HOW I BECAME AN IDLER 21 



has existed since the last century, and is built 

 on the side of a hill, or bluff, facing the river. On 

 the opposite shore, where there is no cliff nor high 

 bank, and the low level green valley extends back 

 four or five miles to the gray barren uplands, 

 there is another small town called La Merced. In 

 these two settlements I spent about a fortnight, 

 and then, in company with a young Englishman, 

 who had been one or two years in the colony, I 

 started for an eighty miles' ride up the river. 

 Half way to our destination we put up at a small 

 log hut, which my companion had himself built 

 a year before; but finding, too late, that the 

 ground would produce nothing, he had lately aban- 

 doned it, leaving his tools and other belongings 

 locked up in the place. 



A curious home and repository was this same 

 little rude cabin. The interior was just roomy 

 enough to enable a man of my height (six feet) 

 to stand upright and swing a cat in without knock- 

 ing out its brains against the upright rough- 

 barked willow-posts that made the walls. Yet 

 within this limited space was gathered a store of 

 weapons, tackle, and tools, sufficient to have en- 

 abled a small colony of men to fight the wilderness 

 and found a city of the future. My friend had 

 an ingenious mind and an amateur's knowledge 

 of a variety of handicrafts. The way to make him 

 happy was to tell him that you had injured some- 

 thing made of iron or brass a gun-lock, watch, or 

 anything complicated. His eyes would shine, he 



