THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 FAR-WEST SKETCHES 
 
 JESSIE BENTON FREMONT 
 
 Author of " Souvenirs of My Time," Etc., Etc. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 D. LOTHROP COMPANY 
 
 WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELU 
 
 6994a
 
 \ 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1890, 
 BY 
 
 E. Benton Kkemont. 
 
 S 
 
 /
 
 
 i'^ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 J 
 
 \ 
 
 ;• I. 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND I3 
 
 II. 
 
 HOW THE GOOD NEWS CAME OUT FROM THE WEST 29 
 
 III. 
 MY GRIZZLY BEAR 42 
 
 I 
 
 I IV. 
 
 I 
 
 ; BESIEGED 53 
 
 V. 
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT .... 84 
 
 VI. 
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS I08 
 
 VII. 
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES . . . I36 
 
 9
 
 IQ CONIENTS. 
 
 VIII. 
 THK BALL '5" 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION . . . . 167 
 
 X. 
 
 A "FAR COU.NTREt" ..**•• ^^2
 
 FAR-WEST SKETCHES
 
 FAR-WEST SKETCHES. 
 
 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 
 
 " Kens' t dii das land. " 
 
 A CHRISTMAS day all sunshine and roses 
 — a Sunday and Christmas-day in one ; 
 peace within, and all about us good-will. 
 
 We got in the night before, Christmas Eve, 
 and now with the long journey across our huge 
 continent ended in safety for our invalid, and 
 this sunshine-land for ally, our anxieties could 
 cease. 
 
 It seemed like the waking from a bad dream. 
 Back of us lay the sudden illness, the warning 
 to "get away to a warm climate, while it rf> yet 
 time, and risk no more Northern winters."
 
 14 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 
 
 Then the hurried start — the dropping of all 
 other home ties — of all occupations and aims 
 in life to keep life itself — all the wrenching and 
 uprooting, keenly felt but held under by the 
 necessity for action not feeling, were changed 
 now into peace and hope. 
 
 We had known well where to go: 
 
 "There are no rough breezes blowing 
 In that fair land where we are going " 
 
 — where neither summer heat nor winter cold 
 could harm, and for us it was gilded by the 
 morning splendor of young memories. 
 
 The cold black Atlantic was washing against 
 the snow-covered Jersey coast as we ran up to 
 New York, and cold and snow were with us in 
 the early, early drive across Washington, not 
 too early to find dear baby faces watching for 
 us at the window — rusliing out regardless of 
 weather with shouts of welcome to bring us in 
 close to the briL^lil fire, to pour out a liajipy 
 confusion of joy and eager hospitality — "right
 
 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 
 
 15 
 
 here, in the big chair by the fire you are to 
 have your tea — and we are to come to dinner 
 to-day — and it's going to be Christmas, soon." 
 
 " Next Sunday," says accurate Jack. 
 
 " Yes, next Sunday," echoes Baby Juliet, 
 " Christmas soon, next Sunday, yes-ter-day," 
 her one date. 
 
 They were so full of joyful pride in welcom- 
 ing us to their house, after the happy seaside 
 summer with us, and so beautifully intent on 
 their young hospitality that we all met it in the 
 same spirit. That one day of halt in the jour- 
 ney should also be a day of rest from troubled * 
 thought. "Do not poison to-day with to- 
 morrow," a wise kind physician told me long 
 ago, so we were led by a little child and made 
 it Juliet's "yesterday" — a home-day that keeps 
 always "the tender grace of a d-ay that is 
 gone." 
 
 One little one declared she would go with us. 
 She was staggered when it was represented to 
 her that she would then misi. the Christmas-Tree 
 
 i
 
 l6 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND, 
 
 and the presents, but soon she rallied to her 
 purpose, 
 
 "Then I will wait," she said, climbing to the 
 arms always so glad to hold her; and nestling 
 her pink cheek against the gra}- moustache she 
 gave her plan (in that bright lexicon of baby- 
 hood there is no such word as impossible). 
 "As soon as I wake after the Tree I will go to 
 the engine house and tell the driver to hurry 
 and catch up — oh! — please tell your driver to 
 drive slow, because I am coming as soon as the 
 Tree is over, and when we catch up with you I 
 will say thank you, and get on your train and 
 go on with you." 
 
 Later the nurse came for help to stop the 
 little one from "rummaging the closets and 
 drawers." She had decided that "eight dresses 
 will do, but they must be my best," and her 
 slim hands were busy " packing " them. 
 
 We had to go on. Night settled on us in- 
 stalled in warmth and the luxury of comfort 
 American travel has devised. Our immense
 
 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 17 
 
 continent with its huge upheaved mountain 
 chains no longer means weary travel, hardly 
 weary distance. To us the overland journey 
 comes always with fresh delight in the contrast 
 with past experiences. " The West " in my 
 early day meant a two weeks' journey to St. 
 Louis then a frontier town. Now one week 
 takes you from sea to sea, so surrounded by 
 home-comforts that it is more a resting-break 
 than a journey. And all the time you find new 
 reasons for pride in the great country traveled 
 over. 
 
 We looked back through the gathering night 
 and falling snow to the dome of the Capitol, so 
 often our last land-mark of home, and though 
 we spoke bravely of its welcoming us back on 
 many happy returns, yet of what we felt most 
 just then we did not speak. 
 
 Soon came new ideas. A stop for supper 
 was called out at " Manassas Junction," and at 
 that name the years rolled back to that ordeal 
 of the nation — that time of partings — of un-
 
 l8 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 
 
 returning feet — of great aims and great deeds, 
 and in its mighty shadow personal pain felt 
 rebuked. 
 
 And so, on and on, down the valley of the 
 rushing Kanawha where I as a child had so 
 often traveled among welcoming relations from 
 one Virginia home to another, through Ken- 
 tucky past more battle memories and more 
 names recalling family homes and united feel- 
 ings ; then the straight descent of the noble 
 Mississippi valley — to me inseparable from my 
 father. 
 
 You come upon the Great River just above 
 Memphis. A swell of far-past but never dimmed 
 memories came with the view of the mighty 
 stream, its tawny waters shining in the glow of 
 the setting sun. 
 
 Because I was fortunate in living from my 
 youth up with the prophets and wise men of 
 the Great West I see it and know its conquering 
 growth as I would have you young people of 
 the East see it.
 
 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. I9 
 
 We had come into softer drier air after the 
 Alleghanies made our shelter from Atlantic 
 winds, and in pleasant Kentucky we saw no 
 snow; instead the trees and pastures were still 
 green. 
 
 We had not dared to look back or question 
 the wisdom of our sudden move. Now we saw 
 it was being justified by improving conditions. 
 And the interest in unfamiliar country traveled 
 over was great. Especially when we ran along 
 between level rich sugar estates ; but even here 
 the winter began to overtake us. We drove 
 across New Orleans and crossed the river in a 
 driving sleet storm. Harsh weather was a new 
 feature there, but again familiar names of streets 
 recalled a far past and my father, and the high- 
 walled gardens of Esplanade street still had 
 their orange-trees though the oranges now 
 glistened through icy coating. 
 
 From here, on, through Louisiana, through 
 Texas and New Mexico, even through heated 
 lower Arizona it was a neck-and-neck race with
 
 20 CHRISTMAS IX LOTOS-LAXD. 
 
 our enemy winier. A winter so exceptional and 
 cruel that even in these low latitudes sleet, ice, 
 drMng cold winds and rains kept pace with 
 us. Long icicles fringed the water tanks. We 
 needed our furs and winter wraps although a 
 soft warmth kept the Pullman car healthily 
 corafonable. Even at Yuma, which disputes 
 with Aden the palm for heat, there was skim- 
 ice about the grounds of the hotel where we 
 breakfasted : but the blue sky, and orange-trees 
 loaded with fruit promised return to usual con- 
 ditions. Then followed the dip of over three 
 hundred feet below the sea level ; usually a 
 stifling passage across the desert sandy basin 
 of what was once the head of the Gulf of Cali- 
 fornia but just now only agreeably warm. Fare- 
 well now to winter, for we were safe at last in 
 tlie summer land ! Coming up on the far side 
 of tbe Basin we met the fresh yet s(rft air of the 
 Pacific Ocean and entered a r^on of rich val- 
 leys and gentle hills with pastures and orchards 
 and pretty faimbouaes and, what as ntgfat
 
 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 21 
 
 closed in, was as beautiful after days of travel 
 through silent wastes — the close succession of 
 brightly-lighted villages and towns with large 
 stations and many people waiting "to go to 
 town." 
 
 And into the town we ran, Christmas Eve — 
 only two hours behind time on the long journey 
 from sea to sea. 
 
 Before we were fairly in dear friends had met 
 us and we realized bv their sympathy of look 
 and manner what a haggard-looking lot we 
 were. 
 
 From the railway carriage which had been 
 our secluded quiet home for a week we emerged 
 into a glare of gas and electric lights, the noise, 
 the crowd, the crush of a busy city — a stun- 
 ning change. 
 
 It was a long drive to the hotel, but every 
 image of repose was waiting us. Real beds, 
 large separate rooms, tea by a quiet stationary 
 table, and to feel we were no longer attached 
 to a time-table made us eratefullv content. For
 
 22 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 
 
 some days we reeled to and fro unexpectedly, 
 for the journey is trying. But it was safely 
 over. The cough was almost over too, though 
 some months after, our friend who knew us all 
 intimately said he had feared that night there 
 was no "lift" again for either of us. It had 
 been a race for life against winter and Life 
 won. 
 
 Christmas morning came with warm blue sky 
 and sweet sunshine. Up the street between 
 tall business houses we could look to Fort Hill, 
 where forty years before our rescued invalid 
 had planted a battery and raised our Flag. 
 And where the loveliness of nature and climate 
 entered his heart and never left it. To come 
 back here was to renew younger life and find 
 new strength. 
 
 W'liat a woiukrsclwn drive we had that Christ- 
 mas-ilay — all manner of surprises delighted 
 us. It was only eight jears since I had seen 
 it — a very quiet little town still in its cocoon
 
 CHRISTMAS IX LOTOS-LAND. 2^ 
 
 of Californian indifference to American push. 
 " Why trouble for more, when we have enough ? " 
 But transcontinental railways push too hard for 
 
 inertness or resistance, and now it was a big 
 city never to know quiet again. The low hills 
 and flower\- plains browsed over by countless 
 sheep had become a spreading city with out- 
 lying villages and farmsteads and market gar- 
 dens, and ever\-where the once open view was 
 broken by long avenues and thickets of the 
 tall Australian gum-tree, its marked blue-green 
 (peacock-blue) in contrast with the rich dark- 
 green of the orchards on orchards, and avenues 
 of the orange now covered with its golden fruit, 
 and the exquisite feathen- pale-green of the 
 pepper-tree which makes here, as in modem 
 Athens, the chosen shade-tree. Pretty cottages 
 — ver}- " seaside " many of them— were every- 
 where on smooth lawns of blue grass, their 
 piazzas veiled by fragrant roses climbing to the 
 roof — the pure white Lamarque, the yellow 
 Marechal Neil, saffron, red and rich pink roses
 
 24 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 
 
 in loveliest luxuriance. Geraniums were for 
 hedges — they grow so fast, and are held as 
 "common"; calla-lilies are used in the same 
 way for the same reasons; they are often 
 planted along the narrow water-ways which 
 are as much part of the town system as are 
 the pavements. 
 
 The abundant water runs in these fixed open 
 channels at fixed rates and times under the 
 active supervision of a " zanjero " * (in Amer- 
 ican " the sankey-man," as we say the ice-man 
 or the milkman), and the tall lilies flourish with 
 a luxuriance of dark-green leaves and big white 
 flowers that would at once delight and distress 
 an Eastern florist in his calculation for church 
 decoration. 
 
 Flowers we coddle in warm rooms were here 
 small trees with the birds going about their 
 
 • The Moors left their enduring mark on Spain in Iheir system of irri- 
 gation reproduced here by the early Spanish priests, and keeping through 
 time and changes of all kinds the original Moorish names of " zanja 
 and " zanjero " for the open water-conduits, and the ofHcial charged to 
 oversee their proper use.
 
 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 25 
 
 nest-building among them — busiest and loud- 
 est and sweetest the mocking-bird, building fitly 
 in trees of roses, heliotropes and citronalis, and 
 oleanders with white and splendid rose-colored 
 blossoms. 
 
 It was wonderfully gay and inspiriting to see 
 all this beautiful life in contrast to the winter 
 just behind us. 
 
 The lovely valley is rimmed about by ranges 
 of mountains rising from green foot-hills to the 
 dark Sierra, snow-crowned. Its glittering sum- 
 mits made the culminating touch of beauty — 
 and the defense for us — " so far, but no 
 farther," its snow-peaks said. 
 
 Even the trees were in color. The pimento 
 — pepper-tree — has feathery fern-like foliage 
 of tender white-green with long clusters of 
 berries, the size and clear color of red currants. 
 It is such a fresh, refined and graceful tree that 
 I do not wonder it was chosen as the decorative 
 tree in the new Athens where it borders the 
 avenues and parks. By it, here, grows the
 
 26 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND, 
 
 noble Norfolk pine with its star-shaped boughs 
 graduated until the lofty top has a horizontal 
 five-pointed star crowning all. When we saw 
 one of these growing by two giant palms, there 
 came irresistibly to mind the early story of the 
 Christmas in Judea. 
 
 We were now in the new and broader resi- 
 dence quarter, the avenues of orange, of pepper- 
 trees, of fan-palm became longer, the lawns 
 spread into greater size, and the large houses 
 back in their grounds were pictures of beauty 
 from the masses of delicate foliage and lovely 
 color about them. Turning into the gates of 
 one of these our friend said it was growing too 
 warm for our wraps, and we would leave them 
 at that house. 
 
 " But can we ? " 
 
 " O, yes ! I know them there. They will be 
 very glad to have you drive through, or, if you 
 will, come in." 
 
 We drove very slowly up a long carriage-way 
 bordereil by a hedge of glowing geraniums, and
 
 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 27 
 
 on the other side chrysanthemums, with ver- 
 benas as a foot-rug ; then a turn between six- 
 foot-high hedges of cypress trimmed to velvety 
 smoothness brought us to such a pleasaunce ! 
 On its fine turf were magnolias, cypress, locust 
 and almond-trees, and two huge India rubber- 
 trees, all from twenty to thirty feet high, and 
 the house up to the second fioorwas masked by 
 roses, honeysuckle and a gorgeous orange col- 
 ored creeper in cascades of blooms — while 
 everywhere were the perfume of violets and 
 song of birds. 
 
 Fancy this, after the black Atlantic and the 
 pursuing snow and cold. 
 
 And all this growth, from grass to trees, 
 was not yet eight years old. 
 
 We were so entranced we did not notice the 
 carriage had stopped by the lotos-pond. Our 
 friend had taken out the wraps and a lady was 
 coming down the steps with a smile of welcome 
 in her gentle blue eyes. 
 
 "Yes," she said, "you are to get out — and
 
 28 CHRISTMAS IN LOTOS-LAND. 
 
 luncheon is waiting you — I am at home here, 
 and so are you." 
 
 My letters home that evening were all out of 
 shape with rose-leaves and violets and such-like 
 sweet vouchers that we were safe where winter 
 could not follow, and in their own dear silent 
 way carried messages of comforting and hope.
 
 II. 
 
 HOW THE GOOD NEWS CAME OUT FROM THE 
 WEST. 
 
 EDISON says he will work at his latest 
 invention "until it registers sounds now 
 lost to our grosser senses." 
 
 I would like to tell you of a singular trans- 
 mission of knowledge between far distant points, 
 which he may yet be able to explain. For it 
 was akin to the telephone, only sublimated. 
 
 It would have been a ghost story pure and 
 simple in older times; but to be in keeping with 
 to-day it is but a beautiful fact, which Science 
 may yet reduce to useful practice. 
 
 I was so used to his safe returns from every 
 danger that I had become fairly reasonable 
 about Mr. Fremont's journeys, and my wise lov- 
 ing father took care I should have my mind and 
 29
 
 30 HOW THE GOOD NEWS 
 
 time usefully filled. We could not look to hear 
 from Mr. Fre'mont on the unoccupied line of 
 country he was exploring that winter of 1853- 
 54 ; he must first reach the close at San Fran- 
 cisco, and our first news must come by the 
 Isthmus route of Panama; at the earliest, mid- 
 summer. But in midwinter, without any reason, 
 I became possessed by the conviction that he 
 was starving ; nor could any effort reason this 
 away. No such impression had ever come to 
 me before, although more than once dreadful 
 suffering, and even deaths from starvation, had 
 befallen his other expeditions. 
 
 This time it came upon me as a fact I could 
 not turn from. It fairly haunted nie for nearly 
 two weeks, until, young and absolutely healthy 
 as I was, it made a physical effect on me. 
 Sleep and appetite were broken up, and in spite 
 of my father's and my own efforts to dissipate 
 it by reasoning, by added open-air life, nothing 
 dulled my sense of increasing suffering from 
 hunger to Mr. Fremont and his party.
 
 CAME OUT FROM THE WEST. 3 1 
 
 This weight of fear was lifted from me as 
 suddenly as it had come. 
 
 My house was near that of my father's, and 
 the younger part of his family when returning 
 from parties often came to me for the remainder 
 of the night that the elders might not have their 
 sleep broken. In this way one of my sisters 
 and a cousin came to me after a wedding ball 
 at General Jessup's. The drive home was long 
 and over rough frozen streets, and it was nearly 
 one o'clock when they came in — glad enough 
 of the bright room and big wood fire waiting 
 them. As girls do, they took off their ball 
 dresses and made themselves comfortable with 
 loose woollen gowns and letting down their 
 hair, while I, only too pleased just then to 
 have an excuse for staying up with others, 
 made them tea as we talked over the evening 
 and the bride. 
 
 The fire was getting low and I went into the 
 adjoining dressing-room to bring in more wood. 
 It was an old-fashioned big fireplace and the
 
 32 
 
 HOW THE GOOD NEWS 
 
 sticks were too large to grasp with the hand ; 
 as I half-knelt, balancing the long sticks on my 
 left arm, a hand rested lightly on my left shoul- 
 der, and Mr. Fremont's voice, pleased and 
 laughing, whispered my name. There was no 
 sound beyond the quick-whispered name — no 
 presence, only the touch — that was all. But I 
 knew (as one knows in dreams) that it was Mr. 
 Fremont, gay, and intending to startle my sister 
 whose ready scream always freshly amused him. 
 
 Silently I went back into the girls' room with 
 the wood, but before I could speak my sister, 
 looking up to take a stick from me, gave a great 
 cry and fell in a heap on the rug. 
 
 "What have you seen.?" called out our cousin, 
 Mary Benton, the most steady-nerved, even- 
 natured of women then as now. 
 
 I had not yet spoken ; this was all in a flash 
 together. When I said it was Mr. Fremont — 
 that he touched my shoulder for me to " keep 
 still and let him scare Susy" — then the poor 
 child screamed again and again. We crushed
 
 CAME OUT FROM THE WEST. ;^^ 
 
 her ball dress over her head to keep the sound 
 from the neighbors, but it was difficult to quiet 
 her. 
 
 The girls had been distressed by my fixed 
 idea of danger to Mr. Fremont and knew how 
 out of condition it had made me. Their first 
 thought now was that my mind had broken 
 down. They soon realized this was not so as 
 we discussed the strange fact of my knowing — 
 knowing — and so surely that peace came back 
 to me — that whatever he had had to bear was 
 over ; that he was now safe and light of heart ; 
 and that in some way he himself had told 
 me so. 
 
 We talked long and the girls were too excited 
 for sleep, though the unreliable little French 
 clock chimed three. But a blessed rest had 
 fallen on me and I went off to " a sleep that 
 sank into my soul " deep and dreamless, from 
 which I did not wake until ten the next day, 
 when my eyes opened to see my father sitting 
 by my bedside. He had been guarding my
 
 34 HOW THE GOUD NEWS 
 
 sleep a long time — in fact the whole household 
 were protecting it as the crisis of a fever. 
 
 The girls had watched near me until morning 
 when they went over and told my father, who 
 had in our family physician, Dr. Lindsley, to 
 look at me. But both recognized it to be 
 healthy refreshing sleep; my color had returned 
 and the strained anxious expression was gone — 
 more than any words this told to practiced eyes 
 that some electric change had restored " the 
 peaceful currents of the blood." 
 
 With sleep and appetite strength soon re- 
 turned, but the true "good-medicine " was my 
 absolute certainty of safety for Mr. Fremont. 
 
 My father's first words to me had been, 
 "Child, you have seen a vision ?" and lawyer- 
 like he questioned and cross-questioned me 
 thoroughly (as he had already the two girls). 
 This vision, as he n;imcd it, interested him 
 deeply. He knew me to be soundly healthy; 
 he had seen the sucUlen genuine fear holding 
 and altering me as an illness wouUi, and now,
 
 CAME OUT FROM THE WEST. 35 
 
 as suddenly and completely as a northwest wind 
 clears the air and leaves it fresh, cool and life- 
 giving, this " vision " had swept away all clouds 
 of fear and brought me new life. 
 
 We all talked it over with friends, often. 
 There was no way to verify what Mr. Fre'mont's 
 part had been during those two weeks. We 
 must wait until, his journey over, by summer at 
 the earliest, he should reach San Francisco, and 
 then the only mail was nearly a month, via the 
 Isthmus. 
 
 But in early April there came to Washington, 
 overland, a Mormon elder, named Babitt, from 
 the settlement of Parowan in (now) South Utah. 
 Mr. Babitt brought us letters from Mr. Fremont 
 written at Parowan, and added many details of 
 personal intelligence. 
 
 The winter had been very harsh, and much 
 snow falling drove off the game. Mr. Fre'mont 
 had in his party but few of his old companions 
 — men whose experience and nerve gave them 
 resource and staying power in emergencies.
 
 36 HOW THE GOOD NEWS 
 
 The new men became nearly demoralized under 
 the trying ordeal of cold and hunger and were 
 almost given out when after foTty days of in- 
 creasing want they reached this small Mormon 
 settlement. There they were taken care of with 
 a true hospitality and kindness which none of 
 our family ever forget. One good man, Fuller, 
 had died the day before, but they brought him 
 in fastened on a horse, and Christian burial 
 was given him while men and women with true 
 Christian kindness patiently nursed back to life 
 those nearly exhausted. 
 
 Most of the party were unwilling to go farther, 
 and remained there, for whites and Indians 
 agreed that no one had ever been heard of 
 again who had tried to cross into California on 
 that line. 
 
 As Mr. Fre'mont persevered, Mr. Babitt aided 
 him in all ways to refit, and cashed his personal 
 draft on a San Francisco bank, a trust never 
 before shown a Gentile by a Mormon. 
 
 Now the fact was verified that there had been
 
 CAME OUT FROM THE WEST. 37 
 
 a Starving time ; that it had lasted through Jan- 
 uar}' into the next month; that the last fortnight 
 had been desperately, almost fatally exhausting 
 
 — quite so to poor Fuller. 
 
 This fortnight was the period during which I 
 knew of their starving. 
 
 The relief came to them when they got into 
 Parowan — the evening of tlie sixth of February 
 
 — when I was made to know that also, that 
 same night. Every family took in some of the 
 men, putting them into warm rooms and clean 
 comfortable beds, and kind-faced women gave 
 them reviving food and pitying words. Mr, 
 Fre'mont's letters could not say enough of the 
 gentle, patient care of these kind women. And 
 of his own "great relief of mind." 
 
 After this we heard no more until the twenty- 
 fifth of May when he telegraphed from New 
 York as his steamer got in from Aspinwall, and 
 by set of sun he was'again at home. 
 
 Soon he was told by my father of what I have 
 been telling you here. His lawyer-habit of 
 
 b u 9 i G
 
 38 HOW THE GOOD NEWS 
 
 mind had made him minutely verify what we 
 three women had to tell, but there was a point 
 beyond on which the geographer-astronomer- 
 mind fastened — the point of Time, 
 
 As nearly as we could settle it, two A. M. was 
 the hour I had the flash of information that all 
 was well again. 
 
 The girls had stayed out later than usual as 
 it was an assembly of family friends for a mar- 
 riage festivity, and the long rough drive over 
 frozen mud of the old Washington streets was 
 necessarily slow. Our old coachman objected to 
 being out after twelve and we saw with a little 
 quake that it was nearly one when they came in. 
 
 After that came the undressing, the leisurely 
 hair-brushing, the long gossip over the evening 
 as they took their tea ; and this brought it to 
 about two o'clock. Time did not enter much 
 into our former easy-going Southern lives, and 
 we were three young women amused, comfort- 
 able — and what did it matter an hour more or 
 less ?
 
 CAME OUT FROM THE WEST. 39 
 
 After the shock we were too deeply moved to 
 do other than feel. Properly, we should have 
 looked at the clock, made a minute of the facts, 
 signed it, and put it on record. But we did not 
 know about all that, those days. 
 
 We only knew it was " nearing one " when 
 the girls came home, " about two " when the 
 fire grew low, and " quite three " when over- 
 powering sleep sent me off to bed. 
 
 Next morning when the baggage came, the 
 journal of that time was taken out and we read 
 the entry for the night of their arrival at Paro- 
 wan, the bringing up of the journal to the latest 
 waking hour being a fixed habit. We read : 
 
 '''' Paroivan, February 6, iili 30' /. w.," and 
 
 the brief record of the arrival, their safety 
 and comfort, and the goodness of every one to 
 them. Pie had been around to each of his 
 party for a thankful good-night, and had seen 
 them each in warm beds ; he wrote of the con- 
 trast to the bad days just past and of his own 
 quiet room with its fire of logs and " the big
 
 40 
 
 HOW THE GOOD NEWS 
 
 white bed " waiting him, to which he must go 
 now for he was "fatigued" and it was near 
 midnight. 
 
 Then there followed the wish that I could 
 know of this comfort and of his mind at ease. 
 And, at that moment, I did know. 
 For the difference of longitude makes Wash- 
 ington two hours and twenty-three minutes later 
 than Parowan, so that ii*'3o'/. m. there, would 
 be in Washington i^ 53' a. 7n. — "about" two 
 o'clock ! 
 
 They have here in California, a lovely custom 
 of a Festival of Flowers each year while the 
 wild flowers are in beauty and roses and other 
 planted flowers are literally in countless number 
 and splendor. These flowers that "toil not" 
 yet do noble work, for the annual flower-fetes 
 have built up Orphan Asylums and Homes for 
 Working Women throughout the State. 
 
 In the spring of 18S8 we were guests of the 
 beautiful rich town of San Jose during its flower-
 
 CAME OUT FROM THE WEST, 41 
 
 fete. Among the farming people who came into 
 town to wish a kindly welcome to Mr, Fre'mont 
 was one, gray, weather-beaten, but hale and 
 clear-eyed. Among the roses he stood, observing 
 the General, then said, " I would know you again 
 anywhere, but you would not know me." 
 
 But a dawning memory was coming up and 
 the General asked " Was it not in snow-time ? " 
 and both said " Parowan." 
 
 And so it was — the very man at whose house 
 he had been so hospitably cared for — from 
 whose hearth in Utah had flashed to me in 
 Washington that strange message of peace.
 
 III. 
 
 MY GRIZZLY BEAR. 
 
 BEAR VALLEY was the name of the busy 
 mining town nearest us on our mining 
 place in the Lower Sierras, It troubled our 
 sense of fitness to call a town a valley, but it 
 was fixed by custom and fitness ; for this had 
 been a happy hunting-ground of the grizzlies. 
 Acorns of the long variety, tasting like chest- 
 nuts, abounded here as well as the usual smaller 
 varieties, while the rich oily nut of the pihon- 
 pine made their delight. These acorns and 
 pihones were the chief bread-supplies of the 
 Indians also who did not give them up easily, 
 and consequently bear-skeletons and Indian 
 skulls remained to tell the tale to the miners 
 who came in to the rich "diggings" tliere, 
 American rifles, then the pounding of quartz 
 42
 
 MY GRIZZLY BEAR. 43 
 
 mills and strange shrieks of steam engines drove 
 them away, and only the name remained. 
 
 To my objection of using " valley " and 
 " town " as one and the same, I was told best 
 let it alone or worse would follow, for there was 
 a strong party intending to change the name of 
 the place to " Simpkinsville," and how would 
 I like that ? The postmaster was the Simpkins 
 — a tall, "showy" young man with an ambitious 
 wife much older than himself ; he was a London 
 footman and she Irish, active, energetic, with a 
 good head, and with ambitions for her Simpkins. 
 That neither of them could read or write was a 
 trivial detail that did not seem to disturb the 
 public. Men would swing down from horse or 
 wagon-box, go in and select from the loose pile 
 of letters their own and those of their neigh- 
 bors, and have their drink at the bar over which 
 Simpkins presided (they kept a tavern and the 
 post-office was only a little detail). 
 
 But with the instinct of a man who "had 
 seen the world" toward people of somewha.t the
 
 44 MY GRIZZLY BEAR. 
 
 same experience, the postmaster treated us with 
 the largest courtesy, for everything with a capi- 
 tal " F " on it was laid aside for us.* Isaac, 
 our part-Indian hunter, who generally rode in 
 for the mail did not read either, and often had 
 to make return-trips to give back what was not 
 ours. It was in the time of Mr. Buchanan's 
 administration, and had Simpkins sent in a peti- 
 tion signed as it would have been by the hab- 
 itues of his bar, of course so faithful a political 
 servant would have been granted this small 
 favor, of change of name. You may be sure I 
 lay low in my valley to avert this cruel address 
 on my letters. 
 
 I had never before gone up to this property, 
 and now it was chiefly as a summer open-air 
 and camping-out tour to be over in three months, 
 when we were to return to Paris where all ar- 
 rangements had been made for a three-years 
 stay. 
 
 • This " F " was the brand on all the tools and belongings of the 
 works — in these countries whatever else was defied the brand had to 
 be respected.
 
 MY GRIZZLY BEAR. 45 
 
 Although the bear had long disappeared from 
 this favorite old haunt I felt nervous about 
 horseback excursions. Mountains are grim 
 things at best, but all those deep clefts and 
 thickets in ravines and horrid stony hill-slopes 
 barred me from any but the beaten stage and 
 wagon-roads, with our cool, brave Isaac to drive 
 me. However, there was one view Mr. Fremont 
 wanted me to see which we could get to only 
 on horseback, with a short climb at the peak of 
 the mountain. From the summit we could see 
 eighty miles off the line of the San Joaquin 
 River, defined by its broad belt of trees, run- 
 ning north and south parallel to our mountains ; 
 connecting the two were many mountain rivers 
 crossing the broad plain and glittering like steel 
 ribbons in the afternoon sun — the Merced, the 
 Stanislaus, the Tuolumne and others; a turn 
 , of the head showed the peaks of the Yosemite 
 thirty miles off, and lines of blue mountains 
 back to the everlasting snow of Carson's Peak 
 — a stretch of a hundred and fitty miles.
 
 46 MY GRIZZLY BEAR. 
 
 It was a rough ride up, and rougher climbing 
 after the horses could go no further and had to 
 be left tied to trees with one man to watch 
 them — only one other was with us; our party 
 was only myself and my daughter with her 
 father and the two men. 
 
 We were growing more and more enthusiastic 
 as glimpses of this rare view came to us. Mr. 
 Fremont told us the distances, which only singu- 
 larly pure mountain air could have let the eye 
 pierce. " And the ear, too," I said. " We 
 must be three miles from the village and yet 
 how near sounds the barking of that dog ! " 
 
 Dead silence fell on our animated people. 
 They listened, as the rough, low bark — broader 
 and rougher even than that of a bull-dog — rose 
 again, sounding really close to us. 
 
 I never question any acts of some few people 
 but I was surprised, and not too pleased, to find 
 myself hurried back down the steep, stony peak 
 with onl}^, " It is too late to finish the climb — 
 we must hurry — do not speak — keep all your
 
 MY GRIZZLY BEAR. 47 
 
 breath for walking." And hurry we did. I was 
 fairly lifted along. Mr. Burke had disappeared 
 and was now with Lee bringing the horses to 
 meet us — the horses refractory. 
 
 Without a word I was lifted into the saddle 
 — Mr. Fre'mont gathered up my reins himself 
 and kept close to my side — and we fairly scur- 
 ried down the mountain, I shamelessly holding 
 to the saddle as the steep grade made me dizzy. 
 This dizziness so preoccupied me with the fear 
 of fainting that I felt nothing else. We gained 
 the stage-road by the shortest cut, and then a 
 loping gallop soon brought us home, where I 
 was carefully lifted down and all the consider- 
 ation and care which they dared not give me on 
 the hurried ride was now lavished on me. I had 
 been seriously ill not long before and could not 
 understand why I was so roughly hauled along. 
 
 There was reason enough. 
 
 It was no dog, but a grizzly bear that made 
 that warning bark, and we were very close to it. 
 
 My ignorance spared me the shock of this
 
 48 MY GRIZZLY BEAR. 
 
 knowledge, but the practised mountain men 
 knew it was not only a bear, but a she-bear with 
 cubs. They knew she would not be likely to 
 leave her cubs at that hour when they were set- 
 tling for the night unless we came nearer or 
 irritated her by talking and noises. Horses are 
 terribly afraid of this powerful and dangerous 
 animal, and one danger was that our horses 
 would break away and run for safety leaving us 
 to the chances of getting off on foot. There I 
 was the weak link in the chain. My daughter 
 was fleet of foot and so steady of nerve that 
 she was told the truth at once, and did her part 
 bravely in keeping me unaware of any unusual 
 condition. Fortunately our riding horses were, 
 each, pets and friends, and only required to be 
 safe with their masters ; Burke had got back in- 
 stantly to help Lee, and once mounted we were 
 moved by one intelligence, one will. 
 
 Very quickly our bright drawing-room filled 
 with eager men gun in hand. Armed men rode 
 down the glen intent on that bear — first coming
 
 MY GRIZZLY BEAR, 
 
 49 
 
 to get all information of the exact locality, then 
 to ride and raise the countryside for a general 
 turnout against it. For every one had kept 
 from " the Madam " the fact that a she-bear 
 had been prowling about for some time seeking 
 what she could devour ; and that she had de- 
 voured some and mangled more of " Quigley's 
 hogs " — Quigley having very fine and profitable 
 hogs at a small ranch three miles from us. 
 
 Lights frighten off wild beasts. I had no 
 shame in illuminating the house that night. 
 Men laughed kindly over it, but they all felt 
 glad I had come off so safely, and next day I 
 was early informed that the cubs were all killed. 
 The bear went as usual to Quigley's for her raw 
 pork supper, the digestion of a bear making 
 this a pleasure without drawback, but the stir 
 about the place was evident to the keen senses 
 of the grizzly and the men watched that night 
 in vain. Her tracks were plain all around 
 about, and the poor thing was tracked to her 
 return to her cubs. She had moved them —
 
 50 WY GRIZZLY BEAR. 
 
 made sure they were all dead, and her instinct 
 sent her off into close hiding. 
 
 The watch was kept up, but she was wary^ 
 and kept away. 
 
 At length one dark night the Quigley people 
 heard sounds they were sure came from the 
 bear though the hogs in the big pen were quiet. 
 They were stifled sounds blown away by a high 
 wind. There was but one man in the house, 
 and he said his wife would not let him go after 
 them ; it was so desperately dark the odds would 
 be all against him. 
 
 The woman said she was not sure it was a 
 bear. She half thought it was men fighting, an 
 equally great danger in that isolated way of 
 living. So they shut their ears and their hearts 
 although human groans and stifled blown-away 
 cries made them sure it was no animal. 
 
 The sounds passed on. In the morning they 
 went to the wagon-road which ran near their 
 inclosure and found a trail of blood. Followed 
 up it led to a little creek close by with steep 
 
 I
 
 MY GRIZZLY BEAR. 51 
 
 clay banks. Dead, his face downward in the 
 water, lay a young man in a pool of blood — 
 shockingly mangled across the lower part of the 
 body. His sufferings must have been great, but 
 his will and courage had proved greater. 
 
 He had not been torn by a bear as was first 
 thought, but by a ball from his own pistol. 
 This was found, a perfectly new pistol, in his 
 trousers pocket ; the scorched clothing showing 
 it had gone off while in the pocket. The trail 
 was followed back, leading to a brook where he 
 must have stooped to drink when the pistol, 
 carrying a heavy ball, went off. Yet such was 
 his courage and determination that he crawled 
 that long way in a state plainly told by the 
 places where he had rolled in agony — the last 
 was where he made his vain appeal for help at 
 the Quigley house. Perhaps he fell face down- 
 ward into the shallow stream and was mercifully 
 drowned. 
 
 His good clothing, a geologist's hammer, and 
 some specimens of quartz wrapped in bits of a
 
 52 MY GRIZZLY BEAR, 
 
 German newspaper, told of an educated, worthy 
 sort of man. But there was nothing to identify 
 him, and the poor fellow was never inquired 
 after. One of the many who came from afar 
 with high hope, and whose life was summed up 
 in that most pathetic of words, " Missing." 
 
 The grizzly had disappeared and was, I am 
 told, the last ever known in that valley, which 
 still has as postmark for the town, " Bear Val- 
 ley ; " it is to be presumed the succeeding post- 
 masters have been men who knew the whole of 
 the alphabet as well as the letter '' F."
 
 IV. 
 
 BESIEGED. 
 
 COLONEL, the Hornitas League has jumped 
 the Black Drift ! " 
 
 " What does that mean ?" I asked. 
 
 "Only mining work,'" was the answer. " You 
 had best go to sleep again." 
 
 And in my blissful ignorance go to sleep I 
 did. It was in the hot summer weather, that 
 furnace-like heat of the dry season in a deep 
 valley of the Sierras where the only touch of 
 cooler air comes after the night has shaded the 
 heated earth ; and it was in the dim dawn of 
 this fresher hour that the cautious, low-spoken 
 call was made to " the Colonel." * 
 
 * Richard Dana of Two Years Before the Mast made us a delight- 
 ful visit in our mountains. He told us that while every man he met 
 was a colonel who was not a judge, yet from Stockton \i\^'^the 
 Colonel" meant Mr. Fremont — hence the localism repeated here. 
 
 53
 
 54 BESIEGED. 
 
 As Mr. Fremont often rode to the mines, three 
 miles away, before the sun was over the range, 
 it was no surprise to find on waking that he had 
 had his coffee and gone. How early I was not 
 told ; nor was I let to know anything of the dan- 
 ger that was calling out the best thinking and 
 best action of all our people. 
 
 In my ignorance, we went about our day as 
 usual. We could drive out quite late after the 
 sun was well behind the western range, but all 
 the long day we had to find in-door resources. 
 This was to the advantage of the young peo- 
 ple, for we had found some regular occupation 
 necessary and made it of what was around us. 
 Our agent had left an unusually good collection 
 of books (he had recently died) and though it 
 was a very irregular course, yet we secured a 
 lot of amusement as well as instruction from 
 these. In P'rench there were sev^eral fine his- 
 tories of France illustrated from historical por- 
 traits and pictures, and good memoirs on the 
 French Revolution. Both the young people 
 
 I
 
 BESIEGED, 55 
 
 knew Paris well and we could locate events in 
 palaces and parks and streets they were familiar 
 with. A superb Shakespeare, also illustrated, 
 gave more than enough for English study, but 
 there were also many of the English classics, 
 and, what fascinated us, works on medical juris- 
 prudence, and selected cases of circumstantial 
 evidence. From these I would read ahead — 
 I being pilot-engine for my young train — and 
 put limits for their reading on which we would 
 talk together after. 
 
 We were only three, but our differing ages 
 and countries made variety in thinking. An 
 English friend had asked us to let his son, a 
 delightful lad of seventeen, go with us for the 
 few months we were to be absent from New 
 York — the boy had outgrown his strength and 
 was ordered travel and rest. My daughter was 
 much younger, but accustomed to grown-up 
 minds, as she had never been sent from home. 
 These two followed eagerly and intelligently my 
 hap-hazard lead and we all found real pleasure
 
 56 BESIEGED. 
 
 in it. And the tall young Douglass became 
 steadily stronger and more boyish. I felt very 
 responsible for the health of this precious eld- 
 est son, and we all grew attached to him for 
 himself. I think a clean-natured, well-bred boy 
 of a happy affectionate nature is a charming 
 associate. All the more if he is, as a boy should 
 be, full of healthy, bold explosive life. 
 
 This day we settled to our talk-lesson, but 
 soon I noticed their hearts were not in it. And 
 at luncheon their wholesome young appetites 
 had failed theni. The two little boys were also 
 restless, for " Isaac wouldn't let them go out to 
 play in the barn," and it was not possible for 
 them to play out of doors during the fierce heat 
 of the day. 
 
 It does not take long for the mind to group 
 little things into proofs of some larger disturb- 
 ance. Too soon I had to know that that early 
 morning messenger was a herald of danger — 
 of almost inevitable conflict and loss of life. 
 
 It is too long to explain here ; but a bad local
 
 BESIEGED. 57 
 
 decision had lately been made by the State 
 Court which gave to all persons the right to 
 enter and hold any "unoccupied " mining claim 
 or mine. This was so worded (and so intended) 
 that the large body of those who had not bought 
 and regularly worked such property could seize 
 and legally hold the property of those who had, 
 " if unoccupied." All the trouble arose from 
 the construction of that word, " unoccupied," 
 A small miner working alone would go to his 
 dinner, and immediately men watching for the 
 chance would seize and hold against him his 
 lawful property. 
 
 These outsiders had organized into a League 
 and were bound to help one another. Property- 
 holders, surprised by such a construction, were 
 not ready on their side with organized resist- 
 ance. And the chief Judge* was openly in 
 sympathy with this League. 
 
 Now Americans much prefer to live peace- 
 ably, but they will not give up their rights. If 
 it conies to trying force you know their record 
 
 * Judge Terry.
 
 58 BESIEGED. 
 
 as a fighting nation is made. Consequently in a 
 brief time tliere were over fifty cases entered for 
 trial where men had been killed or had to kill 
 others in defense of their rights. 
 
 We had in California at that time a bad ele- 
 ment of foreigners. It was believed the English 
 authorities over the convict settlements of Aus. 
 tralia did not " take notice " of the shiploads of 
 escaping convicts crowding into California. 
 
 We had enough bad Americans, but they, 
 being American, had not that long inheritance 
 of want and crime known to older countries. 
 These criminal outcasts, exulting in their escape 
 from Botany Bay and Sydney, finding themselves 
 in such thinly scattered and far-apart settlements 
 without any visible officers of the law, felt free 
 to follow every bad impulse. Many honest but 
 misled men were at first in this League, men 
 who believed all the lands free because we had 
 bought the country and they were told Mexican 
 titles were of no value and only actual settlers 
 could huld lands and n)ines. To this ij^norant
 
 BESIEGE®. 59 
 
 though honest body came the element which 
 only cared for this legalized chance at plunder. 
 The Arabs say " A court of law is not a court 
 of justice:" justice would settle this question 
 properly, but the letter of this law was against 
 justice. 
 
 On our place was a fairly orderly industrious 
 and prospering people in settlements of small 
 towns and mining camps scattered over a dozen 
 miles of mountain country, isolated in sudden 
 emergencies. And our nearest large town and 
 first telegraph was eighty miles away, at Stock- 
 ton on the Bay of San Francisco. 
 
 The invading party numbered over a hundred. 
 They came from Hornitas, a place of evil fame 
 just below our mountains — a gambling nest 
 such as Bret Harte tells of — a place "where 
 everything that loathes the law " found congen- 
 ial soil and flourished. 
 
 These men announced we should get no help 
 from outside, for they would let no messenger 
 go through ; they had guarded every ford and
 
 6o BESIEGED. 
 
 pass, and had their marksmen-watchmen out 
 everywhere. Our local sheriff actually declined 
 to call out a posse. " No use," he said ; for the 
 " Hornitas crowd " were the terror of our neigh- 
 borhood. They had bribed the night watchman 
 to leave free to them these mines ; a group of 
 three close together on a high spur of the moun- 
 tains, which then had been carefully worked for 
 four years, chiefly by experienced Cornish min- 
 ers brought over by the Colonel, 
 
 You must know it is very dangerous to dis- 
 place the "shoring " — the timbers that protect 
 sides and roof of the long tunnels — but the 
 Hornitas men cared nothing for the future of 
 the mine ; no picks and slow work for them. 
 They put in shallow blasts wherever gold showed 
 and were already ravaging the Black Drift. 
 
 In the two otiier mines luckily six of our men 
 had been still at work, so that the League could 
 not enter them even under its own unjust law. 
 This angered them, and they determined to 
 starve these miners out and so compel the
 
 BESIEGED. 6l 
 
 "unoccupied " state they required in order to 
 take possession. 
 
 Remember tliat this property had been bought, 
 paid for, and worked for years under a United 
 States patent. 
 
 These three mines opened out high up the 
 precipitous mountain-side, close together, on a 
 small space leveled out to receive the " dump " 
 and allow the ox-wagons to load and turn easily; 
 they were reached only by one road (with a few 
 turn-outs) cut into the face of the mountain. 
 Sixteen hundred feet below was a ravine open- 
 ing to the Merced River where were the mills 
 with water-power. The opposite mountain rose 
 so near and so high that it was always dark down 
 below in the deep, deep ravine with its jagged 
 walls of rocks and stunted shrubs. Its appro- 
 priate name was Hell's Hollow. A fall into it 
 ^ was death. Bad ground for a fight, you see. 
 
 Yet on this confined space were gathered the 
 men of the League ; and for our side, only the 
 Colonel and a few of our friends. Knowing
 
 62 BESIEGED, 
 
 how easily a word can kindle into wrath ill- 
 meaning and unreasoning people he preferred 
 to be almost alone. It was hard to hear the 
 shouts and blasts in the Black Drift and know 
 the good work of years was being endangered; 
 but to-morrows did not exist for the spoilers, and 
 the day was theirs. The League, baffled by the 
 fact of six men in the other two mines (which 
 connected) gave answering shouts, and swore 
 they would starve out our faithful men who 
 steadily refused to surrender the mines. 
 
 The captain of the miners was one of the six, 
 an excellent quiet American who had a slim 
 little bright wife from Virginia and a brood of 
 small children who played like chamois on the 
 sharp mountain back of their cottage near the 
 mines. This little woman bore the waiting and 
 the threats quietly and bravely ; doing her part 
 to "help the Colonel." 
 
 Above all Mr. Fremont wished to prevent 
 violence — the first shot would have brought 
 out all the delayed evil of one side, all the
 
 BESIEGED, 63 
 
 restrained indicfiiation of the other. Once besrun 
 it would have been a deadly contest — not only 
 at the mines, but followed up wherever there 
 was plunder to find or a friend to be avenged. 
 
 He hoped that by quietly talking with them, 
 by keeping off new sources of dispute, above all 
 by keeping away drink from them they would, 
 as there were Americans among them, come to 
 a better mind and see violence would not ulti- 
 mately profit them. Our men who had rapidly 
 held a council with him (while I was asleep ! ) 
 saw this necessity for silence and forbearance 
 and seconded him in every way. They guarded 
 the road and the only path anything but a goat 
 could move on, leading along from the village 
 to the mines ; the enemy had cut off communi- 
 caiion from the mines, and our men claimed it 
 fair play to cut off communication to the mines. 
 So the danger from whiskey was kept back, in 
 spite of various efforts to get it through. ' 
 
 An express through to Stockton to rouse good 
 friends there to telegraph to the Governor for
 
 64 BESIEGED. 
 
 State aid, as the sheriff refused to do his duty, 
 had been immediately attempted and as imme- 
 diately stopped by the guards of the League. 
 They on their side were prepared for all moves. 
 As the Colonel had to be with his men at 
 the mines, and no communication was allowed 
 between them and the village or the steam-mill, 
 he had to leave this and all else to the care of 
 those managing the works — chiefly two very 
 unusually well-qualified men, the book-keeper 
 being one ; a man whose silence was as pro- 
 verbial as his cool courage and high honor. He 
 was to keep a lookout for us also. 
 
 Our two brave, faithful colored men, Isaac and 
 Lee, were our guard — this duty the Colonel 
 trusted to them — and as strange horsemen 
 were riding all around firing off pistols, the 
 little boys too were not to leave the house. 
 This arranged rapidly, in the early dawn — 
 while I slept — he was off to the mines. 
 
 When a danger is safely over only those who 
 wore through its agony of suspense can realize
 
 BESIEGED. 65 
 
 what vague horrors beset the mind. The year 
 before I had been in Paris during the time of 
 the Indian mutiny ; its hideous facts filled the 
 public papers, and we had some English friends 
 in such distress as can never be forgotten. In 
 this League were some elements as evil and 
 cruel as the Sepoys. Our men had been ordered 
 what to do for us if, as was threatened, the 
 house was burned and ourselves attacked. 
 Death from a friendly hand was more kind than 
 chances among such wild beasts as bad men 
 become when intoxicated. 
 
 It seemed unreal — impossible, that in my 
 own country, in the State for which my father 
 and my husband had done so much, on our own 
 ground and in our own home I and my young 
 children should have to face such a condition. 
 And have to bear it all so helplessly ; without 
 knowledge even of what was going on but three 
 miles from us. The only certainties to give 
 comfort were that no firing had been heard, 
 and no whiskey allowed to get through.
 
 66 BESIEGED. 
 
 Towards evening the policy of moderation 
 and patience began to tell. Standing under a 
 sun of over a hundred degrees, with no space to 
 move about and no food to eat, had tamed the 
 enemy into offering a truce for the night. 
 Doubts and disagreements were at work among 
 them. The better men would not join in vio- 
 lence, without which they now saw they could 
 not carry out their plan of holding these mines. 
 They proposed to "sleep on it" and begin 
 afresh next day, demanding everything should 
 remain as they left it. 
 
 But little Mrs. Caton rose against this. She 
 said her husband should have food. She made 
 her way through the packed crowd, a little creat- 
 ure but a great heart, carrying a big basket of 
 provisions and — a revolver. Her finger was 
 on the trigger as she pushed forward. 
 . " I shoot the first man that hinders me. You 
 wouldn't like to be shot by a woman ! But I'll 
 shoot to kill. You've just got to let me carry 
 his supper in to Caton. You have your quarrel
 
 BESIEGED. 67 
 
 with the Colonel about mines and lands and 
 you can fight that out with him. But I'm a 
 poor woman that's got only my husband — 
 and five children for him to work for. You 
 sha'n't take his life for your quarrels ! He's 
 only doing his duty. He's been cap'n of these 
 mines four years and he'll stand by them till 
 the Colonel orders him out. And I stand by 
 Caton. So let me pass." 
 
 And with her uplifted revolver waving like a 
 fan towards one and then another, they fell back 
 and let her enter the mine — some laughing, 
 some praising her, some swearing at her. She 
 carried not only food but ammunition ; and three 
 revolvers hung from her waist under her skirts. 
 She " stood by Caton." Then the League set 
 their watch at the mouths of the mines and 
 returned to the village for the night. 
 
 The rush of relief at seeing the Colonel made 
 me realize what I had been fearing — and it 
 was all to begin again with morning !
 
 68 BESIEGED. 
 
 He had to stand by his men on the spot. He 
 felt it already a victory to have warded off action 
 by discussion, to have carried them through a 
 day without violence and without drinking. All 
 we could do was not to distress him by showing 
 our fears but to help him to go, quietly, and 
 refreshed by sleep and home, to another day of 
 chances. Then to wait — to wait with a brain 
 growing hot and benumbed with one fixed terror ! 
 
 If only we could get word to the Governor. 
 
 But our expresses had all been turned back 
 and warned that any fresh attempt would be 
 met by a rifle ball. 
 
 Then I was told what my two young people 
 had done. 
 
 They had had man}- climbing walks up the 
 mountain back of our house — many rides all 
 about the country-side and with good glasses 
 had studied out future rides on the eastern 
 face of the mountain, from whose uppermost 
 narrow level the Yosemite Falls showed glitter- 
 ing and seemed near, though thirty miles dis- 
 
 i
 
 BESIEGED. 69 
 
 tant. They knew dry creek beds and thick- 
 ets of manzanita and chapparal which would 
 effectually hide a horse carefully led up to and 
 across the summit — then the rider could mount 
 and make as good time as night and rough, un- 
 known, untracked mountains allowed, down to 
 the Merced River — following the river about 
 eight miles up to a large mining camp where 
 Isaac knew the miners — he had hunted and 
 " prospected " all around about us for many 
 years, and with Isaac's name as voucher and 
 passport, there were men there who "would see 
 him through " to Coulterville ; Coulterville being 
 a town and mining settlement about twenty 
 miles to the northeast, and of a steady, law-abid- 
 ing character. 
 
 Douglass had been refused permission to go 
 in the early dawn with the Colonel — his friend's 
 son must not be risked — but stay inactive he 
 could not while danger pressed on us, and so 
 the two thought up this move to the northeast 
 while all the watching was directed west and
 
 7© BESIEGED, 
 
 south. With Isaac abetting, the best route had 
 been studied out, and as dusk fell the dear boy 
 had got off, leading my daughter's sure-footed 
 mountain-bred mare " Ayah." * He was already 
 far when the Colonel got home, I had not been 
 told, for I could not have consented. 
 
 But we both felt deeply his devotion to us. 
 
 And it was another strength for Mr. Fre'mont 
 to hope that by way of Coulterville a messenger 
 could get off without suspicion ; a day's hard 
 riding to Stockton " eighty miles away " ; the 
 brief delay for the Governor's answer — then 
 the swift ride back with announcement of his 
 support. Fresh horses everywhere were only a 
 matter of money ; all lay in the success of the 
 first messenger getting away from our place and 
 
 the besieging League. 
 
 The safe hours of kindly night went all too 
 fast. With the rising of the sun we were again 
 left to watch and fear ; with now the added anx- 
 iety for Douglass. 
 
 • The Hindoo name for bearer or nurse; Little Henry and his 
 Bearer was a Sunday school classic in old days. 
 
 1
 
 BESIEGED. 71 
 
 From one window was a long stretch of view, 
 past the steam-mill and up the mountain-side 
 to where a sharp bend in the road from the 
 mines was clearly defined, its yellowish level 
 and the side-cut glaring out in the hot sunshine. 
 Often, at the usual hour for the return from the 
 mines, the little boys vied in watching that 
 point where just one flash of the swift horse 
 showed black against the sunset sky, and the 
 level tawny road then was lost in the chapparal, 
 hiding the descent into the valley; "Father's 
 coming ! I saw him first ! " was the glad cry. 
 
 Now, at this window, with sight and feeling 
 concentrated on this bend of the road, I stayed 
 while the dreadful time moved slowly on. Isaac 
 permitted my little men to comfort themselves 
 by climbing into a thick-leaved oak, where they 
 obeyed the order for silence — the hush of dread 
 was on us all. 
 
 While we watched the mountain-road a new 
 danger came up from the village. 
 
 A note was brought from there by a man
 
 72 BESIEGED, 
 
 Isaac knew to be a friend — no other would 
 have ventured into our inclosure while he and 
 his dog " Rowdy " kept watch and ward — and 
 with the note was a verbal message that " the 
 answer must be at Bates Tavern by sundown." 
 
 It was addressed to me, and informed me that 
 at a meeting held at Bates Tavern the night 
 before it had been " Resolved " that I should 
 be allowed twenty-four hours to leave the place 
 — that an escort would see me across the 
 mountain down to ihe plain — that no harm 
 should be done to us and that I could take my 
 children and my clothes. But that if I was not 
 gone within the twenty-four hours the house 
 would be burned and I must " take the conse- 
 quences." 
 
 This was signed : " For all prisnt " 
 
 " Denis O'Brien, 
 
 Presdintr 
 
 Even in the first moment I felt pleased it was 
 not an American name signing this document. 
 
 " They mean mischief," Isaac said. " They
 
 BESIEGED. 73 
 
 want to entice the Colonel away from the 
 mines." 
 
 He was sorely angered and troubled. His 
 Indian blood boiled for revengeful action, but 
 Indian tactics made him submit — apparently — 
 for we were at a woful disadvantage. Myself 
 and my young daughter, two little boys and 
 the two good women who had come with us 
 from home, with only Isaac and Lee and the 
 dogs for guard ; that was the whole garrison. 
 That revenge would be sure and wide-spread 
 was a comfort to Isaac — but revenge cannot 
 restore. 
 
 Isaac learned there had been decided opposi- 
 tion to this move against the family, but the 
 better men had gone to the mines. 
 
 Mr. O'Brien, President, and his faction re- 
 mained at the tavern, and if they should grow 
 wild from drinking the lookout for us was bad. 
 The near chance of meeting a grizzly bear had 
 unnerved me, but a wild animal is a simple dan- 
 ger compared with the complicated horrors of
 
 74 BESIEGED. 
 
 a man brought down to animal nature and 
 made furious by drink. 
 
 To gain time I sent word that an answer 
 would be given them. 
 
 Then, back to my watch. 
 
 At least the brain had been stirred, and a tide 
 of anger had displaced the benumbing fear. 
 
 And later in the day, not from mountain or 
 village, but from the Indian encampment back 
 of us in the hills came our dear English boy, 
 looking fresh and leisurely as though just in 
 from the usual ride, 
 
 " Douglax ! Douglax ! " shouted the boys (what 
 does not the small boy see !) as they caught the 
 first glimpse of his white turbaned head. An 
 East Indian muslin " puggaree " wound round 
 his hat had been agreed on as the signal of vic- 
 tory — and he sang out a theery " all right!" 
 as tired " Ayah " made for her stable. 
 
 Then, horse and man refreshed, we had de- 
 tails ; the main facts of safety and success were 
 so good we made him wait until he had eaten.
 
 BESIEGED. 75 
 
 Then, Isaac in the doorway, his gun between 
 his knees and his dog at his feet, and Lee 
 beside him, with the little boys and the good 
 women listening, and his fellow-plotter serenely 
 enjoying their success, we all heard his report. 
 
 He had started as soon as dusk set in, Isaac's 
 directions and the stars guiding, following up 
 the ravine where overhanging bushes hid 
 *' Ayah " as she very unwillingly was led up 
 the mountain at her regular time for rest. After 
 the crest was turned he could mount ; then 
 along shelving slopes with steep descents, to 
 the river ; keeping to it as well as giant bowld- 
 ers and steep, projecting spurs of hills with 
 rolling-stone-faces allowed, he came, towards 
 midnight, to the bend and little meadow where 
 cabins and tents and a smouldering fire showed 
 he had reached the camp, which roused at the 
 sound of his approach ; but Isaac's name was 
 the countersign and brought out the friend asked 
 for. Instantly the news was given it was met 
 by heartiest sympathy and action. Only the
 
 y6 BESIEGED. 
 
 brief halt to saddle up, to offer the unfailing 
 coffee, and he was off again ; this time cheered 
 by friendly companionship, and sure to lose no 
 time as the way was well known to his comrade. 
 This miner knew who to go to ; and quickly two 
 swift riders were off on their eighty-mile stretch 
 — eighty miles of open plain but cut by deep 
 rivers only one of which had a bridge, the rest 
 only rope ferries. At these there was the risk 
 of men watching on the side of the League. 
 
 Bret Harte has peopled this country with 
 creations "founded on fact," doubtless — men 
 with " a single virtue and a thousand faults " 
 (fault is good), but to me the ferries of the 
 Stanislaus and the Tuolumne, the lonely mining 
 camp of the Merced and the remote mining 
 towns tell a better story ; of patient courage 
 in work, and a brotherhood for maintaining 
 order and the law — quick as the minute-men of 
 our Revolution in united support of the right, 
 and with a largeness of good-humored generos- 
 ity special to our far- West life.
 
 BESIEGED. 77 
 
 Coultervile had this stamp. They had lately 
 raised there and equipped a uniformed Home 
 Guard, to prevent disturbances and maintain 
 order, and this body volunteered to march over 
 at once, taking the nearer stage-road. 
 
 Before sunset they would be on the ground 
 at the mines. By sunset our express to Stock- 
 ton would be there ; the telegrams to and from 
 the Governor sent and answered ; and return 
 messengers would ride through the night so that 
 another day would open upon the arm of the law 
 outstretched in protection over our far-away 
 mountain home. 
 
 Our book-keeper had given Douglass blank 
 orders for all outlays throughout — but all would 
 have gone well even without this, for every- 
 where we had struck the right kind of men — 
 " the true vein." Men, who at every risk and 
 sacrifice, in those early days built what was best 
 in Americans into the very foundations of this 
 empire of California ; not amusing to read of 
 as the Bret Harte characters, but the men who
 
 78 BESIEGED. 
 
 had home traditions and guarded them, and 
 handed them down broader and stronger from 
 fiery trials. 
 
 How we watched now for that horse at the 
 turn of the road ! How glad came the shout 
 from the oak-tree — how blushing, yet proud 
 and glad, was that refined English lad as we 
 made him tell, himself, the modest brief story 
 of his night ride, alone, with the stars for guide 
 
 — how our chief relaxed into himself in this 
 atmosphere of home love and support — all was 
 good, too good for words to tell. 
 
 " They also serve who wait." The difficult 
 waiting was almost over and still violence was 
 kept at bay. Now, the glad news that our ex- 
 presses had gone through and were already on 
 the return was spread abroad. It was the best 
 
 — the only answer to Mr. O'Brien. During the 
 night we heard angry voices of horsemen riding 
 around, firing pistols, and otherwise exhaling 
 disappointment and defiance. But our tired 
 chief slept, and so did Douglass ; while Isaac
 
 BESIEGED. 79 
 
 lying on the gallery by my window would say to 
 me in his low cautious voice : " Don't you mind 
 'em — they're mad — but they're afraid of us 
 now — we are bound to win now." 
 
 As we did. The better men refused to act 
 longer with the disorder-loving faction. 
 
 " When I go gunning next time I'll make sure 
 first if we are after wild-duck or tame-duck," 
 said an Arkansas man noted and feared as a 
 reckless leader ; he came to say to the Colonel 
 that as he saw they were in the wrong, he 
 wanted to stay on the place and would do haul- 
 ing of quartz, " and help put down that Hornitas 
 crowd if they stay fooling around where they've 
 no business." This alliance was a great gain, 
 and as effective in its way as the arrival of the 
 fine Coulterville Guard. 
 
 Soon came the expresses, tired but triumph- 
 ant. The Governor had telegraphed that the 
 Marshal of the State would start immediately 
 with a force of five hundred men. That, if 
 needed, he would come up himself, with all
 
 8o BESIEGED. 
 
 force required to restore and maintain order. 
 "Nye of Stoclcton " — Nye, whose great estab- 
 lishments of wagons and mules, and teamsters 
 who could defend their convoys as well as drive 
 their twelve and twenty-mule teams, made the 
 transportation before railroads — Nye was di- 
 rected to send up the arms and ammunition 
 post-haste, and the troops the same. And be- 
 hold our peaceful valley traversed by " prairie- 
 schooners " filled with fighting men and munitions 
 of war — all concentrating on our twelve-acre 
 inclosure whose grass was sadly cut up thereby. 
 We had put up a big barn and a store-room 
 my French cook always called "/(? grocerie." 
 Supplies for months, and for undefined numbers 
 of friendly visitors, were the necessity up there. 
 These barrels and sacks and many tins and 
 much glass were now piled on planks laid across 
 barrels under the shade of oaks and giant pines 
 (black pepper by the quart scattered on the 
 planks to head off the ants). Our long French 
 trunks and boxes of delicate clothing (the
 
 BESIEGED. 8l 
 
 " clothes " I was to have safe with my children !) 
 were just stacked under trees ; the arms and 
 ammunition were the precious things now, and 
 had the best accommodation, while their guard 
 bivouacked around and found the big hay loft 
 not a bad sleeping place — three years later how 
 many a cherished son and husband would have 
 been thankful for such quarters ! 
 
 Of course there were lingering threats and 
 more or less disorder, but it retreated into more 
 congenial quarters. And in a brief time all 
 was again safely back in smooth working order; 
 even the Black Drift. For of what use was the 
 mine when they could not carry off or crush the 
 ore ? Not at our mills — nor in our wagons — 
 nor on the long private road belonging with the 
 works. So the trouble all vanished like a bad 
 dream. But it had developed far more good 
 than evil ; and organized the good against the 
 evil. 
 
 The heat and the nervous strain had told 
 against me and as Mr. Fre'mont had to go to
 
 82 BESIEGED. 
 
 San Francisco on business he took us all with 
 him. A friend "going East" left us his house 
 with its beautiful gardens and grounds, and in 
 that reviving sea air and with " nothing to make 
 me afraid " I ought to have got well. Instead of 
 that I slipped into a nervous fever — a horrid 
 blur of bad men shooting — of the children 
 stolen — of a riderless horse tearing round the 
 bend and bolting into the stable, and all such 
 horrors. Poor Douglass came in to say good-by 
 when his steamer was to leave and I could only 
 connect it with his ride for the relief and forbid 
 his going. He was a distinguished and impor- 
 tant man when I saw him next, at his own 
 charming country house in England, with wife 
 and children about him. 
 
 As everything ends — "■ tout passe" — I got 
 well, and refused out-and-out to stay in San 
 Francisco. As we had to remain until the 
 imjust law was repealed,* and that would require 
 a year, I went back to the mountains " to stand 
 by Caton." 
 
 ' By Judge Stephen Field.
 
 BESIEGED. 8;^ 
 
 To wind up more fully, the year brought 
 round poetical justice ; for the judge whose 
 known prejudices caused the expression of this 
 "law" caused also his own downfall by an act 
 of violence. " Hoist by his own petard " he had 
 to fly for life from outraged public feeling. The 
 new election gave us a judge who respected 
 justice as well as law. 
 
 All the same our three-months summer tour 
 had to stretch into two-years residence ; in a 
 country more remote, more isolated, more with- 
 out any resources familiar to me than I should 
 have chosen, but for all that full of interest and 
 lasting usefulness, and teaching me effectually 
 what one can do, and what one can do without.
 
 V. 
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 NOW that we were to make a long stay the 
 cottage that had served well enough for 
 a few summer months seemed too cramped for 
 winter quarters. Two boys driven in by stress 
 of weather use up space. "You can calculate to 
 a fraction the displacement caused by a man-of- 
 war, but there is no calculating the displacement 
 caused by a baby." 
 
 Just how, or why, small boys fill up and over- 
 flow usual spaces I do not know; I only know 
 they do. And I know that it is a sad time 
 when they grow up and leave only silence and 
 order in the empty home. 
 
 It was planned we should stay on in the 
 charming San Francisco house with its gardens 
 and views of the bay while a "suitable'' house 
 84
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 85 
 
 was built on the mining place, quickly ; every- 
 thing was done quickly out there. 
 
 The local idea of the " suitable " house was 
 the horrid Philistine brick two-story concern 
 out of all harmony with the grand and rugged 
 scenery, the great masses of gray rock and the 
 noble pines and oaks — its pert snug petty-suburb 
 effect would have offended and depressed me. 
 
 The Colonel understood this and let me have 
 my own idea, which was to be a surprise for 
 them all, for I was to go up ahead and have 
 everything ready for their coming for Christmas. 
 
 The bad decision of the State Court kept 
 every mine-owner in the position of a sentinel, 
 for though the first confusion and violence had 
 been sternly met and put down yet in many 
 vexatious law proceedings both troublesome and 
 expensive to meet, the League continued to 
 harass and hinder peaceful occupation. This 
 made necessary frequent going to and fro between 
 our county court and that in San Francisco, and 
 I took advantage of a coming absence of this
 
 86 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 kind to carry out my surprise. That I had only 
 a clear two weeks did not matter in that ener- 
 getic young community, where I was no longer 
 a stranger and outsider, for a danger shared in 
 common makes a bond unknown to easy living. 
 
 All my plans were ready and fully thought out 
 in detail. I had the exiDcrienced aid of the silent 
 book-keeper, the only one to whom I told my idea 
 — the Colonel was content to accept whatever my 
 surprise should prove to be, only asking a certain 
 limit to be observed, to which the book-keeper 
 and myself gravely answered that the thousands 
 named would be enough, and as soon as he drove 
 away we all went to work. 
 
 The agent had some years before built a 
 roomy one-story cottage and fenced in about 
 twelve acres, an expensive luxury where labor 
 and lumber were both so costly. But the result 
 was lovely park-like grounds where the protected 
 grass and wild flowers were in beauty and per- 
 fection, and where well-laid-out paths and a 
 carriage-drive looked orderly, and kept order.
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 87 
 
 Fine use had been made of natural clumps of 
 flowering shrubs and these gave a look of long 
 cultivation to the grounds. The noble evergreen 
 oaks and towering huge pines needed no care of 
 man to make them beautiful. Also there was a 
 fine garden ; and everywhere, in the garden, on 
 sunny slopes, and all around the cottage was 
 the beautiful pink rose of Castile. This sweet 
 rose was planted everywhere in old California 
 and grew larger and more fragrant than I had 
 ever known it, even in old gardens in Virginia 
 where it was always profusely grown for the rose- 
 water every good housekeeper made at home. 
 
 My idea was to bring together and add to the 
 cottage several large detached buildings of one 
 room each which were in our inclosure ; rooms 
 needed for the agency, well built and little used. 
 
 By careful management of the ox-teams these 
 could be moved on rollers (the smooth logs were 
 ready and waiting) without sacrificing the beauti- 
 ful grass and millions of wild flowers just coming 
 up with the rains. The roofs could be kept to
 
 88 THK HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 one level and a step or two, up or clown, would 
 connect the floors, while the whole should be 
 completed by a very broad veranda, connecting 
 all, on two sides. In the dry season this would 
 be a summer parlor with matting laid down and 
 cane furniture and hammocks, green Venetian 
 blinds inclosing the whole. Altogether, the low- 
 lying wide-spreading cottage would have the look 
 and the comfortable uses of the bungalow of 
 India. It would be a form of shelter tent in 
 keeping with trees and rocks and mountains. 
 
 The silent book-keeper had picked his men, 
 and they were ready ; the steady grizzled man 
 from Maine who with his sons had the hauling 
 of wood for the mills — his long gray beard and 
 bunchy clothes making him look like Kriss 
 Kringle as he walked by the oxen of his long 
 team ; the capable carpenter directing the placing 
 of all the planks and shingles where they should 
 not break the edges of the drive or hurt the grass ; 
 the men who sewed sacks for the ores on hand 
 to make the new carpets and curtains.
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 89 
 
 I had had all measures taken, and bought in 
 one of our own towns on the place all that 
 was needed. The prosperous miner loves an 
 occasional plunge into luxury and nothing is 
 too good for him ; hence the stores in mining 
 towns are curiously supplied with beautiful 
 things and luxuries of all kinds. I had found 
 there fine French wall-papers, fine carpeting 
 and rugs, and rolls of woollen and silk curtain- 
 stuffs. The dining-room was made the work- 
 room where I directed, and cheerful, pleased 
 men helped willingly " to get the Madam's 
 Christmas-box ready." 
 
 Indoors aiid out it was all activity and gayety. 
 I had brought up only one small boy, the eldest, 
 whose positive genius for getting into accidents 
 made it best to keep him near me (and I liked 
 to have him). It was a good sight to see his 
 wild joy over the traveling house {iine maison 
 qui voyage /) with its long team of docile oxen 
 minding the gee-haws f and wo-ahs ! of Kriss 
 Kingle as surely as a cat-boat minds her helm
 
 go THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 in the hands of a good sailor. And his pride 
 was immense at knowing what not papa, not 
 any of the family, were to know until le fete d^ 
 noel, when he was to say " This is the House 
 that Jack built ! " 
 
 We two did the errands — with the best plan- 
 ning something gets forgotten. Early in the 
 cool December mornings we would go off to the 
 largest town, twelve mountain-miles away, in a 
 strong light carriage, Isaac giving a last look to 
 his revolvers as he put one on, and the other 
 under the cushion beside him. 
 
 My shopping was varied. The large supplies 
 were on their way up, but meantime the book- 
 keeper sent a list one morning in which steel 
 bars to sharpen picks and a keg of gunpowder 
 had part ; myself I needed more pretty tea-cups 
 and table-glass and some ribbons and colored 
 glazed cambrics and dotted muslin for toilet- 
 tables. 
 
 On the way back Isaac spied a hunter coming 
 down a mountain-side with a deer on his back.
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 91 
 
 Never could he pass that. A fat doe in early 
 winter is the hunter's joy. We waited, and 
 bought half, all the man would sell, and gave 
 him a lift of a few miles, getting in before sun- 
 set with all our mixed shopping of venison and 
 ribbons and muslin and steel bars and gunpowder 
 and French china and glassware, with twenty- 
 four miles of mountain air and sunshine to the 
 good of my health. 
 
 There was a brick chimney to be built — we 
 had already a large one of stone — and the best 
 bricklayer of the country-side came to put it up. 
 Everything was ready for him as his time also 
 was limited ; it was only as a personal favor to 
 me that he came at all from his other work — 
 everybody was nice and helping to me. The 
 foundation had been made ready, and willing 
 hands aided him so the chimney rose steadily 
 from the moment of his coming. He would 
 not come down even to eat, but a hod lined by 
 a napkin carried up all he would take, and when 
 a light rain fell a big umbrella was held over
 
 92 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 him to protect, not the bricklayer — he would 
 have scorned that notion — but the cement. 
 The whole new house was cemented by good- 
 will and the desire to give me pleasure. 
 
 " No money would ever get such work out of 
 these men," the book-keeper told me. 
 
 There was no plastering; the climate did not 
 require it ; and canvas well-stretched took paper- 
 ing well ; so ceilings were made of it and the 
 wood walls covered by it. A young man who 
 had been scene-painter at the St. Charles theater 
 in New Orleans had skill and great taste and 
 made clever effects with the really fine wall- 
 papers I had found ; cream white and gold with 
 deep borders of dull-reds and gold for the large 
 parlor which was to be also dining-room for the 
 winter as it had a fire ; pale blue with white 
 roses for my own room, and charming cretonne 
 papers for the others. I had found cretonnes 
 and silk and woollen curtain stuffs beautifully 
 matching all these wall-papers. 
 
 We made an imposing, irregular, invaluable
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 93 
 
 dining-room in walnut and oak papers and there 
 we set up the Tree. First covering the new 
 crimson carpet — the same all over our bun- 
 galow — with green baize. " Never mind if the 
 dark carpets will show dust," said my cheerful 
 handmaiden Rose ; *' it looks so warm and fine 
 to have them all alike, and I'll take care of them." 
 My inexperience had not thought of the dust and 
 foot-mark question, only of the good unity of 
 effect in our irregular rooms thus harmonized. 
 But the best was made of everything by all. 
 
 The Tree was the bushy top of a fine long- 
 coned pine. It was another rare joy for the 
 small boy to help choose this and see it cut — 
 see it carefully loaded on to a wood sled and 
 brought into the dining-room to be decorated — 
 to help brush over the long cones with mucilage 
 on which we pressed thin gilt paper, making a 
 cluster of glittering golden cones to each bough. 
 Then it was lifted into place and made firm and 
 secure — a beautiful fragrant glittering tree with 
 the gold star crowning its rich dark green.
 
 94 THE HOUSE THAT JACK. BUILT. 
 
 There were so many and such varied things 
 to do and see to that it was a pleasant con- 
 fusion and reminded me of an old fairy tale 
 where the Princess has to marry a little deformed 
 Dwarf — who is however an Enchanter — and is 
 really a beautiful young Prince and is just trying 
 her by his disguise. She walks, crying, in the 
 garden of his palace and suddenly hears sounds 
 from underground — the hurry of preparation 
 for a great wedding feast. What she hears 
 dries her tears, for she finds he is beloved by 
 the fairies who are all helping and praising him, 
 so she is no longer afraid. " Where is the 
 largest cake pan ?" she hears ; "and the largest 
 egg pan, the one that holds a hundred eggs 
 beaten to a froth ? for he shall have the largest 
 cake and the most beautiful ever made." 
 
 We had the most beautiful cakes that could 
 be made — though none had a hundred eggs in 
 it. In our village was a thoroughly first-class 
 Vienna baker; the Colonel would not employ 
 men who drank but, knowing good food was
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 95 
 
 necessary to keep the stomach in order, had 
 brought up this man from San Francisco and 
 given him the custom of the works, as well as 
 our own. This baker entered into the Christmas 
 idea with true South German enthusiasm. It 
 would take a paper to itself to describe the 
 beautiful things he made in cakes and in sugar 
 for the Tree. Never had I seen such. They 
 were the best Vienna ideas " regardless of cost " 
 — which Germans never are. The candles sent 
 up were a failure. They had come through the 
 tropics as all freights did then, and were chippy 
 and flaked ofif. Nor were they large enough 
 for our beautiful Tree. The baker rose to the 
 emergency. He made handsome tapers of bees- 
 wax and decorated them artistically with colors 
 and gold leaf, like the decorated blessed wax- 
 lights one buys at cathedral doors abroad. Our 
 Tree was now quite beautiful. 
 
 Its fruitage was all ready in the big out-door 
 store-room ; cases of candied fruits, boxes of 
 toys and games and picture-books, boxes of
 
 96 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 colored beads in bunches of strings for our 
 neighbors of the Indian village, pretty brooches 
 and gowns and things for our women who hac^ 
 " come from the States " with us, and gifts for 
 our good Isaac and the few home-people who 
 made our constant life. It was to be a true 
 home-Christmas, not " a party." 
 
 While all else was going on the piano had to 
 be tuned. With the family was to come up a 
 very dear friend of mine from New York who 
 was making a short visit to her brother in San 
 Francisco. Her happy temper, her lovely gift 
 of song and sw'eet ways, made her coming a 
 great Christmas-gift to me. Music was with 
 her a natural expression, but the piano was 
 long unused and wildly out of tune, and the 
 nearest tuner was in Stockton, eighty miles 
 away. Sidney Smith thought he had touched 
 bottom when he was twelve miles away from a 
 lemon — eighty miles divided us from the lemon 
 and many other fruits of civilization. 
 
 But we found some new strinecs and the big
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 97 
 
 blacksmith of the mills fastened them on, winding 
 them with a winch — very cautiously — until I 
 said "stop;" I tapping along until the sound 
 came right. Manuel, a black man from Vir- 
 ginia, was delighted with this odd exercise of 
 his strength. He also made for me a fine fender 
 of the sieve-iron used to " screen " gold wash- 
 ings, and some stately mediaeval-looking fire- 
 dogs of hammered iron. 
 
 The tenth day all was entirely complete and 
 in working order. Fire was lit on the new 
 hearth and no smoking followed ; the bricklayer 
 said "it was a good job if it was so hurried." 
 
 The walls and ceilings had a look of solid 
 elegance and the unity of effect made by the 
 same red Brussels carpeting everywhere aided 
 the appearance of a large and quiet house. A 
 fresh outer layer of overlapping narrow planks 
 had put a uniform appearance over all the out- 
 side of the house and the painters followed up 
 closely the men nailing up the boards. It was 
 "a quick job " all round.
 
 98 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 But my chief pride was in the windows. Only 
 the common small-paned sashes were to be had 
 ready made. I bethought myself of old English 
 engravings, and by putting these small windows 
 side by side, as many as a wall would take, we 
 rose from mean commonplace windows to the 
 quaint Queen-Anne effect, and secured a wide 
 look-out to glorious views. Full straight cur- 
 tains with a deep frill at top framed these 
 by day, and when drawn close at night with 
 woodfire and waxlights, piano and books, there 
 was rest and comfort for a tired wet horseman 
 to find at close of day. 
 
 Everything was now in readiness. All traces 
 of work had been carried off, and smooth order 
 and quiet replaced the busy little crowd of the 
 past ten days. There was a smell of paint, 
 and to say the least an odor of much freshness ; 
 but good fires counteracted this, and we kept 
 fragrant cedar pastils burning in each one of the 
 rooms. Everywhere were wreaths of ground-pine, 
 with wild-rose-haws on duty for holly berries,
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 99 
 
 and on our windows was the Christmas Cross. 
 The pretty supper was on the table ; its ultra- 
 civilized appointments and the sparkling spun- 
 sugar pyramids and frosted-sugar things and 
 bright jellies were concentrated into a picture 
 by the light from a hanging lamp with its fringed 
 crimson silk shade. All our "helping-hands" 
 had exchanged congratulations and good wishes 
 and good-by, over Christmas cake and tea, and 
 now in the quiet of the beautified home the 
 book-keeper showed me its crowning beauty; 
 that everything — and I had gone ahead without 
 counting — had, as we intended, not cost one 
 fifth of the allotted sum. As Secretary of our 
 Treasury this good showing of much profit from 
 small outlay made him serenely content. 
 
 It was the triumph of "making the best of 
 things " we had, and using good taste in place 
 of mere spending. And it broadened the circle 
 of local good feeling to have our own neighbor- 
 hood furnish all supplies ; so we were pleased 
 with our work and ourselves. And now impatient
 
 lOO THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 to see " the Colonel's " pleasure and his aston- 
 ishment, for 
 
 " In such place, 'twas strange to see," 
 
 a home that was full of comfort and 
 
 . . . "beautiful exceedingly." 
 
 The Christmas-eve closed in dark and misty 
 before our travelers at last arrived. They had 
 been delayed on the mountains by a thick falling 
 mist which obliged them to great caution, for 
 shelving rocks and deep gorges bordered the 
 winding road. Mounted men with torches, and 
 giving cheery hails, had gone far to meet them, 
 and once down into our valley the blaze of lights 
 from our broad Queen Anne windows made a 
 welcoming beacon. 
 
 It was a home-coming of delighted surprises 
 — what a happy clamor it was ! And my " sur- 
 prise " was approved and praised to my heart's 
 content. 
 
 My New York friend had no words to express
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. lOI 
 
 her astonishment and delight — the open piano 
 caught her eye and straightway her splendid 
 voice filled my hungry ears with triumphant 
 song. But hungry people claimed her for sup- 
 per : "Bouillon, mayonnaise ! game pate! jellies, 
 wedding-cakes, and all Delmonico's ! " 
 
 The two days travel across solitary plains 
 with frontier stopping-places closing with the 
 risky mountain crossing in the dark made it, as 
 she said, " a transformation-scene " to come out 
 of the night and the mist into this vision of 
 a New York home — enriched by a frontier 
 welcome. 
 
 There was but one family of children within 
 miles of us. They were few even in the town 
 and large mining settlements near us ; in the 
 village close by I knew of none, but between 
 us and the village was a log-cabin overflowing 
 with them. It stood on a little mound where 
 the waste water from the mill flowed by and 
 might have been made a pretty place. 
 
 But no ideas of beauty belonged among its
 
 I02 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 inmates. The Calhouns were of a kind happily 
 becoming extinct — the "poor whites" of the 
 South. For several years they had lived here 
 and the only growth about them was this swarm 
 of sallow tow-headed children. 
 
 They were entirely useless but equally harm- 
 less people, neither bad nor good, nor anything. 
 Quite contented in their own way, undisturbed 
 by knowledge of any kind and satisfied with their 
 idle life where a little gold-digging and hunting 
 provided for all they knew of as comforts. 
 
 If anything more was wanted they asked for 
 it from those able to give. Her baby was ill and 
 she sent a big boy running for me. " Mam wants 
 you to come right away — the baby's in a fit," 
 
 Luckily a hot bath put it right. She was quite 
 silent and impassive as I bathed and rubbed 
 the struggling little thing and only spoke after 
 nausea had relieved it of a long slip of salt 
 pork, and left it again comfortable : "Well, you 
 air smart. Your boys look so hearty I thought 
 you'd know all about fits."
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK. BUILT. 1 03 
 
 She laughed to scorn my saying a baby not a year 
 old could not manage solid food, and pointed to 
 her little crowd — huddled around us, watching: 
 " They always eat everything I did, coffee and 
 pork and everything, and I never buried one!" 
 
 What can one do with such chaos ? 
 
 These were the only children within reach. 
 Christmas and its meaning was unknown to 
 them, but I went to the cabin and told the 
 mother I wanted them to see the Tree lighted 
 and get from it some presents they would find 
 upon it. She had a dim memory that it was a 
 season of feasting — nothing more — a more 
 complete yet contented blank could hardly be. 
 
 Near by was a large Indian village, some 
 hundreds settled there. The young women 
 from it came constantly to our house and sat 
 about on the grass chatting together of us and 
 laughing as they watched our doings with frank 
 curiosity. We were their matinee. Often we 
 stopped at their village on our rides and watched 
 them in turn as we sat on our horses. Their
 
 I04 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 ways all had object and meaning — the sewing 
 of squirrel skins together, the pounding of acorns 
 into meal for bread, the basket weaving, and 
 they were faiily clean and very gay. It was a 
 pleasure to give them beads and such things as 
 they found good to eat or pretty to wear and 
 now we told them — with some Spanish words 
 they understood, and much pantomime that they 
 must come to see the festa of the Tree they had 
 watched being cut and carried to the house ; 
 that they must bring baskets to carry home 
 mucho 77iucho — spreading our hands, and filling 
 an imaginary basket full of things to eat, and 
 things to wear. They " caught on " and accepted 
 with many laughs of pleasure. 
 
 When I put the Cross in the window soon it 
 drew its little following of girls, and some of 
 the gray-headed women ; coniing out to them 
 they pointed to it with their long-drawn deep 
 eh-eh-eh I and signed themselves on forehead and 
 breast. They had evidently some dim traditional 
 memory from the old Missions and, liking and
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 1 05 
 
 trusting US already, we were accepted by them as 
 the same with the missionary priests, for the Cross 
 was to them assurance of protection and good- 
 will — not the usual ill-will of the whites. Poor 
 Mrs. Calhoun had no ideas ; forms of any kind 
 had no part in her life. 
 
 It was hard to induce her young ones to come 
 in to the Tree. Its lights shone out through the 
 broadside of window and we saw them clustered 
 outside, like lunar moths, their white heads bob- 
 bing about as they ran around in hushed surprise. 
 At last we got them in, hanging together like 
 bees around the tallest boy, silent, but open- 
 mouthed and staring. 
 
 All boys fraternize. Mine began giving to 
 these a lot of Nuremberg pine-wood animals, 
 the first of such things ever seen by them. 
 
 " A hog," cried out the big boy as he seized 
 the hyena. His eyes glittered as he hugged the 
 bow-backed beast to his bosom, and no other of 
 the gifts so roused him. 
 
 They made off early to their " mam " with a
 
 io6 
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 
 
 big basket full of toys and sweets, and with 
 many parcels of useful things for her and 
 themselves. 
 
 As my youngest boy was but three, it was to 
 him also a first Christmas. He had heard so 
 much of it that his naturally investigating, doubt- 
 ing tone of mind had shaped his own ideas. 
 When all was ready and the candles lighted he 
 was sent alone into the large quiet room where 
 rose the strange Tree covered with gilded cones 
 and candles and glittering fruits and toys. He 
 was quite silent. With his curly head a little to 
 one side and hands locked behind his back he 
 walked around the strange growth ; then going 
 to his special ally he put his hand into his 
 father's and said in his French-English " A'c-i^v;? 
 see. Krersmas hazekoom !'"' And forthwith com- 
 menced a chatter and thorough investigation as 
 was his wont in their daily walks together. 
 
 Our Christmas opened old memories near and 
 far. Some weeks after three women came on 
 horseback from a mining camp deep in the
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. I07 
 
 mountains, a hard day's ride there and back. 
 My Tree had roused home feelings in these 
 isolated women, and the one who could em- 
 broider had made me a collar of fine needle- 
 work, gratefully received by me for the feeling 
 with which it had been made ; while they all 
 wanted to tell me how they felt to hear of a 
 Christmas-tree so near ; and to tell me what a 
 difference I had made by staying up during the 
 mining troubles : 
 
 " If you had gone away then, the men would 
 have begun fighting and these hills would have 
 run blood. And now we sleep safe over at our 
 camp because the Colonel stands up for stopping 
 the jumping of our mine. And now you have 
 come to stay he'll see us safe through." 
 
 They could stay but a few hours, but they did 
 enjoy going over my patch-work house, and 
 appreciated all my arrangements and contriv- 
 ances. All was as pretty as a picture — and an 
 assurance in widening circles of gentle influences 
 for peace and good-will.
 
 VI. 
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 WE had not easily reached this condition 
 of orderly comfort. Our earlier house- 
 keeping had presented difficulties which would 
 have dismayed regular forces, but we were the 
 kind of volunteers " who did not know when 
 they were beaten." And by keeping on trying 
 against all failures, we won at last, and made 
 the domestic wheels go round with smooth 
 regularity. 
 
 Labor was all concentrated into the one chan- 
 nel of mining work, and so long as canned and 
 salted things, easily kept and easy of transpor- 
 tation, suited the miners, no effort was made to 
 give them fresher food. Consequently we found 
 some unusual conditions for housekeeping; 
 fancy going about it with no milk, no eggs — no 
 joB
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. IO9 
 
 hens to lay them — no vegetables. And as there 
 was no ice, the only meat, beef, had to be killed, 
 cooked and used the same day, during summer 
 weather. It was almost the fable of King 
 Midas — gold everywhere, but nothing but 
 gold. 
 
 Our garden was run wild except the unfailing 
 cabbage patch. That had been cared for. My 
 friend, Miss Seward, has laughed with me over 
 this inevitable around-the-world vegetable — 
 " we left it in fields on fields in our own 
 Mohawk Valley, and saw it everywhere, even in 
 the Valley of Cachemire " ; but 
 
 "Thy sweet vale, Cachemire," 
 
 had not sweeter roses than we found taking 
 care of themselves and spreading over the 
 noting artichokes which claimed their birth- 
 right as thistles to possess the land. 
 
 Even water, that life-blood of all growths, was 
 hard to get at. Large clear springs were many, 
 welling up from under projecting rocks, but it
 
 no SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 was a heart-break and a back-break for the 
 women to dip up enough of this for daily uses. 
 
 Perhaps the laundry work was our most seri- 
 ous question ; for though the two nurses had 
 taken the kitchen and laundry, the heat made 
 both hard for them at best, and this novel bother 
 about water made it harder. 
 
 And no money could prevail on any of the 
 very few women up there to work ; they were 
 too much at ease in this prospering mining com- 
 munity to fatigue themselves, which was good 
 for them while it was trying for us. Whatever 
 men could do was quickly accomplished. A big 
 barn and stable, a fine hen-house, a duck-pond, 
 made by leading the water of several springs to 
 a depression and there damming it, quickly gave 
 proper living to our animals and the load of 
 fowls we had sent up from Stockton. But the 
 clothes began to accumulate into an alarming 
 mound. 
 
 At last we got a laundress. Hearing of our 
 cartt'-b/aui/ie offers, there came a group of a man,
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. Ill 
 
 his wife and baby and a pack-horse loaded with 
 their traps. " He " would "let her stay " until 
 she was strong again. Her baby was very 
 young, and she looked, as she said she was, 
 "most beat out." 
 
 Thankfully we accepted all demands : a sep- 
 arate lodging, and their separate cooking estab- 
 lishment ; provisions for all the party, and feed 
 and pasture for the horse ; and a hundred dol- 
 lars a month in money. As an incident, when 
 her health, her housekeeping and her baby per- 
 mitted, she was to do the washing. 
 
 I had difficulty in suppressing my French 
 nurse, who was fortunately not fluent in English 
 — " des voleurs /" was her comment ; but it was 
 Hobson's choice. 
 
 " He " was a surly creature, holding himself 
 high above our two colored men because he was 
 white ; but not above living off his wife's work. 
 She looked timidly at me while the unpleasant 
 young man dictated his terms. Her wistful 
 look and the thin little dirty baby made all of
 
 112 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 US women close round her in protection, though 
 the man was repelling. With good rest and 
 nourishing food, and kindly cares from women, 
 she regained strength fast and came so bravely 
 in help to our people that the clothes-mountain 
 diminished rapidly. 
 
 But before the month ended, she came to me, 
 crying; " He " said she was well enough to go 
 on, that she could make money now by her 
 washing while he worked in the diggings at 
 Walker's Creek (the last new excitement) and 
 must come then — that day. 
 
 We could not help her any further. It had 
 been to her a paradise of friendly helping, of 
 care such as she never dreamed of for her baby 
 as well as for her own young ignorant self, and 
 now she knew the difference, while we hated to 
 see her dragged back into that fagging tramp- 
 life ; but he strode off, gun on shoulder, leading 
 the horse, and she trailed after him, head down, 
 carrying the baby. 
 
 After this I boldly utilized Indian girls from
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 1^3 
 
 their village hard by. We were warned they 
 would carry off anything they fancied, but they 
 never did. Punctuality was not their gift, but 
 good-humor was, and a genuine girlish pleasure 
 in praise and rewards. The silver piece, larger 
 or smaller, according to their merit, which closed 
 the day was a quick education, and we had more 
 candidates than we had places for. A competi- 
 tive practical testing of steadiness and capacity 
 winnowed out an efficient corps of washerwomen 
 and " scrub-girls." 
 
 As water will not run uphill, we built the 
 laundry down the hill, over a spring ; lining 
 the spring with smooth planking, and leading 
 its gathered waters by a trough into large tubs, 
 each a grade below the other, the water let on 
 by a plug from above, and off by others in the 
 bottoms of the tubs — the whole running off 
 into a little ravine to the happiness of our ducks 
 and geese. A discarded invention for roasting 
 crushed ore made a capital hot-water boiler, 
 with the advantage of standing outside under a
 
 114 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 spreading oak. The spring gave its own fresh- 
 ness to the large laundry-room where, after work 
 had grown to smooth habit in her domain, Rose 
 could sit in comfort at the mending, or reading 
 her beloved " David Copperfield," and govern 
 her dusky crew by a shake of the head and an 
 exhibit of the smallest coin, or an encouraging 
 smile and " beuno benno " with a large coin held up ; 
 and a bright ribbon or a string of beads equalled 
 a gold medal as reward. Extra rewards were 
 given for personal neatness — some combs and 
 brushes and much soap, with object-lessons 
 by my tidy sweet-natured Rose. 
 
 They looked of a different race after they had 
 seen the advantage of cleanliness, and learned 
 to plait their thick hair in a club. Starch in 
 their own calico skirts was the crowning touch of 
 finery. A clean white under garment, a bright- 
 ^ colored cotton skirt, with a large gay cotton 
 handkerchief pinned across the shoulders, and 
 the tidy club of plaited hair tied with a bright 
 ribbon, made them into picturesque peasants.
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. II5 
 
 I had grown up among slaves and could make 
 allowance for untutored people, as I knew them 
 of all grades, from the carefully trained and re- 
 fined house-servants to the common field-hands ; 
 and knew that with them, as with us, they must 
 have nature's stamp of intelligence and good- 
 humor, without which any teaching and training 
 is not much use. As the early Mission Fathers 
 had taught weaving and cooking to the women, 
 and simple agriculture and the care of flocks 
 and herds to the men, and left in the fine mis- 
 sion buildings proof of their capacity as work- 
 men, so I experimented on these Indian women 
 with advantage to them as well as to ourselves. 
 
 And later we had our reward from Indian 
 men also. Often on our rides, as I have said, 
 we would stop in the Indian village and watch 
 them as we sat on our horses. The center of 
 the village was their open-air work room and 
 silon, where they seemed always cheerfully 
 busy and useful — the women, I mean — the 
 men went too much to the whites' village ; but
 
 Il6 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 they also went after squirrels and birds and 
 game, and the squirrel-skins made an important 
 feature in their clothing. They sewed these 
 together into large capes ; a woman, laughing, 
 held up an unfinished garment huddled across 
 her breast with a pretended shiver as she looked 
 high up the mountain, making us see they were 
 providing against cold weather. 
 
 We noticed one very old body, too old to 
 pound acorns or gather sticks — she looked her- 
 self like a fagot of dried sticks — who was 
 always peeling mushrooms, or carefully peeling 
 the oily pinon-nut, which they grind and mix 
 with acorn flour into a cake. Her one only 
 garment was a scant and ragged old cloak of 
 squirrel skins that did not meet around her. 
 We carried her and made her put on a woollen 
 undershirt and a warm scarlet balmoral skirt, 
 and shortly after saw this striped skirt worn as 
 a hussar jacket, jauntily, one bare arm and 
 shoulder free, by a }oung Indian man going 
 into our village. And he only shook ins head
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. II7 
 
 and grinned and kept on when I tried to make 
 him ashamed of robbing the old crone. Then 
 I tried Prussian war-tactics and made their whole 
 village responsible — no more presents to any 
 one unless they all joined in keeping for the 
 one we gave to what was his or hers. And it 
 worked about as well as our elaborate methods 
 of securing justice. There is no protection for 
 age and helplessness except among really Chris- 
 tian communities. 
 
 Their babies had, I thought, a roughish life. 
 You can't fondle a cradle as well as a baby, and 
 these little ones, tight-swaddled and strapped to 
 flat osier cradles, with a little wicker hood to 
 them, were carried on the mother's back when 
 she went about the country, and just hung up 
 on trees when she was at home. The flies 
 bothered them sadly ; they were not clean, but 
 they were stoically quiet — no one ever heard 
 an Indian baby cry. 
 
 Some of their baskets they wove so compactly 
 that they were used to boil water in — basket-work
 
 Il8 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 tea-kettles ; others, long and wide-mouthed cones 
 with one flat side, were carried on the back by 
 a strap around chest and forehead, and were of 
 the exact shape and uses of the hotte of the 
 French peasant. Into these they gathered and 
 carried heavy loads of acorns, of berries and of 
 mushrooms , of these last they used great quan- 
 tities, both dried and fresh. 
 
 People who of their own accord did these 
 things, could do more when instructed, encour- 
 aged and rewarded. 
 
 The elder women dearly loved their pipes and 
 delighted in the tobacco we carried them , they 
 added it in small proportion to the customary 
 dried leaves and herbs in regular use. Great 
 as was their interest in our visits and though 
 they were sure of beads and tobacco and other 
 treasures from us, yet they never failed in gen- 
 uine politeness ; never crowding, or even look- 
 ing eager, but gaily welcoming us, and offering 
 us pihon-nuts or whatever berries were in season 
 with native sood manners.
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. I ig 
 
 It was exactly the Bible picture of the " two 
 women shall be grinding corn," to see them 
 pounding acorns into meal for bread (how they 
 did prize a real sieve), a flat stone with a vigor- 
 ous woman either side squatted on the ground, 
 lifting her pounding stone with both hands, the 
 arms of the two rising and falling alternately in 
 accurate time and even stroke. The younger 
 women and girls wove baskets, sewed skins and 
 calico skirts and made nets of twine and beads 
 for the men, as well as for their own manes of 
 hair — in their way they were comfortable and 
 industrious and had useful purpose and fore- 
 thought in their occupations. 
 
 Our house, ourselves and our kitchen re- 
 mained of endless interest to them. They 
 would drop in a ring on the grass near the 
 open door of the kitchen, and follow all Meme's 
 doings with laughing comments, she with true 
 French good humor indulging them and by 
 lively pantomime explaining — often following 
 up by a portion for them to taste.
 
 120 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Their soft voices would chorus out the " eh- 
 eh-eh!'''' which expressed by its intonation won- 
 der, sorrow or pleasure. Beef-suet was to 
 them what chocolate bonbons are to our girls — 
 they shredded it daintily, laughing with each 
 mouthful. The cook kept it all for them, melted 
 into cakes, and to combine enjoyments they 
 would flock over to the tree under which lessons 
 generally went on, pleased and quiet unless 
 Douglass in a boyish fit of fun recited poetry 
 with gestures, when the '■'■ eh-eh-eh T'' became a 
 chorus of praise — it was a picture, the fair- 
 haired very white English lad reciting the Morte 
 d'Arthur with Indians and mountains for audi- 
 ence and theater. 
 
 They quickly saw our love of wild flowers 
 and brought the first of each — even some of 
 their young men brought flowers that grew in 
 difficult places, to the amazement of the white 
 people who met them carrying wild jasmine 
 and larkspur and the tulip-like mariposas-flower 
 to " Fle'mon " as they named us all. " I'd
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 121 
 
 never have believed it of an Injun," said one 
 man to me. 
 
 Quite our nearest white neighbors, occupying 
 each a small " rise " by which flowed the waste- 
 water of the mill, were on one an Italian with 
 his wife and baby, and on the other the 
 family I have spoken of — a typical family of a 
 kind now impossible, " the poor whites of the 
 South." Deprived there by surrounding influ- 
 ences of all advantages, of all chances, their 
 whole pride concentrated in the fact that they 
 were white ; this, by the curious alchemy of 
 ignorance and self-conceit, endowed them with 
 complacent superiority. The swarthy, black- 
 eyed, black-haired Italians they looked down 
 upon with contempt because they were so dark, 
 and because " that Eye-talian worked like a nig- 
 gar." He worked a great deal harder. He had 
 put a fence around his few acres, saved some of 
 the fine trees, and was already raising cabbages 
 and beans when I first went up to the place.
 
 122 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 His small cabin solidly plastered and v.'hlte- 
 washed outside and in, with its door, and a 
 glass window with a white curtain, showed their 
 industry and neatness in contrast with the dingy 
 log-cabin and hard bare ground of the next 
 knoll. 
 
 The "Eye-talian " had behaved well during the 
 mining trouble; he produced a long gun shaped 
 like a wide-moutlied trumpet and reported for 
 defensive duty at our house or the mill ; further 
 he would not go from his wife. Not only for 
 prudent care of her but, he was known to be 
 wildly jealous. She was many years younger 
 than himself, and really beautiful. When I 
 first saw her in her picturesque peasant dress, 
 her own young beauty and the noble baby in 
 her arms made a vision of artistic beauty, and 
 Old World art-associations — a true peasant 
 Madonna and Child. She was never let to 
 leave their little inclosure, but her picture-like 
 beauty attracted me often, and the baby was a 
 little Muiillo. Seeing: the man so industrious
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. I23 
 
 and capable, I got for him from San Francisco 
 proper implements and seeds of herbs and 
 vegetables and some flowers, and soon he had a 
 market garden that paid him well, and was a 
 great luxury to us. 
 
 As for their scornful neighbors, the Cal- 
 hoons," my one look in upon them when they 
 called me in to help the baby through " a fit " 
 was enough. Theirs was a hopeless case of 
 contented ignorance of better things. There, 
 where every one was getting rich simply by 
 easy work, they lived for mere existence. Deer 
 and hares and birds they could have in quantity, 
 for hunting was not " work." The father prided 
 himself on not working unless when he wanted 
 a little more money than his fitful gold-digging 
 gave him. He had made a short dam and col- 
 lected the water running by his door, and by its 
 aid could always wash out enough " pay-dirt " for 
 their pork and coffee and tobacco ; if he needed 
 more he came to the mill and asked a job of 
 wood-cutting, and always got it; the Colonel
 
 124 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 had so ordered for, he said, he " liked a man to 
 be thorough, and Calhoun was the most thor- 
 oughly idle man he ever knew." 
 
 The climate was easy, and there was no end 
 to the fine fuel to be had for the gathering, and 
 with a little industry he and his boys could have 
 gathered gold as easily ; but they toiled not, nor 
 did they care to adorn themselves even with 
 cleanliness, though nature had fairly endowed 
 both man and woman ; both were tall, erect, and 
 easy in motion, with good straight features, and 
 large, clear eyes. Yet their small log-cabin had 
 an earth floor ; the windows mere gaps left be- 
 tween the mud-chinked walls ; the bedstead low 
 stakes with a hide stretched across, and a dread- 
 ful-looking feather bed and old quills made the 
 bed. A wide, yawning rough chimney of stones 
 made a fine fireplace, but furniture there was 
 none beyond some blocks of wood for seats. 
 0}i mangeait sur la pouce evidently, and the 
 " thumb " was not tidied up after meals. 
 
 They were utterly without the most simple
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. I25 
 
 instruction, and still this woman had some of 
 the instincts and feminine little arts belongins: 
 to high training. Once C^zZ-hoon cut down a 
 large group of fine oaks the Colonel specially 
 protected for their beauty and their position near 
 our village. Returning from San Francisco he 
 found this harm done, and for once was angry ; 
 sending for the evil-doer to come to him at the 
 house. 
 
 In his place came Mrs. Ca/-hoor\ with her 
 following of children. Easy, unconcerned, with 
 quite the manner of any morning visitor of so- 
 ciety, she walked in upon me and installed her- 
 self in an arm-chair : the Colonel being out she 
 told me I might just go on teaching my little 
 girl — "she liked to hear me"; then tilting 
 back her sunbonnet proceeded to nourish the 
 baby and issue orders to the children who stuck 
 to her : " You jest set down there, and don't 
 scrape your feet ag'in the carpet " (down settled 
 many little boys in high-necked tow trousers, 
 only these and nothing more). " You," to the
 
 126 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 bigger boys, " you just go to Uncle Ike " (our 
 Isaac) " and tell him I'll take a settin' o' the 
 white turkey's eggs ; he kin put 'em in a basket." 
 
 All obeyed her. I went on with the French 
 reading while the cake I had sent for was being 
 quietly eaten by the little ones and the mother, 
 who in one lank garment of calico lay back in 
 the chair and stretched her long limbs, showing 
 brogans without stockings, but as simply con 
 tent listening to our reading as any lady might 
 listen at a concert. 
 
 She did not rise when the Colonel came, for 
 the baby was asleep, but she was so natural and 
 direct, so instinctively sure of disarming dis- 
 pleasure, that she carried the day and left us 
 amused and pleased by her native tact • 
 
 " Kurnel, I hearn you was mad at Cr/Z-hoon 
 for cuttin' them oaks, and I come over to tell 
 you 'twa'n't him, 'twas inc did it. You see he'd 
 got a big job o' cuttin' while you was down to 
 'P'risco ef he could git it done up right away, 
 and /" (with a little feminine toss of the head)
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. I27 
 
 " tole him, jest take the little grove on the stage 
 road and you'll haul it in quick — an' he done 
 it because /tole him. So it's me, Kurnel, you've 
 got to be mad at." 
 
 The absurd contradiction between her looks 
 and her falling back on the privileges of an 
 irresponsible fine lady who feels no barrier to 
 her caprices, fetched us ; and she went off satis- 
 fied with herself, though promising for the 
 future to keep her husband to the trees marked 
 out for cutting. 
 
 These were our immediate neighbors. In 
 the large town twelve miles away were, as one 
 is sure to find in our frontier towns, an advance- 
 guard of exceptional men strong in heart and 
 purpose, and some fine, patient, hoping women 
 who tell well in forming the community. 
 
 Among these connected with our own works 
 were men of education and travel, and already 
 travelers came up with letters of introduction 
 to visit the mines and works, and from us go on 
 to the Yosemite region near by. In this way
 
 128 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 we had a charming visit from Richard Dana — 
 " Two Years Before the Mast " Dana. He and 
 the Colonel met as two Selkirks might, revisit- 
 ing their once desert island and finding it a 
 busy seaport. And a visit from Horace Greeley 
 who could not sufficiently praise my " executive 
 ability" as he called it — for to him any well 
 ordered household was the acme of woman's 
 genius, and now after his overland-stage experi 
 ence he was surprised by this evolution of ele- 
 gance and comfort in such remote surroundings. 
 But months of isolation from such women as 
 one needs for human nature's daily food, made 
 the long visit of our friend Hannah beyond tell- 
 ing precious. With her Quaker name and com- 
 plexion she had their sweet even domestic 
 nature, and a happy overflowing wit and gayety 
 of heart all her own. Like Charles Lamb's 
 Hester, 
 
 " Her parents held the Quaker rule 
 Which doth the passions train and cool; 
 It could not Hester,
 
 SIERRA NEKJHRORS. 129 
 
 For she was trained in Nature's school 
 And Nature blest her." 
 
 With all, she had the gift of song and a musi- 
 cal organization, which with high training and the 
 best associations in music made of her the most 
 complete, the most enjoyable musical person I 
 have ever known. We had met often in the usual 
 society ways in New York and our mutual love 
 of music brought us together at many intimate 
 musicales, but now in this odd framing her talent 
 came out resplendent. And in all ways it be- 
 came a friendship for life. The delightful long 
 days in the open air, the charming evenings of 
 music, the appreciative zest with which she 
 entered into the novel interests of the work on 
 the place, were helping and refreshing to the 
 Colonel, while I was in a long good dream of 
 content. 
 
 We would make an early start, Hannah driv- 
 ing the light strong mountain-wagon, a man fol- 
 lowing on horseback in case of need, and go 
 wherever wheels could carry us ; making unex-
 
 130 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 pected finds of isolated houses or little settle- 
 ments where we gave a bit of pleasure to some 
 lonely woman and always met the most cordial, 
 real hospitality and welcome. At some places 
 where I saw it would be a joy, I asked Hannah 
 to sing, and never did a glorious gift do more 
 gracious and lovely duty than when she sang to 
 them the songs they knew of, and other music 
 which was a revelation. 
 
 We came once on a place that looked as 
 though a woman's care had shaped things ; the 
 grass was cut short, and a clean path led up to 
 a wide porch with seats and a table, and the 
 great oaks all around and overhanging the house 
 and corral were very different from the usual 
 stumps which make our national frontier deco- 
 ration — and behold ! there was not a woman 
 around there. Only men — but Frenchmen. 
 And a " hard lot " as we learned afterwards. 
 Isaac, who knew every one, was not with us that 
 day, only a man we had brought up from San 
 Francisco. But the " hard lot " came forward
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 131 
 
 and offered milk and spring water, or if we 
 would do them the honor to descend they asked 
 to offer us an omelet and some claret — which 
 we had to decline, as it was late and we were 
 nearly fourteen miles from home. 
 
 As soon as the snows were enough off we 
 were to go to the Yosemite, only thirty miles 
 away in an air line, but about seventy by the 
 best trail then open. It was to be a horseback 
 camping-out excursion, and very careful and 
 experienced men were selected to go with us 
 and make all safe and comfortable, A pack- 
 mule carried some light baggage, as we were to 
 be away a week. 
 
 But when the morning came for the start with 
 it arrived three lawyers to stay a few days on 
 business. This ended my going. It was very 
 hard to lose this delightful bit of travel in such 
 companionship, and not to see the new wonder- 
 land together. But I was needed at home for 
 manners, as well as for housekeeping, good as 
 my women were.
 
 132 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 They started without me, all, even my acci- 
 dent-boy, and then later in the day, but quite 
 too late to overtake them, we found I might 
 have gone, after all. For some requirement 
 obliged the case to come up in the San Francisco 
 courts, not, as they expected, in our own county 
 court. 
 
 This was a double disappointment, but I had 
 to put myself down and be hospitable and as 
 agreeable as possible ; for the lawyers were 
 really sorry about my lost pleasant outing. 
 
 They were taking leave to join the stage 
 which passed through our village about sunset, 
 when I felt something was wrong — there were 
 looks of alarm, more people than usual were 
 coming and going — rapidly. Though they tried 
 to engage my attention, I quickly found my 
 youngest boy was missing and no one could 
 find him. The mill, even the village was roused 
 by the alarm, and men on foot and on horse- 
 back were searching, but could find no trace. 
 " Lost child " is a note of woe anywhere, but
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. I33 
 
 here in a wild, wild mountain country with 
 brooks and mill-dams and deep mining-holes, 
 so many pit- falls for the baby feet — he was 
 only three years old — and with rattle-snakes 
 in number, the sun sinking and darkness coming 
 fast on the narrow valley — horror seized me. 
 
 Singly, then all together, many strong voices 
 called the dear name. Horsemen zigzagged 
 around shouting it — myself, holding on to his 
 father, running to Calhoun's little dam where men 
 tore it down and let out the water. Then we 
 ran away from that terror, again to the mill-road 
 where sometimes he was let to go to meet his 
 father, though never alone — he was so young. 
 
 Drowned ! — Stolen ! — Rushing crowds of 
 terrors pictured themselves to me as I ran over 
 rocks and tree roots, frantic, but dumb. " For 
 Heaven's sake scream or cry or call the boy ! " 
 one of the lawyers said to me, seeing I could 
 not speak , in rough kindness he grasped my 
 hands trying to break the silent horror that he 
 saw had mastered me. I saw it growing darker.
 
 134 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. 
 
 There was only left a broad red band of sunset 
 at the far end of the valley. 
 
 Then a cry, " Look up ! " and with a mighty 
 shout all cried, " There he is ! " and against the 
 red bar was outlined a horse with its harness 
 knotted up about it, the teamster holding high 
 in his arms my baby. 
 
 For the first and only time in my life I felt 
 that cruel force, that cyclone of the true hysteric 
 passion. For days after my throat and chest 
 remained weak and bruised by the prolonged, 
 repeated wild screams that no reasoning or 
 comforting — not even the little tender arms 
 around me could stop. Then the rough lawyer 
 wet my face and head and tried to make me 
 swallow water — I saw his face and that his 
 eyes were filled with tears. " Let her scream — 
 let her cry — don't you see she was going mad 
 in that silence ? " 
 
 And then the ram of saving tears came to 
 me. How good the men all were ; the kindest 
 gentle words. They carried me to the house,
 
 SIERRA NEIGHBORS. I35 
 
 the baby held fast by me — I was too limp and 
 broke n-up to move. 
 
 And after all it was the mistaken kindness of 
 a passing teamster who seeing the child perched 
 on a gate-post, offered him a ride, keeping the 
 little fellow after it, while unharnessing his 
 team, and not conscious of anything unusual 
 until the calls of the mounted men reached him, 
 when he jumped on one of the horses and came 
 fast, holding the boy aloft. 
 
 This incident and the good personal feeling 
 it drew out bound us all together in a way 
 nothing else could. The protecting instinct is 
 wonderfully strong in American men toward 
 women, children, and those struck by calamity. 
 Now any leaven of hard feelings as to much 
 land to some and little to others was wiped out 
 by the touch of nature which made us all one 
 that brief, but horribly long, time of fear for 
 the lost child. And after that I felt encom- 
 passed by the delightful atmosphere of kindly 
 good-will.
 
 VII. 
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 
 
 BY way of making up to me for the disap)- 
 pointment of not going to the Yosemite 
 Falls we went to the Great Trees near there, a 
 place so beautiful, so unique, that it has now 
 been made a National Reservation. Then it 
 was a far solitude. 
 
 Driving over to the town of Mariposas we left 
 there the carriage and next morning made a 
 sunrise start on horseback with some experi- 
 enced men to look out for us, and enough pack- 
 mules to carry camp-equipage, blankets, and 
 light supplies for the week's outing. 
 
 We were a very light-hearted party. The 
 
 Colonel had to stay at home, and made himself 
 
 responsible for no adventures for the youngest 
 
 boy who, to his bitter indignation, had to be 
 
 136
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. I37 
 
 left ; but he was too young to ride all day as 
 did his brother of six years, often carrying be- 
 fore him on the saddle " Fanny " his insepara- 
 ble terrier. " Fan " was not to come and was 
 shut up, but some miles from the house she 
 joined the carriage, panting, her tongue out, 
 wriggling herself into a letter S, and wagging 
 her tail off begging to be forgiven and taken 
 along. You cannot willingly disappoint a child 
 or a dog when they love you, so " Fan " went 
 camping too. 
 
 We were charmed by the pure exquisite morn- 
 ing air growing sweeter, more incense-bearing, 
 as we advanced through the splendid gloom of 
 this pine forest which makes a fitting approach 
 to the Giant Trees. 
 
 All a long lovely spring day we traveled 
 through it, stopping about three o'clock where 
 a fine spring and a farm clearing made desirable 
 camping-ground. We had made only about 
 fourteen miles, but we had to travel step by 
 step in Indian file along the narrow mule-trail,
 
 138 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 
 
 and it was continuous ascent. With an occa- 
 sional rugged steep dip and then a climb up the 
 opposite bank where the mountain was seamed 
 by small ravines, we followed this narrow bridle- 
 path which wound among the trees. They stood 
 as close as their great size permitted and the 
 sunlight, high, high above, only filtered down in 
 golden rays and splashes on the thick dark 
 carpet of pine-tags, grasses and forget-me-nots; 
 these crowded to border the trail, and the 
 flowers were of a larger size and more vivid 
 blue than we had ever seen. 
 
 They made stretches of clear blue far into the 
 forest shades. The odor of vanilla was every- 
 where and we soon fixed it as coming from a 
 low orchid-like plant whose brown sheath of 
 narrow leaves inclosed a single white flower 
 the shape and size of a pigeon's egg. We were 
 constantly delighted with new flowers, and as 
 we ascended came to the red spike of the snow- 
 flower. 
 
 As our day wore on and a little fatigue was
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 139 
 
 added to the solemn unbroken silence of the 
 forest, the chatting and laughing ceased, and 
 we were glad at one very rough though shallow 
 ravine to dismount, and after crossing it on foot 
 (and all-fours) make a halt. Our experienced 
 men made a miniature fire among stones and 
 gave us refreshing tea in tin cups. 
 
 The grandeur of this silent forest, this "green 
 solitude where awful silence dwells," told on us 
 all , trees of six and eight feet in diameter, 
 rising straight as masts over a hundred feet, 
 the golden-green canopy through which high 
 above only a mist of sunlight came, made a 
 cathedral dignity that hushed us. 
 
 " This is the forest primeval." 
 
 We came on the farm-clearing toward three 
 o'clock, where the raw plank house, the huge 
 stumps of felled trees, were in shocking con- 
 trast, nor did we care to be near the barn-yard. 
 
 " Do make the camp out of sight and sound
 
 140 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 
 
 and smell of the ugly place," which was done. 
 The hospitable women pressed on us the shelter 
 of their new house — that we should prefer to 
 camp out when a good house could be had 
 amused them. " 1 guess you've not seen much 
 camping — we have." But we were glad of the 
 abundant milk and buttermilk and eggs we got 
 from them. 
 
 How Hannah rejoiced in it all ! So did I, 
 but I had my long, charming experience of the 
 coast-country camping in 1849, ^"*^ there is a 
 delight to a first experience that is charming, 
 which does not fully come again. Our beds 
 were made of fresh hay ; on the hay were piled 
 many layers of hemlock boughs — the soft outer 
 ends ; one gets critical of quality in tree boughs 
 as bedding ; then new uncut blue blankets were 
 unrolled and laid full length across the high 
 elastic pile where we were to sleep in a long 
 row, Hannah, myself, and the children, with 
 little " Fan " as postscript. It was so high ? 
 pile we had to take it with a running jump.
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES, 141 
 
 The men's camp was ofif by the spring and 
 where smoke would not blow toward us. 
 
 What a good feast we made. What appetites, 
 what sleep ! Big stars were close overhead, 
 perfumed mountain air was blowing soft around 
 us — it was too bad we knew so little of it, for 
 I think we all fell asleep while exclaiming in 
 delight over our springy bed, most welcome 
 after the day in the saddle, when immediately it 
 was again day ; the tender, serene baby-hour of 
 opening day. A screen of blankets made our 
 dressing-room where plenty of fresh water with 
 French soap and Russia towels took off the 
 rough edge (and dust) of camp-life. 
 
 Then for the breakfast. A good camp cook 
 can make excellent bread midway between the 
 Spanish tortilla and the Australian " damper " 
 by kneading well flour and water and a little 
 salt — no sort of yeast or baking stuff, but 
 strong working of the dough which is baked in 
 thin cakes on a griddle, a most palatable, whole- 
 some bread eaten when hot and brittle, and
 
 142 CAMPFNO NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 
 
 leathery when cold. But we had it hot, with 
 eggs and slips of bacon, tea and coffee, and lots 
 of hot and cold milk, and orange marmalade 
 " by request." And appetite ! of a quality too 
 eager and keen to be known apart from such 
 out-door life. 
 
 Then again to our saddles. 
 
 We had thought nothing could be more nobly 
 beautiful than the forest we crossed the day be- 
 fore, but the new day brought us into enchant- 
 ing natural parks of grassy uplands and fir and 
 hemlock growths in varying stages ; the layered 
 boughs, tipped with the lighter green of the spring 
 growth, rested in tent-like spread on soft young 
 grass and wild flowers. It was all gracious and 
 open and smiling with, at times, a break in the 
 trees giving us a glimpse across the valley below 
 of the near Yosemite range. And in the fresh 
 stir of morning air we laughed and sang and 
 '* were glad we were alive," when — 
 
 " What is that ? Is that ? " and hush of won- 
 der and awe subdued us.
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 143 
 
 There, blocking the way as a light-house 
 might, rose the mighty bulk of a tawny-barked 
 tree over thirty feet in diameter. Solid, straight, 
 uprearing its wonderful column unbroken by 
 any limb for a hundred feet. 
 
 Standing apart, with natural clearings round 
 about them, and contrasted by the smiling young 
 firs, they were overwhelmingly grand. 
 
 The impression was absolutely new — and 
 without comparison. 
 
 That day we only rode near them, taking 
 them in from various points of view. Extend- 
 ing our ride to where by climbing higher we 
 saw the near outline of the Yosemite range 
 with its further background of the snow-covered 
 Sierra, and beyond, the white glitter of Carson's 
 Peak. 
 
 It was after seeing this country that Starr 
 King said to me he felt there that that was the 
 original conception of the Deity — " the first 
 rough sketch of our world — but, remembering
 
 144 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 
 
 He had to create man He continued his work on 
 a suitably lowered scale." 
 
 Our return led through a tract lately burned 
 over in a forest fire, and by the time we got 
 down to our camp at Clarke's Meadows by the 
 bank of the rushing Merced River, we were 
 completely blackened with the charcoal dust. 
 We had begun with veils, but they interfered 
 with clear sight and were soon in the saddle 
 pockets, and th:s charcoal penetrated every- 
 thing — gloves and sleeves were hardly a barrier 
 as our horses' feet continued stirring up the 
 sooty dust. 
 
 " Clarke's Meadows," then a far-ofT and soli- 
 tary spot, was made a National Park, and Clarke 
 its first guardian. He welcomed us to his 
 domain and had been shooting us birds and 
 young squirrels, and cutting hemlock tips for 
 our night's rest. 
 
 But first we had to get rid of our charcoal 
 coating. The Merced up here comes down 
 foaming and tumbling over great bowlders of
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 145 
 
 granite and eddying off into still pools of emer- 
 ald brightness of sparkling water. Fringed by 
 low evergreen growths and hidden by great bowl- 
 ders these were ideally lovely bathing-places, 
 but shriek on shriek followed the first plunge, 
 for the water was melted ice and snow — so 
 keenly cold it cut and stung us. However, 
 after the first scarlet burn a glorious reaction 
 set in and the exhilaration was beyond telling 
 in words. 
 
 We had appetites that would have given flavor 
 to our gloves, but the birds and tender young 
 squirrels broiled on sticks before the fire were 
 really delightful, and with pride Clarke drew 
 from the hot ashes potatoes of his own grow- 
 ing. 
 
 Again stretched on a luxuriously fragrant 
 elastic hay and hemlock bed, with the tumble 
 and rush of the mountain torrent for music, it 
 was almost too much delight when Hannah's 
 I'ovely voice breathed out, soft and lingeringly 
 sweet, the serenade from Don Pasquale:
 
 146 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 
 
 " O, summer night. 
 So softly bright." 
 
 Refreshed and full of new life we gave the 
 next day to leisurely enjoyment of this wonder- 
 schiin land (avoiding the charcoal district). 
 Before leaving our horses to explore on foot, 
 the cavalcade rode through a fallen tree, the 
 men on horseback having space above their 
 heads as we filed through this tunneled trunk 
 hollowed out by fire. There were other fallen 
 trees not burned. One had fallen very recently ; 
 the earth was still fresh about its singularly 
 shallow roots. With a surveyor's tape we 
 measured a hundred and twenty-six feet of bare 
 trunk before the first bough put out. Walking 
 along the tree to its base we dropped the line 
 which ran out to thirty-two and a half feet, after 
 deducting three feet above the base as allow- 
 ance for the roots and very slight irregularities 
 where it had rested on the ground. Other 
 measurements gave a gradual but gentle taper- 
 ing, but it was eighteen feet in diameter where
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 147 
 
 the boughs began. The boughs of these giant 
 Sequoia are very short, and the cones small ; 
 they seem insignificant compared with the vast 
 height and bulk of the trunk. The rugged 
 cork-like bark was curious — fully a foot thick, 
 cinnamon-colored, and in shallow flutings like a 
 roughly-chiseled column. We had a strangely 
 interesting time in this Cathedral of Nature. 
 
 As we wanted to return in one day we were 
 early asleep and on the way by fair daybreak. 
 It was only about thirty-six miles in all, and for 
 the last twelve we would have the carriage. 
 
 That early morning of the return through the 
 great pine forest was something to remember 
 gratefully. 
 
 The friendly people of the farm were horrified 
 by our sunburned faces, scorched and peeling 
 on cheeks and noses from the direct light and 
 heat of the thin rarefied air. "Well, well," one 
 said, " you looked like real ladies, but now you 
 look like movers," and they saw no compen- 
 sation for such roughing-it.
 
 J40 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 
 
 We kept as good pace as the broken country 
 allowed, and one of our party rode ahead and 
 had the carriage waiting us at the ford below 
 the town of Mariposas. 
 
 There was a village of some eighteen hundred 
 Chinese just there by the ford. They were not 
 allowed to live within a mile or so of the town 
 limit. Hannah fancied driving through this 
 Asiatic settlement, and it was certainly a very 
 foreign unusual village with perfectly Chinese 
 aspect. We trotted along its narrow lane of a 
 main street almost brushing the long pendant 
 signs on either side, when we saw a shop-front 
 filled with coarse but gay and pretty crockery. 
 Our escort had gone on into the town of Mari- 
 posas and only one horseman remained ; the 
 children were on horseback, and my friend and 
 myself in the carriage with only its English 
 coachman. 
 
 The alert Chinese shopman answered our 
 signs and brought out to us bowls and jars — 
 we had bought a lot of pretty common-ware
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. I49 
 
 bowls with their decorated China spoons — when 
 we found ourselves suddenly closed in by a 
 swarm of excited Chinese, gesticulating fiercely 
 with shrill clacking angry talk, and converging 
 on us their angry eyes. 
 
 What had we done ? What was the matter ? 
 Burke who had advised our not going through 
 the village made no pause to question "Why?" 
 but rode quickly to the rear of the carriage, 
 making his horse's heels clear the way by dig- 
 ging spurs into it. He shouted to the children 
 to ride ahead " fast," snatching " Fan " from 
 her little master and throwing her in to my 
 care, as he ordered the coachman to use his 
 whip right and left on the crowd and " get off," 
 while he, revolver lifted, waved them back. 
 They only fell back as he aimed into the near- 
 est group. 
 
 We dashed off as we were ordered ; the cries 
 grew fainter, but we heard no shot, and soon 
 had the relief to see Burke following us up the 
 hill, looking back, revolver lifted.
 
 150 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES. 
 
 Nothing more came of it than a big fright to 
 us, and for us, and a wholesome lesson not to in- 
 trude among such people. These were miners 
 — mostly the tall muscular mountain-Chinese, 
 such as were afterwards used in tens of thousands 
 in building our overland railways. 
 
 What was the matter we never knew. Luckily 
 we had paid for our bowls, but a complaint 
 from me would have quickly resulted in the 
 destruction of their village and the whole of its 
 people being driven away — when we were to 
 blame for going into their village — this is the 
 law of the strong against the weak, especially 
 where any pretext would have been welcome to 
 race-prejudice. So we kept silence and would 
 let nothing be said of it. 
 
 As we turned into our own gates the moon 
 was shining bright over the bungalow and the 
 Colonel's white summer clothes made him into 
 a statue by the fountain, where he had waited, 
 listening, and relieved enough to have us all 
 back in the fold ; and not even too tired — for
 
 CAMPING NEAR THE GIANT TREES, 151 
 
 except the accident-boy who put himself in the 
 way of fresh hurts by cahnly falling asleep on 
 his horse, and ended the journey asleep on the 
 carriage floor, we were all animated and full of 
 the delights of our brief expedition. 
 
 We found waiting us an invitation to a ball. 
 A regular ball, with a printed invitation and a 
 committee of one to explain that our acceptance 
 would certify to its opening a new era of good 
 order and decorum. The Odd Fellows Asso- 
 ciation had built a Hall and Club rooms in 
 Mariposas, and in giving this opening ball 
 wished our aid in behalf of their good inten- 
 tions. Of course on this idea we accepted 
 willingly. 
 
 But was there ever a Ball Committee that did 
 not get into hot water ?
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE BALL. 
 
 WE quite looked forward to this Ball and 
 were glad of it as visible evidence of 
 the new reign of order, and respect for the estab- 
 lished usages of neighborly intercourse. 
 
 We had out our prettiest gowns and decided 
 what to wear, and as the town of Mariposas was 
 twelve miles distant we arranged to stay over 
 night and next morning visit some ladles there, 
 and receive any who might want to visit us. 
 Altogether it was to be a bright festival time. 
 
 When the whole clouded over. 
 
 "The Colonel" was in San Francisco and in 
 his absence something went amiss between the 
 superintendent of the mills and one of the men, 
 who did a most shabby and unmanly thing in 
 revenge. 
 
 152
 
 THE BALL. 1 53 
 
 The superintendent was a cultivated New 
 York man, but with the defect of thinking him- 
 self, therefore, superior to "Western" men, and 
 betraying this provincial idea by small airs of 
 superiority. The blacksmith was a young Ken- 
 tuckian of good family but " wild," who had 
 brought such a letter from Senator Crittenden 
 that he was at once given employment. As 
 health, size and strength were his chief qualifi- 
 cations he took what he could do and became 
 expert in smithy work on machinery and 
 tools. 
 
 There were chiefly first-rate men in all the 
 governing positions, but this superintendent 
 lacked that crowning merit, which comes from 
 nature to some and through experience to many, 
 of taking a man at his best and making allow- 
 ance for what's lacking; not requiring all to 
 come up to an arbitrary standard. Where a 
 narrow-natured man from the East sets his 
 standard in place of the more easy larger limit 
 obtaining in the West, trouble follows.
 
 154 
 
 THE BALL. 
 
 It did here. But what was unpardonable was 
 the manner of resenting it. 
 
 When the superintendent went, as was his 
 habit at the midday hour of rest, to botanize 
 along the creek, the blacksmith set upon him 
 and beat him cruelly ; not only making an 
 assault on a man he knew carried no weapons, 
 but having with him two of his friends from the 
 village to aid him if needed. 
 
 But it was quickly overheard and stopped, 
 and the facts reported to me in the absence of 
 *' the Colonel." 
 
 I sustained the book-keeper in his intention 
 of immediate dismissal of the Kenluckian — it 
 was absolutely necessary in order to maintain 
 discipline, though as the offender was a " popu- 
 lar man " and the superintendent decidedly not 
 so, there was sure to be personal feeling against 
 this step. 
 
 Soon a protest reached me and I was asked 
 to stay proceedings until the Colonel's return. 
 
 This 1 refused, admitting the vexations given,
 
 THE BALL. 155 
 
 and the merits of Senator Crittenden's protege, 
 but allowing nothing to weigh against the out- 
 rageously mean attack of three against one. 
 
 Then came the further complication that this 
 young Kentuckian was not only an Odd Fellow 
 but very active about the Ball and one of the 
 Committee of Reception. 
 
 Hannah felt as I did, that it would be impos- 
 sible for us to go now. To go, knowingly, to be 
 received by and entertained by a man who had 
 made a singularly cowardly attack on the chief 
 man of our mills, whose conduct had deserved 
 and received instant dismissal from the works, 
 was a contradiction not possible. And yet it 
 was very hard on the other young men that they 
 should lose guests they so much wished to have. 
 
 I had to write to the Head of the Order giv- 
 ing him these reasons why we should not be 
 able to attend the Ball, and telling him of the 
 sincere regret it was to me not to be able to 
 take my part in what was a good event in our 
 frontier society.
 
 156 THE BALL. 
 
 They are quick to think and quick to act 
 "out West." 
 
 Quickly the answer came, fully appreciating 
 my reasons, and asking again that we would 
 come as "the Committee of Reception had 
 been changed." 
 
 These thorough people had had other invita- 
 tions immediately printed, omitting the name 
 of the offending Kentuckian. 
 
 An authorized person told me the man's act 
 was strongly condemned and he would most 
 probably not be present ; but that he was a very 
 popular man and had a following of friends 
 who were angrily excited and might make 
 trouble if we came. So that it was fair to let 
 us know there might be something unpleasant 
 — not if the better-minded could prevent, but 
 it was in the chances. 
 
 I heartily wished we could keep a\va)% but 
 when all the body of Odd Fellows had gone such 
 lengths to meet my feeling, it seemed I must 
 take my risks to show I valued their approval.
 
 THE BALL. 157 
 
 So we went. Our good gowns sent forward 
 in the morning to the nice village inn where we 
 were to stay the night, ourselves following in 
 the cool of the afternoon ; Hannah and myself 
 in the carriage and, riding ahead on horseback, 
 my daughter with the superintendent, and our 
 invaluable Burke. 
 
 We were not in a very holiday humor. The 
 "superior" tone of the superintendent seemed 
 to have increased and be, as it were, justified. 
 The committee had renewed their invitation to 
 him and with it sent a manly letter of regret 
 that one of their Order should have so miscon- 
 ducted himself. 
 
 I thought nothing obliged him to go. But he 
 chose to do so and to go with us — though it 
 was flaunting the red flag at the bull. 
 
 We were nearing the end of our drive when 
 round the turn of a sharp hill came a small 
 band of horsemen. At their head the tall, 
 broad-shouldered Kentuckian. 
 
 I must say " my heart jumped to my throat"
 
 158 THE BALL. 
 
 — "he has come out with his friends to turn us 
 back" was my thought. (Burke and Isaac 
 thought even worse.) But these were good 
 Western men, after all, and they just filed by, 
 taking the outer edge of the narrow road, and 
 the big offender touched his broad hat to me in 
 passing. That touched me. I returned his 
 salute with good feeling. 
 
 To recognize he had done wrong, to accept 
 punishment and to give this evidence that no 
 further disturbance should be made was truly 
 manly. We felt why he was a "popular man." 
 
 We dressed ourselves carefully and behaved 
 our nicest at the Ball. I had asked Burke to 
 let the committee know how sorry I was to 
 break up any part of their ball, and how right 
 and manly I thought it of the Kentuckian to 
 give me this evidence of his intention to pre- 
 vent trouble. 
 
 And then I did my best to make my being 
 there agreeable. 
 
 Such heallliy, happy-faced young wives and
 
 THE BALL. 
 
 159 
 
 mothers were there. Girls were few. They 
 were instantly married and in fact were brought 
 there married. It was a very young commu- 
 nity. The certainty now of good order and 
 entire propriety had made men willing to bring 
 their wives, some from quite a distance. In 
 several cases the baby too. There were half a 
 dozen of these in a room to the rear where our 
 wraps were laid, and where two beds had been 
 made to accommodate some special friends. 
 
 An atmosphere of constraint had prevailed in 
 the beginning, but the good music and the 
 growing enjoyment of the guests changed that 
 into a more natural heartiness and soon it was 
 as animated as need be. The hall was really 
 fine, and though flowers were not yet grown 
 there, native evergreens and artificial flowers, 
 our flag, and abundant lights in handsome 
 chandeliers made it a pretty hall for any place. 
 
 The supper was really beautiful as well as 
 excellent. Only those who knew frontier life 
 in those chaotic times realize what unexpected
 
 l6o THE BALL. 
 
 " finds " one made in unlikely places. The 
 elaborate dishes usual to fine suppers were 
 here in beauty, and for confectionery it was as 
 good in style and delicate excellence as though 
 we were in a large city. 
 
 Hannah's outspoken delight and surprise 
 pleased every one — her charming manners and 
 sincere enjoyment of this " wild West " episode 
 propitiated all and effaced any soreness that 
 might have lingered among the friends of the 
 absent. 
 
 The german was not a part of the programme, 
 but Hannah suggested a Virginia reel after the 
 supper and it was danced with great spirit, and 
 a gayety, added to by some of the young men 
 — unmarried you may be sure — who had 
 seized the chance while the mothers were at 
 supper to change the cloaks and wraps on the 
 babies and then transfer them to opposite beds, 
 in short, to " mix them babies up." The scene 
 of confusion this created was full of fun, even 
 the bewildered young mothers joining in the
 
 THE BALL. l6l 
 
 laugh ; they were young and happy, having a 
 thoroughly good time in a harmless way, and 
 all was good — even a joke against themselves. 
 
 We came away about twelve, but the others 
 kept it up stoutly until daylight did appear. 
 
 And so ended happily what had seemed must 
 inevitably be a big disturbance. It was a fine 
 advance in popular feeling since the year before 
 when violence had been accepted as the normal 
 condition, and the sheriff had declined to do 
 his duty and call out z. posse because, as he said, 
 " it would be no use." 
 
 We had our pleasant morning of visits, and 
 making acquaintance with outlying neighbors, 
 and were pressed to visit around to their homes, 
 but the time had come for my friend to return 
 to New York and we had to go home. 
 
 She said then and saj-s yet it was, all told, 
 the most delightful three months of her life — 
 that it was so new, so full of large ideas, rubbed 
 out so much ignorance and gave such different 
 views of life, was so full of keen delight in
 
 l62 THE BALL. 
 
 nature, and that she felt she gave as well as 
 received so much pleasure, that nothing else 
 compared with it. 
 
 It was flat without her. The lovely voice 
 was only one of the charms lost to us. 
 
 Now the weather was growing into the de- 
 pressing summer heat. Only heat is too tepid 
 a word to use. Our valley was a trough between 
 high mountain ranges and the only winds came 
 over the treeless hot plains like a furnace blast. 
 Even on a marble-topped table many layers of 
 newspaper had to be ^ut between my arm and 
 the table when I wrote, for flesh could not 
 stand the contact of the heated marble which 
 could not cool off in the hot nights — often it 
 was over ninety degrees at midnight. 
 
 As I would not go to San Francisco a camp 
 was made for me on the mountain just back of 
 us, in a spot Isaac knew. It was a steep stony 
 hard climb of nearly five thousand feet, but 
 across the summit, and a little below on the east- 
 ern face was a spring of great size, and fine cold
 
 THE BALL. 163 
 
 water — a miniature lake ; and on the long bench 
 ox plateau^ where was this water, was also a beau- 
 tiful growth of " States Oak." This was the 
 local name for the large-leaved, deciduous oak 
 — in the valley we had only the small-leaved 
 evergreen oak — one gets very tired of unchang- 
 ing foliage, of unfailing leaves. 
 
 A ride up, and inspection decided "the 
 Colonel " and in a few days we were comfort- 
 ably installed there. This place had not only 
 the shade and water needed, but a glorious view 
 of the Yosemite which seemed not over ten 
 miles off, though really thirty. The pure and 
 rarefied air destroyed the distance to the sight. 
 This eastern face of our mountain, Mt. Bullion, 
 was in benches with straight steep descents, 
 presenting almost a flat face to the immediate 
 valley thousands of feet below ; from which rose 
 opposite in successive curves, like some giant am- 
 phitheater, first the low hills then the grand 
 rock-formation of the Yosemite country. 
 
 Beyond that still was the snow-capped Sierra
 
 164 THE BALL. 
 
 range and, far off, the glistening Carson's Peak 
 caught the first morning light. Dawn came 
 early up there these summer days. The birds 
 began their subdued half-notes about three, 
 then a tremble of gold dust got into the cool 
 gray sky ; rarely we had a rosy sunrise, but the 
 many tones of yellows were gorgeous beyond 
 description. 
 
 We were in real nature. The birds so un- 
 knowing that even woodpeckers sat near on the 
 same fallen trunk, watching us intently and 
 curiously. And a quail led her young brood 
 regularly every morning to pick up the rice and 
 crumbs scattered about the camp fire. Isaac 
 was our camp-cook, and like a true hunter pro- 
 tected the creatures he did not need to kill for 
 food. Incessant, causeless shooting, betrays 
 the novice or a cold hard nature. 
 
 We had our riding horses up there and found 
 superb views and most pleasant rides along the 
 level crest of the ridge. Once up there, a 
 fairly easy way for horses could be followed
 
 THE BALL. 165 
 
 for miles, but it was not prudent for us to be 
 far out of range from our camp. But it was 
 good to go about easily and see such a stretch 
 of view. To the east was all the Yosemite and 
 the mountains beyond, while to the west we 
 looked over the lower range that hedged in our 
 valley, down to the San Joaquin plains, crossed 
 at intervals by the steel-like glitter of the 
 Merced, the Stanislaus, the Tuolumne and other 
 rivers, and far off the dark timber-belt showed 
 where the San Joaquin River bounded all on 
 the west. 
 
 The beautiful golden pheasant with its two 
 long glittering tail feathers dragging (as a tur- 
 key does) in sign of agitation, did not fly, but 
 just moved aside from our horses ; and the 
 pretty crested quail with its tuft of velvety 
 black feathers was not frightened. We gath- 
 ered the most lovely wild flowers, fresher, more 
 vivid and larger than those in the valley. 
 
 Not a human sound to mar the beautiful 
 nature. But near sunset a welcome long-
 
 l66 THE BALL. 
 
 echoing Indian-call, the survival of very differ- 
 ing camp-life, announced the coming of " the 
 Colonel." Then Isaac bestirred himself and 
 savory odors came across from his tire, where 
 we would gather and make the dinner-supper 
 that closed the day. For with the dark came 
 sleep. There was no sleeping after that golden 
 sunrise flooded the air. And the days brought 
 too much exercise, too much thinking, for a 
 busy man to forego his sleep. 
 
 On Sundays we had lots to talk of and to 
 read together — I being an idler had all the 
 time for reading, and there was much to read. 
 The Sadowa campaign was in progress and we 
 had our English and French journals, war-maps 
 and illustrated papers, and the home mail, and 
 some good books. Buckle's History of Civili- 
 zation we read here in fit surroundings. We 
 were in great comfort and content, and charmed 
 to have found such a refuge from the heat until 
 with the fall rains, fresh air returned to the val- 
 ley. Then we would leave our beautiful camp.
 
 IX. 
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 
 
 AS we were to remain up here until the 
 rains began much trouble was taken to 
 make it comfortable camping. A board floor, 
 raised well above the ground to disconcert frogs 
 and snakes and such forest creatures, was pro- 
 nounced indispensable. But how to haul planks 
 where it was hard scrambling for mountain- 
 bred horses and mules ? 
 
 Planks were hauled on the mining road to the 
 mines, three miles from the village. Here there 
 was a dip in the range and the crest of the ridge 
 could be met and followed back three miles to 
 our camp, which was abreast of the village. 
 Some clearing work was done to open the wa}', 
 then the planks were lashed to the sides of oxen 
 used to mountain work, and in this way the 
 167
 
 l68 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 
 
 flooring was hauled along the crest. It was 
 troublesome but it was a success, and a jrreat 
 comfort. 
 
 The canvas roof was secured to four young 
 oaks growing near together; their inner boughs 
 were lopped back leaving only a leafy dome 
 which not only kept us cool with the thick large 
 leaves, but their dancing shadows frescoed our 
 ceiling beautifully. One wall we lowered and 
 fastened to the floor, but the other three sides 
 were stretched out to trees — giving broad piaz- 
 zas where on the well-cleared ground our steamer- 
 chairs, camp stools and folding-tables (by ox- 
 train), made luxurious comfort. 
 
 Mattresses also were brought up and were 
 laid on piles of fragrant heather. A plank set 
 edgewise across the floor restrained the heather 
 and kept tidy the open part of the broad, raised 
 floor. Experts in tent-life will recognize this 
 was elegance combined with comfort. 
 
 Smaller canvas houses with no floor or roof, 
 other than spreading oak boughs, made dress-
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 1 69 
 
 ing-rooms. With india-rubber bath tubs one is 
 independent and the sun and fresh air coming 
 direct upon the sl^in added to the reviving ef- 
 fects of this mountain life. 
 
 The growth of fine deciduous oaks covered a 
 long space, some miles, and was a famous resort 
 for grizzly bears; their "wallows" were all 
 around about. With the acorns, the great spring 
 and the fresh cool air, it was a fixed resort for 
 them in the acorn season, which, fortunately, 
 was not near. For animals are more bound by 
 the "correct season" in their migrations than 
 even fashionables on their tours. It would not 
 have been amusing to come back from a ride 
 and find the Great Bear, the Middle-sized Bear 
 and the Teeny-weeny-little Bear sitting in our 
 chairs. 
 
 But it was all peaceful and beautiful beyond 
 telling. The grand beauly of the Yosemite 
 country, lying just across from us like a great 
 panorama in a vast amphitheater, was of endless 
 attraction. Sunrise and sunset made marvels
 
 170 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION, 
 
 of color and varying effects, and the still blaze 
 of golden noon had its own splendid charm. 
 
 The rides were always a delight. Nature 
 could not be more beautiful and had also the 
 rare charm of being untouched. It was indeed 
 
 " a land 
 
 Where no man had been since the world begun." 
 
 With the milk and eggs and freshly-killed 
 chickens came up — on horseback all — the 
 daily mail. The progress of the Sadowa Cam- 
 paign became increasingly interesting. The low- 
 ered wall of our canvas house was soon papered 
 over with war maps and likenesses of men 
 making the names since so famous. Bismarck 
 was lifting the crowns from the heads of smaller 
 kings and making ready to place the Imperial 
 Crown on the head of his own German king. 
 And we began then the personal interest in the 
 young Crown-Prince who had so lately given the 
 bit of white heather to the Daughter of England. 
 From his father decorating him with the Cross
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 171 
 
 of Merit, to the last long struggle against death 
 he was always a noble figure, modest, brave, 
 patient, honorable and true, a real hero. 
 
 Apart as we were from ordinary life and lifted 
 above detail, great events and figures of history 
 found themselves on natural surroundings among 
 these grand features of nature. 
 
 To the great delight of the little boys the 
 service-berries were getting ripe ; a larger, 
 more juicy, richer-flavored form of our whortle- 
 berry. 
 
 Children who have the disadvantage of only 
 town-life, or the opera bouffe life of " summer 
 resorts," know nothing of the many and progres- 
 sive delights of country children. To the town 
 boy an apple is represented by pennies and a 
 fruit stall. He knows nothing of the education 
 in weather, in patience, in observation of the 
 many phases that lead from the icicled tree to 
 its rosy blossoms, and the little green knobs he 
 eyes without fingering, on to the fully-ripened
 
 172 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 
 
 fruit, which has for him a bouquet of meaning 
 and flavor and triumph money cannot buy. 
 
 One day in the early morning first one then 
 many Indian women climbed into view from 
 below on the eastern side ; smiling, pointing to 
 the big, conical baskets strapped to their backs, 
 and settling to work to gather the berries which 
 they did in orderly busy fashion ; going down 
 to their valley at nightfall with full baskets. But 
 leaving untouched the bushes near our camp, 
 which I thought very nice of them as this was their 
 harvest of a luxury. They were not the Indians 
 we knew, but even more Indian, so to speak. 
 
 They were so pleased with an impromptu 
 luncheon of hot rice with sugar, and a dessert 
 of jam on crackers. They squatted around the 
 spring — in Scotland it would have been called 
 a " tarn " — eating slowly with many soft laughs 
 of pleasure. Something sweet to eat and pict- 
 ures to look at made for them ideal delight. 
 Pictures of horses in the illustrated papers, es- 
 pecially battle-scenes, excited them intensely.
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 1 73 
 
 They folded them carefully, wrapping them in 
 cloths and carried them off to their huts ; to be 
 a source of wonder and mind-opening never im- 
 agined by the artists. 
 
 This was all that broke our quiet, until one 
 morning after "the Colonel " had gone down to 
 the mines there came a group of Indian men, 
 who made for Isaac's part of the camp and soon 
 were in earnest conference. 
 
 I was not paying attention to this, but pres- 
 ently Burke the invaluable (who was always on 
 guard when the Colonel was off) came over 
 with a disquieting message. 
 
 The taller of the three Indians was a young 
 chief and warrior of renown belonging to a rest- 
 less and fighting tribe of Indians to the south- 
 west of us. The others were his aids-de-camp ; 
 they all knew some English and Spanish and our 
 men understood some local Indian words and 
 both were familiar with sign-language. 
 
 After many annoyances from, and smaller 
 conflicts with the whites, this chief's tribe had
 
 174 'I'HE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 
 
 been attacked, unprovoked, they said, by miners 
 in force, on mining-ground whicli they held as 
 theirs; and tliey saw all Indians must band 
 together for protection. They had retaliated on 
 smaller parties of whites, and now it was any 
 whites against any Indians, and, maybe, any 
 Indians against any whites. 
 
 All the Indians their side the range must 
 stand by one another. Their runners were out 
 assembling the young men. The long bench on 
 which our camp was, lay on one line they must 
 travel in assembling as they were to come from 
 across the Merced (our boundary). This young 
 chief was also from an outlying tribe, but, as he 
 said, his people knew about " Don Flemon " 
 and that he was a friend to Indians, and that 
 his women were up in the mountain by the big 
 spring (Indians always know all they need to 
 know). For that, he came to say we must go 
 down and be safe in our house by the mill and 
 village. For the Indians coming to join him 
 might not be good to any whites. They did not
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 1 75 
 
 know about us and he could not stay away from 
 Jiis people to protect us. And he did not want 
 harm to come to Don Flemon's family. 
 
 This was a break-up. 
 
 Our own men saw the risk was too great. 
 "There's always enough ornery Injuns," Isaac 
 said, "to try a little stealing — horses, or any- 
 thing they fancy — then there'd be trouble." 
 
 It was contrary to his ideas to take a woman 
 into council, but the young chief was so anxious 
 to make us safe that he came over with Isaac 
 and Burke when they crossed to tell me of this. 
 
 He remained standing too, as they did, with 
 his eyes a little turned away but listening and 
 noticing intently, his whole young lithe bronze 
 figure rigid from intentness. Perhaps he had 
 some Spanish blood, for he was of higher breed 
 and more commanding air than any Indian I 
 had seen up there. 
 
 The one drawback to our beautiful camp, for 
 me, was the rarefied air at this elevation which 
 made me often very dizzy and faint; lying down
 
 176 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 
 
 with mustard-leaves on the chest partly counter- 
 acted this. I was lying back now in a steamer 
 chair and it made me smile to myself to see 
 what an odd reception I was holding, but it was 
 no laughing matter. 
 
 " How soon must we go ? To-day ? the night ? 
 or to-morrow ? " I spoke in Spanish. Manana 
 is a word ingrained in Spanish countries. 
 
 '''' Cuando vamos — ahora? la noc/ie? 0^ man- 
 ana ? " 
 
 ^^ Mana/ia," spoke up the bronze, but without 
 looking at me; then to Isaac with one finger 
 lifted from his closed hand : " C/fia noche — uo 
 mas^ Pointing over and downwards to our val- 
 ley : " A?ida 7nananay 
 
 " The Colonel " found it wise to move us back 
 home, though the heat was cruel. But we had had 
 about six weeks of real camping in the solitudes 
 of most beautiful and grand nature. Enough 
 to leave unequalled pictures forever in memory. 
 
 The awful heat was too much and we were all 
 sent down to the cool sea air of San Francisco,
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 177 
 
 and matters being now quite in order we settled 
 into our lovely home there named by Starr King 
 our " Lodge by the Golden Gate;" where the 
 waters of the great bay washed the rocks of our 
 headland and we looked down over roses and 
 geraniums to the decks of passing ships making 
 their way out to the Pacific. 
 
 Here the war found us in 1861. 
 
 When I came back into my old home at St. 
 Louis to find such discord, such dangers and such 
 malice, envy and all uncharitableness, that the 
 Sierra life with its mining riot, the Indian trou- 
 bles, all the things that seemed hard to bear 
 there were light by comparison. 
 
 I had thought I was done for always with fron- 
 tier and camp experiences, but there is no 
 "never" and no "forever." 
 
 After many years of repose we were again in 
 old familiar scenes, but wilder, more fantastically 
 dreary, more truly remote from civilization than 
 I had ever before met with.
 
 178 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 
 
 The sparse settlers always spoke of "going 
 inside " when they went into California, for 
 Arizona was truly "outside " of all usual life. 
 Now a brief ten years has changed all that; one 
 transcontinental railway crosses it at the south- 
 ern and another at its northern end, and shorter 
 lines of railroad connect them. So this old 
 travel is only the memory of a troubled dream. 
 
 But there was not a mile of railroad within 
 the Territory when we went there ; the South- 
 ern Pacific ended with the railway bridge span- 
 ning the Colorado — the dividing line between 
 California and Arizona. A question of taxes 
 rose between the Territory and the Railway so 
 they built no more road until that should be 
 fairly settled. 
 
 Meantime you dropped from the travel of full 
 civilization to untouched nature, at Yuma. 
 
 Strange-looking nature to American eyes, 
 
 " A dreary waste of stagnant sand 
 Stretching afar like ocean's strand;**
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 1 79 
 
 the tawny yellow of the sand-waste cut by the 
 deep-rolling, dull-yellow waters of the Colorado ; 
 scattered about in irregular lines and groups the 
 brown-yellow adobe houses, one-storied, flat- 
 roofed, with door and window mere gaps left in 
 the wall ; over all the fierce red-yellow glare of 
 sun-fire rather than sunshine. Not a tree, not 
 a bush, nor a blade of grass. 
 
 It looked like far-away heathen lands — awfully 
 lonesome from the absence of every accustomed 
 home-sight. But to us came a familiar and dear 
 object — the blue uniform of our army; like 
 our flag it only makes the true feeling it has 
 earned when we come upon it in far-away places. 
 It meant now a host of delightful things. We 
 found waiting a comfortable ambulance with its 
 big handsome mules, and the officer in charge 
 of the Quartermaster's Station at Yuma took 
 us to his quarters, where we found everything 
 that intelligence, order, cleanliness and kind- 
 ness could do against conditions the most 
 unfavorable.
 
 l8o THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. 
 
 Throughout our far wild Western countries 
 these military outposts are the beacon lights of 
 civilization ; they, in their way, do missionary 
 work too — and are not without their own form 
 of martyrdom. 
 
 Here we rested two days; then a long fare- 
 well to all " use and wont " and a plunge into 
 the untried. Into an experience that cannot be 
 repeated, for all is changed now that the soli- 
 tudes are crossed by railways, and with them 
 have come people and busy life. 
 
 Deep down in the silent depths of the hearts 
 of most women who have had the life of uproot- 
 ing and transplanting that goes to make the 
 new life of far countries, must lie the Scotch 
 wail : 
 
 " Oh ifs home ! hame ! I fain woidd be 
 Hame again to my ain coiintree." 
 
 Often and often I have met this. Though it 
 was but a passing phase with me yet the chances 
 of separation add to its pain, and these patient
 
 THE CAMP ON MT. BULLION. l8l 
 
 pioneer women knew that the men burned their 
 ships and took no backward look — it is always 
 the woman who looks lingeringly to what she is 
 leaving, who watches for the last sight of her 
 sinking ship with a sinking heart. Then, they 
 rise to their work and do it patiently, bravely, 
 cheerfully. But the old home, the early asso- 
 ciations are all there " deeply buried from human 
 sight," and start into the bright life of undying 
 youthful memories at the touch of sympathy.
 
 X. 
 
 A "FAR COUNTREE. ' 
 
 YOU frighten me. You talk as though we 
 were going to the hot place itself." 
 
 " So you are, nearly. Aden may be hotter, 
 but the sea helps it — Yuma is the hottest, I 
 rather think." 
 
 Of the four men at table three knew Yuma 
 and two had also been at Aden, so their com- 
 parisons were from personal experience. It 
 was a hot night of summer, in Washington, 
 itself a most uncomfortable summer climate, 
 but the heat was alleviated in every possible 
 way. The dining-room looked into a square 
 where old trees and lawns, and a generous 
 fountain freshened the night air. A parasol 
 shade of fringed green silk kept in its cool 
 shade those sitting around the table and left 
 182
 
 A " FAR COUNTREE," 183 
 
 bright light only on the center piece of flowers 
 that nearly covered it — lovely fringed Japan 
 hollyhocks, their whiteness veiled by the maiden- 
 hair fern that shaded the flowers and bordered 
 them. All was in contrast to our coming journey 
 through hot desert sands of which we were 
 speaking. General Sherman, a Russian dip- 
 lomat who had been round the world, and our 
 host, lately minister to Austria but in his young 
 days an officer of our Navy who had had his part 
 in the taking of California ; he had also been 
 part of my charming first experience of camp- 
 ing travel in California in 1849. 
 
 Three of these present knew the realities of 
 Arizona and Yuma, and General Sherman, who 
 was about making an inspection tour that would 
 carry him there again, heartily pitied me while 
 he and our host devised means to mitigate the 
 inevitable suffering from the heat. Beyond 
 Yuma there was no railway, and the most ele- 
 mentary forms of transportation only, but it was 
 the Government's depot for all military trans-
 
 184 A " FAR COUNTREE." 
 
 portation. Orders were sent to Yuma to have 
 what was needed ready for us, and the young 
 officer in command there did not let the order 
 shrink in his handling. 
 
 A perfect " outfit " was ready for us, and 
 when we saw the mail and passengers started 
 off in the only local transportation to be had 
 we realized the kind forethought of General 
 Sherman and General Beale. By comparison 
 we should be like Elijah taken up in a heavenly 
 chariot — that "sweet charrut " I used to hear 
 the plantation negroes sing of. 
 
 Passengers and mail bags, and express boxes, 
 were closely packed on an uncovered buck- 
 board with four horses, such haggard, over- 
 driven bronchos that Mr. Bergh would have 
 had their ragged harness taken off immediately. 
 On this machine of torture, open to the blinding 
 glare of sun and sand, the passengers stayed 
 night and day, only getting off for meals or to 
 be robbed. 
 
 Seeins: this I looked back no more, though
 
 A "far countree." 185 
 
 the officer who had taken us to his quarters 
 told me to look my last at the returning train 
 as its locomotive was shrieking off — " You will 
 not see such a lovely sight again." 
 
 As we had neared Arizona our train had met 
 that with General Sherman on board. Our 
 trains halted a little for him to come for a talk 
 with us. He was just from Prescott (our desti- 
 nation) and had come down from that mountain 
 part of the country in the delightful new ambu- 
 lance prepared for us, and told us the driver 
 was the best and most careful they had in 
 Arizona. " And you'll need all the care he can 
 use. I pity you — I pity you. Going over that 
 road there were places where I shut my eyes 
 and held my breath. You will cry, and say 
 your prayers." He was through the rough part 
 of his inspection tour and waved us a farewell 
 from the platform of his special car as it whirled 
 him back to accustomed ways of living. 
 
 Such a journey as we made then cannot be 
 repeated ; for two great overland railways now
 
 l86 A " FAR COUNTREE." 
 
 cross Arizona, one at the south, the other at 
 the north, and short railroads connect them, 
 opening up wooded and better watered country, 
 while irrigation lias worked its sure wonders 
 elsewhere. As a record showing the quick pro- 
 gress of settlement of our far lands a letter 
 written by me at that time has its interest: 
 
 Prescott, Arizona Territory. 
 November 21, 1878. 
 "You know something of rough travel in our 
 western country, but never have you seen such 
 difficulties surmounted as bar the way between 
 us up here on this eagle's perch and Yuma 
 where the railway ends. It is but two hundred 
 and thirty miles of distance, but distance is not 
 the matter. Sand, rock, heat, sharp flinty table- 
 lands between sharper, rock-covered mountains 
 — always climbing up and up — no water any- 
 where except at wells long distances apart, until 
 about thirty miles from here when tlie small 
 creeks and pine timber begin. We are over
 
 A "far countree." 187 
 
 six thousand feet up and a profile of the route 
 would be like giant steps with few and shallow 
 landings — you can picture the climb from the 
 base at Yuma, sixty feet above sea level, to 
 this six thousand feet of elevation at Pres- 
 cott. The mesas are table-lands partaking of 
 the nature of the nearest hills : sand near Yuma, 
 gravel and baked earth further on, then a rock, 
 black and glittering like anthracite coal, vitri- 
 fied by volcanic action, with never a blade of 
 grass or sign of water, and for trees only cactus 
 growths. 
 
 " Begin with us at the military quarters at 
 Yuma; thick-walled adobe buildings with broad 
 verandas and real windows and doors — very 
 needed against sand storms. These are on a 
 low bluff above the swift muddy Colorado, while 
 below to the land side lies the mud-built ancient 
 Indian-Mexican pueblo, looking like a damagec^ 
 brick-kiln, and nearly as heated. 
 
 "We stayed with the pleasant lonesome young
 
 l88 A *' FAR COUNTREE," 
 
 officer two days while the ambulances were 
 packed and all made ready for * the desert 
 travel.' Major Lord had sent forward and be- 
 spoken the water needed at the water stations, 
 and our start was timed so as not to interfere 
 with the supply needed by the mail stage. 
 
 " Our ambulance was a large, high, well-swung 
 coach for four, with the driver's seat for two, 
 all under the same projecting roof. Six of the 
 finest possible mules, nearly sixteen hands high 
 bright bays, and in every way perfectly matched, 
 made our team. The quartermaster might well 
 be proud of them — so was the head tenmsttt 
 ' Mac,' who was deserving of all General Sher- 
 man's praise and who did take all care possible 
 to avoid rough jerks but — weren't we bruised i 
 All army things keep to the blue and our coaci: 
 with its blue body, canvas sides, and russe' 
 leather lining was worthy the United State? 
 coat of arms painted on the driving box. A 
 less new and handsome but excellent ambulance 
 with six strong brown mules was for others c
 
 A "far countree." 189 
 
 our party and light baggage, while another six 
 mule wagon-ambulance carried heavier baggage, 
 kegs of water and feed for the mules, and our 
 tent and camp equipage ; for we were to eat, 
 sleep and be in the open for eight days and 
 nights. The teams having to go through with- 
 out change could only make thirty miles a day ; 
 the heat, the want of water and shade, and the 
 hot sand and then rocky way made these thirty 
 miles very wearing. The whole 'outfit' was 
 as complete and comfort-giving as the quarter- 
 master's experience and good-will, and the 
 resources of ' Uncle Sam ' could furnish. We 
 made an imposing procession as we wound 
 from among the low-built mud houses out upon 
 the trackless sands of the Gila plain piloted by 
 Major Lord driving himself in a small buck- 
 board with two gay young horses. Then came 
 the halt for a good-by and many thanks for all 
 his thought and trouble for our comfort. His 
 eyes were nearly destroyed by several years at 
 Yuma. He had reported their condition to
 
 igo 
 
 A " FAR COUNTREE.' 
 
 Washington some months since and asked for 
 change of duty to a cooler station and where 
 he could have an oculist care for them, but his 
 relief had not come. It was a great pleasure to 
 me that my letter to Washington about this 
 found immediate attention and the poor burned 
 eyes were soon transferred to Philadelphia. 
 
 "We had made a very early start, but it was 
 hot and blinding notwithstanding our thick blue 
 veils and the lowered canvas curtains. We 
 had dropped into silent attention, to avoid the 
 jerking and rolling which stones and roots and 
 want of any road must bring, when the grinding 
 was changed for a forward rush of the mules, 
 cheers and calls of encouragement from the 
 teamsters, and behold we had plunged into the 
 broad Gila River and the teams were all swim- 
 ming, scrambling, snorting, the teamsters talk- 
 ing to them a language they understood, and 
 quick all hands were ready for accidents, for 
 the wide Gila is famous for quicksands, shifting 
 sands and treacherous undercurrents. I knew
 
 A "far COUNTREE." igi 
 
 of it, well, and was horribly afraid — a ford 
 any way is a detestable grind, and one seems 
 getting swept away ; but in all this noise of 
 men and animals, with the water up to the coach 
 body, though I was dizzy and scared, old training 
 told, and I was praised for my silence then, and 
 later, when we wound along many a sharp turn 
 of narrow road cut in the rock where there was 
 not a foot to spare between the wall of rock on 
 one side and the precipice alongside. General 
 Sherman was right — I shut my eyes, and tried 
 not to think. 
 
 "We made our first camp on the bank of the 
 full rolling Colorado. It was good to see even 
 its discolored waters where all else was sand. 
 As it was still hot we were sent to wait inside 
 the ' hotel ' until the sun was lower and the 
 camp in order ; a small one-story plank build- 
 ing, but with board floors freshly sprinkled. It 
 had the fine name of ' Castle Dome,' but was 
 lodging-house, mail station, store and mining
 
 192 A "far countree. 
 
 depot for all the mines near around. To one 
 of these mines was bound a most agreeable 
 New York man to whom we had offered a seat 
 in our conveyance ; and in the Castle Dome we 
 came upon traces of another. We were shown 
 into his room as the coolest place — the roof and 
 sides were interlaced cactus ; the ocoiiUa which 
 makes natural lathing from ten to twenty feet 
 long. It grows in one compact thorny fluted 
 column, and when it is ripe it falls apart from 
 the top, making building and roofing material, 
 which plastered with mud answers every pur- 
 pose. The room proper was dug down like a 
 cellar, for coolness, and had an earth floor; the 
 rough-hewn little bedstead stood in four kero- 
 sene cans kept filled with water to intercept 
 tarantulas and other such local pests. Empty 
 goods-boxes did duty for dressing and writing 
 tables. It was all clean and, relatively, cool. 
 The young men of the place brouglit us fresh 
 water, and candies (in tins), and made the 
 unfailing atmosphere of welcome.
 
 A FAR "COUNTREE." 
 
 193 
 
 " Good cologne water and bay rum were by 
 the tin washing basin, and the writing table had 
 a Russia leather blotting book and writing ap- 
 pointments that made you sorry to see such 
 habits fastened to such a spot — more so when 
 there caught my eye over the writing table, 
 nailed to the mast that propped the sloping roof, 
 a little half-worn bronze kid slipper with its tar- 
 nished steel buckle and frayed bow. We said 
 at once 'He has nailed his colors to the mast — 
 he will not give up until Victory or Death ends 
 the fight with Fortune — the little shoe must 
 have its path made smooth, and this exile is 
 here to battle bravely, bearing the brunt alone 
 that she may not know the rough ways of life, 
 
 ** The owner of the room was, we found, 
 managing a mine some miles off. He had lived 
 there nearly a year ! 
 
 " While we waited I wrote at his table a word 
 back to my own young people, and then wrote 
 our thanks to the unknown for the shelter of his 
 room, and told him what his writing things and
 
 194 A " FAR COUNTREE. ' 
 
 the slipper said to us — the pretty footprint 
 on these far sands — with a ' Take heart, 
 Brother.' * 
 
 *' By this our tent was set and the sun sink- 
 ing, and we could go out to our camp where we 
 found it very nice and home-like. Our capable 
 Chinese, a good cook and a good man of the 
 upper class of trained Chinese servants, had 
 been given to us in San Francisco, by an army 
 family 'ordered East.' Major Lord had had 
 prepared a most comfortable complete ' outfit ' 
 of folding table and camp chairs, and now by 
 the tent the blue-painted table held its block 
 tin tea equipage, wliile Mary, trim and tidy as 
 always (with even a white apron on), handed us 
 afternoon tea. She would come, though we told 
 her it was all so new and different. 'If you 
 
 *Two years after I met a lady who introduced herself as "the 
 mother of the bronze slipper," the nicest kind of nice New York 
 woman. Her son had sent them my note because it was, he said, so 
 curiously true to his feeling about the slipper and to his work. It is 
 pleasant to know the mine had sold well and it was all smooth for the 
 little shoe.
 
 A "far countree. 195 
 
 can stand it sure I can stand it too,' and she 
 has most helpingly.* 
 
 "The young New York man who was to leave 
 us here had recently been two years in Spain as 
 attache' to our Legation there. We knew his peo- 
 ple on Stuyvesant Square in New York and we 
 were all amused by the contrast of our talk with 
 its framing. The teamsters had made a settle- 
 ment with the ambulances and animals and 
 their fire, farther back from the river, and off 
 from our fire and tent. As the shadows fell 
 and the moon came up the sound of the river 
 was cool and gave a respite from the day's 
 glare and wide blank. 
 
 " Chung proved to be an expert in preparing 
 tinned things and his grave decorous manner 
 and Chinese dress made him a good accessory 
 in our desert picture. 
 
 " I had the ambulance cushions, the others 
 just rolled in their blankets and lay on the sand, 
 
 " Mary," still " on duty," is now in her twenty-fourth year of service 
 with us.
 
 196 A "far countree." 
 
 the canvas floor of the tent helping greatly in 
 tidy effects. We women-kind were pleased to 
 find no stiffness follow ; we slept soundly and 
 rose refreshed while it was yet starlight, for 
 ' early ' was the good-night word. Again 
 Chung took rank as an acquisition, for he was 
 punctual to his orders. We had our early tea 
 and coffee and cakes of thin fresh baked bread 
 by the light of the fire and a waning moon and 
 stars. The tent was struck, everything packed, 
 the wagons in line, and we, seated in our ambu- 
 lance, waited for the signal to start which came 
 when the hands of that faithful old chronometer 
 which has timed so many observations in wild 
 lands marked 6 a. m. Then we led off and the 
 others followed. This was our regular routine. 
 We traveled on until about eleven, when the 
 halt was made to wash out the mules' mouths 
 from kegs of water carried along, and give them 
 a half-hour's rest. Then on until two or three 
 o'clock, our stop being regulated by the water 
 station.
 
 A " FAR COUNTREE. I97 
 
 " Each morning (while we were fresh) the great 
 novelty of the whole thing was delightful, but 
 with advancing day and heat I fear there was 
 but the one idea — the getting through to the 
 day's end. The stern black mountains like 
 monster coal heaps and the strange cactus 
 growths were soon all shimmering in a hot haze 
 and one's eyes burned with looking out, but they 
 were sights to be remembered. Fancy columns 
 of gray-green growths twenty, thirty feet high 
 all about like obelisks — others like giant cande- 
 labra, some like a skeleton apple-tree tipped with 
 tattered old palm-leaf fans. All these spiky 
 with thorns. There was one cactus I quite 
 hated, it looked so silly — a column six, ten, and 
 more, feet high, with just one projecting limb — 
 a stupid finger-post pointing to nowhere. I saw, 
 on the second day, one of these that seemed to 
 move — ' the shimmering from the heat makes 
 that cactus seem to sway.' It did move and as 
 we neared lifted its hat. It was a man in dust- 
 colored flannels covered with gritty dust who
 
 ig8 
 
 FAR COUNTREE. 
 
 had ignorantly attempted to walk to Prescott. 
 He would have died from thirst and heat had 
 we not met. We took him up and gave him a 
 lift to Prescott where he found good employ- 
 ment, and was very useful to the teamsters on the 
 road. This was the only human being we met. 
 The only living thing except an occasional 
 " cotton tail " which kept Frank's Winchester 
 rifle in practice. Thor insisted on leaping down 
 to follow the first rabbit — he never tried it 
 again, for cactus thorns and flints of vitrified 
 rock attacked his high-bred feet used only to 
 carpets and well-kept roads. He is too old a 
 dog to learn new ways and we just love him for 
 what he is, not for what he might have been. 
 He is not happy, he often looks, ' Why are we 
 here ? let us go home.' 
 
 " The water stations were not pools and foun- 
 tains with palm-trees and green grasses around 
 — but usually a 'bush-arbor' covering a well- 
 mouth with a small shanty alongside — all out on 
 the bare plain ; very ugly, but vitally necessary.
 
 A " FAR COUNTREE. I99 
 
 " At one place we found the man of the station 
 either had not the water in his well, as he said, 
 or he had sold it — any way we could not camp 
 there. That was bad, but the mules must have 
 their water; so we pushed for a place he told us 
 of, off to the side of the traveled route, among 
 hills of rock where were some natural reservoirs, 
 ' the Horse Tanks.' Also some Indians, who 
 looked on this natural water supply as theirs 
 and resented its being interfered with. Our 
 eighteen mules and thirteen people would be a 
 big ' interference.' ' They won't like it,' said 
 the water-man, ' but there's enough of you to 
 have your way ' — a nice prospect for us ! 
 
 *' It was but four miles, but the roughest sort 
 of broken gullied foot-hill country once we left 
 the level skirting it. It seemed the poles must 
 break in the abrupt descent and steep climb of 
 the narrow gullies that seamed the way. 
 
 " The Tanks were in a narrow pocket among 
 steep hills, and as we neared them the mules 
 smelled the water and hurried most uncomfort-
 
 20© A " FAR COUNTREE." 
 
 ably — they cried out and could hardly be 
 guided and were unruly in being unharnessed. 
 
 " The three gentlemen to whom we had offered 
 place upon our transportation, the Cactus-man, 
 the General and Frank were all for the time 
 active aids to the teamsters. 
 
 " It would never do to let a mule get loose ; 
 the Indians hidden all about in the rocks would 
 make short work of it. We helped Chung get 
 the tea. There was no wood — it was funny to 
 see us grappling with the tough roots of bushes, 
 for daylight was going fast and we were not to 
 show a light after dark. Poor Thor was 
 wretched. His feet got filled with cactus thorns 
 — he tried to pull them out with his mouth and 
 got them in his tongue and through the night his 
 young mistress was patiently getting them out 
 from his mouth and soothing him with arnica. 
 
 "All night the men kept guard. The mules 
 were tightly fastened and watched and were 
 rampageous. We made off at earliest light 
 with only a cold mouthful all round, but an
 
 A " FAR COUNTREE." 20I 
 
 early and longer halt for a good luncheon 
 evened up our scant dinner and breakfast. 
 
 "Our last night out it was so bitterly cold in 
 the narrow defile where we camped that no one 
 slept well. Men were moving about and keep- 
 ing up the fires all through the night. It was 
 an uneasy camp. 
 
 " The mail stage coming along the next night 
 was waylaid in that defile, the horses cut out and 
 carried off, and several persons badly wounded 
 in the fighting. Two of the highwaymen were 
 caught and punished. They confessed having 
 been ready the night before to attack our party, 
 but we were too many, and too much on the 
 alert ; not only from the cold, but because it was 
 a place of evil fame (which I was not let to 
 know) and our excellent head teamster was 
 relieved in the morning when we got beyond 
 the long defile into the wide open country." 
 
 From that old letter let me tell something of 
 what we found in this mountain town ; the
 
 202 A " FAR COUNTREE. 
 
 " Far West " has its oases of pleasant people 
 even in its wildest wilds. We had come the last 
 morning through what is in local parlance " a 
 white man's country" — timber and creeks, 
 fenced-in lands, cattle farms and saw-mills, and 
 as we neared Prescott comfortable farms and 
 country homes ; to be met near the town by a 
 most pleasant welcome — quite a procession in 
 carriages and on horseback. As it was Sunday 
 the people along the unpaved mountain street 
 just waved hats and handkerchiefs, but we felt 
 welcomed. And when we stopped at a small 
 cottage a real surprise waited us. Its kindest 
 of owners had moved into a neighboring house 
 and theirs was to be ours until we found 
 what suited us. (The " hotel " was impossible.) 
 Imagine the contrast to our camping — the ut- 
 most elegance and comfort and such beauties 
 as a grand piano, a harp, pale blue satin hang- 
 ings and furniture, books in number, engrav- 
 ings, sketches in water-colors, every appointment 
 of a lovely home. A big key was laughingly
 
 A " FAR COUNTREE. 203 
 
 given me with "Lock us out until you have a 
 house of your own." Meantime a charmingly 
 delicate dinner was ready. Our Chinese had 
 joined theirs, and in short for nearly a week we 
 actually had to accept all this hospitality. We 
 all dined together and some nice persons were 
 daily added until we got the run of people. 
 
 "There is a wonderfully good small society 
 here — people who would be agreeable to know 
 anywhere. The head-quarters of this depart- 
 ment are here which adds the officers and their 
 families. Some are unusually agreeable. These, 
 with some of the citizens and leading lawyers, 
 have made up a really remarkable Dramatic 
 Club. They have built a pretty theater that 
 seats about four hundred people. The Post 
 band is orchestra. There are some well-trained 
 voices, and with a grand piano, a harp, and a 
 violinist of real skill, occasional concerts are 
 given. The stock company numbers several 
 really beautiful and charming women — ofificer.s'
 
 204 A ' FAR COUNTREE. 
 
 wives and ladies living in town — acting far 
 above the average professional. Among the 
 men is one Colonel of the army who comes 
 close to Wallack in light drama, and one 
 lawyer of rare voice and ability — while others 
 " go in " willingly and well too for all they can 
 contribute. And the audiences take the points 
 well and encouragingly — admission a dollar, 
 which goes to the theater fund, or sometimes to 
 a charity, a widow or a sick person, or the Sis- 
 ters' Hospital, that picket-guard of humane care. 
 
 " Imagine this up here where the real savage 
 Indian still lives, moves and takes the being out 
 of white people. Six years ago they scalped peo- 
 ple on this spot. The outposts of our skimp 
 little army had long and hard work to bring 
 about the present safety to settlements and 
 miners — it was real tragedy then. 
 
 " Now a fine brick schoolhouse with a roll of 
 two hundred scholars stands secure, where the 
 Indians held rule. . , . This school and its 
 scholars interest me. I go every Friday and
 
 A "far countree." 205 
 
 give the upper class a ' history-lalk,' not such 
 as we used to have in the beautiful home 
 library, for their minds are not full as yours 
 was. But on the skeleton of their outline 
 historical study I try to put flesh and garments 
 and infuse life and motive into certain figures. 
 
 " You know the kind of young men in our Far 
 West who really toil to reach knowledge and 
 training ; there are some of these, up to twenty 
 and older, who have only their elementary knowl- 
 edge of experience in this untouched country. To 
 them history and biography are fairyland. You 
 can imagine how grateful it is to me to be wel- 
 comed into the class-room by their clear eager 
 eyes, to be asked such intelligent questions and 
 to know I have added to their thoughts and 
 ideas in a wholesome way, and that they are 
 spurred to new effort by my interest in them. 
 
 " Strangely different, and without new force as 
 this life is for me, I can impart grace and 
 warmth to these aspiring young American 
 minds, and that makes me like my Fridays.
 
 2o6 A " FAR COUNTREE." 
 
 'You're a blessed lunatic,' one pleasant woman 
 said to me ; but I know it is a lunacy twice 
 blessed, for it keeps down the unavailing home- 
 sickness to see how other young lives are the 
 happier for even this little of the dear home 
 teachings."
 
 ^ 
 
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 Los Angeles 
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