ay they envy me. But it
is not money they want, it is courage. It will interest some of them to
know what it can be done for. I will put down what it usually costs. A
first-class ticket from London _via_ New York, San Francisco, Sydney,
Melbourne, Colombo, the Suez, Naples, Gibraltar and Plymouth will run to
L125, without including the cost of sleeping-car accommodation and food
in the American trans-continental journey. If he stays anywhere it is a
mighty knowing and economical traveller who gets off under L200 or L250
by the time he turns up in London.

Now as to what it cost me when I meant doing it moderately. It cost L8
to New York. Owing to business in New York I stayed there a fortnight,
and it cost me $4 a day, say L11. The journey to San Francisco ran to
L12 including provisions. The Pacific voyage was L22 in all. The fare
from Sydney to Melbourne for ocean passengers is L2. 1s. 6d. To Naples I
paid L32. Another L12 brought me to London. This runs up to L99.

If I had not been in a hurry I could have done the homeward part for
less. If I had been twenty-five I would have gone steerage. But with
time to spare for looking up a tramp I might have easily got to London
as the only passenger for L20. If I had not stayed in New York and had
had the time I could have cut expenses to L70.

But any young man, writer or not, who wants to see a bit of the world,
can do it on that if he has the grit to rough it. He can cut the
Atlantic journey to L3, and learn some things he never knew while doing
it. I can put anyone up to crossing America for L15 at any time. But if
he spends L20 he can see Niagara, the work of God, and Chicago, the
_chef d'oeuvre_ of the Devil. The Pacific can be done for L20
steerage; and he can stay in Australia a month for L10, and a year for
L20 if he knows what I know. The steerage fare home is L16. I fancy it
would be the best investment that any young fellow could make. He would
learn more of what life is than the world of London would teach him in
the ordinary grooves in ten years.

BLUE JAYS AND ALMONDS

On Los Guilucos Ranch, Sonoma County, California, where I worked for six
months in 1886, there was a very large orchard. I know how large it was
on account of having to do much too much work with the apricots, plums
and cherries; and day by day, as one fruit or the other ripened, I
cursed the capable climate of the Pacific slope, which produced so
largely. Fortunately, however, the