tening to stories of adventures on
the plains, and some of the family histories are deeply interesting.

I was acquainted with four women, all sisters or sisters-in-law, who
had among them thirty-six children, the entire number of which had
arrived thus far in perfect health. They could, of themselves, form
quite a respectable village.

The immigration this year contained many intelligent and truly elegant
persons, who, having caught the fashionable epidemic, had left
luxurious homes in the States to come to California. Among others,
there was a young gentleman of nineteen, the son of a United States
Senator, who, having just graduated, felt adventurous, and determined
to cross the plains. Like the rest, he arrived in a somewhat
dilapidated condition, with elbows out, and a hat the very counterpart
of Sam Weller' s "gossamer ventilation," which, if you remember,
"though _not_ a very handsome 'un to look at, was an astonishin' good
'un to wear!" I must confess that he became ragged clothes the best of
any one I ever saw, and made me think of the picturesque beggar boys in
Murillo's paintings of Spanish life.

Then there was a person who used to sing in public with Ossian Dodge.
He had a voice of remarkable purity and sweetness, which he was kind
enough to permit us to hear now and then. I hardly know of what nation
he claimed to be. His father was an Englishman, his mother an Italian.
He was born in Poland, and had lived nearly all his life in the United
States. He was not the only musical genius that we had among us. There
was a little girl at one of the tents who had taught herself to play on
the accordion on the way out. She was really quite a prodigy, singing
very sweetly, and accompanying herself with much skill upon the
instrument.

There was another child, whom I used to go to look at as I would go to
examine a picture. She had, without exception, the most beautiful face
I ever saw. Even the alkali had not been able to mar the golden glory
of the curls which clustered around that splendid little head. She had
soft brown eyes, which shone from beneath their silken lashes like "a
tremulous evening star"; a mouth which made you think of a string of
pearls threaded on scarlet; and a complexion of the waxen purity of the
japonica, with the exception of a band of brownest freckles, which,
extending from the tip of each cheek straight across the prettiest
possible nose, added, I used to fancy, a new beauty to her enc