vehicle began to slacken its speed. They were ascending
a hill; on either bank grew huge cottonwoods, from which occasionally
depended a beautiful scarlet vine.

"Ah! eet ees pretty," said the lady, nodding her black-veiled head
towards it. "Eet is good in ze hair."

One of the men made an awkward attempt to clutch a spray from the
window. A brilliant inspiration flashed upon Clarence. When the stage
began the ascent of the next hill, following the example of an outside
passenger, he jumped down to walk. At the top of the hill he rejoined
the stage, flushed and panting, but carrying a small branch of the vine
in his scratched hands. Handing it to the man on the middle seat, he
said, with grave, boyish politeness--"Please--for the lady."

A slight smile passed over the face of Clarence's neighbors. The
bonnetless woman nodded a pleasant acknowledgment, and coquettishly
wound the vine in her glossy hair. The dark man at his side, who hadn't
spoken yet, turned to Clarence dryly.

"If you're goin' to keep up this gait, sonny, I reckon ye won't find
much trouble gettin' a man's suit to fit you by the time you reach
Sacramento."

Clarence didn't quite understand him, but noticed that a singular
gravity seemed to overtake the two jocular men on the middle seat, and
the lady looked out of the window. He came to the conclusion that he had
made a mistake about alluding to his clothes and his size. He must try
and behave more manly. That opportunity seemed to be offered two hours
later, when the stage stopped at a wayside hotel or restaurant.

Two or three passengers had got down to refresh themselves at the bar.
His right and left hand neighbors were, however, engaged in a drawling
conversation on the comparative merits of San Francisco sandhill
and water lots; the jocular occupants of the middle seat were still
engrossed with the lady. Clarence slipped out of the stage and entered
the bar-room with some ostentation. The complete ignoring of his person
by the barkeeper and his customers, however, somewhat disconcerted him.
He hesitated a moment, and then returned gravely to the stage door and
opened it.

"Would you mind taking a drink with me, sir?" said Clarence politely,
addressing the farmer-looking passenger who had been most civil to him.
A dead silence followed. The two men on the middle seat faced entirely
around to gaze at him.

"The Commodore asks if you'll take a drink with him," explained one of
the men to Cl