FROM THE KINGSTON SPRINGS TO SAN BERNARDINO. 183 



while I was in California, and who was a friend to me in time 

 of need From what the reader knows of my comrades in 

 general, he will not wonder I cared not how soon we parted 

 As little as I regretted leaving my messmates, who, I admit 

 had some good traits woven amid their failings, I felt low- 

 spirited when getting ready to leave San Bernardino 



It is true I had got to California, but I did not know what 

 to do now that I was there, for I was unacquainted with a per- 

 son along the Pacific Coast. To find work I must get to the 

 northern part of the State, and to reach there required money 

 When I contracted with the Mormons for my passage I did 

 not think I would be left ninety miles from the coast. In- 

 quiry developed the fact that the steamer plying between 

 ban Pedro and San Francisco only ran every twenty days 

 that its first trip would be on the 23d, and that the fare in the 

 steerage would be $20. Two gold pieces amounting to that 

 was all the money I possessed. I had barely time to reach the 

 coast on foot. Should I miss the steamer, what would I do^ 

 bo I resolved to start at once. 



Speaking in the proper sense, my " California Tramp " began 

 at San Bernardino, for heretofore I was either a walking mem- 

 ber of an organized body, or alternately walking and ridin<r 

 ^vith the Mormon wagoners. Now I was taking the road in 

 earnest. Here we, who had so long traveled together, separated, 

 some to stay in the town, while those who went on so straggled 

 that there was no comradeship among them. I parted with 

 them with no regret. I don't say but what some of them were 

 good in their way, and that I have seen worse people— in jail- 

 but when I look back on that party, at the end of thirty years' 

 I wonder how I could travel with it for over five months I 

 suppose It was because I could do no better. It was between the 

 devil and the deep sea." On the one hand was the desert or 

 praine with its cruel Indians and wild beasts, on the other 

 our goodhe companie." As the least evil, I was justified in 

 chnging to the last. 



