ho headed the procession was a complete comic
poem in his own individual self. He was a person of Falstaffian
proportions and coloring, and if a brandy-barrel ever _does_ "come
alive," and, donning a red shirt and buckskin trousers, betake itself
to pedestrianism, it will look more like my hero than anything else
that I can at present think of. With that affectionateness so peculiar
to people when they arrive at the sentimental stage of intoxication,
although it was with the greatest difficulty that he could sustain his
own corporosity, he was tenderly trying to direct the zigzag footsteps
of his companion, a little withered-up, weird-looking Chileno. Alas for
the wickedness of human nature! The latter, whose drunkenness had taken
a Byronic and misanthropical turn, rejected with the basest ingratitude
these delicate attentions. Do not think that my incarnated brandy-cask
was the only one of the party who did unto others as he would they
should do unto him, for the entire band were officiously tendering to
one another the same good-Samaritan-like assistance. I was not
astonished at the Virginia-fence-like style of their marching when I
heard a description of the feast of which they had partaken a few hours
before. A friend of mine, who stepped into the tent where they were
dining, said that the board--really, _board_--was arranged with a
bottle of claret at each plate, and, after the cloth (metaphorically
speaking, I mean, for table-linen is a mere myth in the mines) was
removed, a twenty-gallon keg of brandy was placed in the center, with
quart dippers gracefully encircling it, that each one might help
himself as he pleased. Can you wonder, after that, that every man vied
with his neighbor in illustrating Hogarth's line of beauty? It was
impossible to tell which nation was the more gloriously drunk; but this
I _will_ say, even at the risk of being thought partial to my own
beloved countrymen, That, though the Chilenos reeled with a better
grace, the Americans did it more _naturally_!

LETTER _the_ FIFTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _June_, 1854]

DEATH _of a_ MOTHER--LIFE _of_ PIONEER WOMEN

SYNOPSIS

Death of one of the four pioneer women of Rich Bar. The funeral from
the log-cabin residence. Sickly ten-months-old baby moans piteously for
its mother. A handsome girl of sick years, unconscious of her
bereavement, shocks the author by her actions. A monte-table cover as a
funeral pall. Painful feelings when nails are d