untry that's likely to write to ye, but ye
better go, for all that, an' ax if there's letters. Maybe there is; who
knows?' So away I wint, and sure enough I found a row o' men waitin'
for their letters; so I crushes for'ard--och! but I thought they'd ha'
hung me on the spot,--and I found it was a rule that `first come first
sarved--fair play and no favour.' They wos all standin' wan behind
another in a line half-a-mile long av it wos a fut, as patient as could
be; some readin' the noosepapers, and some drinkin' coffee and tay and
grog, that wos sowld by men as went up an' down the line the whole
mornin'. So away I goes to the end o' the line, an' took my place,
detarmined to stand it out; and, in three minutes, I had a tail of a
dozen men behind me. `Faix, Larry,' says I, `it's the first time ye
iver comminced at the end of a thing in order to git to the beginnin'.'

"Well, when I wos gittin' pretty near the post-office windy, I hears the
chap behind me a-sayin' to the fellow behind him that he expected no
letters, but only took up his place in the line to sell it to them what
did. An' sure enough I found that lots o' them were there on the same
errand. Just then up comes a miner, in big boots and a wide-awake.

"`Och,' says he, `who'll sell me a place?' and with that he offered a
lot o' pure goold lumps.

"`Guess it's too little,' says the man next me.

"`Ah, ye thievin' blackguard!' says I. `Here, yer honer, I'll sell ye
my place for half the lot. I can wait for me letter, more be token I'm
not sure there is wan.' For, ye see, I wos riled at the Yankee's greed.
So out I steps, and in steps the miner, and hands me the whole he'd
offered at first.

"`Take them, my man,' says he; `you're an honest fellow, and it's a
trate to meet wan here.'"

"Capital," cried Ned, laughing heartily; "and you didn't try for a
letter after all?"

"Porter there?" shouted a voice from the quay.

"That's me, yer honer. Here ye are," replied the Irishman, bounding
away with a yell, and shouldering a huge leathern trunk, with which he
vanished from the scene, leaving Ned to pursue the train of thought
evoked by his account of his remarkable experiences.

We deem it necessary here to assure the reader that the account given by
Larry O'Neil of his doings was by no means exaggerated. The state of
society, and the eccentricities of traffic displayed in San Francisco
and other Californian cities during the first years of the go