had been in front of his door through
the day, took his post on the sidewalk to await his coming guests--who
generally never came.

There was a time when Gold City had been a great town--

"In days of old,
In days of gold,
In days of forty-nine."

The boys often hung around the saloon steps and listened with gaping
mouths while Yankee Sam and the other old men told of the golden age,
when the streets of Gold City were crowded and Tom Perry made a
fortune in one day and lost it all gambling that night; when there was
more life in Gold City than 'Frisco could shake a stick at; when the
four quarters of the globe came in on the stage and mined all day,
danced all night and went away rich.

But Gold City, now, was neither large nor rich. The same eternal hills
surrounded her and the same great pine trees shaded her in summer's
heat and hung in white like sentinals of the past in the winter's
moonlight. But the sound of other days had died away. The creek bed
had long since yielded up its treasure and lay neglected, exposed to
the heat and frost. The old brick buildings rambling up the street
were still left, but were fast tottering to decay. Side by side with
the occupied buildings, stood half-fallen adobes and shattered blocks
filled only with the ghosts of other years.

Up on the hill rose the court house, the perfect image of some quaint
Dutch church along the Mohawk in York State. Gray and old, changeless
it stood, looking down in silent disdain on these California buildings
hastening to an early grave. Here and there, hid by pines and vines,
up the dusty side-hill roads, one caught glimpses of pretty cottage
homes, where dwelt the few who, when the tide had turned, were left
stranded in this far-off California mining town.

Yes, Gold City was of the past. Her glory had long since departed. Yet
somehow everyone expected its return. The old men read the 'Frisco
papers, when they could get them, and grew excited when they heard
that silver had fallen and gold had a new chance for life. The night
that news came, Yankee Sam ordered a treat for the whole crowd and
politely told the saloon-keeper that he would settle shortly, when
the boom came. Possibly some great capitalist might come in any day
and buy up the mines and things would boom. He might be on the stage
any night. That is the reason the whole town came out regularly to
meet the stage, marveled if it was late, and gambled on the
probability tha