he had gone to visit a sick friend, and Mr. Jones was not willing to
wait even one day, so much did he fear being caught in a snowstorm with
his mules. It was the general opinion, from unmistakable signs, that
the rainy season would set in a month earlier than common, and with
unusual severity. Our friends urged me to start on with Mr. Jones and
some other acquaintances, and leave F. to follow on foot, as he could
easily overtake us in a few hours. This I decidedly refused to do,
preferring to run the fearful risk of being compelled to spend the
winter in the mountains, which, as there is not enough flour to last
six weeks, and we personally have not laid in a pound of provisions, is
not so indifferent a matter as it may at first appear to you. The
traders have delayed getting in their winter stock, on account of the
high price of flour, and God only knows how fatal may be the result of
this selfish delay to the unhappy mountaineers, many of whom, having
families here, are unable to escape into the valley.

It is the twenty-first day of November, and for the last three weeks it
has rained and snowed alternately, with now and then a fair day
sandwiched between, for the express purpose, as it has seemed, of
aggravating our misery, for, after twelve hours of such sunshine as
only our own California can show, we were sure to be gratified by an
exceedingly well got up tableau of the deluge, _without_ that ark of
safety, a mule team, which, sister-Anna-like, we were ever straining
our eyes to see descending the hill. "There! I hear a mule-bell," would
be the cry at least a dozen times a day, when away we would all troop
to the door, to behold nothing but great brown raindrops rushing
merrily downward, as if in mockery of our sufferings. Five times did
the Squire, who has lived for some two or three years in the mountains,
and is quite weather-wise, solemnly affirm that the rain was over for
the present, and five times did the storm-torrent of the next morning
give our prophet the lie. In the mean while we have been expecting,
each day, the advent of a mule train. Now the rumor goes that Clark's
mules have arrived at Pleasant Valley, and now that Bob Lewis's train
has reached the Wild Yankee's, or that Jones, with any quantity of
animals and provisions, has been seen on the brow of the hill, and will
probably get in by evening. Thus constantly is alternating light and
gloom in a way that nearly drives me mad.

The few men th