farm 
 ing with on my plan. But I'll soon quad 
 ruple it. Mack and Virginia and you must 
 share the gold now in hand, if you '11 pay my 
 fare home; for I have been a dead-head a long 
 time." 
 
 And home he started the next day with barely 
 nuggets enough to ticket him through. But 
 a check for nearly seven thousand dollars, his 
 share of the gold in hand when he left, danced 
 over the billows for him, without his knowledge, 
 in the same steamer that bore him from the 
 golden State. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 193 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DARK-EYED SENORITAS WAITING THEIR COMING. 
 THE DEAD ONE IN THE HEART OF THE FLAMES. 
 
 HE rigor and toil, mining in wet 
 pits, had made it judicious for 
 Virginia to take a valley vacation. 
 He left, with his pack upon his 
 back, for a trading- post; thence 
 he journeyed mule-back. He returned within 
 the month healthy as ever, with stories of fresh 
 cream and milk, and butter, and grapes, and 
 honey, and peaches, and women and children, 
 so delightful to us in the telling that we knew 
 he had dipped in the borders, at least, of con 
 ventional life again, and regretted that we had 
 not shared the trip. But we .had uncapped a 
 paying placer just before he got back, which 
 contented us. 
 
 We had learned to value him specially for 
 the information, trustfulness, and quiet cour 
 age that were transparent in his clear-cut 
 character. The good manners that obtain in 
 the unpretentious class of cultured Virginians 
 13 
 
194 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 graced him habitually. I have often thought 
 that the reason why the Mexican had not killed 
 him before he neared our camp the night of 
 the snow-storm, was because he feared to make 
 alone, even an assassinous stroke against him, 
 and wished to get him to his brother's camp 
 where help would be at hand. But fearing he 
 could not decoy him farther, he took the 
 chances with the precipice to help him to 
 murder him, at a blow and the fall, with noth 
 ing to betray him. But the belt of gold pre 
 vented, and the surprised scream revealed him. 
 So he took neither life nor gold. Virginia had 
 remarked concerning it: "He could have slain 
 me anywhere along the route, for not a sus 
 picion of evil in him had crossed my mind." 
 
 The valley trip had its strange scenes, too, 
 for Virginia. But we must let you hear him 
 tell them in thj tent-door with us. 
 
 "We moved along," he said, "man and mule 
 muffing the breeze spiced with the fragrance 
 of clover and wild grasses, to the Merced valley. 
 The trail wound south of the beaten track, 
 across bald hills, one and another with mural 
 sides, and through valleys pent into little plats, 
 and a gray streak of dust marked the gravelly 
 track we made across the plains. I got to a 
 bluff of the willowy river about noon one day, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 195 
 
 and leaving the mule to feed in grass breast- 
 high to him, I noted, while lunching, the 
 valley scene. It was about three miles from 
 bluff to bluff at that place, and widened to the 
 view down the narrow river that looked in its 
 rocky channel like flowing silver. A mile 
 below me an isle-like hill, shaded with broad 
 oaks, lifted its bust above the willows and 
 vines; and lakes of clover around it in which 
 cattle appeared to be swimming and browsing 
 as in green waves. And herds and flocks fed 
 also upon and around it, looking like elephants 
 in the mirage that magnified them, as they 
 moved from plat to plat, or stood upon the 
 isle -top and looked down upon the green 
 stretches, and the seemingly swimming pine. 
 The bees drumming about me from flower to 
 flower, and the quaint speckled magpies in the 
 cosy nooks with their fussy courtesies, kept me 
 company till the cool of the evening, when I 
 set out down the valley to find a ranch. Eeg- 
 iments of crows were in flight over it, and here 
 and there a cawing straggler skirred by to 
 overtake the main body. Now and then a deer 
 bounded away from the lonely pitapat of my 
 mule along the trail, and sped toward the 
 plains. Fawn-like rabbits loped carelessly 
 about me, and the whir of an eagle quickened 
 
196 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 my pulse, as lie bore one of them squeaking 
 into the willows. A bear, at the edge of a 
 blackberry thicket, reared on his haunches 
 and held out his arms to greet me. And twi 
 light came, and darkness settled upon the 
 valley, and yet I had found no ranch. The 
 rank weeds interwove across the untraveled 
 trail, as throngs of fire-flies lit up the path for 
 me with their dancing candles. A wolf howled 
 near me, and the querulous coyotes screamed 
 their peculiar chorus. I had begun to feel 
 nervous enough, when a fierce growl a few 
 yards to my left, scared my mule from under 
 me, or me off my mule. At any rate I found 
 myself, quicker than I can tell it, on my back 
 in the weeds, and then on a limb up an old 
 oak, whose outstretched boughs tangled, may 
 be, at the affrighted leap I made to get, into 
 them. I listened, from the limb, to my mule 
 plunging frantically through a lagoon, as he 
 tore away across the gloomy bottom. But a 
 nearer trouble claimed my thought, a noise 
 like dogs craunching bones; and I could see 
 dimly the willows sway to and fro in that par 
 ticular spot. Just then other fierce growls 
 woke up my hair, and soon the pack of wolves 
 snapped and howled, fighting round my tree, 
 as though the bone of contention trembled 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 197 
 
 about where I sat on the limb. In a few 
 minutes, however, some had trotted back to 
 the thicket, though several remained at the 
 foot of the tree munching the hard-worn frag 
 ments. 
 
 "The timber of the valley has one defect; 
 occasionally a ponderous limb, shooting out at 
 right angles from the body of the tree thirty 
 or forty feet, by weight of foliage and action 
 of heat and dry winds, would snap asunder 
 suddenly and crash to the ground. This had 
 not occurred to me perched in my leafy retreat, 
 but soon the reminder came. For as I was 
 safely, as I thought, peering down to fix the 
 number and position of the wolves, a sudden 
 pop-pop, and my limb crashed to the ground. 
 I clutched for my knife as I fell, and yelled 
 with horror. Though tangled in the branches 
 of the fallen limb, and struggling to swing my 
 self into another bough, I was aware by the 
 "oughs" of the wolves, and the thuds of their 
 wild leaps as they fled from the place, that 
 they thought something had happened what, 
 they shouldn't stay to see. But neither did 
 I stop for any thing till I was secure in the 
 topmost fork of the tree. I discovered, up 
 there, that in my fright I had not even drawn 
 my knife from its sheath. So if the wolves 
 
198 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 had attacked and had not fled, I should have 
 been as easy a prey as the deer whose frag 
 ments they were gnawing when I dropped 
 among them. They, doubtless, were terrified 
 by my yell, for there is truth in the saying 
 that the beasts of the forests are frightened at 
 the human voice. My downfall taught me how 
 to quicken a dull mind; for the velocity with 
 which mine traced my body into pieces, and 
 each piece turned into a wolf, was quick as a 
 wink, had seen it all before the first pop of the 
 breaking limb had more than touched the alert 
 ear. But as the night wore on, and the merry 
 stars slyly winked at me, my mind dipped into 
 the sea of laughing ether till the tree-top itself 
 seemed happy with merriment. 
 
 " Soon the moon rose and poured pale glory 
 upon every thing, yet her light revealed to my 
 eager eye no sign of human habitation. And 
 now the ticking of my watch was the noisiest 
 sound I heard for an hour, except the cry of 
 an owl, that seemed too lonesome to hoot more 
 than once; for a few moments after its mourn 
 ful call died out it sailed on silent wing over 
 my retreat, and I watched it out of sight mov 
 ing up the winding river. The flight of the 
 old necromancer deepened my sense of dreari 
 ness, yet reminded me of the convenience of 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 199 
 
 my leafy observatory for a talk with the stars. 
 But to every thing I said to them they replied 
 by only widening their bright eyes, and in 
 jerky fidgets; and I lamented that I had no 
 magic to entice them to tell me of the worlds 
 they journeyed around, the strange spaces 
 they traversed, their sufferings and their joys. 
 
 "That wonder, midnight, lay dreaming; 
 dreaming in the firmament, dreaming on groves 
 and river and plain. The shadows under the 
 trees, the moonbeams in the air, were asleep. 
 Nature had folded her starry mantle around 
 her, and, leaning on the arm of God, breathed 
 softly in trustful slumber. And incessant 
 chant, drawn from the harp of solitude, in 
 noiseless gush poured through the brain its 
 mysterious delirium, thrilling the being with 
 harmonies, till in its witchery the soul is con 
 scious that not a sound in earth's realm rivals 
 the musical reverie then dreamed by the ear. 
 What is it? 
 
 "Is it the rhythmic voices of light coming, 
 ever coming adown the heavens, to mingle with 
 the voices of the blood gurgling out of the 
 'golden bowl,' flowing ever in softest strains, 
 to cheer the body as it wears away? 
 
 "From the sky it floats down, from the earth 
 it floats up, inaudible, yet well heard, the voice- 
 
200 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 less music of silence. We see the silent flow 
 of the wave when the air lies asleep upon its 
 crest, but we fed the liquid sound thereof. 
 The melody of silence is articulate like it. 
 
 "Is it the music of the spheres? Can we 
 catch it, retain it long enough to word one 
 sweet strain of its countless euphonies? Here 
 they are above, beneath, around, within us, 
 softly opening every fountain of the soul till 
 it smiles, or weeps, or shouts a voiceless shout 
 of joy, and feels like leaping out upon the sea 
 of space to rnelt away and float off with the 
 silent strains that come, always come pouring 
 through us into the heart the melodies of silence. 
 
 "Is it the song of the sun-rays dying in the 
 lap of night? Or is it the gushing up to the 
 ear of God of the secret prayers of the good of 
 earth, meeting the answers coming down from 
 the throne of grace? 
 
 "The little children in their white robes, 
 ready for crib and trundle, kneeling, hands 
 clasped, hearts reverencing, lips parted, prat 
 tling tongues naming to God Jesus. What 
 a little mighty company! What a cloud of 
 prayers of innocence toddling up through the 
 solitude of space! How low and musical their 
 voices! What sweetness must their echoes 
 trace upon each airy wavelet that lies between 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 201 
 
 their little naked knees and the throned Christ 
 sending by cherubim the smiles of God down 
 upon them. This music of silence, is it the 
 echoes of child- voices ? saying: 
 
 Now I lay me down to sleep, 
 
 I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep; 
 
 If I should die before I wake 
 
 I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take, 
 
 For Jesus' sake. Amen. 
 
 "I know not what it is. I know that it is; 
 that it voices somehow to the soul a mysterious 
 melody that sets it to thinking of 'the things 
 unseen.' " 
 
 Mack interrupted him here. His practical 
 mind seemed to take alarm at "the melodies 
 of silence," and he suggested: "Is not silence 
 comparative, not absolute. Can there be a 
 moment when there are riot sounds in nature? 
 and if a sound, her silence is not complete; 
 and the waves of sound bearing a sound, how 
 ever soft and low, disturb sources of sound 
 that add another voice, and these others as they 
 swim in the spaces; and so the noiseless soli 
 tude is really vocal with sounds so tender, it 
 may be, that the ear cannot articulate them, 
 separately, from the music of the blood forever 
 flowing in. its mechanism. 
 
 " Thought may have a sound that reports it 
 
202 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 to thought; mercy may have a song as she 
 comes with blessing; emotion may have notes 
 that make its presence felt, but so soft that the 
 ear cannot hold them longer than only for the 
 soul to catch them, yet not to note their artic 
 ulation. In a world of sound-forces, many of 
 them must be ringing every moment, and their 
 journeying cadences refined, etherealized, min 
 gling with the blood's song in the ear, are the 
 melodies of silence. We hear them in, they 
 sound in, silence in that from its quiet realm 
 every harsher note is excluded. Your tree-top 
 reverie of melody must have been delightful." 
 "Yes," replied Virginia, "it was; and the 
 fact deepened my regret when I saw, before I 
 heard them, two horsemen, one close after the 
 other, coming straight across the bottom. The 
 pale moonbeams revealed their girdles of 
 weapons. The jingle of their heavy spurs, 
 and the grating of the horses' hoofs crossing a 
 rocky lagoon, frighted from the willows a band 
 of antelope that fled in pell-mell leaps under 
 my tree, passing toward the southern bluffs. 
 They came on leisurely as before, however, 
 those dusky midnight riders, as though not a 
 pulse were quickened by the sky-lit bounds of 
 the brown racers. They rode with bowed 
 heads, only every few rods they turned them 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 203 
 
 quickly right and left, peering athwart the 
 waste, and reined up in a group of trees with 
 in a hundred feet of me. 
 
 " Striking a match they lit cigarettes, which, 
 when puffed into thin smoke that drooped in 
 the breathless quiet, they replaced with others. 
 And without having exchanged a syllable, they 
 moved into the thickets of willows; and in a 
 little while the waters splashed over there as 
 they crossed the river going toward Tulare. 
 I had felt for my purse on sight of them, but 
 it was already gone. Before they came I had 
 sighed for the presence of man, and scanned 
 the dreary bottom again and again, hoping to 
 glimpse a human being. But the long breath 
 I drew when they were out of sight, out 
 of hearing, left me contented to be alone. 
 Whither were they going, on what errand, to 
 what fate, those speechless, nighted, heavily 
 armed, gloomy Mexicans? 
 
 "Perhaps they were edging ruin that soft 
 night of witchery; and on their souls the 
 shadows had fallen, like ghosts tokening to 
 them the hurrying woe. Perhaps they were 
 'honest miners' tired of the gold-hunt, and 
 were speeding to the banana-groves of their 
 tropic homes, dreaming, as they went, of 
 the dark-eyed senoritas waiting, watching, 
 
204 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 yearning for their coming. God keep them 
 in the way if they had pure love in their 
 hearts! For the angel Love works no ill to 
 his neighbor. A lineal descendant of the skies, 
 heaven lives where he dwells, and blesses where 
 he lives. When upon a world of hate Jesus 
 looked, he wept, and laying a hand of blessing 
 on it, said, 'Love."' 
 
 "Mexicans," said Mack, "love senoritas with 
 romantic flames, but experience little of its 
 thrill toward Anglo-Americans. They are 
 bitter, and I do not say unjustly so, that we 
 have overlapped their golden borders. Yet 
 Mexico, a mine of gems, an agricultural allu 
 vium, a pastoral, foliaged with precious stones, 
 fruits, and flowers, is kindling for fusion with 
 us. Its legends of tribal glory, its romances 
 of love and gold and power, the glitter of its 
 semi-barbarous religion, like the aisles of a 
 cathedral in ruins thronged with precious 
 memories, are dear to its people. Yet they 
 are aspiring to the surpassing realities that 
 base and zone and canopy our Protestant 
 realm with order, liberty, and prosperity." 
 
 "Their destiny," said Virginia, "shall, I 
 hope, be as glorious as their land. But the 
 tree-top in the valley was more peaceful by far 
 to me when the Mexican horsemen were gone. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 205 
 
 And, as if rejoicing with me, several meteors 
 traced bright paths through the sea of air, and 
 I joyfully observed their spangled trails fade 
 from purple into hazy blue, and perish in the 
 horizon. Sleep's lethed sensations were steep 
 ing me with forgetfulness afterward, when a 
 bright light eclipsed the stars, accompanied by 
 a muffled roar, and the burning meteor, several 
 inches in diameter, raced athwart the heavens, 
 and far out over the western plains burst 
 into fragments, and in hundreds of sparkles 
 dropped out of sight. 
 
 "Over me the planets had shone all night, 
 and poured steady glory on the scene, and I 
 honored them with quiet glances only. But 
 this glary, fussy thing had lifted me to my feet 
 in the tree-top, and won by its red rush my 
 admiration and wonder. It was the creature 
 of a moment, of eccentric course, without brave 
 steadiness of flames; had suddenly burst out 
 its soft brains against the pure ether it essayed 
 to voyage, while the planets, from their lofty 
 heights were still shining, forever shining 
 steady, constant, true. And I said: 'I am 
 what Tom called Quien in the trysting-place 
 diagnosis a fool ; the nearest wonder charms 
 me most.' But I sat down again in my aerie, 
 though delighted still with my meteor; and 
 
206 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 comfort, that sometimes comes from very un 
 seemly sources, came to me in the thought 
 that I was not an uncommon fool at any rate. 
 For the meteor is only the demagogue among 
 the stars, hazing their splendors by its sky 
 larking flight and hum. And is it not common 
 to applaud the demagogue? He rolls in mete 
 oric glare between us and the true, great men, 
 and we laud his gyratory career, neglectful of 
 the modest, unselfish, real, great workers in 
 Church and State, who flood the world with 
 good. 
 
 " The meteor had repelled the tides of sleep, 
 and its short life and tragic death evoked 
 memories almost smothered by the cumulose 
 experiences of the gold-fields. Of these mem 
 ories, ' school-days ' were just then freshest; 
 and the boys of long ago rose up like visions 
 of hope, and grew larger as they came toward 
 the tree, and at its roots they were men; and 
 one and another came climbing up to me in a 
 jolly way, till many were there with me, grouped 
 about upon the limbs. Soon a change came 
 over them from merry to serious, till the tree 
 appeared to be peopled by men with folded 
 arms, reflecting upon all the way their feet had 
 come in the journey of life. They represented 
 the professions, and several industrial arts. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES: 207 
 
 Some had achieved distinction, mojt were 
 hopefully biding it. There were others whose 
 happy voices rang in memory's play-ground, 
 who grouped not with us now, but were sleep 
 ing in graves among pines and palms and oaks. 
 Some fell in the red fields of the Mexican war; 
 several perished in personal feuds ; over others 
 fevers had piled the earth; delirium tremens 
 had raged away the lives of two or three ; others 
 were dead though living, for licentiousness had 
 made them loafers. Yet even these lazily saun 
 tered to the tree, and sung out in the old time 
 tones, 'Halloo, boys! come down out o' that!' 
 " You have met an hour that brought about 
 you the boys, and their traite, you were a boy 
 with, now grown to be men; and of them there 
 was not one that you did not feel, however life 
 had muddied him, like putting your arms 
 around, and talking over with him the scrapes 
 and joys you and he had shared together, 
 Such an hour was this to me; and though I 
 knew not if one of them was on the coast, yet 
 here they were with me, treed; even the ghosts 
 of some seemed to be sitting about among the 
 living; now a rolicking company, now a moody 
 though cheerful older company, dearer for the 
 lines of care, dearer for the casts of thought 
 the conflicts of years had printed on tjieir 
 
208 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 brows. How the old heart, manhood's heart, 
 goes back, backward, backward, arms stretched 
 out, to rub against its play-day mates, and 
 turns when it touches them, to greet them with 
 smiles and words as in the long ago. So I 
 mused till, when I looked about me again, my 
 old playmates were all gone. They had dropped 
 out of the tree one after another, while I was 
 thinking, and hid from me. I called, and they 
 wouldn't answer, and I scringed lest some 
 mischievous ones of them were about to 
 'chunk' me out the tree-top from their hiding- 
 places. But they were gone, the happy hour that 
 bore them to me would not be recalled. Pike 
 seemed then to stretch himself on the big limb 
 next me, and leaning on his elbow with his old 
 self-poise, said to me, as he did in our last 
 hunt together: 'Virginny, as our old mates 
 drop from the path o' the living, and vanish 
 out o' sight, so some time it will be with us. 
 Don't forget, Virginny, to be ready for that 
 time.' And he had gone, too, and I was alone 
 again among the tenantless boughs. 
 
 "The short night was verging toward morn 
 ing when a fire sprung up in the solitary bottom 
 a few hundred yards back of me. It was a full 
 blaze when I first beheld it, and the nearly 
 naked forms of many Indians were soon mov- 
 
CALIFORNIA COLD-FIELD SCENES. 209 
 
 ing about it. Their grotesque shapes were 
 sharply denned as they passed between me 
 and the fire they had kindled in a heap of dry 
 logs. And I saw, as a band of them placed 
 upon the pyre the dead body of one of the 
 tribe, that many others hurried to pile upon 
 the glowing heap great fragments of dry drift 
 wood. They reminded me of fiends tottering 
 under burdens of fuel to add to perdition's 
 fury. Soon their dead comrade was ablaze, 
 and his limbs, as the burning heap jostled and" 
 settled, moved and twisted about, and the 
 whole form afire seemed to writhe in convul 
 sions, as the flames moved this way and that, 
 as the startled air rushed from or toward the 
 pyre. The black smoke went up in gusts, and 
 hung in dark clouds just above them, and 
 every now and then the red heat and dancing 
 sparkles shot up, in fantastic gyrations, into 
 its bosom, then dropped back to the crackling 
 heap whose hissing roar drummed in my ear. 
 The Indians had formed in bands a few yards 
 from the pyre, and now and then gestured; 
 and I caught the notes of a wild chant. Soon 
 they whirled in frenzied circles round and 
 round the burning mass; and moans and 
 shrieks reached me, resounded like some imp 
 ish dirge breaking upon the chaste wastes of 
 14 
 
210 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 paradise. Bound and round and around they 
 whirled in leaping, capering antics; distorting, 
 contorting their dark, squirmy bodies; now 
 solemnly erect, then rushing in frantic coils 
 round the burning pyre again and again, until 
 they seemed to be the black, impish, quivering 
 brink of h 1. Then they fell apart, down, 
 and rolled over and over without the fire circle, 
 into the shadow of the trees, and uttered a 
 woful howl that agonized through the grove, 
 'and shattered into fiercely mournful echoes 
 against the thicker belt of timber that bordered 
 the river. Then all was silence, not an Indian 
 in sight but the remnants of the dead one in 
 the heart of the flames. Suddenly an old gray- 
 haired man, and crone, hopped out from the 
 shadow into the circle of light, and crouched 
 together close to the smoldering body. They 
 were still as stumps, save every now and then 
 they lifted their hands on high and wrung 
 them; and I knew they were chanting a wail, 
 as sounds like sorrow tortured once or twice 
 filled me with a pathetic grief I could not re 
 sist, until their lorn stark scream shrieked 
 through the tree-top where I sat, startling me 
 to my shivering feet, as they tossed over and 
 over back into the shadows again. 
 
 "Presently other fires were kindled, and the 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 211 
 
 squaws were engaged in toasting pieces of flesh 
 and entrails of boasts, and bearing them on 
 scales of bark to the warriors squatting on the 
 sward. And I saw one snatch a raw entrail 
 from the clutch of a squaw, and eat it dangling 
 between his teeth, with a greedy gusto like a 
 beast. Soon several dusky runners entered 
 upon the scene bearing the black bottles of 
 civilization, and the whisky gave to the execra 
 ble feast a turn that made the camp appear 
 like the habitation of dragons. 
 
 "How beautiful to me then was Christianity! 
 The burial scene, long ago, of my little win 
 some, soft-eyed sister passed before me. The 
 tasteful temple, the delicate case covered in 
 flowers, the prayers and hopeful words of the 
 minister, and sweet hymns of the decorous 
 assembly, the words of the resurrection shed 
 ding light upon the flowered grave where we 
 left her asleep in Jesus, were to me a charm 
 like voices from the heavenly world." 
 
 We were silent now. For involuntary tears 
 had fallen along Virginia's cheeks, from the 
 moment he had said "my little winsome, soft- 
 eyed sister," and his words thenceforward had 
 been tremulous and low and tender, till he 
 paused. And I must trust you to pardon me 
 for saying that I stepped without the tent into 
 
212 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 the shadows; for my little sister Addie, too, 
 had said to me when she died: "I shall be in 
 heaven, brother, waiting, just waiting to kiss 
 you there, Quien." And she seemed to me to 
 be saying the words to me again, in her coax 
 ing, soft way, and I did not care to be seen 
 weeping. O there are words niched away in 
 the heart's depths that touch it so tenderly, at 
 times, that it would nearly break were it not 
 for tears! 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 213 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 HER EYES WAS MIGHTY STRETCHT, AN* 
 SCART-LIKE. 
 
 dawn," said Virginia, when he 
 resumed his narrative, "the In 
 dians were gone; and descending 
 from the tree, I found my purse 
 among the branches of the limb 
 that had fallen with me early in the night. I 
 pursued the mule's track, and wading the la 
 goon, found my blanket pack just beyond it. 
 After going three or four miles I met an lowan 
 Who told me he had corralled the mule, and 
 was tracing its tracks to discover the rider. 
 'I am glad,' he said, 'that you are safe, and 
 within a mile can welcome you to a breakfast 
 of salmon and flapjacks.' He added, as we 
 moved toward his ranch : * Let me persuade you 
 to tarry with rne a spell. Just now is a time 
 of leisure with me; stay, and help me to be 
 lazy.' The proposal being 'pat to my natur'/ 
 as Pike used to intimate, I accepted, thanking 
 him for discerning my talent. 
 
 "'Your talent,' lie said, 'is not rare. I de^ 
 
214 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 voted yesterday to the lazy problem; and calc 1 - 
 lating 1,200,000,000 people in the world, I fig- 
 ured up seven industrious members of the 
 small community; and the laziness of the re 
 mainder averaged twenty tons each. I put 
 you down at fifty tons.' 
 
 "'Me!' I exclaimed; 'you knew nothing of 
 me. How did you manage to particularize so 
 nicely?' 
 
 " 'A month or so ago,' he replied, ' I traveled 
 by stage with a ruddy man who described his 
 claim, and said he could have gotten rich upon 
 it were it not for three of his partners, who, 
 besides being the poorest of financiers, were 
 the most industrious miners at being lazy in 
 the gold-fields, and that one of them would 
 visit this valley this season. That's the way 
 I come at the heft of you talent. I take you 
 to be one of Eothleit's partners.' 
 
 "Our pleasantest and a novel amusement 
 was shooting salmon as they struggled up the 
 shallows of the river, or were resting in the 
 crystal pools. They were easily killed by rifle, 
 or revolver, as far below the surface as six to 
 eight inches; but to obtain them certainly, 
 after having shot them, it was important that 
 the bullet pierced their heads just back of the 
 eyes; then they invariably floated to the sur- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 215 
 
 face with faint struggles, and were pulled 
 ashore with canes, or taken as they floated 
 down the shallows. We lost several seven or 
 eight pounders by inaccurate shots; and when 
 any were missed, it was strangely exciting to 
 observe their alarm at the concussion, and the 
 agile freaks of curves and angles they dis 
 played in darting to shelter in the clear depths. 
 
 " The Indians capture them with a long stick, 
 to one end of which a nail or piece of hard 
 wood is bound so as to dangle, to which a 
 string is attached that tightened along the pole 
 brings the nail to a point when thrust into the 
 fish, but falls to a horizontal when the string is 
 loosed; and the lithe creature cannot then get 
 away, however it struggles, unless an opening 
 tear through its sides two or three inches long. 
 With this instrument they take many of them 
 in the running season. They follow the river 
 for miles, the squaws carrying their infants 
 upon their backs in funnel-shaped baskets, or 
 willow lathes, and piles of salmon also; for 
 their haughty lords scout every burden, except 
 consummate ugliness be one. 
 
 " While wandering on the river-side, I saw a 
 company of them catching small fish. They 
 dived to the bottom, and felt with their hands 
 under the roots and rocks and banks; and oft- 
 
216 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 en they would bound to the surface, a fish 
 between their teeth, and one in each hand. 
 Occasionally they posed, as they rose to the 
 surface, with a cunning leer at their sweet 
 hearts on tho shore, as though about to eat 
 alive the wriggling fish between their teeth, 
 and their darlings looked down upon them, and 
 smiled. So the Indian, though his life is dark 
 with savagery, has -his Red Cloud to gild it 
 with joy. 
 
 "Everywhere, woman i&, the earth-angel. In 
 this instance her black hair is coarse as horse- 
 mane, grows low down upon her forehead, is 
 quite unkempt; but it is her own, not borrowed; 
 hair, not flossed bark. This she leaves to the 
 Blonde Cloud who pours smiles upon the In 
 dian's kind Christianized white brother, who 
 never cheats him of any of his land except the 
 whole of it, nor of any of his fisheries and 
 game-haunts except all of them. 
 
 "Wearying of fish, we crossed the treeless 
 plains southward to visit an old Arkansas 
 frontiersman whose life had been spent trap 
 ping and hunting. We soon parted in the roll 
 of hills, attempting to reach different bands of 
 antelopes, and I had ridden an hour without 
 more than glimpsing him upon the brown 
 landscape. While watching a band of ante- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 217 
 
 lopes grazing, at the base of a knoll, in tlie 
 manner of goats, he turned the point at full 
 speed and gave chase to the surprised, bound 
 ing creatures, singling from the rest a lordly 
 stag, whose dingy antlers like sprangled sta 
 lactites were thrown back on its shoulders as 
 it sped wildly toward the tules. The space 
 slowly diminished between them till, ere eight 
 hundred yards had been raced, white puffs of 
 smoke told me the revolver was at work, and in 
 a few more convulsive leaps the antlered king 
 fell over upon the sward, his last race run; and 
 we left him there upon his native heather. 
 The lowan said: 'This is the second antelope 
 I have fairly outrun with this mustang. A 
 really fleet horse would have come up with 
 him in two-thirds the distance. Antelopes 
 scarcely ever go more than a mile in three 
 minutes.' 
 
 "The mustang, as to beauty of form, speed, 
 and bottom, is usually overstated. The domes 
 ticated horse often excels him in those quali 
 ties, as well as in docility. He is too, perhaps 
 invariably, tricky to the end. The one my 
 friend rode was a select specimen, arbd had 
 been subdued to the saddle for three years. 
 Yet I would not have risked his bucking devil 
 try- or, to phrase it less aptly, bucking ingenu- 
 
218 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 ity for him. His master, however, seemed to 
 grow to him joyfully in his mad, stiff-legged, 
 bouncing, jerking leaps, to unseat him, of 
 which 'bucking* is the descriptive appellation. 
 
 "The flowers had retreated from the plains 
 to the quaggy spots of the valley, and fringed 
 them with variegated beauty. And the wild 
 oats, having long matured, had fallen before 
 the winds and wild animals, and were lying in 
 tangles of waste over thousands of smooth 
 acres. The old hunter had pitched his tent 
 near the bank of the small river of the valley 
 we had entered. Perhaps the name, Mariposas 
 Butterflies, was given expressive of its flowery 
 splendor in spring attracting myriads of that 
 many-hued insect, to wing away their short 
 lives, dancing through its charming mazes. 
 
 "He was absent, but his wife and children 
 "welcomed us. Our meal was stewed rabbit 
 and boiled cracked wheat nothing else, save 
 the inimitable pleasantry of the apologies of 
 the hostess. What a being is an amiable, 
 pure-spirited woman! That dinner was a lux 
 ury, made so by the welcome of the heart, which 
 set a joy with us richer than a feast at which 
 no viands were missing, not even a welcome but 
 tMs lacking the unique grace of expression and 
 manner of this daughter of the frontier. Sho 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 219 
 
 knew nothing of * polite life,' yet so truly did 
 she blend in her character the high virtues of 
 refined womanhood that a princess could not 
 have exceeded her in commanding respect and 
 imparting happiness. 
 
 " But the hunter was at home an hour after 
 dinner with supplies, and made us know we 
 were as near home as we could be outside our 
 own tents. We were on the plains next morn 
 ing, and by midday had killed more antelopes 
 than we could conveniently pack to the tent. 
 We had lunched and napped upon the carpet 
 of clover, under some low-boughed oaks, when 
 our eyes were arrested by a far-off rifleman 
 afoot, passing toward the valley. And the 
 hunter's spy-glass brought his form so near 
 that he recognized him as his brother; and the 
 lowan rode briskly away, leading a horse to 
 bear him to our shade. He ate the remainder 
 of our lunch while detailing a murder perpe 
 trated thirty miles away two nights before. 
 He said: 'It was jest two old folk a-livin' by 
 therselves ; an 1 they lived in as pritty a cove as 
 runs out from the main valley of the Merced, 
 a leetle way among the hills. They was as 
 innercent a good old couple as you ever see, 
 a-tryin' to be happy by hard work, an' nobody 
 lived nigh onto them. A caravan o' Mexicans 
 
220 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 had spent the day close by, and had bought 
 melons from 'em. They went to bed arly, and 
 a leetle arter night set in some Mexicans come 
 iii their tent and cut the poor old man to death, 
 an' tied the ole 'oman an' rolled her under the 
 bed onto the dirt floor, an' tol' her one on 'em 
 would stay thar and watch her ontil mornin', 
 an' ef she moved he would cut her heart out 
 alive. An' thar she lay ontil arter midnight, 
 poor ole fursaken creetur, a-scart to ketch her 
 breath a'most; the blood out o' her husband's 
 heart were a-drappen' off the bed onto her 
 face, an' all about on her. But hearin' nothin' 
 but the blood draps a-patterin' agin her cheeks 
 an' 'bout on her hands an' dress, an' the owls 
 a-hooten' in the tree over the tent, she arter 
 awhile ontied herself, an' peered 'bout in the 
 dark, for the moon wern't nigh riz, an' the 
 blessed ole creetur as she crept about slipped 
 down in the blood an' hurt herself. But seein' 
 an' hearin' nothin', she crept out into the dark, 
 an' crossed the river, an' the bar thickets, an' 
 the big bottom 'mong the beasts, ontil she got 
 out on t'other side, an' went to the stage-stand 
 afore day-break, an' tole 'em thar about it. 
 Her eyes was mighty stretcht, an' still, an' 
 scart-like, when she were a-talkin' o' the blood 
 a-drippin' an' a-fallin' pitapat, drip, drip, pita- 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 221 
 
 pat, pit, pit, pitapat on her face an' neck; an' 
 like the tarnal fool I allus was, I went to cry- 
 in' an' a-breshin' the blood off o' her, a-sayin' : 
 'Never you mind it any more, mother; never 
 you mind it; you 's 'mong frien's note. We '11 
 captivate 'em afore noon, an' regerlate 'em by 
 ther necks to a limb.' But the women tuck 
 her right away to ther room, an' was a- whisper- 
 in', an' runnin' round mighty soft in no time; 
 fur they said she were fainted.' 
 
 " We were all silent before the naked horror 
 of the statement. And the hunter's brother 
 added: ' We sarched the valley and the hills for 
 them murderin' robbers, but found none we 
 could believe was the right ones.' 
 
 "'I have read,' said the lowan, making a 
 slight rift in the gloom the story had put upon 
 us, 'that the man who commits one homicide 
 is likely to kill others; that to shed blood 
 creates an inclination to shed blood.' 
 
 "'I have learned to b'lieve that, 9 replied the 
 hunter; 'I've known it to be that way. A 
 human is like a miser'ble lion that's got a 
 taste o' our blood he 's greedy to lap it ag'in. 
 Better destroy a man-killer afore he kills 
 someboby else; he's whetted up fur it. It's 
 so with me. I hate a snaky Injun wherever I 
 sees him, an' am real sorry these pesky Call- 
 
222 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 forny tribes ain't wuth shootin'. I Ve had so 
 many fracases with ther sort on the branches 
 o' the Massysip that my fingers nateiiy feel 
 for the trigger when I see one o' the yallar 
 sarpints. I feel like shootin' him just to see 
 him jump, or to hear his death-yell at the 
 crack o' the gun. I 've got at my tent now the 
 best razor-strap you ever see, made out'n a 
 piece o' the hide o' one on 'em we killed atween 
 Pike's Peak an' the Platte. I '11 show it to you 
 when we get back thar to-night.' 
 
 "And dreading lest there might be truth in 
 his theory, I said to him on the spot: 'Friend, 
 I 'm black-haired, and rather dark, sun-tanned, 
 you know; and my clothes are none of the best. 
 If you see an Indian on the plains this even 
 ing, take second look before you shoot; may 
 be it's me. And I'm not ready yet for the 
 jump and death-yell at the crack of your gun.' 
 
 "That night at the tent he showed us his 
 * Injun-hide razor-strap,' and it was a good 
 one. It was thick as calf -skin, open-grained, 
 yet delicately smooth to the touch. And he 
 said, 'I stripped it off from atween his 
 shoulders.' " 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 APPEAEED AS THOUGH THE DEAD WERE ftlSEN, 
 AND WERE MOVING, GROUPING, PARTING IN 
 NOISELESS AWE. 
 
 OCALTTIES affect us. Mount 
 ains impart their ruggedness, 
 not rudeness; valleys their soft 
 ness. In the one the mind 
 dreams quick, clear, but dreams, 
 yet mounts over obstructions, adhering to its 
 purpose till the height is attained. It then 
 rests up there and drinks in the scenes above, 
 about, below, and throws back to the strug- 
 glers up an exhilarant call, and bends over the 
 brink to give a firm helping hand to them, who, 
 clinging among the crags, have a few more 
 crevices to thrust fingers and toes in carefully, 
 icell as they can, holding on, straining up, to 
 get on top to do likewise. 
 
 In the other, the mind dreams, dreams soft 
 ly; wanders along and wanders; and in the 
 quietness and restfulness of the scenes, it takes 
 in the soft sweet thoughts of life, and dallies 
 
224 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 with them, fondles them till it becomes enam 
 ored with the nicer delights of the heart and 
 leaps all separating distances and floats over 
 every barrier, and counts all else but loss, till 
 it embraces and is caressed by them. At least, 
 so it had been with Tom. In the mountains, 
 among their jumbled heights, jutting promon 
 tories, and wild chasms, he was a jubilate, keep 
 ing, however tired as he always was, joyfully 
 to his one purpose of gold. But soon as he 
 snuffed the valleys, and dwelt among the little 
 hills that bordered them, the tender things of 
 life asserted themselves till, as he said, he was 
 forever kissing them in the air. And so it was 
 now with Virginia: his return from the valley 
 was the signal of his return to the Atlantic 
 States. For, as we were sitting one day in early 
 autumn among the laughing hills, he said: 
 "I shall leave by the next steamer for the 
 Atlantic States; shall go to Kentucky first aft 
 er landing in New York." 
 
 I was not at all surprised when he said 
 " Kentucky first," for when he said it he had 
 open in his palm the locket that contained the 
 little bright, quiet picture he had shown to 
 us in the snow-storm among the peaks. So 
 we sold the claim, divided gains, saw him 
 aboard ship at San Francisco, and went again 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 225 
 
 into the Sierras far northward, and took 
 into partnership an experienced miner called 
 " Maine." 
 
 Though we discovered a rich placer among 
 rollicking cascades and echoing forests in the 
 depths of the mountains, the new environments 
 somehow admitted to me hours of drearest de 
 pression. It must have been in one of the dark 
 est of those evil hours that I wrote to Hoth in 
 New York, whither he had gone " to live for 
 ever," he said. 
 
 About that time insanity was busy with men's 
 brains on the gold-fields. Dissipation, and hope 
 wrecked, drifting to pieces like a holiday ship 
 beaten to fragments by breakers on the reefs 
 to the utter surprise of the gay voyagers, had 
 lashed many minds into distraught fury, and 
 set them raving on the gold-fields, or pursued 
 them with blighted dreams to their old Atlan 
 tic homes, and smitten them there amid the 
 soft, sweet scenes. Koth knew so much, or 
 thought he did, at least he hoped so much, 
 that I had often dreaded lest he should go daft. 
 And at last the dread seemed to be fully real 
 ized; for, while visiting a town a dozen miles 
 or more from the mine to get our mail, and 
 deposit the gold we had accumulated, I re 
 ceived from him the following letter: 
 15 
 
226 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 "NEAB C , NEW YORK, . 
 
 "Dear Quien: Crazy. Gone mad. Insane. 
 Been expecting it a long time. Go to the ex 
 press-office. Come here at once. It will help 
 me to see you. Leina's in much grief about 
 it in perfect sympathy with me. I am too 
 nervous to write. In haste, yours, 
 
 "T. E. BOTHLEIT." 
 
 After reading it I was strangely distressed 
 about Roth thought it specially hard that he 
 had survived the gold-field mishaps to go crazy 
 so soon after he got back safely to his family 
 on the Atlantic slope. But I rejoiced that he 
 had mind enough left to know that he was 
 crazy, and to feel concern to have me with him 
 in his drear paroxysms. So I consoled myself 
 while retracing the trail athwart gorge and 
 mount to the distant mine. Stepping from the 
 zigzag trail a few yards, I rested on the skyed 
 crag that hung over the pretty town. {The 
 town two thousand yards from me, and many 
 feet below the crag, seemed, in the transparent 
 atmosphere -of the season, about to float up off 
 the rocks and hills and ravines it occupied. 
 Its streets appeared like mere alleys from the 
 height, and the busy men appeared like small 
 boys, and scarcely to move, though all astir, I 
 knew; for it was "business hours," and they 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 227 
 
 were on the rush. Ladies appearing like little 
 girls, seemed not to walk but to float away 
 from cottage gates, and pause as group met 
 group, then drift apart and away so slowly that 
 the mind was witched as the eye noted how 
 they seemed to swim apart, standing in the 
 ether, so softly and slowly that many moments 
 elapsed before any separating space between 
 them appeared to the beholder. Not a sound 
 came up to the crag from the town; so they, 
 men and women, appeared to me as though the 
 dead were risen and were moving, grouping, 
 greeting, parting, in noiseless awe. They 
 moved apparently just above the ground, for 
 their feet and lower limbs were indistinguish 
 able, giving the impression that they were in 
 a sea of ether, with those members under the 
 surface; for not a footfall of all the many in 
 view^ pressed the earth visibly to me. 
 
 As I gazed they were under sudden arrest, 
 as if in the moment planted in the air where 
 they stood. Up, down the streets they paused 
 and faced in one direction. I saw two or three, 
 quicker of will than the remainder, hurrying 
 like little balloons in human shape, up a street 
 whitherward every one seemed now to float 
 some faster, some slower, some veering about, 
 some smoothly, but all floating, not running. 
 
228 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 "Fire," I thought. But as the eye swept 
 from point to point of, to me, the silent but re 
 ally tumultuous town, no token of conflagra 
 tion was seen. Soon the throngs poured to 
 gether into and around a white cottage that 
 crowned a hill like a smile of peace and hope; 
 and I knew that there lay the motive whose 
 electric spark had drawn them all to one spot. 
 But I heard not the pistol-shot, nor saw from 
 the crag nearer the sky the suicide in the rear 
 of that pretty home, with the bullet in his 
 brain, kneeling over on his face, who had 
 thrilled the multitude with one thought red- 
 handed, hard, desperate death. 
 
 Now and then an incident grates upon the 
 keel of our barques, journeying the sea of life, 
 and fills us with dismay as chartless reefs do 
 sailors on the deep. Such a one is when a 
 sensitively honorable man, as in this instance, 
 lays violent hands upon his own life and bursts 
 through its casket into the presence of God. 
 We inquire of the horror the cause, and only 
 echo answers us; answers us whose eyes pierce 
 not deeper than the reddened surface, whose 
 ear hears only that which is voiced. But is it 
 therefore hidden from retribution's inquest? 
 And when this comes does it not often disclose 
 that others' sins set aflame his heart with the 
 
CALIFORNIA G OLD-FIELD SCENES. 229 
 
 evil fire of despair; that others, whom he had 
 implicitly trusted, had beguiled him into a sea 
 of trouble, and having stolen from him every 
 refuge, left him to the tempestuous, reefy, 
 chasmy waves, out of sight of rescue, to leap 
 madly into the depths? They may survive 
 richer, mightier grow; yet how can their glory 
 foil God turn from them the arrows of his 
 justice? 
 
230 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 BONAPAKTEAN. 
 
 N reaching the camp I said noth 
 ing to Mack about Roth's insan 
 ity; was averse to break to him 
 the grewsome tidings of his old 
 comrade and special friend. He 
 seemed, too, to be particularly reticent that 
 night, and whenever I awoke he was sitting up, 
 and threw quick, searching glances upon me. 
 His voice had an anxious yet soothing tone 
 when he spoke to me that was not its wont, 
 for it was habitually an exhilarant voice that 
 conveyed laughing gas. He constantly faced 
 me, too; was never at my side as aforetime; 
 and in the morning I remarked that his pallet 
 was untumbled. If he slept at all during the 
 night it was a nodding sleep from the camp- 
 stool opposite me. He proposed that we should 
 not mine that day, but rest and stroll, as he 
 had brought on vertigo the day before by over 
 work. It was ever an easy task, Both always 
 said, to persuade me not to work; so we lounged 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 231 
 
 away the slow, sunny hours till noon, when 
 Wyche L., Roth's cousin, came to us from 
 beyond a mountain eastward. He had come 
 a few years before, fresh from the college- 
 halls of New York, to California soon as he 
 had been graduated; had returned to his old 
 home, and was now back again on the gold- 
 fields. Skylarking is hardly descriptive of him, 
 but enough so to suggest the keennes^ with 
 which he discerned, enjoyed, and ministered to 
 the absurdities that everywhere in the gold- 
 fields bubbled to the surface. He and Mack 
 interviewed each other with a letter between 
 them, apart from me, after which I somehow 
 felt that they constantly and with kindly con 
 cern watched me. If I stepped to the mine to 
 have a word with Maine, who dug and scooped 
 and shoveled, visitors or no visitors, as though 
 he thought the gold was smothering to death 
 under the rocks, they followed me, noting 
 each movement and expression of face and 
 eyes. If I went to the spring, they kept me 
 in sight. If I entered the conversation, they 
 sadly glanced and blinked to each other the 
 while. So I scaled the mountain to see the 
 sun jostle his wheels against the coast-range 
 and plunge over into the sea out of sight; for 
 I tired of their surveillance. They were soon 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 at my side, with polite pleasantries as excuse 
 for joining me, 
 
 It occurred to me that then was the oppor 
 tune time to inform them that lloth had gone 
 crazy ; and I did so. Mack looked bewildered, 
 and sadder by far than I had ever observed in 
 him before; and Wyche appeared bewildered 
 too, and strangely sobered. And I gave Roth's 
 letter to Mack and asked him to read it out to 
 us. After reading he dropped it on the ground, 
 and his sorrowing eyes fell on my face and 
 leaped to Wyche's in startled inquiry. Wyche 
 was deeply dejected, and I began to regret hav 
 ing given them the tidings, when Wyche took 
 a fit. He seemed to be in much pain about 
 to burst. He tossed about on the brown grass, 
 bit his lips, pressed his sides with his hands, 
 dug his heels in the turf, rolled over; his cheeks 
 swelled; his eyes shone, twinkled, danced as 
 they fell upon me; and he surrendered himself 
 to the fit that convulsed him. We were in a 
 few minutes about to bleed him with a small 
 knife, but a wrenching spasm twitched him 
 from between us, as his paroxysm whirled him 
 to and fro in a boisterous wave of ridiculous 
 laughter. But as he tossed to me the following 
 letter Mack caught it away sadly as I was 
 reaching for it, his kind face full of confusion. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 233 
 
 " Nonsense, Mack, nonsense! " lie exclaimed. 
 " He '11 not mind Koth. They are both crazy. 
 Give him the letter." 
 
 And so he did, and here it is: 
 
 " - , NEW YOKE, . 
 
 "Dear Mack and Wyche: I wish I were there 
 to lislp you with Quien S. I know you are 
 troubled to know what to do with him in his 
 insanity. You should have written to me about 
 it. I have only heard of it by a letter from 
 himself, and I infer from it that his chief de 
 lusion and many other evil delusions always 
 mix with that is that he is haunted by an as 
 sassin: a sick whim of his dazed intellect, of 
 course. While with him I had much ado 
 to keep him in his right mind, if he had 
 any such. He was my old partner, you know ; 
 he can't help his brains, and I cannot but feel 
 very deep concern for him. Take the best care 
 of him for my sake. 
 
 " Usually you may do any thing with him 
 by kindness; but if this fails, and you are care 
 ful, you may readily scare him into meas 
 ures. He has at times unwittingly helped me 
 out of trouble, and, somehow, I like him for 
 old toil's sake on your coast. Boys, stick to 
 him. Don't let him be taken to the lunatic 
 asylum at Stockton. I can care him" (he had 
 
234 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 but one cure for every ill tincture of arnica). 
 "Decoy him to the nearest town, and keep 
 him in the best rooms of the hotel till one or 
 both of you can start to New York with him 
 by the November steamer. Spare neither your 
 selves nor money to make him comfortable. 
 I'll foot all bills. Have remitted to him by 
 express enough, I hope ; ought to have directed 
 it to Mack, who will please get it and use for 
 Q." (Mack had got it.) "Don't chain him; 
 bind him with soft ropes if he rages. Do n't 
 for the world hurt him. I would prefer to suf 
 fer half death than he should have a needless 
 bruise. 
 
 "He nursed me when I had the small-pox, 
 he called it; it was nothing but the nettle-rash, 
 really, that developed under his treatment into 
 a universal splotch of overgrown pimples, and 
 pitted up my face a little" (it would have pit 
 ted him in a thousand spots but for me), "but 
 it's all the same; he thought it was the small 
 pox. And, besides, I was about to be killed 
 once, and he, accidentally no doubt, got mixed 
 up in the melee, and trying to run out knocked 
 over the man who was sticking his bowie into 
 me, tripped one of the others who was pummel- 
 ing me, and butted or got the other down some 
 how, so I easily managed the crowd. On some 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 235 
 
 other occasions he did me similar small fa 
 vors. 
 
 " I would come for him myself, but Leina 
 dissuades me, and says 'she would make the 
 voyage for no such fool.' Boys, if you will be 
 kind to him, as you would to me in his condi 
 tion, and bring him to New York yourselves, I 
 shall always thank you. 
 
 "Poor, simple-hearted fellow! He was try 
 ing to make money enough to return to the 
 States and marry I forget whom ; some sim 
 pleton, doubtless. I suspect he has been chis 
 eled out of every thing. He was never better 
 adapted to business than a Digger Indian is 
 to translate the Odes of Horace, or construe 
 the language and brain of Goethe, and is the 
 worst of financiers; hence his insanity. 
 
 "But I will meet you at the Astor House 
 1st of December. Yours, etc., 
 
 "T. R. EOTHLEIT." 
 
 When I had read this letter, lying on the 
 turf propped upon my elbow, my right ear 
 clutched in my hand, Wyche had dismissed 
 the affair from his mind, but Mack still 
 watched for insane symptoms, evidently; 
 though he had never thought of one in me till 
 he had received tho letter the day before, and 
 sent Wyche word to come to the mine. But 
 
236 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 he at least repressed his doubts, and we re 
 turned the money to Both with some exquisite 
 specimens for his wife and children. 
 
 That night at the camp-fire California 
 "church-going," among much else, was dis 
 cussed, and Wyche said: 
 
 "Not long after I got to this country I at 
 tended a church service. The minister, in 
 some illustrative paragraph, said: 'The First 
 Napoleon was greatest of the Caesars. Had he 
 been like "Washington, too great for a palace, 
 too patriotic for a crown, his name could 
 scarcely be peered on the roll of the ages. 
 His genius mocked kings trampled thrones, 
 and raised France to be a power so great as 
 to require allied Europe in arms to repulse her. 
 Nor was it till the monarchs knew that his 
 ashes were urned in the rock in the ocean's 
 heart that their crowns ceased to tremble.' 
 
 "A Frenchman rose to his feet, stepped into 
 the aisle, paused a moment, marched to the 
 pulpit, placed a coin from his thin purse upon 
 the tablet, and fixing his eyes in the preach 
 er's, said: Napole?/ooM le Grande! Fr&nsay! 
 Napolez/ooH// There, give you that; go now 
 git you more. Napole?/flo;z / / / ' 
 
 "And the thrilled old Frank, leaving a Na 
 poleon on the pulpit-tablet, marched down the 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 237 
 
 aisle out of the church like a soldier of 'the 
 old guard,' eyes flashing as though a volcano 
 of Vives Napoleon were rumbling in his 
 heart. I felt like the Fourth of July was pres 
 ent cheering the old Gaul, and was ready to 
 lock arms with him, and march down the aisle, 
 America and France together. 
 
 " Some months after, I asked the preacher 
 if he had met the Frenchman since. ' Yes,' he 
 replied ; ' as I stepped from the church to the 
 sidewalk one Sunday afternoon, he was passing 
 up the street by zigzags. On meeting me he 
 paused, stood erectly, still as a statue a few mo 
 ments, touched his cap in military salute style, 
 and reeled on, his eye flaming as if he could 
 leap through St. Helena. I intended, on op 
 portunity, to return to him the coin, if it could 
 be done with proper regard to his sensibilities; 
 for I noticed at the time he gave it it was all 
 his purse held, and I thought he was keeping 
 it as a memorial of the France of his early 
 years. But as he passed me, veering to and fro 
 across the sidewalk like a ship lurching be-, 
 tween waves, I knew it was no time for a nice 
 parley. For then he had not only French fire 
 in him (which may God bless), but hell-fire 
 that is, brandy from which good Lord deliver 
 
238 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 Mack, whose veins carried a strain of 
 French, from his Creole mother, said: 
 
 " Napoleon's name will live wherever France 
 has a son worthy her motherhood. It is mag 
 netic. Here, with many years and continents 
 and seas between him and France, a banished 
 Frenchman lashed by broken fortunes and 
 hope's failures, springs to his feet at its men 
 tion, makes of his last coin a thank-offering in 
 its honor, and repeats it proudly in the very 
 chancel of God's temple, amid the homage of 
 worshipers. It is the synonym of the people's 
 governor, the people's choice against heredita 
 ry monarchy. The fires of liberty are in it, 
 and the France that he reclaimed will never 
 down at a king's bidding for any long period. 
 Her licentiousness and infidelity are dying, 
 and as she drinks in the pure life of Christian 
 faith and principle she will rise to Christian 
 liberty and equality. Her sentiment is the 
 American sentiment, and their eagles have 
 been in sympathy since hers brought to ours, 
 in its conflict with kingly tyranny, her diplo 
 macy and treasure and blood. Were Napo 
 leon living now, he wo aid be the president, 
 not the emperor, of the French. The name 
 Napoleon will survive that of Bourbon. The 
 name Napoleon will survive that of emperor." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FILED SCENES. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 WITH SONGFUL WINDS AMONGST THE BOWING 
 FLOWERS. 
 
 KNOW not which was merriest 
 in camp that night because of 
 Tom's letter's estimate of me. 
 Mack, especially after his Na 
 poleonic rocket, seemed to vie 
 with Wyche and Maine in helping me to re 
 member it. And you may have been waiting 
 for some token of my "feeling" about it. 
 Feeling. Well, feeling. But you know Tom. 
 Yet I think he believed about as he wrote. 
 But when the stars blinked midnight to us 
 from their swinging beds we were all awake. 
 For Maine, who had snored a solo an hour and 
 more, seemed as fresh as we who had idled 
 most of the day. 
 
 The smoke from an Indian camp floated over 
 a ridge and settled in the ravines north of us; 
 the rivulet leaped over the little falls, but was 
 too dry to make much fuss about it; and the 
 donkey waking the echoes, crawled nearer the 
 fire and, lying down, watched us pretty much 
 
240 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 as a fine old mastiff would have done; while I, 
 in memory of Tom and the brown donkey, took 
 him a loaf of bread, and staid by him till he 
 ate it. I returned to the group as Wyche said: 
 "Tom, however, is not alone in egotism, by 
 many. They are met on campus, platform, 
 bench, in the temple of justice, in that of mer 
 cy, on the deck at sea; almost everywhere they 
 appear whose god is egotism. You refuse to 
 resent the absurdities of the god because of 
 the virtues amid which unhappily he is throned. 
 With such a one whatever good is wrought or 
 evil avoided, lie did it, however trifling the part 
 he enacted. Nothing is that he could not have 
 bettered, and to all that is his connection there 
 with imparts all of worth that attaches. He 
 looks up at the capitol's dome; it is an archi 
 tectural marvel, but not before he beheld it. 
 The look he cast to it invested it with the pen- 
 cilings of genius, and, he rather thinks, built 
 and paid for it. He is drowned in the surf; 
 you bear him to the strand, recall him to life; 
 he saved himself just then had conquered the 
 wave when you uselessly grasped him. You 
 find him unknown, herald him to fame, make 
 for him opportunity, cluster honors upon him ; 
 he did it himself. He is as oblivious of your 
 handiwork in his fortunes as the world is of 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 241 
 
 that of editors in supplying, directing, and 
 wreathing its brain with honors. 
 
 "If he speaks, the eloquence of Demos 
 thenes is eclipsed, that of Webster a baseless 
 vision. If he battles, though it be with a wisp 
 of cobwebs, the day was the bloodiest, the slain 
 countless. His definition of something is him 
 self; of nothing, the world without him. You 
 do not disturb his conceit by bursting his bub 
 ble; yet you feel that egotism, though set in a 
 coronet, tarnishes the brilliance and repels like 
 a serpent coiled among flowers. Ketaining 
 your attachment for the man, you excuse him 
 by laughing at the god. ' That god, Egotism ! ' 
 you say, and forgive his assumacy." 
 
 "You could better tolerate him," said Maine, 
 "if he were satisfied with self-puffing. But 
 he as certainly detracts from others as he ex 
 aggerates himself. He outlines his own pict 
 ure on a large scale, and much overcolors it; 
 and draws others' pictures in a cramped scale, 
 and much overshades them." 
 
 " Taking others' pictures is a delightful art," 
 said Mack, " if numbers devoted to it are good 
 evidence. Nearly all are artists in this line, 
 each esteeming himself ' an old master.' If the 
 pictures they paint with lip and pen are 'true 
 to life,' this world hath in it saints but one, 
 16 
 
242 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 devils all beside; nobody's great, good, but 
 one, and lie guides the pencil. Ah! here the 
 rub is. Egotism, or a god like him, inspires 
 the artist to shade deeply every picture save 
 his own, and this the vision of his own fancy. 
 But as he too is painted by another, we will 
 find him grouped somewhere, a scowling rep 
 robate like all the rest. Only if man had made 
 man, what a wonderful piece of mechanism he 
 would have been! But as God made him, and 
 in his own likeness, he's but a meager beast 
 at best. True enough, he is much marred by 
 the devil, and himself far bent from the origi 
 nal design; but surely he has not been defaced 
 of all the touch divine. They must see him 
 through a glass, darkly, or their pictures would 
 have more light, less shadow, except when ex 
 tremes are brought upon the easel." 
 
 The points of fire that, at intervals, had been 
 coming this side the ridge from the Indian 
 camp, like magnified points of stars thrust 
 through the fissured ravines nearest its top, 
 had widened and lengthened and run round, 
 and met in the narrower spaces here and there, 
 till it appeared like many islands floating in est 
 uaries of flame. And the wind, setting in from 
 us thither, pushed the encircling flames rapid 
 ly upward till the tops of the ridge appeared 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 243 
 
 like illuminated cones of rock and plant sink 
 ing in the roaring billows of the burning sea. 
 We beheld the unusual spectacle with bated 
 breath. And as from her lair a brown bear 
 with her cubs started this way and that, and 
 climbed to the summit, and watched the encir 
 cling flames on all sides, oar hearts hushed 
 beating in the concern we felt for the poor 
 beasts. But a few moments decided the anx 
 ious mother; and placing her paw caressingly 
 upon each of her twins for an instant, she 
 turned down to a point where the fiery estuary 
 was narrowest, and, lying down, rolled over it, 
 followed by the imitative cubs. An involunta 
 ry shout rang from our throats as we recog 
 nized the grandness of motherhood displayed 
 in the bear. And as just below the circle of 
 heat she paused on a broad, fire-lit rock in 
 safety, and licked and fondled and played with 
 the cubs, the soft, sweet scenes of mother's 
 love and delighted tenderness in trouble and 
 in joy touched our hearts ; and as, presently, she 
 pierced the unburning chapparal nearing the 
 little stream a- hundred yards below us, the 
 cubs about her, huzza after huzza greeted her; 
 and she turned down into the cool gulch, and 
 was safe again. When the conversation that 
 the scene and incident had interrupted was re- 
 
244 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 sumed, the voices were softer, as though out 
 of the wildness of flame and beast had come a 
 sprite of gentleness, imparting to us a rever 
 ence for every thing that God had made. And 
 Wyche said: 
 
 "There is but one 'Master' whose pictures 
 are without a mistake God. All lights and 
 shades he paints us in are faultless; and we do 
 well to receive them without question. In him 
 is a skill that, discerning our rippling peni 
 tence and faith, transfers us to the canvas so 
 robed in these that our pictures glow with joy 
 for heaviness, light for shadow, the hue of life 
 for that of death, and yet is true to life. 
 
 "But of no other is that he paints of you 
 true because he paints it. His, at best, is de 
 fective skill, blemishing its pictures with its 
 own imperfections." 
 
 " Man is unfitted to paint man," said Maine. 
 " He will denounce if life be assassinated, yet 
 thrust the treacherous blade into its reputa 
 tion. He is emulous of good, but not when 
 good is evil spoken of. He is ambitious of 
 success, but accounts this applause; and to 
 gain it will appropriate another's deserving or 
 minify it, and magnify his fault. He will ap 
 prove a character, yet assails it if so wags the 
 world. If Christ bear the cross, not the crown, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCEXtiS. 245 
 
 he '11 jeer him without the city, and jeer him 
 for a devil, though he is God. He discerns 
 virtue, yet is so selfish he will detract from it 
 to attract to himself, or dash the gem to pieces, 
 lest, himself unadorned by it, it should adorn 
 another. His friendship is graceful when to 
 bestow it is profitable to him, but to stay one 
 struggling with adversities and contempts is 
 too strange a fire for him to warm at." 
 
 "Yet," said Wyche, "with all his devilism 
 there is something God-like in man; but it re 
 quires God to bring it out. An angel would 
 become impatient with him ; a fiend would fall 
 away from the task in ecstasy, and say, ' He 's 
 good enough for me; very like my brother;' 
 man would caricature him by distortion and 
 embellishment; only God sees him as he is, 
 and is adequate to accurately picture one so 
 lapsed, yet so advanced. Dipping his pencil 
 in the blood of Christ, he blushes sick hu 
 manity with so sweet virtues that it shines on 
 the verge of hell like a scintillation of heaven, 
 enlights for the skies, and spheres there. The 
 lip is hesitant to drop the blood of Jesus often 
 lest the pearl of fathomless merit ' fall among 
 swine.' But who that notes the soft lines, nice 
 lights, and pure shades with which that pur 
 ple Pearl touches man but has his numbed be- 
 
246 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 ing startled into reverential amaze, aspires to 
 be vivified by it, and utilized to purity and 
 good?*' 
 
 Maine here said something about the pul 
 pit's neglect of Jesus, its familiarity with phi 
 losophies and oppositions of science, its unfa- 
 miliarity with Biblicism ; and expressed him 
 self so pertinently, yet so considerately, that 
 we were about to lose our picture topic. But 
 Mack woke up as out of a dream, and said: 
 
 "The art of taking others' likenesses has 
 tripped down to us, petted by clanging ages, 
 from gray antiquity. More than thirty centu 
 ries ago an old Arabic papyrus was unrolled 
 before the eager eyes of sages, whose words, 
 like floods of honey, and anon like floods of 
 aloe, leaped down the channel of time, are 
 leaping still, telling of a picture painted by 
 three renowned artists of this school. Many 
 would be familiar with this scroll but for a 
 malady that has preyed upon the priestly line 
 that, as Maine says, 'hath cankered the sur 
 plice and nearly eaten out of it the image and 
 superscription of Jesus, and the word whose 
 entrance giveth light.' It says: 
 
 " There was a man in the land of Uz whose 
 substance was very great. The young men 
 and the aged, the princes and the nobles, rev-' 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 247 
 
 erenced him. When the ear heard him then 
 it blessed him, and the eye when it saw him 
 gave witness to him; because he delivered the 
 poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him 
 that had none to help him ; and caused the wid- 
 OAV'S heart to sing for joy. He was eyes to the 
 blind, and feet was he to the lame; and a fa 
 ther to the poor, though he had a great family 
 of his own to provide for. 
 
 " He waited not for suffering to report itself 
 ere he relieved it, but the cause he knew not 
 he searched out. He brake the jaws of the 
 wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. 
 He neither feared a great multitude, nor did 
 the contempt of families terrify him. Nor re 
 joiced he at the destruction of him that hated 
 him, nor walked with vanity, nor hasted to de 
 ceit. Unto him men gave ear, kept silent at 
 his counsel, waited for his words as for the 
 rain; for righteousness clothed him, and his 
 judgment was a robe and a diadem. He sat 
 chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one 
 that comfort eth the mourners. 
 
 "But adversity came to him. His children 
 in a day suddenly died, and all his fortunes 
 vanished. An evil disease gat hold upon him, 
 and he lay desolate in ashes. Then fell away 
 "from him his friends, except his wife, and 
 
248 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 she, in sympathy's delirium, bade him curse 
 God and die. They that were younger than 
 he, whose fathers he would have disdained to 
 have sit with the dogs of his flock, had him in 
 derision. They who were driven forth from 
 among men, and cut up mallows and juniper 
 roots for their meat, and brayed in the bush 
 es, children of fools, viler than the earth, made 
 him their song and their by-word, and spared 
 not to spit upon him. 
 
 "On the right rose the youth; they pushed 
 away his feet, they marred his path, they set 
 forward his calamities. Terrors turned upon 
 him and pursued his soul. His bones were 
 pierced in the night season, and his sinews 
 took no rest. His bowels boiled and rested 
 not, and his skin grew black upon him, while 
 his bones burned with heat; for Satan kin 
 dled fires within him, and without burned him 
 with reproach, until he became brother to 
 dragons. And his heart also was turned to 
 mourning, and his organ into the voice of them 
 that weep. 
 
 "Then came the three princes, his friends, 
 to take his picture, and, uniting their skill, 
 produced a portraiture of him so perfect, they 
 thought, they hung it in the Hall Inspiration. 
 Its expression was irreverent folly, cruel op-' 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 249 
 
 pression, treachery, selfishness, hypocrisy. And 
 this was the title they wrote upon it: 'Job, 
 great in wickedness, in iniquity infinite.' 
 
 "Then the Almighty appeared. The sol 
 emn mountains laughed, the little hills skipped 
 for joy, and the glad sunshine knelt down 
 with the songful winds amongst the bowing 
 flowers, delightedly chanting Alleluia with 
 happy earth and the shouting sky. So he too 
 looked for good, but evil came; waited for 
 light, but came darkness; and he coiled down 
 lower in dust and ashes, and said: 'Behold, I 
 am vile! ' and scraping himself with a potsherd, 
 wept. His three painters passed by and said: 
 'Aha! aha! * But God came even unto him, and 
 stooped down and touched him, and said: ' My 
 servant, Job, there is nono like him in the 
 earth; a perfect and an upright man, one that 
 feareth God and escheweth evil, and still he 
 holdeth fast liis integrity. Pray for them, for my 
 wrath is kindled against them to deal with 
 them after their folly.' And in his black woe 
 he prayed for his friends, and the Lord turned 
 the captivity of Job while he prayed; also the 
 Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 
 
 "In the meanwhile Truth, while passing 
 through the art-gallery of Hall Inspiration, 
 beheld his picture placed there by his three 
 
250 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 friends, and, blushing at the caricature, went 
 to heaven's portfolio, and brought thence the 
 portrait she had painted of him, and hung it 
 above* -the other without note or comment. 
 Repairing to the hall one day with beautiful 
 Charity to return it to the portfolio as heav 
 en's favorite, she found it nailed by the Mas 
 ter of assemblies immovably to the wall, and 
 this inscription in the handwriting of God: 'A 
 perfect and an upright man.' And they bowed 
 their graceful forms, and worshiped God who 
 judgeth righteous judgment. 
 
 "'Truth,' said Charity, 'we do err who 
 judge by appearances. The prince of Uz insist 
 ed that his friends were picturing him inaccu 
 rately, and I whispered as much oft in their 
 ears. But the evil they thought they painted, 
 and called it after the perfect man.' 
 
 " ' Charity,' replied Truth, ' to err is com 
 mon with man. If there is any better in erring 
 it is found in lighting, not shading, a picture. 
 Let us, as we go from this pure hall, in its 
 loving inspiration persuade men not to sur 
 mise evil of their neighbor, nor to think more 
 highly of themselves than they ought to, 
 and so avoid taking inaccurate portraits. 
 Failing this, let us persuade the neighbor not 
 to be distressed by their caricatures, but to 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 251 
 
 stand in his lot, his proper character, re 
 gardless of their fond conceits, till the end 
 be. 
 
 "And they passed forth on their mission." 
 
252 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THIS KING OF THE WEST ON THE SHAPE CAME 
 CLINGING. 
 
 YCHE parted with us the next 
 day. To what fate he went we 
 cannot say. It was our last meet 
 ing. The speed with which the 
 tumults of those days whirled 
 persons apart, and forever hid them from each 
 other, was like that with which Norway's 
 mythic sea-whirl swallows the boatman and 
 his boat to be seen no more. And to what 
 numbers and wonders the gold-field maelstrom 
 sucked under its unfortunates is a story that 
 perhaps others will partly unfold, and there 
 will be wizzardry in it. From friend hidden 
 to stranger revealed was an oft-told tale in the 
 golden phantasms that hurled us together and 
 tossed us apart in the ruder days of the Cali 
 fornia gold-hunt. 
 
 Maine was energetic, saving, yet generous 
 and good-humored. He loathed nothing but an 
 Indian, and despised nothing but a negro, for 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 253 
 
 whose freedom lie was ready to argue when 
 ever he could do so without loss of time from 
 gold-gathering. He would not endure a darky's 
 cookery always sweeter to Mack and me than 
 any other and contact with him his honest 
 abolition heart abhorred. When we specially 
 hungered for something good to eat, and called 
 in black Sam, who said he was "from Mas- 
 sysip," and pretended to mine, with others, 
 half a mile below us, and gave him the free 
 dom of our larder to get up the best feast he 
 could, Maine would spend the day down in the 
 claim. 
 
 When dinner was ready on such occasions, 
 old Sam's "Halloo! " would rollick through the 
 mine, and though Maine would neither heed 
 it nor our " Come, let 's to that feast," he nev 
 er demurred to the program m>e. " Every one 
 to his taste," he would say, and work away 
 contentedly. At first when we came without 
 Maine and sat down to the washed log and 
 scoured tins, and savory dishes of old Sam's 
 skill, he would say, " Whar 's Mas Maine?" 
 Mack answered, " This is his fast-day." 
 The old shine grunted a disapproval, but 
 said nothing. The next time, the same ques 
 tion and answer drew from him the comment: 
 "He cust turrer day, an' cussin' an' fastin' 
 
254 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 doan 'long togedder." It was duly reported 
 to Maine, with such flourishes as Mack thought 
 fit to improvise. 
 
 About the fifth occasion of the sort he asked 
 no questions for several minutes, but sat near 
 upon a stump watching with great satisfaction 
 as morsel after morsel played hide-and-seek 
 between our lips. As he filled our tins with 
 the third pour of his delicious coffee, he said: 
 "Wha' dat Mister Chunk; he doan come eat 
 he dinner?" 
 
 "Who?" queried we. 
 
 " Dat chunk you partner wid," he answered. 
 
 "O," replied Mack, "he's gouging a speck 
 of gold out of a piece of cement, and is afraid 
 it will jump out and hide if all leave the mine. 
 But, Sam, he's more like the ridge-pole of a 
 cabin than like a chunk." 
 
 "No, sah," he answered; "he like nutting 
 dat 'longs to a cabin. He like de 'ceevin' 
 chunk 'cross de by-yore; you step on 'im, thinks 
 yer gwine 'cross safe; he role over, drap you 
 in de water fur drown. He think nigger 
 skin too blarck fur 'im to eat arter. Nigger 
 heart whiter 'n his'n, an' he skin ain't much 
 blarcker." 
 
 Here Maine came round the tent corner. 
 Old Sam never budged, but a queer grin 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 255 
 
 wrinkled his face as he said: "You bofe better 
 eat dem brown pieces; he done mighty par- 
 feet." 
 
 I said, " Fix Chunk's place." 
 
 And Maine, whose face glinted with pleas 
 antry, having overheard Sam's comments, 
 christened his new name, Chunk, by which he 
 went thereafter in the diggings, by a meal that 
 would have done credit to Tom in the early 
 stage of his nostalgic attack. Sam seemed 
 never so happy as when attending to our 
 feasts, and always said, "I charges nuffin." 
 But Chunk said the reason was he knew that 
 was the way to double wages. He often came 
 unbidden to the camp, never unwelcomed, and 
 went away with a glad step, for he went full- 
 handed, and I may add full-hearted. For at 
 least Mack appeared to know precisely how to 
 cheer and fill him with sunshine, and yet 
 seemed never to try to do so. And Chunk, 
 too, learned how to make him glad, but often 
 said, "I wouldn't live in a land of niggers for 
 the hull South." 
 
 Already the hoar-frost was shivering upon 
 every green thing and every damp spot. The 
 heights woke up of mornings with veils of va 
 por tucked around their heads; the slopes 
 smoked with heavy mists; and along the rivu- 
 
256 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 let's chasmy course, and up each gorge, clouds 
 of fog tottered slowly, to melt away in the 
 clear ether nearer heaven. So we knew gruff 
 winter would soon build citadels of ice, and 
 spread thick wastes of snow about us. But 
 the phantom of gold sung to us out of the 
 mists and wintry signals as musically as 
 though April's buds were popping about us, 
 and spelled us to the spot. 
 
 Fifty feet above the streamlet the stubborn 
 granite jutted widely out from the mountain 
 side ; and Maine and I having agreed to spend 
 the winter there, Mack, before leaving, helped 
 us drift a large room under the granite. We 
 closed the front with heavy pickets, hedged it 
 with deeply planted cedars, and corded fire 
 wood, and stored it with provisions. 
 
 Mack bid us good-by. But he said, as he 
 stood in the trail ready to start: "I will write 
 from San Francisco, then from New Orleans. 
 I hope you shall be as happy and successful 
 as my heart wishes, and as my life with you 
 both has been pleasant." And he turned down 
 the trail, and was hidden by the jungle. 
 
 Maine said, as his eyes followed him out of 
 sight: " Before the associations of this copart 
 nership, I felt that the Northern and the South 
 ern man were the contrary the one of the oth- 
 
CALIFORNIA COLD-FIELD SCENES. 257 
 
 er, each the other's reverse, no harmony, nor 
 could be. But these are only prejudices hid 
 den rocks fretting the waters of the heart that 
 should be blown out, or sunk through to Chi 
 na. "Why will the heart be a jagged-bottomed 
 archipelago where counter-currents dash, in 
 stead of the quiet deep where we float with a 
 sense of security and peace? Mack's a world 
 of good feeling and pure principle ; quick, but 
 too courteous to be on the offensive." 
 
 November floundered carelessly upon the 
 mountains. Its glad suns, its cool moons, its 
 quiet and holiday airs, its changing leaves 
 and falling, its occasional mists, its Indian- 
 summery warmths interrupted now and then 
 by the winds upon rampages, and soughing 
 or whistling afterward, as the humor was, 
 filled us with a diversity of emotions as de 
 lightful as were the physical sensations they 
 imparted. And in the mine a richer vein had 
 been cut, and we were pursuing its golden run 
 and catching its golden drops in shovel and 
 pan and girdle, and storing them in a secret- 
 ing-vault convenient of defense, if not defiant 
 of discovery. And so we toiled in the glow of 
 hope realized, and often in the zest forgot 
 breakfast; and dug and washed and laid by in 
 the sun to gleam and dry, the little and larger 
 17 
 
258 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 nuggets, till high noon laughed at us from the 
 dun skies; a harried dinner, and then till twi 
 light nodded into night, when we supped and 
 slept to awake with the light and repeat the 
 days that had just passed. But any old miner 
 could have told us "it could not last;" either 
 we would give out, or the vein. In this in 
 stance it was both. But in the three weeks our 
 vault had received nearly five hundred ounces 
 on deposit, and we were now tranquilly hunt 
 ing the vein again. 
 
 As Maine scaled the steep with a bucket of 
 water one noon to the narrow belt of plateau 
 that clung about our granite room, a herd of 
 deer leaped from near our hedge, and fleeing 
 along the mountain-side a few hundred yards, 
 browsed as if oblivious of us. He reported 
 that an Indian tribe was gathering at the mine, 
 and would break things to pieces, he feared. 
 But a glance revealed that there were but 
 twenty or thirty of the forest kings, and these 
 not bent on mischief. One of them lounged 
 up to the tent, and said: " Whizkee, tarn, 
 coot." 
 
 Maine replied by showing him an empty 
 bottle. He smelled it and said with emphasis: 
 "No smell; whizkee not, tarn. No want 'em." 
 
 And as he turned away, Maine said: "And 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 259 
 
 so this king of the "West has taken on two 
 touches of Anglo-American civilization pro 
 fanity and love of whisky. How rapid the 
 spread of vice! how easily, as to it born, the 
 heart gives it bed and board!" 
 
 California appeared to grow bottles in those 
 days. They were met with everywhere. The 
 towns, highways, trails, plains, valleys, hidden 
 fastnesses, peaks, trees, were sprinkled with 
 bottles. If Humboldt had delayed his " Cos 
 mos" till then, he likely would have written: 
 
 "The peculiarity of this section of the earth 
 is its chief fruit, b. bottles, which crop out 
 upon its diversified surface in vast quantities 
 and many varieties; odor, whisky. Occupa 
 tions, filling and emptying bottles. The in 
 habitants are industrious; day and night they 
 may be seen lying, sitting, squatting, stand 
 ing, in houses, on roads and trails, on path 
 less plains and mountains, on peak-tops, in 
 abysses, holding the big ends of bottles toward 
 the sky, small ends growing to their lips, their 
 throats gurgling, swallows in lively commo 
 tion. I saw some of the population otherwise 
 employed. Instance, Maine and his partner. 
 But they had bottles, empty. Inference, bot 
 tles here grow to human lips; fall when 
 empty; many fall, almost instantly; replaced 
 
2GO CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCEXKS. 
 
 by larger ones, if possible. At Bottletown, 
 back in the Sierras, is a great pine whose cap 
 bud is a bottle bottom up, of course. Query: 
 Do the very trees here drink whisky? Name 
 of section suggested: Bottellas Infinitas." 
 
 We directed the Indians to the deer. And 
 immediately each red man, with bow and arrow, 
 glided up a ravine to be in position when the 
 herd should dash down it; for one had been 
 sent to turn them thither. Two of the startled 
 creatures were mortally wounded by the clum 
 sy arrows of the red bowmen, and fell on the 
 opposite mountain, whence, amid many genu 
 flections, the overjoyed Indians hurried with 
 the carcases into wilder gloom among the loft 
 ier heights northward. And as they dipped 
 behind a spur beyond view, Maine exclaimed, 
 " What is uncultured man but a wonderful or 
 a ridiculous beast?" 
 
 The snow had come again, and its leaps and 
 falls and somersaults and gyratory recoils and 
 tumbles over the whitened world about us 
 made us to rejoice that our drift for gold had 
 led us into a tunnel, where we could toil un 
 hindered by its thickening tempest for awhile. 
 But soon it beat us out of that by closing its 
 mouth and snowing it under, and freezing 
 down upon it and every thing, in thick, vast, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 261 
 
 wavy folds, as though the world had emptied 
 a century of its cotton crop about us, and the 
 fleecy thing were stunned with wonder at the 
 "tumble" it had had at last, and were dy 
 ing here amid groaning forests, and the soft 
 notes of its child-flakes coming to rest upon 
 its bosom in the mighty stretch of frozen 
 jungle. 
 
 To-night the sky had cleared. Moon and 
 stars, and the spaces of blue between them, 
 seemed to be throwing down upon white- 
 robed earth irrepressible congratulations for 
 the simple purity of her dress, and in their 
 rayed joys and earth's white light objects in 
 the thin air appeared strange and bewitching 
 to the eye. Maine had gone from the tent for 
 an armtul of kindling he had prepared for 
 morning, or midnight uses on demand, and 
 called me out to notice a man on the mount 
 ain-side opposite the camp. He was in three 
 hundred feet of us, though he would have to 
 come as many yards to reach us. The gait, 
 air, shape, size, stride, motion were Pike's, and 
 I said, " Pike's ghost." 
 
 Maine glanced at me keenly. I think Tom's 
 letter came back to him then, and he thought 
 it was true as it said " Crazy; " but it said also, 
 "He can't help his brains;" nor I couldn't. 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 But on the shape came, clinging there to an 
 iced sappling, and there to a jutting iced rock, 
 and there sliding, and then slipping about 
 but not falling; and now it stood and threw 
 an eager look across the chasm to us, and 
 said, "Is Quien over thar?" 
 
 I had a thought of denying my name the 
 voice was Pike's; but I answered readily 
 enough for so cold a night: "Yes. Cross just 
 above where you stand, if you do stand." 
 
 But, with his old-time daring, he skated 
 down to the rivulet's bed just where he was, 
 where I met him to show him, politely as pos 
 sible, the best way up to our room in the rock. 
 He looked at me closely with the old-time look 
 a moment in the moonshine when we got to 
 gether on the stream's frozen, shivering face, 
 and said: "It's you, sartin; nothin' onbeauti- 
 fuller in natur' 'cept Tom." 
 
 It was Pike, soul and body; and I began to 
 think, "May be it's the resurrection coming 
 on; " but he grasped me by the arm like a vise, 
 yet his hand trembled too, and his eyes were 
 misty withal, as he said: "I've come a long way 
 ter shake your hand, for poor Eacket's sake. 
 Tom gin me your pictur' more'n a year ago, 
 when he were gittin onto the steamer fur the 
 States. It's you, I know." 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 263 
 
 " Yes," said I, " I believe it is, is, now. Come 
 up to the camp." And he nearly carried me 
 up the steep. 
 
 He toasted himself before the fire, precisely 
 as I had seen Pike do many times; every feat 
 ure, the entire physique, manner, tone, lan 
 guage, glance, smile, was Pike from under the 
 cairn. "It's Pike," I thought again. But I 
 asked him if he and Eacket were kin. 
 
 "Kin?" he said; "yes; Racket and me's the 
 same." Here the pause was a period, and 
 Maine glanced at me questioningly ; but he add 
 ed in a soft melody of voice: " Leastwise Eack 
 et and me is twin-brothers. He writ me much 
 of you and Tom afore you laid him away 
 under the rocks to rest till judgment. God 
 bless you for it, stranger! I've been to his 
 grave, and the manzanita hev locked hands 
 over it, like the very bushes loved him. 
 
 "I've got a ranch in Sacramento Valley; 
 an' you must go spend the winter with me. I 
 come arter you a purpose. You '11 friz inter 
 ice here, an' now Tom 's gone, you are bound 
 ter be the onlikeliest lump thar is. This is 
 my third trip a-huntin' on you. A fellow 
 named Wyche wer tellin' a red-whiskered 
 doctor in Sacramento four days ago 'bout 
 your'n an' Tom's crazy scrape; an' I ax'd 
 
264 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCKNES. 
 
 him ef he knowed whar a friend could find 
 yer right away. An' he said, * In twenty mile 
 o' Downieville, more or less.' Thar a packer 
 told me you were in these diggin's some'rs, 
 fur he 'd brought you a kergo o' grub a month 
 ago." 
 
 "You have suffered in the icy tramp," I 
 said, "but we have a supper ready for you; 
 the steaming coffee will impart some warmth. 
 But how did you and Tom become known to 
 each other?" 
 
 There was a smile, the humorous smile of 
 Pike, on his face at the question, but his voice 
 was tender as a girl's while repeating the first 
 sentence or two, as he answered: "Mother 
 were allus a-lookin' out the door in ole Mis 
 souri fur Racket ter come down the road from 
 Californy; but he never come. She didn't 
 live long arter we got Racket's package yer 
 sent when he died; and the letter you writ 
 were in her bosom when she were dyin'; an' 
 we buried it with her. So I moved west, an' 
 kept a-movin' till I got to San Francisco. 
 I'd been thar a few days, at the Tremont, 
 when a fat, red-faced chap kept a pryin' into 
 my face. Wharever I were thar he were 
 a-lookin' at me like crazy. So I went inter 
 the streets, but thar he were a follerin' an' 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 265 
 
 a-starein' at me. I went ter the wharf 
 among the ships, an' at every turn he 'd be 
 a-watchin' on me. I got tired on it, an' went 
 up to him, at last, an' said: 'Look a-here, 
 you'ev been arter me long enough. Do you 
 want anything o' me?' 
 
 " 'Yes,' he said, 'yes I do. I want to know 
 whar you come from, who you are, and all 
 about you.' 
 
 " 'Waal,' said I, 'I come from old Missouri, 
 kin take care of myself, an' my name's Jim 
 Knight.' His eye sparkled soft-like, and he 
 laid his hand on my shoulder, and said: 'It's 
 Racket's brother, ef it ain't himself.' And 
 then I had to stay in his room, an' go whar 
 he went, an' be right with him until he got on 
 the steamer fur Panama. That unor'nary chap 
 loved Eacket teetotally." 
 
 Jim tarried with us several days, enlivened 
 the hours with anecdote and song, hunted in 
 the "frizen things;" and his rifle-shots were 
 fatal to several deer and bears, which he salted 
 down for us in a "smokeus," he called it, that 
 he dug out for us in the back of our room. 
 When he left us he said: "You won't ranch 
 it with me nohow. But mind, ef ever mis- 
 fortin gits the uppermost on you, manage to 
 let me know, an' I '11 be with yer like light- 
 
2G6 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 nin'. You were clever to Racket, an' I wish I 
 could bring yer 'tarnal joy far it." 
 
 "Fraternal love," said Maine, "lodged in a 
 man's heart is a fresh and noble grace. It has 
 survived bitter experiences. It comes to cheer 
 when the burdens oppress, when sorrows have 
 pierced, when passions have scorched, when 
 wrongs have filled with thorns of poison and 
 pain. To me Joseph is in no instance greater 
 than when, rendering excuse for the sin of 
 his brothers against him, he takes them out 
 of their poverty and famine, and enriches and 
 ennobles them. The selfish Egyptian court 
 ier, possibly, sneered at the deed and feeling; 
 but the angels said, ' It is love it makes him 
 like God,' and, catching fire from next the 
 throne, sped from heaven and anointed him 
 with immortality. Such a one rises to Jim 
 Knight's sentiment: 'You were clever to my 
 brother, and if ever misfortune gets the up 
 permost of you, manage to let me know, and 
 I will be with you like lightning.' " 
 
 I liked Maine the better for his fresh, bright 
 words; and felt I was a boy again paddling 
 about in fraternal love. It is winsome in a 
 boy's heart. It links him to his little broth, 
 er's griefs and joys, so he helps him carry 
 his burdens, lifts him over the fence too high 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 267 
 
 for him, across the stream too broad for him, 
 shelters him from the tyranny of big boys, 
 shares with him his fruits, fish-hooks, and 
 marbles; lets him roll his hoop, spin his top, 
 bounce his ball, prance his hoop-horse, play 
 his Jew's-harp, June his June-bug; and when 
 he falls and hurts himself, helps him up, say 
 ing: "Never mind little brother, you'll be 
 well to-morrow, and we'll have a jolly time 
 together" 
 
208 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 BOLLS OF BERYL AND GOLD. 
 
 IM KNIGHT could barely have 
 reached his valley home ere the 
 storm fell so low around us that 
 snow-cloud seemed to touch snow 
 bank, and to chock down togeth 
 er into the gorge, and to mourn the fall of a 
 frantic uproar of whirring, whizzing wails. 
 Much of the snow melted as it fell, or was 
 mingled with rain, so each ravine flowed down 
 torrents to the chasm at our feet, and the riv 
 ulet fretted and foamed along its icy channel 
 till it became an angry river, uprooting trees, 
 knocking the clay props from under granite 
 masses, and rolling them along its ragged 
 course, till the grinding of the rocks, the 
 splash and rumble of the floods, and the ma 
 jestic call of storm to storm were a grand 
 chant that made the awful jungle appear like 
 a temple of ice being set apart to the service 
 of Him who "giveth snow like wool, scattereth 
 the hoar-frost like ashes, casteth forth his ico 
 like morsels, sendeth out his word and melteth 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 269 
 
 them, causeth the wind to blow, and the waters 
 to flow." By sundown the river had lifted its 
 turbulent floods within a dozen feet of the 
 plateau, and uprooted trees, whirling on the 
 stream, threw out their arms and tore the 
 tough cedars from the brink and swung out 
 with them to voyage the surging waters. 
 Fragments of flumes shooting by on the 
 flashing current told us of troubled miners on 
 tributary gulches, of hope bereaved, lost in the 
 gathering of the waters. But as the cold in 
 creased we knew that every flake was freezing 
 with each streamlet, and the river that thun 
 dered against our bluff had done its worst. 
 
 The changes in the tempest were signaled 
 to us by its voices. Whon it was sleeping, 
 and only the air filled the spaces between earth 
 and cloud, only the voices of the blood seemed 
 to be pouring in the ear their softest melodies 
 as though with them were the quietest strains 
 of song that ever soothes its flow, and the 
 purest that ever chastens its flames; and a qui 
 eting was on the senses, and in the heart too, 
 how we couldn't discern, but we were strange 
 ly, quietly content. 
 
 When it was only snowing through the 
 spaces, it seemed that tiny whispers, like 
 sweetest sighs perishing, just appreciable to 
 
270 CALIFORNIA GOLR-FIELD SCENES, 
 
 the ear, were about us, and a rustling in the 
 air, soft as the falling of downiest feathers, that 
 made the ear dream that it heard the faintest 
 possible echoes of far-off multitudes of tiniest 
 wings, removing farther and farther, coming, 
 coming nearer and nearer, now gone, now re 
 turned, coming, going, intermixing incessantly, 
 never near enough to be distinctly heard, never 
 far enough away to be out of hearing longer 
 than a few moments. Or when it was pouring 
 snow-flakes, the sound was like one imagines the 
 voice of silence is when flowing softest through 
 the ice-bells hanging on millions of fragile 
 twigs, making music so indefinable that one 
 might think it the notes of the stars singing, 
 straying too far away, together fading into 
 nothing. 
 
 When it displaced the snow with sleet, there 
 was a clear, whizzy ringing in the air distinct 
 ly heard, yet the tiniest and most musical 
 ringing notes the ear can discern, and a mer 
 ry little shattering above and all about that 
 makes the nerves freshen with the thought 
 that the ringing sleet is a company of head 
 long fledgeling boys coming to a merry-inak- 
 ing with the snow-flakes, that are girls. And, 
 too, now and then there is a gliding and a rat 
 tling that make us think the merry imps are 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES 271 
 
 leaping down off the twigs, or climbing out 
 upon them to shake the icicles off to hear them 
 crash, and see them skate down the hills. 
 
 When the tempest filled the spaces with rain 
 we knew it by the splash. When it broke into 
 storms, the winds fly and growl and howl and 
 whistle and dance and rush, and the clouds are 
 seemingly breaking into one another's muni 
 tions of rain and ice, carrying each other by 
 storm; the forest mourns, the rocks scream, 
 the gorges roar, the mountains bellow, a tre 
 mor shakes the ground, limbs crack and fly 
 from their places, and forest-kings fall along 
 the earth with lumbering sounds like signal- 
 guns of distress at sea, and all is commotion 
 without and awe within. 
 
 All night long beast signaled beast in the 
 elemental melee; and once a brave push was 
 made against our picket door, answered by a 
 flight of bullets through the cracks, and the 
 animal leaped wildly away and plunged, we 
 knew by the splashing thud, out into the tu 
 multuous river, and we heard it buffeting the 
 contrary currents, then fiercely roar far down 
 on the other side. 
 
 The next morning a band of Indians strag 
 gled near us, picking their way southward. 
 We beckoned them to the camp and gave them 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 much of the venison that Jim had salted down 
 for us; and as one gathered a firebrand and 
 moved on, they defiled after him, stolidly bear 
 ing the pieces of flesh to a sheltered dell. 
 Soon, by the columns of smoke and bursts of 
 whoop and laughter, we knew they were in 
 high carnival, though the snowy storm beat 
 upon them. 
 
 They had barely feasted and skirrecl across 
 the spur next them when a few old men and 
 women and little children came on tottering 
 step, following in their trail. Maine feasted 
 them upon remnants of bread and venison that 
 had been accumulating for several days, made 
 them a bucket of coffee, loaded them with 
 fresh meat, and they tottered out into the tem 
 pest again. He stood a long while watching 
 their old bare heads, grizzled by age and white 
 with snow, with the tripping children bare of 
 clothing, tramping by their side. When he 
 turned into the tent, I said: "If those old 
 foresters were Southern slaves, such weather 
 as this they would be warmly clad, in good 
 cabins, round a big fire broiling bacon, 
 cooking ash-cakes arid potatoes and that 
 best of dishes, lye-hominy, laughing, sing 
 ing, happy; and the lads and lasses, gone 
 on before, would be doing likewise, spicing 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 273 
 
 the programme by snugly courting. Which 
 had you rather be, a Southern darky or one of 
 them?" 
 
 "I ca'c'late," he replied, "the darky is the 
 most comfortable; but I 'd rather be one of 
 them, free to defy the storm when too thriftless 
 to own a shelter to warm in out of it." 
 
 In the meanwhile the Indian is passing on, 
 as he has been for centuries passing from sea 
 to sea, through all climes, through forests and 
 mountains and delightful valleys, the child of 
 the jungle, in savagery still, fleeing civiliza 
 tion, unblessed by its virtues, cursed by its 
 vices passing on till there is no region beyond 
 into which he may pass. 
 
 We have founded temples and schools upon 
 the mounds of his storied dead, tamed his 
 lakes and rivers and wilds with steam, and 
 hustled him out of his valleys and fastnesses 
 with our industries. We need and will have 
 his whole domain for good uses, are bound to 
 light up its recesses with electricity so riot a 
 recess can he hide in; and our roving families 
 kill the grizzly because he kills their stock and 
 their children, and will kill him for the same 
 reason. What shall we do with him? Dis 
 crown him for his own good, and for ours as 
 well; make a citizen of him, give him the bal- 
 18 
 
274 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 lot, make him subject to the laws to which we 
 are subjected; and he will be still long enough 
 to be civilized. 
 
 About three o'clock one afternoon we were 
 startled, while standing on the bluff in front 
 of the camp, by a volley of icicles rattling 
 down the mountain and shivering to pieces 
 around us. We watched up the height to de 
 tect the animal that had loosened them, but 
 all was quiet for a minute or two. Then other 
 icicles came rushing down from a projecting 
 snow-bank a thousand yards from us, and near 
 ly twice as many feet above us, and Maine 
 saying, "Sleet nielting this sunny weather," 
 we turned to discuss our claim again. But a 
 minute later, an awful, grating, roaring, hiss 
 ing, flitting sound quickly drew our eyes crag- 
 ward to see a mountain of snow, limbs, and 
 rocks, like a rnonster wave of white lightning 
 and furious thunders, bounding down upon us. 
 We fled like arrows beneath our rock to avoid 
 the avalanche. It swept athwart our rock- 
 roofed room, and buried itself in the chasm 
 below with a horrible roar, having torn away 
 most of our little plateau. Its white race 
 track was about three hundred feet wide. As 
 it rushed over our rock-roof its sound was un 
 utterably grating, quick^ fierce, stunning, like 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 275 
 
 the irking roar of a thousand steamers vying 
 in letting off steam together. 
 
 We were prone upon the clay floor, faces in 
 our palms, when it passed over us, some im 
 pulse we noted not having cast us down so, 
 when we entered beneath the rocks. When 
 he sat up, the first words Maine uttered were: 
 "Sakes alive! Whew!" To which I replied: 
 "Sh , sh , shucks!" 
 
 Now and then till sundown snow-scales were 
 shaken from the locks of the crags tumbling 
 toward the chasm, and, however small when 
 first discovered coming down the mountain, 
 wound about themselves icicles and soft snow 
 till they were large as cabins. Many of them 
 butted their brains out against the trees in the 
 descent, breaking on to the gorge in many 
 fragment, like mad children of the avalanche 
 bounding to their mother on her chasmy bed. 
 The winds rose after night-fall and beat against 
 the mountains, and packed with its millions of 
 blows the snow-banks hard again, and chilled 
 them there with freezing blasts. 
 
 When the spring thaw came, it was charm 
 ing to dwell in this city of snow. Bursting 
 from under its gleamy minarets and streets of 
 ice, many water-spouts jetted crystal rills into 
 the rivulet, till tower after tower melted down, 
 
27G CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 palaces fell in, cottages crumbled and, with tlie 
 icy pavements, flowed away, bearing to the 
 dwellers in the valleys the refreshing snow- 
 floods. The sides of the mountains more and 
 more looked like patch-work here a space of 
 white, there of dark, yonder of green, and in 
 termingled stretches of flowers. For flowers 
 and green grasses often kissed the snow-circles, 
 and green leaves fluttered above it, till in the 
 July days the earth-border reached from the 
 placer of toil to old "Winter's palace on the 
 peak. And soon the sunbeams up there print 
 ing leaves and twiggy shadows on its weep 
 ing face, it melted away in their warm caress 
 es, and, like Aaron's golden calf, turned to 
 dust; it was "strewed upon the water," and 
 the tribes " drink of it." 
 
 In August our rich lead was lost beyond 
 tracing. We had, however, made a " pile " of 
 many ounces of virgin gold; and Maine de 
 parted for the Atlantic States; and as the 
 " tiredness," of which my first gold-field part 
 ner so often lectured, clung to me still, I con 
 cluded to visit among the valleys to breathe 
 awhile their softer airs, and enjoy their milk 
 and honey and fruits and restf ulness. 
 
 I left the stage at the Mokelumne River to 
 strike across the plains to the Calaveras Valley, 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD ZCEXES. 277 
 
 about sixteen miles distant. The stroll was n 
 joy to me. The dust of the beaten road, the 
 clatter of coach and team and passengers were 
 an annoyance. They were gone; and walking 
 across the brown plains among scattered herds 
 and flocks, and humming bees, and leaping rab 
 bits, brought me nearer home than I had been 
 for many months, even in scenic associations. 
 Night came on before I could get to the ranch 
 where an old friend dwelt. The stars shone 
 merrily, however, and the moon flooded my 
 pathless route as I neared the blue belt of 
 timber that marked the course of the little 
 winding river that named the valley. Bancroft I ibrary 
 
 In crossing a low roll of knolls, I beheld in 
 the distance many lights like spectral stars 
 grouped near the ground, arched by a leafy 
 sea of green at rest in some wide-boughed 
 trees. They laughed in my face, whirled 
 round, moved to and fro, intermingled as if 
 whispering together, stood still stretching 
 their eyes at me as if wondering why I stopped 
 on the brown turf watching them before pass 
 ing down the knoll ; and the f oliaged dome and 
 its branchy, angulated rafters tossed about in 
 a silvery illumination as breezes shook them 
 above the solitary aisles of the strange tem 
 ple. It was nothing to me, whatever it was, I 
 
278 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 thought, and journeyed on among the dips and 
 rises of the plain. But presently in a little 
 vale, still shut in from the lights, I was arrest 
 ed by song as of many voices, and was spelled 
 to the spot. It chimed in the air, paused at 
 my feet, rippled through my hair, touched my 
 pack till it was. light as a feather, echoed on 
 my cheeks, whispered in my ears, lodged on my 
 breast, got into my heart, and out in tears at 
 my eyes; and scaling the knoll I saw that the 
 temple of leaves had become a temple of God 
 where a thousand worshipers were praising 
 him, at a California camp-meeting. Involun 
 tarily thither I went. 
 
 The clear heavens, that autumnal night, 
 were dressed in silvery tissue over azure skirts 
 clustered with stars; and dark-eyed earth lay 
 marveling at their beauty. Zephyr's step was 
 muffled, and every few minutes she sighed up 
 to the skies, and, invisible, flitted here and 
 there among the worshipers, and whispered to 
 the green leaves above them. And the silent 
 company's eyes looked like spirits hearkening 
 for heavenly signs, as they intently fastened 
 upon the minister. He spoke of the ruin sin 
 brings to persons and peoples, its stains indel 
 ible to all except Christ's blood; how lovingly 
 he would save us, and surely, only if we would 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 279 
 
 come to him. Come all; come now; trust, obey. 
 The worst need not hesitate; he died for the 
 chief of sinners, died that we might not per 
 ish, but might have life. The " pearl of great 
 price " everybody's, yours; brighter than gold 
 en ore saving love! it will make you happy 
 here, hereafter. 
 
 The hush upon the congregation had been 
 awesome, and many seemed to be in the thrall 
 of a wand, at whose touch the gold-phantom's 
 charm dissolved, and left them dreaming of 
 the "gold tried in the fire," resolved in all 
 their seeking to seek that. As the service 
 closed, a person whom I had not noticed, lean 
 ing against the same tree with me, murmured: 
 " Simple, clear, sensible, persuasive. If Leina 
 had been here she would have enjoyed it; I 
 shall rehearse it to her." 
 
 I said nothing, got more in the shadow; but 
 remembering that he had never seen me ex 
 cept in miner's costume, and not likely to rec 
 ognize me in my cloth suit, I ceased to fear 
 his eyes much, but was careful that he should 
 not hear my voice. I saw him where, among 
 many, he disposed himself to sleep on the 
 thick wheat-straw near the stand, and, as the 
 lights were extinguished, had no fear of his 
 recognition as I spread my blanket in a few 
 
280 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 feet of him among the sleepers. I imitated 
 the others who had made pillows of their boots 
 and coats, lay on one blanket and covered with 
 another; and was determined to be known to 
 him in the morning. Presently he said, ad 
 dressing no one in particular: "I have some 
 where in the mines, if he 's not dead, a friend 
 called Quien Sabe. Have any of you ever 
 met him?" 
 
 "No," replied several, "not by that name." 
 
 "Where did he mine, and what his appear 
 ance?" asked one. 
 
 "At such and such places," he answered; 
 "and he was a black-headed, dark-skinned, 
 rather weak-looking person weak in the head, 
 I mean. I say 'mined;' he never did mine 
 much himself. He always had partners that 
 did the work, while he played treasurer, ac 
 countant, and the like. He used to be my 
 partner. I want to find him, now I have got 
 back again from the States." 
 
 "To go partnership again?" queried one. 
 
 "Well," he said, "no; but I want to be with 
 him awhile. He always needed a guardian bad 
 as a boy does. I heard he was killed by an av 
 alanche. It is true, I fear; for if he saw it 
 coming, he was so absorbed in admiring its 
 noise and bounds he didn't have the sense to 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 281 
 
 get out of its way. I have written and in 
 quired in every direction, and I'm now go 
 ing to the northern mines to seek him; for 
 Leina told me to go, or she, or both of us, 
 would die of nervousness." 
 
 " Yes," said one, " you have asked me about 
 him four or five times since sundown. You 
 may as well be seeking a particular quail in a 
 chapparal full of 'em as to seek a man in the 
 mines and not know just where he is." 
 
 "I know it," said Tom, " 'specially when he's 
 dead, as Quien certainly is. A miner told me 
 out at the store if I 'd go to the d 1 I should 
 find him sooner than to hunt him anywhere 
 else; that, no doubt, he was toasting now down 
 below, or words to that effect. And I shall 
 quit the hunt he's dead, no doubt, if not 
 worse." 
 
 I was tired of it by this time, and sat up in 
 my shirt-sleeves in a position where his eyes 
 would rest upon me, and said, "Pike," and 
 struck a match. He leaped about three feet 
 straight up, how I can't understand, caught 
 half-bent on his feet, and with a hand on each 
 knee gazed into my face, and exclaimed: "My 
 heavens, Quien! is it you? And not dead!" 
 
 "Nor at the d 1, either," I said, "unless you 
 and he are the same. Who said I was dead? " 
 
282 CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 
 
 " Wyche," lie answered. 
 
 "Is Wyche in New York?" 
 
 "No," he replied, "he's in Mexico; but he 
 stopped at the ranch in Los Angeles several 
 weeks ago on his way there." 
 
 "Tom," I queried, "you haven't settled in 
 California after breathing out such gloomy ad 
 jectives against it as you did that day in the 
 foot-hill mines?" 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "I have, and forever, 
 in 'the Valley of the Angels,' and I have a 
 model farm, and library, and some goats. 
 And you must go eat grapes and oranges with 
 Leina and the children. They are dying to 
 see you told me not to come back without 
 you, Quien. They have made me tell more 
 stories about you than ever Robinson Crusoe 
 invented ; and I am seeking you more in self- 
 defense than for friendship's sake." 
 
 And next day we were bounding southward 
 on stage and wave. His farming was success 
 ful, for though the laborers listened to Tom's 
 directions, I noticed they did contrary to them. 
 
 Albeit the ranch was a model one. For nat 
 ure here had unrolled a valley like a rare 
 variegated carpet, fitted around little hills, 
 sprinkled it with flowers and rich grasses; and 
 art had grouped a villa of cozy cottages upon 
 
CALIFORNIA GOLD-FIELD SCENES. 283 
 
 a bright knoll in an orange and lemon grove 
 whose green and yellow orbs, some smaller, 
 some larger, were like bolls of beryl and gold 
 among the green leaves and white blossoms; 
 and flanked it here and there with figs and 
 grapes in fruitful bowers and borders. The 
 crisp sunshine, the breezes from the hidden 
 sea, the voluptuous atmospheric sensations and 
 aspects, imparted to every object a charm that 
 is surely seen nowhere else. Within doors 
 love's trustful peace dwelt. The children, the 
 dogs, the cats, and birds were at home. The 
 scattered herds and flocks, flecking the land 
 scape, knew Tom's call, and ran to him on 
 sight as assured of his friendship. And Leina, 
 unconscious of the guide and guard she was 
 to him, was cheerful and reposeful in his pres 
 ence, like a glorious flower softly reveling in 
 caressing sunshine, tinting its cheeks, touching 
 their graces with freshness and fragrance ev 
 ermore.