we should speak together soon, and he would tell me why
California only held the record on stoves.

But oh, my friends, what a country we live in, and what an age, that the
same stars and stripes should simultaneously wave over this and over
Delmonico's! This too I kept thinking as I killed more hours in walking
the neighborhood of Solomonsville, an object of more false hope to
natives whom I did not then observe. I avoided Jenks, who had business
clients in the town. I went among the ditches and the fields thus turned
green by the channelled Gila; and though it was scarce a paradise
surpassing the Nile, it was grassy and full of sweet smells until after
a few miles each way, when the desert suddenly met the pleasant verdure
full in the face and corroded it to death like vitriol. The sermon came
back to me as I passed the little Mormon homes, and the bishop rose and
rose in my esteem, though not as one of the children of light. That
sagacious patriarch told his flock the things of week-day wisdom down to
their level, the cleanly things next to godliness, to keep them from the
million squalors that stain our Gentile poor; and if he did not sound
much like the Gospel, he and Deuteronomy were alike as two peas. With
him and Moses thus in my thoughts, I came back after sunset, and was
gratified to be late for supper. Jenks had left the dining-room, and I
ate in my own company, which had become lively and full of intelligent
impressions. These I sat recording later in my journal, when a
hesitating knock came at my bedroom, and two young men in cowboy costume
entered like shy children, endeavoring to step without creaking.

"Meakums!" my delighted mind exclaimed, inwardly; but the yellow one
introduced the black curly one as Mr. Follet, who, in turn, made his
friend Mr. Cunningham known to me, and at my cordial suggestion they sat
down with increasing awkwardness, first leaving their hats outside the
door.

"We seen you walking around," said one.

"Lookin' the country over," said the other.

"Fine weather for travelling," said the first.

"Dusty though," said the second.

Perceiving them to need my help in coming to their point, I said, "And
now about your silver mine."

"You've called the turn on us!" exclaimed yellow, and black curly
slapped his knee. Both of them sat looking at me, laughing
enthusiastically, and I gathered they had been having whiskey this
Sunday night. I confess that I offered them some more, and