The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-01-22
Fording a Stream.

ideas That day. IralH q FRANCIS, Wlat q
flood Of rushing memories the names bring
up of old friends and loved hauDts. Was
there ever grander stream than that broad
Niagara, on which you have sailed and
pulled and skated; where you have waded
and tiShed and narrowly escaped drowning?
Do you remember
But this will never do. You are growing
homesick. You long to annhilate the thou-
sands Of miles that separate you from the
good old Estate o. YORK State" and be at
home again. You cast aside the year book
with hamesick sigh, and pick up The
MORNING CALL
Shades of zero. but the telegraphic news
is cold reading You learn of billiards
and nor'westers; of snowbound travellers
and snowed-in homes. You remember JUST
hOS 1.-THE beautiful" snow looks at this
season; how it creaks under arctic-elad
feet; how the wind sings and tingles and
fairly seOrches cheeks and ears with lis
fierce breath, and then you cast glance
out through the window at the great BANK
of eallas, holding up their snowy cups for
futl draught Of January sunshine; at the
acacia tree dding its green branches. and
gently claDping its fr0nd-lihe foliage in
leaiy applause at the antics OF half-a-doZen
sparrows flying back and forth in the spray
from revolving lawn-sprinkler. to catch a
bath; at the fire OF filming geranium,
climbing over neighb boring fence. and the
nodding buds on a tall rose tree near the
Walk. on get no SllInpae Ol tue Olut shy,
but you know Ii is up above the trees and
the green earth and the tail house next
door, that cuts it from the range Of your
vision, and you suddenly feel the stirring
within YOU OF desire to go forth into this
mdwinter loveliness, and ride away through
it all in search Of pleasant adventure.
AS easy TO do as TO think. Out Ia her
stall you know Madame is wondering why
so many weeks have passed since last you
and she left city pave and streets behind
you and struck out across country ON one
of the long trips that she loves no less than
yourself.
You throw aside your paper, and half an
hour later you trot out through the stable
door all equipped for sightseeing and ad-
venture.
All. but this Is pleasant You wonder
why you were sitting toastiDg your toes by
an open fire when you could have warmed
them SO much more effectually as you are
doing now, rising and falling in your saddle
to the rhythmic sound of Madame's steadily
trottiDg feet.
Where are you g0ingp
You know road that leads over the foot
hills and along the bay shore. The sun lies
warm on the caressng green slopes, this
balmy January day. The short green
grain ripples and bends in the breeze, and
already the tightly folded buds of the
eschsch0ltZ are beginning to CLEAN like
tiny fiery spearheads amid the green. Back
bl tue IOtiiuR Hhtus, I3Dh d1LST RANK Oh
eucalyptus trees lift their lovely heads
against the sky, and whispe down to the
grain and flowers Of the beautiful things
they see in the broad world.
You know 70 a line the picture they look
out upon from the height you have In mind,
how the Golden Gate opens out into the
distant ocean with suggestive mysterious
promise Of unseen wonders beyond. pow
the white waves curl about the black rocks
IN the channel, and AlcatraZ and Angel
island glow and smile and cast their shadows
IN the dimpling water at their feet. The
great city always looks mysteTlously bsauti-
tul from this dstance-ber gray streets
climbing from the water front up TO heaven,
with roof and spre and window pane catch
ing the sunllghts glitter and throwing it
back on yards and masts and sails II the
shipping in the bay. You can almost hear
the urging Invitations sent down from this
height as you reach the road that leads 10
IT, and Madame turns half-hesitant glance
along 1t, awaiting some Indication Of your
will TO take the turn.
But another picture flashes through your
mind, and you ride on through fair Alameda,
prettiest and slee piest of towns about the
bay, and strike off across the low, fiat
marshes and out Into the open country.
The air Is soft and sweet. with just hint
lingering In lis caresSlng touch of the frost
that lay on the grass and trees in the early
morning. As far as you can see on one
y,
the bay, dotted with numbering, square
toed scow-schooners. coming up from 1.-THE
rural districts laden with hay or going
back with loads of timber to their landing
places at such of the old embarcaderoS as
are still In use up this way.
The road Is smooth and hard. Madame
has shifted her trot TO a long. low gallon
and tOsses her head in quiet content as
mile after mile falls behind her and she gets
farther and farther away from the town and
the bay. Ooly broad meadows are In sight
on either hand. Not such meadows as are
now spread beneath the Eastern skies
dazzling sheets OF snow, marked here and
there by the black, struggling course
of snake fence-but fields OF short,
lufty green pasturage, where troops
Of bonnie brood mares are feeding and
bringing up their long-legged, big-headed,
wonderlng-eyed, short.taIled foals in the
way they should go. Fancy equine babies,
not fortnight old, turned out 20 pasture in
January east Of the Sierrasl How still il
is out here. You have travelled d zen
miles without nesting any living creature,
save cow grazing by the roadside. Only
the occasional report OF distant gun and a
puff OF white smoke tells where some lone
hunter is afield. There are not even many
birds. A few blackbrds, fat fellows, so In
tensely black they fairly look white in the
bright sunlight, with brilliant scarlet epau-
lettcs on their mpudentlshoulders, perch on
the fence-rais and whistle their half dozen
sweet notes as you pass. There Is another
smaller bird among them, beautiful gray
fellow with dainty pink feathers in the tips
OF his wings, and up from a corner of
one field as you ride by fly q
bevy OF California canaries, dainty little
things. who look as though they had
somewhere found bath Of the bright Jam
nary sunshine and had taken plunge in IL.
You pass an orchard as clean as though 1t
had been swept and garDshed for some
celebration. Not a weed or a blade OF 2, ass
between the rows; not an unsymmetrcal
twig on the carefully trimmed trees; not so