close curly hair, a rollicking,
good-natured face, and with tiny gold rings in his ears. Johnny and he
did most of the talking, while we listened. No part of the civilized
world seemed to have been unvisited by this pair. Johnny mentioned
Paris, our host added an intimate detail as to some little street;
London appeared to be known to them from one end to the other; Berlin,
Edinburgh, St. Petersburg even; and a host of other little fellows whose
names I never knew before and cannot remember now. They swapped
reminiscences of the streets; the restaurants, and the waiters and
proprietors thereof; the alleys and by-ways, the parks and little
places. I knew, in a general way, that Johnny had done the grand tour;
but the Italian with his gold earrings and his strong, brown,
good-humoured peasant face puzzled me completely. How came he to be so
travelled? so intimately travelled? He was no sailor; that I soon
determined.

The two of them became thoroughly interested; but after a time the
native courtesy of the Italian asserted itself. He evidently thought we
might feel left out of it; though I think the others were, like myself,
quite fascinated.

"You lika music?" he smiled at us engagingly. "I getta my Italian
fiddle? No?"

He arose at our eager assent, pushed aside a blanket that screened off
one end of the log cabin, and produced his "Italian fiddle"--a
hand-organ!

At once the solution of the wide wandering among the many cities, the
intimate knowledge of streets and of public places burst upon my
comprehension. I could see our host looking upward, his strong white
teeth flashing in an ingratiating fascinating smile, his right arm
revolving with the crank of his organ, his little brown monkey with the
red coat and the anxious face clambering----

Next morning we crossed the Overland Trail, and plunged into a new
country of pines, of high hills, of deep canons, and bold, rocky ridges.
The open spaces we had left behind, and the great heats. Water flowed in
almost every ravine, and along its courses grew green grass and wild
flowers. Every little while we would come upon openings in the forest,
clear meadows spangled with blossoms; or occasionally we would skirt
high bald knobs of rock around which was stiff brush. For some miles we
could journey at ease through clear woods, then would encounter a gash
in the earth into which, at some expense of trial, we would have to find
a way. At first every stream bed was dotte