26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND 



Thorburn, my employer, was waiting for us, and tak- 

 ing both of us by the hands, and in a loud thrilling 

 voice, addressed me so : " Now my dear fellow ! ! you 

 will have to stay at my house as I had proposed to you 

 when you went, and you said you would not, and would 

 go straight to Astoria. You may go if you please, but 

 your house is burned to the ground," and he laughed. 

 " It was burned before you were half way to Albany." 

 I did not believe him; I thought he was joking. 

 "Well," he said, "if you doubt, go and see it, but 

 leave your bird here at my house. She will not fly out 

 of the cage." So I started at once, and when I arrived 

 I saw a nice heap of ashes on the site of the house. 

 Everything had been burned except my bedstead, a 

 table and a few other things. My bed room stood north 

 and the fire had been set on the south with a north 

 wind, so that a carpenter who had been building a 

 greenhouse for us, and who knew I was in Albany, and 

 living close by, when going to bed saw the house on 

 fire and he ran at once for my room, broke the window, 

 for the entrance of the house was already burned, and 

 saved the few articles mentioned. The most important 

 article was a table a lucky table in which I had 

 $300 in gold in a purse. It had been thrown in a bed 

 of roses, where I found it, the legs up. At once it 

 struck me that the purse was gone, for the drawer was 

 not locked. I went to it, opened the drawer, and saw 



