's first temples," "and for the strength
of the hills, the Swiss mountains bless him"; and as to books, I read
Shakespeare, David, Spenser, Paul, Coleridge, Burns, and Shelley, which
are never old. In good sooth, I fancy that nature intended me for an
Arab or some other nomadic barbarian, and by mistake my soul got packed
up in a Christianized set of bones and muscles. How I shall ever be
able to content myself to live in a decent, proper, well-behaved house,
where toilet-tables are toilet-tables, and not an ingenious combination
of trunk and claret-cases, where lanterns are not broken bottles,
bookcases not candle-boxes, and trunks not wash-stands, but every
article of furniture, instead of being a makeshift, is its own useful
and elegantly finished self, I am sure I do not know. However, when too
much appalled at the humdrummish prospect, I console myself with the
beautiful promises, that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,"
and "as thy days, so shall thy strength be," and trust that when it is
again my lot to live amid the refinements and luxuries of civilization,
I shall endure them with becoming philosophy and fortitude.

LETTER _the_ EIGHTH

[_The_ PIONEER, _September_, 1854]

LIFE _and_ CHARACTERS _at_ INDIAN BAR

SYNOPSIS

Ned, the mulatto cook and the Paganini of the Humboldt Hotel. A naval
character. His ecstasy upon hearing of the coming of the author to the
Bar. Suggestion of a strait-jacket for him. "The only petticoated
astonishment on this Bar". First dinner at the log cabin. Ned's
pretentious setting of the pine dining-table. The Bar ransacked for
viands. The bill of fare. Ned an accomplished violinist. "Chock," his
white accompanist. The author serenaded. An unappreciated "artistic"
gift. A guide of the Fremont expedition camps at Indian Bar. A
linguist, and former chief of the Crow Indians. Cold-blooded recitals
of Indian fights. Indians near the Bar expected to make a murderous
attack upon the miners. The guide's council with them. Flowery reply of
the Indians. A studious Quaker. His merciless frankness and regard for
truth. "The Squire," and how he was elected justice of the peace. Miners
prefer to rule themselves.

Letter _the_ Eighth

LIFE _and_ CHARACTERS _at_ INDIAN BAR

_From our Log Cabin_, INDIAN BAR,

_October_ 20, 1851.

Having seen me, dear M., safely enthroned in my beautiful log palace
with its outer walls all tapestried with moss, perhaps you would