244 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



by receiving a pack of letters, which I read eagerly. The 

 one I was most interested in contained a draft on Sathers, 

 Church & Co. (a firm which I think General Sherman was 

 connected with), which amounted to seventy dollars, and with 

 what I had earned was ample to take me home. After this I 

 was contented to stay no longer, for with the means to take 

 me away my surroundings grew unbearable. I, however, had 

 but little to do: milking, hauling water and a daily gallop on 

 Jim to the little landing on the Peteluma River for letters 

 from the absent ones in San Francisco. I told the Patron I 

 would have to leave him. He acquiesced in this, but asked 

 me to remain until his children came back from town. So 

 one evening the Peteluma boat brought up the younger 

 branches of his family, pleased with their sojourn in San 

 Francisco, and I thought rather reluctant to take up their old 

 ranch life with its isolation from society. 



The next morning I fixed for my departure. After my 

 solitary breakfast of bread and coffee, Don Pedro called me 

 into the sanctum sanctorum — dining-room, sitting-room and 

 parlor combined — a room never seen by the profane eyes 

 of the hired men, save when they received their wages after dis- 

 missal. Through its portals went Antonio, Dick and "Scottie" 

 to get their hard-earned gold, afterwards to make exit and 

 seek elsewhere their fortunes. It was not such a grand room ; 

 in fact, was partly used as a granary. In the room was the 

 whole family seated, like an inquisitorial conclave, among 

 which was Madam X., the invalid, whom I had not seen since 

 I came on the ranch. Behind a table sat Don Pedro with a 

 pile of gold and silver before him, the amount of my wages. 

 It was correctly computed, at the rate of twenty-six dollars 

 per month, sixty dollars in all, beside what I had received. 

 This he pushed toward me in silence. The only word spoken by 

 any of this weird group was by the aged signor, who, completely 

 relaxed from his old-time ways, spoke kindly, telling me to 



