to the bottom. The seats of these chairs were often lined and stuffed in
good shape and had the comfortable feel and rock of the more costly
chairs of civilization--and what more need a miner ask? Along the side
of the room opposite the door ran a double tier of rude bunks, one side
of the beds being supported by posts driven into the ground and the
other by the logs of the wall. On the wall near the fireplace hung the
frying-pans and the other rude cooking utensils; and in a corner were
piled the bags, barrels, kegs, and boxes containing their camp supplies.

When you are told that this, at that time in Hangtown, was considered a
rather luxurious style of living, you may be able to form something of
an idea of the kind of style in which the average miner lived.

"Well, they don't put on much style, do they?" and the eyes Thure turned
to Bud twinkled with excitement and interest.

"Don't they! Just feast your eyes on this!" and Bud, dropping down into
the soft seat of one of the "easy" chairs, leaned back comfortably and
began rocking. "Now, if this isn't style and comfort, then I don't know
what style and comfort are. Better try it," and he winked toward the
other "easy" chair.

Thure at once profited by the suggestion.

"Well, I swun to goodness!" he declared, as he rocked back and forth in
the novel chair, "if this doesn't beat mother's easy rocker for comfort.
I reckon dad will have to make her one, when we get back home," and he
grinned.

"Say," and Ham strode into the house, a bag of flour on one shoulder, a
box of canned stuff under one arm, and a grin all over his face, "if you
yunks think you've come up here tew dew nuthin' but tew set an' rock in
y'ur dads' easy chairs, you've got another think comin' an' comin'
quick. Now, git them packs off th' backs of y'ur hosses an' intew th'
house. This ain't no Home of Cumfort for lazy yunks. Out with you!" and,
dropping the bag of flour and the box in the corner, he started for the
two boys.

Thure and Bud "outed" as fast as their four legs could take them; and
soon were busy getting the packs off their horses and the goods into the
house. When this had been done and the horses had been cared for, the
sun was nearing the tops of the western mountains; and it was decided
not to hunt up the "delinquents," as Ham called them, but to await their
return at the house; and, in the meantime, to prepare such a supper for
them as seldom blessed a miner's eyes and excited