execute that commission
thoroughly. He wanted to see the two united, and then he would be
content to return to the rough life of the mining-camp.

It is easy to understand why Ben should have received so many friendly
invitations. A boy was a rarity in California at that time--at any rate,
in the mining-districts. There were plenty of young men and men of
middle age, but among the adventurous immigrants were to be found few
boys of sixteen, the age of our hero. The sight of his fresh young face
and boyish figure recalled to many miners the sons whom they had left
behind them, and helped to make more vivid the picture of home which
their imaginations often conjured up, and they would have liked to have
Ben join their company. But, as I have said, Ben had his reasons for
declining all invitations at present, though he had every reason to
anticipate good treatment.

Toward the close of the second day the little party reached a small
mining-settlement containing probably about fifty miners.

It was known as Golden Gulch, and it even boasted a small hotel, with a
board sign, on which had been scrawled in charcoal--

GOLDEN GULCH HOTEL.

KEPT BY JIM BROWN.

"I believe we are getting into the domain of civilization," said Richard
Dewey. "Actually, here is a hotel. If Mr. Brown is not too exorbitant
in his prices, we had better put up here for the night."

"It doesn't look like an expensive hotel," said Ben, looking at the
rough shanty which the proprietor had dignified by the appellation of
"hotel."

It was roughly put together, had but one story, was unpainted, and was
altogether hardly equal, architecturally, to some of the huts which are
to be found among the rocks at the upper end of Manhattan Island.

Such was Jim Brown's "Golden Gulch Hotel." Such as it was, however, it
looked attractive to our pilgrims, who for so long had been compelled to
be their own cooks and servants.

They found, upon inquiry, that Jim Brown's terms for supper, lodging,
and breakfast were five dollars a day, or as nearly as that sum could be
reached in gold-dust. It was considerably higher than the prices then
asked at the best hotels in New York and Philadelphia; but high prices
prevailed in California, and no one scrupled to pay them.

The party decided to remain, and the landlord set to work to prepare
them a supper as good as the limited resources of the Golden Gulch Hotel
would allow. Still, the fare was better and more varied th