community of that region, and the adjacent hamlet of "Rough-and-
Ready," regarded it with the contemptuous indifference usually
shown by those adventurers towards all bucolic pursuits. There was
certainly no active objection to the occupation of two hillsides,
which gave so little promise to the prospector for gold that it was
currently reported that a single prospector, called "Slinn," had
once gone mad or imbecile through repeated failures. The only
opposition came, incongruously enough, from the original pastoral
owner of the soil, one Don Ramon Alvarado, whose claim for seven
leagues of hill and valley, including the now prosperous towns of
Rough-and-Ready and Red Dog, was met with simple derision from the
squatters and miners. "Looks ez ef we woz goin' to travel three
thousand miles to open up his d--d old wilderness, and then pay for
the increased valoo we give it--don't it? Oh, yes, certainly!" was
their ironical commentary. Mulrady might have been pardoned for
adopting this popular opinion; but by an equally incongruous
sentiment, peculiar, however, to the man, he called upon Don Ramon,
and actually offered to purchase the land, or "go shares" with him
in the agricultural profits. It was alleged that the Don was so
struck with this concession that he not only granted the land, but
struck up a quaint reserved friendship for the simple-minded
agriculturist and his family. It is scarcely necessary to add that
this intimacy was viewed by the miners with the contempt that it
deserved. They would have been more contemptuous, however, had
they known the opinion that Don Ramon entertained of their
particular vocation, and which he early confided to Mulrady.

"They are savages who expect to reap where they have not sown; to
take out of the earth without returning anything to it but their
precious carcasses; heathens, who worship the mere stones they dig