ch as
the Alhambra, Delmonico's, United States Hotel, and other signs were
being added hourly; from the wharf on Montgomery Street to the top of
the Clay Street hill beyond the post-office busy hammers beat a great
chorus, in the bay flew hundreds of flags, and in the streets
school-teachers, bankers, lawyers and farmers rubbed elbows with
Mexicans, Peruvians, Chinamen and Kanakas, while all talked in terms of
thousands of dollars. Why, here was New York, New Orleans and St.
Louis thrown together and boiled down.

Up at the post-office the post-master and his clerks evidently were
still sorting out the 25,000 letters, for the lines of waiters were
unbroken.

Mr. Grigsby was promptly on hand, at noon, in the hotel. He reported
that he had engaged passage on a sail-boat, the _Mary Ann_, for the
town of Sacramento, 120 miles north up the Sacramento River.

"That is," he added, "if you want to try the American River country,
where the first diggin's are. Sacramento is the old _embarcadero_
[which, as Charley found out, was the Spanish for boat-landing] for
Sutter's Fort, up the American. The fare is thirty dollars, and I paid
ten dollars apiece down, to hold our places till two o'clock."

"All right," approved Mr. Adams. "We'll go. Now let's eat. Hear the
dinner bells! It must be a hungry town."

And that would seem so, indeed. From every hotel and restaurant issued
a clamor of hand-bells and of gongs, each apparently vying with the
other to make noise. It sounded like a Fourth of July! People began
to rush into the Parker-house, and in a jiffy the long tables were
filled. The Adams party got seats just in time.

The price of the meal was two dollars, for beef (splendid beef, too),
bread, potatoes, and coffee or chocolate. There wasn't any milk or
butter. However, as Mr. Grigsby remarked, one could easily eat a
dollar's worth of potatoes at a helping! The food was very good and
well cooked. Charley heard somebody say that the cook was a famous
chef from New York, and drew a salary of $2000 a month. Even the
waiters (who were men in shirt-sleeves) were paid $300 a month, and
board.

"I believe I'll go up to the room and rest a bit," announced Mr. Adams,
after dinner. "The rest of you can do as you please."

"You aren't sick, are you, dad?" asked Charley, anxiously.

"Not a bit. I feel a hundred per cent. stronger than when we left
home. But I mustn't overdo. I'll take a nap and write a letter