noble grove of the loftiest and largest trees, through which ran two
or three carriage-roads, with not a particle of undergrowth to be seen
in any direction. Somewhere near the center of this lovely place he is
building a house of hewn logs. It will be two stories high, and very
large. He intends finishing it with the piazza all around, the
first-floor windows to the ground, green blinds, etc. He informed us
that he thought it would be finished in three weeks. You can see that
it would have been much pleasanter for Mrs. ---- to have had the
privilege of deferring her visit for a month.

We had a most excellent breakfast. As Mrs. ---- said, the good people
possessed everything but a house.

Soon after breakfast, my friends, who suspected from appearances the
night before that I should not prove a very welcome visitor, came for
me, the wife of the proprietor of the American Rancho having
good-naturedly retired to the privacy of a covered wagon (she had just
crossed the plains) and placed her own room at my disposal. Mrs. ----
insisted upon accompanying me until her friend was better. As she truly
said, she was too unwell herself to either assist or amuse another
invalid.

My apartment, which was built of logs, was vexatiously small, with no
way of letting in light, except by the door. It was as innocent of a
floor, and almost as thickly strewn with cobblestones, as the one which
I had just left; but then, there _were_ some frames built against the
side of it, which served for a bedstead, and we had sheets, which,
though coarse, were clean. Here, with petticoats, stockings, shoes, and
shirts hanging against the logs in picturesque confusion, we received
calls from senators, representatives, judges, attorney-generals,
doctors, lawyers, officers, editors, and ministers.

The convention came off the day after our arrival in the valley, and as
both of the nominees were from our settlement, we began to think that
we were quite a people.

Horse-racing and gambling, in all their detestable varieties, were the
order of the day. There was faro and poker for the Americans, monte for
the Spaniards, lansquenet for the Frenchmen, and smaller games for the
outsiders.

At the close of the convention the rancho passed into new hands, and as
there was much consequent confusion, I went over to Greenwood's, and
Mrs. ---- returned to the house of her friend, where, having ordered
two or three hundred armfuls of hay to be strewn on the