real road
to success. But he dreaded the venture; and like a swift-footed blooded
horse, fit to run a course for a man's life, continued on his way,
harnessed to a plow, and broke his heart in the harness!

William Henry Rhodes will long be remembered by his contemporaries at
the Bar of California as a man of rare genius, exemplary habits, high
honor, and gentle manners, with wit and humor unexcelled. His writings
are illumined by powerful fancy, scientific knowledge, and a reasoning
power which gave to his most weird imaginations the similitude of truth
and the apparel of facts. Nor did they, nor do they, do him justice. He
could have accomplished far more had circumstances been propitious to
him. That they were not, is and will always be a source of regret. That,
environed as he was, he achieved so much more than his fellows, has made
his friends always loyal to him while living, and fond in their memories
of him when dead. We give his productions to the world with
satisfaction, not unmingled with regret that what is, is only the faint
echo, the unfulfilled promise of what might have been. Still, may we
say, and ask those who read these sketches to say with us, as they lay
down the volume: "_Habet enim justam venerationem, quicquid excellit._"

W. H. L. B.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

_PREFACE_ 3

_IN MEMORIAM_ 5

I. _THE CASE OF SUMMERFIELD_ 13

II. _THE MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE_ 34

III. _THE DESERTED SCHOOLHOUSE_ 37

IV. _FOR AN ALBUM_ 50

V. _PHASES IN THE LIFE OF JOHN POLLEXFEN_ 52

VI. _THE LOVE-KNOT_ 94

VII. _THE AZTEC PRINCESS_ 95

VIII. _THE MOTHER'S EPISTLE_ 154

IX. _LEGENDS OF LAKE BIGLER_ 156

X. _ROSENTHAL'S ELAINE_ 171

XI. _THE TELESCOPIC EYE_ 174

XII. _THE EMERALD ISLE_ 190

XIII. _THE EARTH'S HOT CENTER_ 199

XIV. _WILDEY'S DREAM_ 212

XV. _WHITHERWARD_