178 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



uncomfortable and novel luxury of a chair. Killbuck, indeed, 

 seemed to have quite forgotten the use of such pieces of furniture. 

 On Fray Augustin offering him one, and begging him, with many 

 protestations, to be seated, that old mountain w^orthy looked at it, 

 and then at the padre, turned it round, and at length comprehend- 

 ing the intention, essayed to sit. This he effected at last, and sat 

 grimly for some moments, when seizing the chair by the back, he 

 hurled it out of the open door, exclaiming — " Wagh ! this coon 

 aint hamshot anyhow, and don't want such fixins, he don't ;" and 

 gathering his legs under his body, reclined in the manner cus- 

 tomary to him. There was a prodigious quantity of liquor con- 

 sumed that night, the hunters making up for their many banyans ; 

 but as it was the pure juice of the grape, it had little or no effect 

 upon their hard heads. They had not much to fear from attacks 

 on the part of the Californians ; but, to provide against all emer- 

 gencies, the padre and the Gachupin were " hobbled," and con- 

 fined in an inner room, to which there was no ingress nor egress 

 save through the door which opened into the apartment where the 

 mountaineers lay sleeping, two of the number keeping watch. A 

 fandango with the Indian girls had been proposed by some of them, 

 but Walker placed a decided veto on this. He said " they had 

 need of sleep now, for there was no knowing what to-morroAV 

 might bring forth ; that they had a long journey before them, and 

 winter was coming on ; they would have to ' streak' it night and 

 day, and sleep when their journey was over, which would not be 

 until Pike's Peak was left behind them. It was now October, 

 and the way they'd have to hump it back to the mountains would 

 take the gristle off a painter's tail." 



Young Ned "Wooton was not to the fore when the roll was 

 called. He was courting the Sonora wench Juanita, and to some 

 purpose ; for we may at once observe, that the maiden accompan- 

 ied the mountaineer to his distant home, and at the present mo- 

 ment is sharing his lodge on Hard- scrabble creek of the upper 



