The Republican journal., 1885-09-24

some forced words of cheer, but soon
went out with something like tear on
his cheek.
The Captain made frequent excursions
in his boat, but no sooner did he get well
under way than he put about and came
home.
Johns face daily grew more sad and
anxious.
One day Uncle Moses summoned Cap
tain Reuben and John to his ''cabin" as
he always called his snug little house.
for a consultation.
Tain't no use waitin' any longer
| John. You've got to go to Californy with
/ that wife CT yourn; and the sooner you
start the better for her. I've been look
in over some Of my papers, lately, and
calm up the past; and | find that | own
considerable property out there on the
Stanislaus. We didn't pay much atten-
ton to land or lumber in those days. but
| if | know anything about land, there's a
| pretty good stretch of fair soil along the
river, that belongs to me ; and a little
way up the river there are sugar pines
ten foot through and nigh on to three
| hundred foot tall and I've heard that
there's great call for lumber in Stockton
| and all along the San Joaquin.
"N0W, John, I've been thinking it
over, and my idea is that you'd better 90
out, take along these deeds, after Squire
Thurston has fixed 'em up, and see what
you can do with em. just get into the
claim, build sharty-the poorer, the
better for her till the rains come, and
then it needn't be much better-and
prospect what to do when spring comes,
There used to be mining ditch there
Gracious eff | only had the money put
into that-well, | won't say the word
only if you will dam that ditch for a saw
mill, you may get back some of the
money lost in it. They say they are
using the old bitches for saving lumber"
| Uncle Moses kind offers were eagerly
accepted by John; and in less than a
fortnight he and Margaret were west
ward bound.
She responded with all the interest she
could summon in her languid condition,
as he pointed out the Monument on
Bunker Hill, and Faneuil Hall, and the
gilded dome of the State House, and the
approach to the Hoosac Tunnel, and the
| green slopes of Greylock. They stopped
a day at Niagara for rest, and another at
| Chicago.
As they approached Cheyenne, the
color began to return to her cheek, her
voice became tirmer and she telt a new
vigor in her limbs as she paced the long
| platforms Of the stations, while the train
made its leisurely halt. The pure noun
tain air was doing its healing work.
On they sped over the Rockies-Pike's
Peak, a shaft of silver in the South and
the sombre Black Hills in the North
across the desolate plains, where the an
telopes bounded away from the track,
and the prairie-dogs dived into their
| dens or into the Green River, with its
castles, and towers, and pillars, that no
man built, but the water, and the wind,
and the sand; on through the terrible
Echo Canon, with its fearful memory OF
| Mormon massacre; on into Humboldt
Valley, with its ever r-lessening river,
hemlned on either side by far-of blue
mountains in ever-Narying outline, yet
always beautiful on through horrid
| plains of alkall and sage brush, and beds
OF dead seas; on and up through the
Sierras, snow clad on one side, and on
the other stretching down into green val
leys, solid with giant pines on and on,
till one morning John withdrew the cur
tain from the window of the car, and
bade Margaret look out
There lay CalitOrnia-a vast, immeas-
nrable plain-near, and yet remote, dis
closing nothing distinctly, except the
mighty stretch of the San Joaquin and
Sacramento Valleys, and the faint outline
of Monte Diabolo, and the Contra Costa
| range, a hundred miles in the " est.
!'See, Margaret Isn't it very beauti-
ful ?"
cob, John it looks like the plains Of
Heaven"
land it will be our Heaven, darling
for many a year"
On they sped, without the aid Of steam
past deep gulches, through villages EN-
powered in trees, along mountains tori
away by hydraulic engines, until at last
the Sierras were behind them, and uOor
found them at Stockton, where they left
the train.
John took 4 walk IN the afternoon
among the lumber dealers, and got his
| first look at redwood, with its rich color
and fine, close fibre, and at the coarse
grained, but knotless sugar pine, and the
tough Douglas spruce, and the ivOry-likt
manzanlta, and the laurel, fit for statu-
ary, and the White cedar and tamarack
Of endless length.
'lt beats Maine in its way, but where
do they get their stuff for hoe handles anG
running gear y
California has the finest forests in The
world, but it does not furnish the mater
ial for wagon, for rake to gather its
harvests. nor pick to mine its gold.
The next day found them at a little
village near the junction of the Stanisaus
with the San Joaquin, where John left
Margaret while he looked up his claim
already familiar with the locality through
Uncle Moses often repeated description
He returned on the third day, and on the
next they started for their new home.
The foothills, already parched ant
yellow, looked desolate to Margaret, anc
her heart sank little at the thought 0
remaining in this treeless, CRASHES
waste but the sweet, dry air. despite
the intense heat, fed her life with con
sclous vgor.
At noon they reached the summit o
one of the long, heavy foot-hi anc
there lay new world before them
narrow valley, yet too wide to be cale(
q canon, shut in by steep hills almos
green, dotted with live oaks and patches
of chapparal, and here and there flaming
with oleanders of marvellous growth, anC
azaleas taller than the heads of thei
horses.
There, Margaret, is our home.'
eyes, John, but where are the houses
and are there no neghbors ?"
"Houses enough, but no neighbors, ex
cept few Chinese. You can get up ;
Sunday school, and | can turn home mis-
sonary, if | don't find anything else tt
do"
Houses enough and to spare Oh, "
weary, hopeless house hunters in thi
crowded East, where rents bear a fright
ful ratio to income, go to Copperopols, t
Chinese Camp. Go anywhere along th'
Stanislaus or Tuolumne, and you vii
find houses enough, and no rent at all
Choose for yourselves! Enter and tax,
possession The door may be off thu
hinges, and the window gone; but door
and windows are needless there. The
gold has been gathered, and the people
who once lived in them have departed
John had already selected his-o witt
three rooms near the he'd of what ha(