ath
before you with a hatchet; it is a solid thicket all the way.

As Mr. Connor rode to and fro, in front of this green ridge, he thought
how well a house would look up there, with the splendid mountain wall
rising straight up behind it. And from the windows of such a house, one
could look off, not only over the whole valley, but past the hills of
its southern wall, clear and straight thirty miles to the sea. In a
clear day, the line of the water flashed and shone there like a silver
thread.

Mr. Connor used to sit on his horse by the half hour at a time gazing at
this hillside, and picturing the home he would like to make there,--a
big square house with plenty of room in it, wide verandas on all sides,
and the slope in front of it one solid green orange orchard. The longer
he looked the surer he felt that this was the thing he wanted to do.

The very day he decided, he bought the land; and in two days more he had
a big force of men hacking away at the chapparal, burning it, digging up
the tough, tangled roots; oh, what slow work it was! Just as soon as a
big enough place was cleared, he built a little house of rough
boards,--only two rooms in it; and there he went to live, with Jim.

Now that he had once begun the making of his house, he could hardly wait
for it to be done; and he was never happy except when he was overseeing
the men, hurrying them and working himself. Many a tough old bush he
chopped down with his own hands, and tugged the root up; and he grew
stronger every day. This was a kind of medicine he had not tried before.

A great part of the bushes were "manzanita." The roots and lower stems
of this shrub are bright red, and twisted almost into knots. They make
capital firewood; so Mr. Connor had them all piled up in a pile to keep
to burn in his big fireplaces; and you would have laughed to see such a
woodpile. It was almost as high as the house; and no two sticks
alike,--all prongs and horns, and crooks and twists; they looked like
monster's back teeth.

At last the house was done. It was a big, old-fashioned, square house,
with a wide hall running through the middle; on the east side were the
library and dining-room; on the west, the parlor and a big
billiard-room; upstairs were four large bedrooms; at the back of the
house, a kitchen. No servants were to sleep in the house. Mr. Connor
would have only Chinamen for servants; and they would sleep, with the
rest of his Chinamen laborers, in what he c