IN THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE PADRES





[Illustration: View of Montgomery, Post and Market Streets, San
Francisco, 1858]




OLD DAYS IN EL DORADO

I.

"STRANGE COUNTRIES FOR TO SEE"


Now, the very first book was called "Infancy"; and, having finished it,
I closed it with a bang! I was just twelve. 'Tis thus the
twelve-year-old is apt to close most books. Within those pages--perhaps
some day to be opened to the kindly inquiring eye--lie the records of a
quiet life, stirred at intervals by spasms of infantile intensity. There
are more days than one in a life that can be written of, and when the
clock strikes twelve the day is but half over.

The clock struck twelve! We children had been watching and waiting for