I--till the last six months, when I laid by enough to bring me out
here."

"Then you have really bettered yourself?"

"I should say so. I could only save up five hundred dollars a year
at the best in New York. Here I have crowded ten years into one."

"In spite of your large outlay for clothes?"

"I see you will have your joke. Now, what brings you out here? Are
you going to the mines?"

"Presently, but not to dig. I came to survey the country."

"Let me do what I can for you."

"I will. First, what hotel shall I go to?"

"There is the Leidesdorff House, on California Street. I'll lead you
there."

"Thank you. Will you come, Joe?"

"Yes, I will go to find out where it is."

The three bent their steps to the hotel referred to. It was a shanty
compared with the magnificent hotels which now open their portals to
strangers, but the charge was ten dollars a day and the fare was of
the plainest.