of uncondoned offences, and of not altogether very honorably conducted quarrels; and had, in one or two cases, the reputation of having been already very nearly justly hanged.

All these classes were there represented, and helped fill out the natural complement of an organized town. So that already a few long-headed men, looking reflectively upon the rapid rising of the place, began to wonder whether Gila Cañon might not become a permanent center of population, even after the gold should be exhausted; and whether, therefore, it might not pay to lay out a few land claims in the neighborhood. There were some, indeed, who came very near doing so, but were restrained by their review of other places, which at one time had apparently been as prosperous; leading to a suspicion that even here, if the gold was to fail, the whole population might some day all drift off to other quarters, and leave the location once more to the occupancy of the hares and coyotes and occasional straggling bands of Digger Indians.

II

At the one corner of the Gila Cañon, the level bottom pushed its way close beneath the steep mountain cliff, forming a little cove or estuary, snugly sheltered from the heat of the sun, and from any unpleasing. exposure to the wind. The nearest pine trees had been spared, as yet, whether from accident or fancy could hardly be determined; and formed a kindly and attractive oasis amid the scene of wanton destruction which was elsewhere displayed. A branch of the main stream ran along at the foot of the rocks, and, as a slight exploration had proved that its sands contained no gold, it had been suffered to retain its channel

undisturbed, and still gurgled merrily onward to its destination. Owing to these united advantages of shade and water, the ground did not present the bare and dry

aspect that elsewhere prevailed, but here and there exhibited something that might be called turf, and in certain choice spots was even green. Of course, in the unusual demand for abiding places, such a choice nook as this could hardly expect to remain unappropriated, and consequently a dozen or two tents were scattered over it; not built in line as on a street, but stationed wherever the shade and grass offered the best advantages, and together, by accidental arrangement, forming a very pleasant and picturesque grouping.

In front of one of these tents, at early dawn, Mark Redfern sat watching the preparation of his frugal breakfast. He was tall and muscularly built-had been of too heavy frame in past days, perhaps; but the life of the mountains and of the open air had brought down his weight, so that now, to all appearance, there was not an atom of superfluous flesh upon him, and every nerve and fibre was properly braced and hardened for the work imposed upon it. He had been round-shouldered and stooping, probably; but now the bones of arms and shoulders had regained all their native and first intended action, moving freely and with well-sustained power, until his chest stood out with a rounded arch, seemingly capable of receiving unharmed the blow of a battering ram. He had been haggard and careworn, most likely, in the old time of Eastern service; but now, though there was still an expression of thoughtful concern upon his face, it spoke of the free, independent action of an intelligent will, waiting to be guided by its own volitions, and not by the arbitrary direction of others. His forehead was high and broad, his eyes calm and self-assured, and his mouth seemed firm and determined-though, covered as it was by the long, brown beard, which had not been more than lightly trimmed for months, very little of its real expression could be read. He wore a small, thin cap placed sideways upon his head, pantaloons of mixed gray,

and red shirt faced with black bands. This simple costume, so unlike the ordinary constrained dress of a working man in the city, gave something of a picturesque air to his whole appearance, and even as he sat and watched the blaze of his camp-fire, added to the impression of physical completeness: an impression that was vastly increased as, after a moment, he arose, and exhibited his whole person erect-tall, shapely, powerful, and well-built; large of hands and feet, and consequently not moulded after any weak or girlish idea, but, still, attractive with its suggestion and assurance of manly force and resolution.

Having arisen from his resting posture, Mark Redfern stood for a moment gazing over the plain; then stooping, adjusted more carefully the little pot of coffee that simmered upon the embers; then again straightening himself, advanced to greet a new comer who leisurely sauntered forward from a neighboring tent. A man of smaller and less powerful build, more delicate in feature --an older man, whom no one would have called handsome, regarding him merely in his physical development, but who bore upon his face the impress of superior education and intelligence; exhibiting upon his whole. person, indeed, the marks of a higher social position.

This man, at first strolling forth as though uncertain in which direction to bend his steps, quickened his pace slightly as he saw that he was observed, and reaching forth, cordially shook the hand of the other.

"A fine day again, Mark--a glorious day, indeed, is it not ?"

"It's always a fine day here till winter, they say," was the answer, "and then we have all our bad days together. But sit down, Judge, do, and take a cup of coffee with me."

"For a moment only," replied the other. "You see I have my own coffee bubbling at the fire, and now that I am cook, I must watch that the sticks do not give way and

upset the whole affair. For a moment, only, therefore. Well, Mark, and the mine--does it begin to pay at last?"

"Too early to tell that, as yet," Mark replied. "You see I have gone into the deep mining, preferring the chance of a splendid yield to the certainty of a small return from the shallow diggings. It will be a week's hard labor yet before I touch the bottom rock and know my luck."

"And the chances ?"

"Bad, I think. Yesterday the man on my right finished his hole, and found nothing. The day before that, the man on the left finished his, and likewise found nothing. So it is not very likely that a fortune is stored away in the fifteen feet between ; is it ?"

"In faith, no. I think, indeed that if I were you, I would give up the place and try some other."

"No; I mustn't do that, sir. For you see, my work is already half done, and it would be a pity to leave it. And after all, the chances are not so desperate. These pockets of gold sometimes stow themselves away in very queer places. Four days ago --your party had not yet come in, and so you may not have heard about it--a Mexican knocked away the thin partition wall between two abandoned holes and took out fourteen pounds. And suppose I were leave this place; where should I go, Judge Markham? Don't you know that every other place is already taken up and being worked? If our party had been a little more prudent--"

finish my digging, and if that does not succeed, I'll try somewhere again. Am expecting an old friend of mine, Abel Henshaw. Do you know him ?"

"He who kept the stables at Puntacooset?"

"The same; I wrote to him two weeks ago to come up. He should have been here now, I think. Very likely he never got my letter; I had to trust it to a chance hand. Or perhaps he has heard that the mine is playing out, and doesn't think it worth. while to come at all. If he appears, we shall probably go off by ourselves, prospecting again."

"And I don't doubt that if you find anything new, you will let no third party give away the secret, this time. Your luck must

come to you after awhile, I suppose."

“Ah, but when ?" said the man sadly.

"Haven't I toiled every day until even my enemies would have to confess that I deserved a turn of fortune? For more than six months I have been going about from mine to mine living as carefully as possible, spending not a grain of gold I couid help; and now, how few grains have I to show? It seems always the way in this world. If I were a rough, quarrelsome, dissipated fellow, who would drink up or gamble away all I

made, no doubt before the day was over I should strike a pocket and take out a few pounds or so. That was what the Mexican I spoke of did, with his pile. In three days it was all gone. So in other things. Look at that fellow who deserted from the army, and is never sober a moment. Last week he fell thirty feet off one of the pines, and it never even seemed to bruise him; while yesterday a poor young fellow slipped into a six-foot hole, struck his head against a stone, was taken up insensible, and never spoke again. He had a mother and sister at home to support; while the runaway soldier would have relieved all his relatives, if he has any, by being killed. So for myself. Because I have a great purpose in life--"

"What purpose may that be, Mark ?" "Well, nothing very great, indeed. I do not propose to convert the world to a new religion, or to build a college, or to cut through the Isthmus. It is only to make myself and another person comfortable in the way every one has a right sometime in his life to do--that is all. It may not interest you, Judge; but I'll tell it. Seeing that we have come from the same town, it may not be altogether a matter of indifference to you; for whatever may be people's different positions at home, when they are thrown together in a strange land, they feel drawn somewhat together, I suppose. you ever see little Ruth Preston-who lives down the lane past the post-office ?" "Old Preston's, the post-master's, daughter? I remember her well. A bright, pleasant-faced girl, indeed. I used to love to see her watching for the mail, with those long curls hanging over her face. That was some years ago, however. Old Preston is dead, since. And Ruth--what has become of her?"

Did

"She is there yet--though being older, she has put up the curls: and perhaps, with anxiety and waiting, some of the sunshine has gone out of her face. She was to have been my wife-still will be, I hope. It was five years ago that we arranged that matter between us; though, as neither of us had anything, we knew that we must wait, but we did not think how long it would be, however, for I was getting on well, and the world seemed rather bright before us. I was in the cloth factory, at the time, doing finely; and the next year expected to be overseer. Then I hurt my arm, catching it one morning in the gearing; and when I got well, not only was my money gone, but the mill itself had stopped work. Then I turned lumberman. It was hard at first; for I had to live through the winter far up the river, and could not see Ruth from one month to the other. But the lumber market was brisk, and I was to have a share in the proceeds;

and so I worked with a will, never doubting of success at last. It should have come, it seems; must have come to almost any man but myself. Then came a freshet, broke our booms, and carried down the stream all our winter's labor."

"But it was marked, Redfern, was it not? Surely you should have recovered it ?" "Some of it we lost; and what we recovered cost us more than it was worth. At least, so my partner in the business made out, when he brought in the bills for the labor. So much for men employed, and so much for boats; here an item for advertising, and there an item for damages to land. In that way the whole thing was swamped, and I abandoned all claim. I was too poor to investigate the matter as it should be, or to fight it if the investigation required a fight; and after all, I could not tell but what my partner had been honest. It was only my suspicions at finding everything gone. Well, as I have said, I gave up the thing, and tired of all that useless work, came to California, making my way by the Isthmus route. I knew that I might have ill-luck here too-that it was pretty much all a lottery that many men worked harder than at home, and at last came back poorer. But what will you have? There are moods of men's minds in which even the promised luck of a lottery is tempting. And besides, here labor and perseverance ought to tell at last."

"And they will, undoubtedly, Redfern." "Yes sir, but when ?" responded the other, despondingly. "When we are both too old to enjoy our fortune ? Now and then, though now it is a long time since, I get a letter from Ruth, telling me that she is still true; and it comforts me for a while. But then again I remember that I have no words of comfort to write back to her, and so feel discouraged again. See--I am getting gray already---being thirty-five; and yet the money belt does not fill."

"And what is thirty-five, my friend?

Turning away after putting aside his basket and carefully separating the brands of his fire, so that it might go out unspent and leave a few charred remnants for the evening's consumption, Mark Redfern then flung his pick over his shoulder, and set off on a brisk walk to his own special place of labor.

For a moment the Judge stood motionless and watched him passing over the slope of a slight elevation, to where, beyond, lay what might be called the bay of the valley; then turned off toward his own fire. Sauntered off very leisurely, indeed; for Judge Markham now had no urgent work to accomplish. He had not been drawn thither for the sake of mining, and therefore had taken up no claim. He had arrived only upon the previous afternoon, with a small party from one of the overland trains; which, having encountered at some distance off brilliant reports concerning the richness of Gila Cañon, had deviated from its intended course, and turned in thither. The greater portion of this little party had almost at once passed on, not finding the realities of the situation in proper correspondence with

their sanguine imaginings. A few had temporarily encamped to try their luck. Others had gone on to other mines, where friends were known to be awaiting them, or still further yet, to San Francisco. The Judge himself would have passed on at once to the city, but for an accident that would probably detain him for a few days longer. Perhaps he was not sorry for the detention, though the occasion of it was unpleasant; as it gave him an opportunity to gain a little. rest and relaxation after the fatiguing journey over the desert, as well as to learn something of the nature of the people and of the country in the midst of which his future lot was to be cast.

Now, sitting down at ease before his fire, he threw on a small log, poked the pile into a brisker blaze, and more carefully adjusted the little tin coffee-pot, which during his conversation with Redfern, had begun to lean over to one side and threatened capsize. Lifting the cover, he looked in and gave a stir or two with the pewter spoon. The aroma of the boiling liquid came forth fragrant and tempting; and he put on the cover again, apparently well pleased with the result. Then he stirred up the sliced contents of an iron stew pan, sprinkled a little salt over them from a paper beside him, and opened wide a canvas bag of ship biscuit.

All this while, he did not omit every moment to cast an expectant glance upon his tent; a stained and travel worn affair, as befitted a tent that had endured the long journey across the plains. It was a fairly sized tent, divided inside down the center with a canvas partition, as could be seen by glancing in where one of the door flaps was thrown back, the other flap remaining as yet decorously closed. All at once, however, this flap began slightly to move, and a pleasant voice cried out,

"Morning, papa."

"Awake already, Grace?" he gaily responded, lifting the canvas and peeping in.

"Did I not tell you, dear, that we are now where there is no work of housekeeping to be attended to or servants to be watched, and that I have command of the breakfast bell so that you can sleep as long in the morning as you please?"

"No servants excepting yourself, you mean, papa," she laughingly rejoined. "You forget that I have yourself to watch. And how droll that you should be doing the cooking while I must be here and look on!"

"And a very good cook I am, I assure you, Grace and an enterprising provider, as well. See here! Fresh crackers that I bought late last night! And here! A whole potato, for only seventy-five cents! And smell the coffee, how pleasant it is! And see here again," he continued, whipping the stew pan off the fire, and poking it into the tent for her to look at. !iver !"

"Only think

dear?"

'Oh, papa !" "And how is the wrist now, "Better, papa. I think that in a few more days I shall be able to manage my horse again, so that we can go to San Francisco. We must go alone, now; must we not ?"

"I suppose so, Grace. Most of our party will either remain here, or have gone on already. But they tell me that it is a pleasant journey-what is left of it--and perfectly safe to be traveled alone. A well-broken road for sixty miles to Stockton; and after that, of course-- By the way, I should not wonder if Walt Quincy were to tarry and go on with us. I see him now, at a little distance, smoking his pipe, leaning against a tree, and seeming as though he did not mean to move for a week."

"But don't you think, papa, that Walt ought not to wait? It may be very pleasant for him, of course; and yet, for a young man to lose his time so needlessly, when time must be so valuable to him--"

"Spoken like a Solon, Grace," responded her father with a laugh. "And yet, I do