; crimping-irons and
curling-tongs were extemporized, and the demand for ribbons and
trimmings became so great that the storekeeper hurried to the city for a
fresh supply.

Then began that season of mad hilarity and reckless dissipation, which
seemed almost a dream to the actors themselves, and to which patriotic
Hardhackians have since referred to with feelings like those of the
devout Jew as he recalls the glorious deeds of his forefathers, or of
the modern Roman as, from the crumbling arches of the Coliseum, he
conjures up the mighty shade of the Caesarian period.

The fragrant bohea flowed as freely as champagne would have done in a
less pious locality; ethereal sponge-cakes and transparent
currant-jellies became too common to excite comment; the surrounding
country was heavily drawn upon for fatted calves, chickens and turkeys,
and mince-pies were so plenty, that observing children wondered if the
Governor had not decreed a whole year of special Thanksgiving.

Bravely the three great catches accepted every invitation, and, though
it was a very unusual addition to his regular duties, the Reverend
Abednego Choker faithfully attended all the evening festivities, to the
end that they might be decorously closed with prayer, as had from time
immemorial been the custom of Hardhack.

And the causes of all these efforts on the part of Hardhack society
enjoyed themselves intensely. Young men of respectable inclinations, who
have lived for several years in a society composed principally of
scoundrels, and modified only by the occasional presence of an honest
miner or a respectable mule-driver, would have considered as Elysium a
place far less proper and agreeable than Hardhack. In fact, the trio was
so delighted, that its eligibility soon became diminished in quantity.

Faxton, at one of the first parties, made an unconditional surrender to
a queenly damsel, while Nathan, having found his old schoolday
sweetheart still unmarried, whispered something in her ear (probably the
secret of some rare cosmetic), which filled her cheeks with roses from
that time forth.

But Crewne, the handsomest and most brilliant of the three, still
remained, and over him the fight was far more intense than in the
opening of the campaign, when weapons were either rusty or untried, and
the chances of success were seemingly more numerous.

But to designate any particular lady as surest of success seemed
impossible. Even Nathan and Faxton, when