320 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



January-December, 1867. 



Though my acquaintances are many and daily increas- 

 ing, my intimate friends are few. Give me people with 

 unselfish hearts like Lembcke's, at whose home on Du- 

 pont and Filbert streets I spend most of my Sunday 

 evenings; week day evenings I generally take a walk. 

 During April and May commence the many picnics, in 

 which I frequently take part. 



George Dubois from Hamburg obtained a position 

 through me in Los Angeles. On July seventh Rinaldi, 

 Louis Scheerer and I enjoyed a journey on foot to 

 Crystal Springs, which is the most picturesque cave in 

 the neighborhood of San Francisco. We returned home 

 by rail. Half Moon Bay is another place worth visiting. 

 The neighborhood of San Mateo, the rides through 

 mountains and valleys, through natural tunnels and 

 caves are so wondrously attractive that I do not know 

 of anything that could be of greater interest to a lover 

 of Nature. Such outings would generally terminate with 

 Mother Lembcke's genuine German suppers. And how 

 good they tasted! 



Thus ended the seventeenth year of my life in foreign 

 lands. Shall I ever see home again? 



April, 1S68. 



The city bells and the uproar of the noisy populace 

 announced the incoming year, while Robert Rinaldi and 

 I exchanged the sincerest wishes with the Lembcke fam- 

 ily, who endeavored to please me more than ever, know- 

 ing that I contemplated a long absence, though my plans 

 had not matured. 



My employers, who had always treated me well, were 

 rather disappointed when I announced my intended trip 

 to Europe and acquiesced only when every offer failed to 

 tempt me. Letters from home sounded more and more 

 worrysome aud when father's handwriting grew less 

 frequent, I could stand it no longer. March the first I 

 turned over my books in perfect order to Lips, my suc- 

 cessor. March the fifteenth was the date set for my 



