d a half acres. Where now
stand substantial business blocks, a quarter of a century since there
appeared only sandy beaches or mud-flats, with here and there a
wooden pier reaching out into the bay. Only five years before the
town contained but seventy-nine buildings--thirty-one frame,
twenty-six adobe, and the rest shanties. It had grown largely since
then, but even now was only a straggling village, with the air of
recent settlement.

"You expected something more, Joe, didn't you?"

"Yes," admitted Joe.

"You must remember how new it is. Ten years, nay, five, will work a
great change in this straggling village. We shall probably live to
see it a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants."

The passengers were eager to land. They were tired of the long
voyage and anxious to get on shore. They wanted to begin making
their fortunes.

"What are your plans, Joe?" asked Charles Folsom.

"I shall accept the first job that offers," said Joe. "I can't
afford to remain idle long with my small capital."

"Joe," said the young man seriously, "let me increase your capital
for you. You can pay me back, you know, when it is convenient.
Here, take this gold piece."

Our young hero shook his head.

"Thank you, Mr. Folsom," he said, "you are very kind, but I think it
will be better for me to shift on what I have. Then I shall have to
go to work at once, and shall get started in my new career."

"Suppose you can't find work?" suggested Folsom.

"I will find it," said Joe resolutely.

"Perhaps we might take lodgings together, Joe."

"I can't afford it," said Joe. "You're a gentleman of property, and
I'm a poor boy who has his fortune to make. For the present I must
expect to rough it."

"Well, Joe, perhaps you are right. At any rate, I admire your pluck
and independent spirit."

There was a motley crowd collected on the pier and on the beach when
Joe and his friend landed. Rough, bearded men, in Mexican sombreros
and coarse attire--many in shirt-sleeves and with their pantaloons
tucked in their boots--watched the new arrivals with interest.

"You needn't feel ashamed of your clothes, Joe," said Folsom, with a
smile. "You are better dressed than the majority of those we see."

Joe looked puzzled.

"They don't look as if they had made their fortunes," he said.

"Don't judge by appearances. In a new country people are careless of
appearances. Some of these rough fellows, no doubt, have their
pockets f