very telling one.
Wine and spirits were also obtainable, but were seldom taken by the
Americans, who are abstemious abroad as well as at home.

After dinner the store soon cleared. Gambling was a great attraction;
but my brother, dreading its consequences with these hot-brained
armed men, allowed none to take place in his hotel. So some lounged
away to the faro and monte tables, which were doing a busy trade;
others loitered in the verandah, smoking, and looking at the native
women, who sang and danced fandangos before them. The whole of the
dirty, woe-begone place, which had looked so wretched by the light of
day, was brilliantly illuminated now. Night would bring no rest to
Cruces, while the crowds were there to be fed, cheated, or amused.
Daybreak would find the faro-tables, with their piles of silver and
little heaps of gold-dust, still surrounded by haggard gamblers;
daybreak would gleam sickly upon the tawdry finery of the poor
Spanish singers and dancers, whose weary night's work would enable
them to live upon the travellers' bounty for the next week or so.
These few hours of gaiety and excitement were to provide the Cruces
people with food and clothing for as many days; and while their
transitory sun shone, I will do them the justice to say they gathered
in their hay busily. In the exciting race for gold, we need not be
surprised at the strange groups which line the race-course. All that
I wondered at was, that I had not foreseen what I found, or that my
rage for change and novelty had closed my ears against the warning
voices of those who knew somewhat of the high-road to California; but
I was too tired to moralise long, and begged my brother to find me a
bed somewhere. He failed to do so completely, and in despair I took
the matter in my own hands; and stripping the green oilskin cloth
from the rough table--it would not be wanted again until to-morrow's
breakfast--pinned up some curtains round the table's legs, and turned
in with my little servant beneath it. It was some comfort to know
that my brother, his servants, and Mac brought their mattresses, and
slept upon it above us. It was a novel bed, and required some slight
stretch of the imagination to fancy it a four-poster; but I was too
tired to be particular, and slept soundly.

We were up right early on the following morning; and refreshed with my
night's sleep, I entered heartily into the preparations for breakfast.
That meal over, the homeward-bound p