46 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



nite possibilities of the future, the alluring wares 

 that Nature has spread upon a thousand counters, 

 may wander here and there, frittering away his 

 capital of energy upon a score of gewgaws, whereas 

 he might have bought and paid for a radiant pearl. 

 Some of my readers must have seen that amaz- 

 ing Italian, Fregoli He plays by himself a comed- 

 ietta, in which he alone assumes the various r6les. 

 He is ubiquitous. Here, a dotard — there, a bal- 

 lerina. There are many Fregolis in the West. I 

 used to know one who was in turn doctor, parson, 

 undertaker, justice of the peace, paper-hanger, and 

 painter. He played all these parts indifferently 

 well; he was intelligent, temperate, hard-working 

 — and he never had been able to earn more than 

 a bare living. 



