HIS MOUNTAIN RANCH. 29 



" Come in to dinner, boys. We haven't got much. 

 Only been up here six weeks. That's a hard moun- 

 tain to pack stuff up with burros," said Harvey, 

 and the party entered the house. 



A more primitive cabin could hardly bo imagined. 

 The furniture, cut from timber, was simply and 

 strangely made. A large fire-place at one end of the 

 room glowed with a bed of living coals. A curtain 

 in one corner hid a pole bedstead, while in the corner 

 diagonally opposite a pole table, at which were several 

 three-legged stools, completed the furniture. A lone 

 window let in light through small plates of mica 

 which had been quarried from the mountain-side. 

 Long poles, overlaid with sod, formed a compact roof 

 and kept out rain and cold. Here with his wife and 

 two boys, Clarence and Allie, Harvey made his home. 



With no apology from Mrs. Harvey, who served 

 the dinner daintily, all sat down to a meal composed 

 of baked beans, Boston brown bread, and coffee. 

 It is unnecessary to say that the tired tramps 

 made the most of it. During the meal it trans- 

 pired that Harvey was an ex-Boston merchant, 

 whose good nature had run away with his judg- 

 ment to such an extent that he finally found all 

 his capital and profits trusted to those who either 

 could not or would not pay, and he was compelled to 

 seek a new life in the West. In his wanderings he 

 reached this spot, and his eyes were so filled with the 

 beauty of the place that he determined to make it his 

 home. Water and grass were there, while trees grew 

 on the hillside. What more did he want? He built 

 his cabin and prepared to stand the heavy snows and 



