pected none. He considered
them of no value. If any one had told him that he was knocking at the
door of the house of fame, however feebly, he would have doubted that
person's judgment or sincerity.

His letters to Orion, in Carson City, were hasty compositions, reporting
progress and progress, or calling for remittances to keep the work going.
On April 13, he wrote:

"Work not begun on the Horatio and Derby--haven't seen it yet. It is
still in the snow. Shall begin on it within three or four weeks
--strike the ledge in July."

Again, later in the month:

"I have been at work all day, blasting and digging in one of our new
claims, 'Dashaway,' which I don't think a great deal of, but which I
am willing to try. We are down now ten or twelve feet."

It must have been disheartening work, picking away at the flinty ledges.
There is no further mention of the "Dashaway," but we hear of the
"Flyaway," the "Annipolitan," the "Live Yankee," and of many another,
each of which holds out a beacon of hope for a brief moment, then passes
from notice forever. Still, he was not discouraged. Once he wrote:

"I am a citizen here and I am satisfied, though 'Ratio and I are
'strapped' and we haven't three days' rations in the house. I shall
work the "Monitor" and the other claims with my own hands.

"The pick and shovel are the only claims I have confidence in now,"
he wrote, later; "my back is sore and my hands are blistered with
handling them to-day."

His letters began to take on a weary tone. Once in midsummer he wrote
that it was still snowing up there in the hills, and added, "It always
snows here I expect. If we strike it rich, I've lost my guess, that's
all." And the final heartsick line, "Don't you suppose they have pretty
much quit writing at home?"

In time he went to work in a quartz-mill at ten dollars a week, though it
was not entirely for the money, as in "Roughing It" he would have us
believe. Samuel Clemens learned thoroughly what he undertook, and he
proposed to master the science of mining. From Phillips and Higbie he
had learned what there was to know about prospecting. He went to the
mill to learn refining, so that, when his claims developed, he could
establish a mill and personally superintend the work. His stay was
brief. He contracted a severe cold and came near getting poisoned by the
chemicals. Recovering, he went with Higbie for an outing to Mono Lake, a
ghastly, life