an our
travellers had been accustomed to for a long time, and they enjoyed it.

Ki Sing sat down to the table with them. This was opposed at first by
Jim Brown, the landlord, who regarded Chinamen as scarcely above the
level of his mules.

"You don't mean to say you want that heathen to sit down at the table
with you?" he remonstrated.

"Yes, I do," said Richard Dewey.

"I'd sooner be kicked by a mule than let any yaller heathen sit next to
me," remarked Jim Brown, whose education and refinement made him
sensitive to such social contamination.

Richard Dewey smiled. "Of course you can choose for yourself," he said.
"Ki Sing is a friend of mine, though he is acting as my servant, and I
want him to have equal privileges."

Jim Brown remarked that of course Dewey could choose his own company,
though he intimated that he thought his taste might be improved.

"Me eatee aftelward," said Ki Sing when he perceived that his presence
at the table was the subject of controversy, but he was overruled by
Richard Dewey, who possessed a large share of independence, and would
not allow himself to be controlled or influenced by the prejudices of
others.

This may not seem a very important matter, but it aroused a certain
hostility on the part of the landlord, which arrayed him against Dewey
and his companions at a critical time.

Entirely unconscious of the storm that was soon to gather about them,
the little party did good justice to the supper which Mr. Brown set
before them.

"How would it seem, Jake, to have supper like this every night?"
remarked Ben.

"It would make me feel like a prince," answered Jake Bradley.

"It is no better than I used to get at Uncle Job's, and yet he was a
poor man. How he would stare if he knew I was paying five dollars a day
for no better fare than he gave me!" replied our hero.

"That's true, Ben; but maybe it's easier to get the five dollars here
than it would have been to scrape together fifty cents at home."

"You're right there, Jake. Fifty cents was a pretty big sum to me a year
ago. I don't believe Uncle Job himself averages over a dollar and a
quarter a day, and he has a family to support. If I only do well here,
I'll make him comfortable in his old age."

"I guess you'll have the chance, Ben. You're the boy to succeed. You're
smart, and you're willin' to work, and them's what leads to success out
here."

"Thank you, Jake. I will try to deserve your favorable opinion."

As