the ground for roots,
and the larva of various insects for food. Eggs of ants, and the maggots
found in wasp's nests were considered great delicacies.

They also ate dried grasshoppers and young clover plants cooked as
greens. They ground acorns and manzanita berries into meal with the
stone mortars and pestles so commonly found through the countryside
and gathered and stored great caches of pine burrs full of nuts for the
winter. They were not as a rule quarrelsome, but--.

* * * * *

"Good morning, Phineas. I have brought your grub from Auburn, and here
is the bill."

It was a bright day in June and Phineas Longley, tollkeeper for the new
suspension bridge on Whiskey Bar, had had a busy morning. There was a
barbecue that day at the town on the other side, and a stream of people
had come down the Whiskey Bar turnpike and crossed the bridge. It was
getting warm and he was tired, and he read the bill gloomily:

"1 bottle gin, $6.00; 2 lbs. biscuits, $2.50; 1 ham, $24.00; 1 bottle
pickles, $6.00; 4 fathoms rope, $5.00; 1 watermelon, $4.00; 1 tin pan,
$16.00; 2 apples, $3.00."

Longley stuffed the bill in his pocket, and returned for his noon meal
to his log cabin on shore.

It was quite palatial--boasting a real floor made of puncheons, or hewn
logs. A bunk, against the wall, was made of a second log set four feet
from the log wall, with a hammock mattress of sacking stuffed with dried
bracken stretched between them. There was the usual huge fireplace
of granite rocks used for both warmth and cooking, and a box
pantry-cupboard nailed to the wall.

His cup and plate and saucer were of tin, and his cutlery was an iron
spoon, a three-tined fork and a hunting dagger. The dishes had not been
washed for weeks.

In warm weather he kept a few things in a small palisade driven in the
shallow water at the river's edge, which was cool the year 'round.

Longley put his raised bread dough in a frying pan, put a second pan
on top, raked the ashes off some coals, and started it baking. A man
on horseback, driving two pack animals before him, stopped at the low
doorway.

"Hello, John! Glad to see you," called Longley.

"Glad to get here. Like to sleep in a house again. Tired of shaking the
lizards out of my blankets every morning."

"Ever shake out a rattler?"

"Not yet, though they say it's been done more than once."

"You're just in time. Turn the beasts into the corral. And then will you
just ride back to Kitty Dou