"Well, Martin, I am sure you would help me," I said, "if you saw any
person injuring me. But what is it I am not to tell your master?"

"My master, indeed! Well, you need not tell old Gundry any thing about
what you have seen. It might lead to hard words; and hard words are not
the style of thing I put up with. If any man tries hard words with me, I
knocks him down, up sticks, and makes tracks."

I could not help smiling at the poor man's talk. Sawyer Gundry could
have taken him with one hand and tossed him over the undershot wheel.

"You forget that I have not seen any thing," I said, "and understand
nothing but 'needles and pins.' But, for fear of doing any harm, I will
not even say that I have been down here, unless I am asked about it."

"Miss Remy, you are a good girl, and you shall have the mill some day.
Lord, don't your little great eyes see the job they are a-doin' of?
The finest stroke in all Californy, when the stubborn old chap takes to
quartz-crushing."

All this was beyond me, and I told him so, and we parted good friends,
while he shook his long head and went home to feed many pappooses.
For the strangest thing of all things was, though I never at that time
thought of it, that there was not any one about this place whom any one
could help liking. Martin took as long as any body to be liked, until
one understood him; but after that he was one of the best, in many ways
that can not be described. Also there was a pair of negroes, simply and
sweetly delightful. They worked all day and they sang all night, though
I had not the pleasure of hearing them; and the more Suan Isco despised
them--because they were black, and she was only brown--the more they
made up to her, not at all because she governed the supply of victuals.
It was childish to have such ideas, though Suan herself could never get
rid of them. The truth, as I came to know afterward, was that a large,
free-hearted, and determined man was at the head of every thing. Martin
was the only one who ever grumbled, and he had established a long right
to do so by never himself being grumbled at.

"I'll be bound that poor fellow is in a sad way," Mr. Gundry said at
breakfast-time. "He knows how much he is to blame, and I fear that he
won't eat a bit for the day. Martin is a most conscientious man. He will
offer to give up his berth, although it would be his simple ruin."

I was wise enough not to say a word, though Firm looked at me keenly. He
knew