admiration. "Good by! And I swow I'll marry you jest as soon as you
set foot in Calliforny."

Not to amplify on details, our adventurer landed there safely, and
was, of course, like all verdant voyagers, much surprised at the
tariff of prices subjected to his notice. The porter who carried his
trunk to the hotel charged him ten dollars; and though that same hotel
was a leaky tent, a plate of tough beef was charged seventy-five
cents, and a watery potato fifty. Business was very dull, too, at the
moment of his arrival; the accounts from the mines were disastrous,
and every thing announced an approaching crisis. Moses confided his
griefs to Colonel Hateful Slowboy, his fellow-townsman, who was really
one of the richest men in California, winding up with lamentations
over the expected arrival of Prudence, whom he had promised to marry.

"What kin I do with a wife," said he, "when I can't support myself,
even?"

"Very true," said the colonel. "Now, if it were me, the case would be
very different."

"Prudence done all the courtin' herself, curnil," said our hero,
sulkily. "I never should have offered if it hadn't been for her. I
kinder like 'er pretty well, though: she's a sort of pretty nice gal."

"Well, Mose," said the colonel, "what do you say to giving up your
claim?"

"Eh?" said Mose, pricking up his ears.