The San Francisco call., 1896-09-13

The beginning was conventional enough.
There was the usual visit to the ticket OF
fee, under the Grand Hotel, and the usual
exchange of chinking coin for two bits OF
rustling paper. No journey could have
begun under more prosaic circumstances.
1t tapered off into the unusual and uncon-
ventional.
There was a school to be taught 10 begin
with and girl to teach it to end with.
The school and the girl were 500 miles
apart, as the crow flies, and 5000 as clvili-
zation measures. The girl was IN San
Francisco, the school in the wllds OF Sis
kiyou, behind mountain after mountain
piled deep with April SHOWS.
There was no apprehension; the girl
knew where the school was and the school
knew where the girl was, and each had
faith that The school and the girl would
come together at The appointed hour.
The girl had climbed mountains on foot
and on the humble mule. Perhaps some
of the spirit of the mule had communi-
Gated itself to her, for she gave no thought
to the difficulties and possible dangers in
store, saying only to herself, 81 must, 1
will, can"
Perhaps the snow would be melted early
in the spring so a horse could travel the
trail; perhaps it would not have melted at
all and its crust would hold a surefooted
horse, and perhaps, on the other hand, it
would be Just between these eXtremes-in
a state of yielding. Now, yielding snow
bed, twenty feet deep and fifteen miles
wide, is anything but pleasant to cross,
especially for girl five feet two in height.
By the time she found solid footing there
would be ittle-I should say very little-of
her in sight. Still, there were the ether
''perhapses." The girl swept the last one
aside and enjoyed her vacation, viewed the
Midway and the Streets OF Cairo-for it was
in the days of the Midwinter-and said,
"Get thee behind me" to all msglvings.
The day of departure came, as such days
have disagreeable habit of coming, ex-
actly on time, wearing a smile as though
they thought themselves welcome. The
aforesaid exchange was made at the ticket
Office and the good-byes said-that is,
those which refuse to be put off with the
threadbare Perhaps 1 shall see you again
before CO." The Oregon express pulled
out with no more than its usual noise, the
porter made beds as composedly as though
no one of Importance was on board, and
the girl slept the sleep of the unworried.
All night the train puffed and scolded
its rapid way through the Sacramento
Valley, smiling in the moonlight; past its
orchards in bloom and Its fields dressed in
deepest green. All the morning it climbed
up and few down amid the wonderful
nature-pictures of the mountains, past
mossy falls, below castled crags, and ever
beside the snow-clad sentinel of Siskiyou.
The clackety-clack of the wheels played
a most aggraVatlng tune. "How-are-you-
going g-across-the-snow? it beat out in it's
measured accents, and What -will-you-
do-if-you-can't- t-get-there? until the girl
felt that demon was travelling by her
side. At GazeIle the demon gave fare
well shrek of scorn and prophesied disas-
ter as it vanished, leaving the girl behind.
She knew what to do next. There was the
stage with driver, and there in front lay
range number one with a resting-place on
the other side. The journey was tapering.
A ride on the front seat of a four horse
stage is not the worst way of getting some
where. The road wound round and round
on the hillside, slanting up one way, then
turning on itself, yet getting nearer and
nearer the summit-like a human life
The summit reached at last, the roads
showed brown against the green of the
second growth, like a brown serpent
spread to rest in the sunsets glow. Then
down the other side in the twilight,
through the narrow valley in the dark,
and up to the cleaning lights of little
town.
The girl was tired. She was not cross,
of course; teachers never allow them
selves to become cross; still it would hard
ly have been good time to argue with
her. The driver had told her of the back
ward spring which had kept the snow
from melting, and the last few days ofsun