hich
we heard flattering accounts. It was a very pretty stream, winding
through the prairie with the gentle murmur so loved by the angler and
poet, and lacked nothing but fish to make it perfect. It was rendered
somewhat turbid by the late rains, so that if the trout were there
they could not see our flies. We are told that trout are plenty on the
other side of the mountains. "Go to the Arkansas," they say, "and you
will find big ones."

Man never is, but always to be, blest.

We found Mrs. Lechner a friendly person, like her sisters. She told us
that before her marriage her father kept this tavern. In 1864, most of
the men being away in the Union army, they found the house one morning
surrounded by a band of mounted rebels, who had come up from
Texas through New Mexico to make a raid on the mines. They were a
savage-looking band, about fifty in number, and were led by a man who
had formerly worked for her father, and whom she recognized. They took
what money and gold-dust was in the house, and seized all the
best horses about the place; but when she saw them taking away her
saddle-pony, she cried out, "Oh, Tom Smith! I didn't think you was
that mean, to rob me of my pony! Wasn't you always well treated here?"
He seemed to relent at this appeal, and not only restored her horse,
but two of her father's also. The people collected and pursued the
robbers, most of whom were captured or killed, but the leader escaped.
Mrs. Lechner said she was glad he got away. "Tom must have had some
good in him or he wouldn't have given me back my pony."

_Aug_. 24. Rose this morning at daybreak, and enjoyed the sight of
a sunrise among these snowy peaks. Nothing can surpass the delicate
tints of rose-color, silver gray, gold and purple which suffuse these
summits in early morning. I called Sepia to sketch them, but what
human colors can reproduce such glories? We left at seven, and drove
to Bailey's, thirty-five miles, before sunset, stopping an hour at
noon. On the top of a mountain, about 4 P.M., we were caught in a
furious squall, attended with rain, snow and hail, with terrific
thunder and lightning, which struck a tree close by. And here I must
pay my tribute to the admirable qualities of our horses--steady,
prompt and courageous; no mountain too steep for them to climb, no
precipice too abrupt to descend; and they stood the pelting of that
pitiless storm like four-legged philosophers. We found Bailey's house
apparently full, b