he at once passed the receipt to his fellows,
so that the collector found himself confronted in different parts of the
settlement with the receipt and the aimless laugh of, apparently, See
Yup himself. Although we all knew that there were a dozen Chinamen or
more at work at the mines, the collector never was able to collect the
tax from more than TWO,--See Yup and one See Yin,--and so great was
THEIR facial resemblance that the unfortunate official for a long time
hugged himself with the conviction that he had made See Yup PAY TWICE,
and withheld the money from the government! It is very probable that the
Californian's recognition of the sanctity of a joke, and his belief that
"cheating the government was only cheating himself," largely accounted
for the sympathies of the rest of the miners.

But these sympathies were not always unanimous.

One evening I strolled into the bar-room of the principal saloon, which,
so far as mere upholstery and comfort went, was also the principal house
in the settlement. The first rains had commenced; the windows were open,
for the influence of the southwest trades penetrated even this far-off
mountain mining settlement, but, oddly enough, there was a fire in the
large central stove, around which the miners had collected, with their
steaming boots elevated on a projecting iron railing that encircled it.
They were not attracted by the warmth, but the stove formed a social
pivot for gossip, and suggested that mystic circle dear to the
gregarious instinct. Yet they were decidedly a despondent group. For
some moments the silence was only broken by a gasp, a sigh, a muttered
oath, or an impatient change of position. There was nothing in the
fortunes of the settlement, nor in their own individual affairs to
suggest this gloom. The singular truth was that they were, one and all,
suffering from the pangs of dyspepsia.

Incongruous as such a complaint might seem to their healthy
environment,--their outdoor life, their daily exercise, the healing
balsam of the mountain air, their enforced temperance in diet, and
the absence of all enervating pleasures,--it was nevertheless the
incontestable fact. Whether it was the result of the nervous, excitable
temperament which had brought them together in this feverish hunt for
gold; whether it was the quality of the tinned meats or half-cooked
provisions they hastily bolted, begrudging the time it took to prepare
and to consume them; whether they too often