on by degrees."

"Your eyes want opening a little wider, my lad. Suppose you took up one
of the beautiful patches of land you saw near the river."

"Yes, sir, quite close, where we could catch salmon same as the Indians
do, and dry them. I don't see if the Indians can live why we couldn't."

"For the simple reason that you are not Indians--savages, my lad. Do
you know that if you did as you propose, some night you would have to
climb for your life, and cling in the branches of a huge pine, while the
flooded river swept away your hut."

"Don't sweep away your huts," said Esau, sulkily.

"Because they are two hundred feet above the river. Well, what are you
going to do?"

"Start back again, sir, at once," I replied.

"And then?"

"Try to get work somewhere."

"And what am I to say to my sister and her husband when they come?"

"That we found out we had made a mistake, sir, and had set to work at
once to try and remedy it."

"You will sleep here to-night though, of course?"

I looked at Esau, and his eyes flashed back my opinion.

"No sir," I said. "We thank you for what you have done, but we shall
start back directly, and sleep where we made our camp in the middle of
the day."

"Don't be hasty, my lad," said our host. "It's wise sometimes to sleep
on a determination."

"It can't be here, sir," I said bitterly, "so goodbye, and thank you.
Come, Esau, we can get on for a couple of hours before it is quite
dark."

"All right," said Esau, sturdily; "and we can find our way back if we
didn't know it coming."

"Well, perhaps you are right," said Mr Raydon; "but of course you
understand that you are going back alone. Mr Gunson will be on his way
into the mountains, and I dare say that China boy will follow him."

"I suppose he will, sir," I said. "Better sleep on it, my lad."

"No, sir," I said, firmly. "I would rather not."

"Too proud to accept the hospitality of the man who has told you such
home-truths?"

"Yes, sir; but more so to stay where I feel that we are not welcome."

"But you are welcome, my lads, as visitors. Is not your friend and
leader very unreasonable, young man?" he continued, turning suddenly to
Esau; and I listened eagerly in dread, lest he should be won over to ask
for shelter for the night.

"Not a bit," said Esau, with a scowl. "He's all right, and knows what's
best, and always did. If it hadn't been for him I should have been
stupid enough to have gone for a sol