men, whose names I am ashamed to write here, who began to
think that the passage in the Constitution which guarantees civil and
religious liberty to every citizen or foreigner was a mistake. But
there were, also, some men who were not so easily frightened; and in
twenty-four hours we had things so arranged, that the timid men could
wring their hands in safety, and the eminent statesmen utter their
doubts without hurting any body or any thing. And in the midst of this I
got a note from Hop Sing, asking me to come to him immediately.

I found his warehouse closed, and strongly guarded by the police against
any possible attack of the rioters. Hop Sing admitted me through a
barred grating with his usual imperturbable calm, but, as it seemed to
me, with more than his usual seriousness. Without a word, he took my
hand, and led me to the rear of the room, and thence down stairs into
the basement. It was dimly lighted; but there was something lying on the
floor covered by a shawl. As I approached he drew the shawl away with a
sudden gesture, and revealed Wan Lee, the Pagan, lying there dead.

Dead, my reverend friends, dead,--stoned to death in the streets of San
Francisco, in the year of grace 1869, by a mob of half-grown boys and
Christian school-children!

As I put my hand reverently upon his breast, I felt something crumbling
beneath his blouse. I looked inquiringly at Hop Sing. He put his hand
between the folds of silk, and drew out something with the first bitter
smile I had ever seen on the face of that Pagan gentleman.

It was Wan Lee's porcelain god, crushed by a stone from the hands of
those Christian iconoclasts!

HOW OLD MAN PLUNKETT WENT HOME

I think we all loved him. Even after he mismanaged the affairs of the
Amity Ditch Company, we commiserated him, although most of us were
stockholders, and lost heavily. I remember that the blacksmith went so
far as to say that "them chaps as put that responsibility on the old man
oughter be lynched." But the blacksmith was not a stockholder; and the
expression was looked upon as the excusable extravagance of a large,
sympathizing nature, that, when combined with a powerful frame, was
unworthy of notice. At least, that was the way they put it. Yet I
think there was a general feeling of regret that this misfortune would
interfere with the old man's long-cherished plan of "going home."

Indeed, for the last ten years he had been "going home." He was going
home aft