round the hills which
bordered Leavenworth gulch, a few hundred yards above our mill site.
About the time the mill was completed the water was turned off from this
ditch on account of freezing weather and the near approach of winter.
Very soon after, the beautiful springs which supplied our tank and the
gulch with water, all dried up. They had been fed by seepage from the
big ditch. With the disappearance of the water vanished all prospect of
running the mill before spring, when the melting snow would furnish a
supply. It seemed like a bad case of "hope deferred." But the bracing
air and climate, outdoor life, constant exercise, coarse food and pure
water were too invigorating and stimulating to the feelings and hopes to
allow one to feel much depressed or discouraged. We looked forward to
the next summer for the golden harvest.

Stubbs built us a one-and-a-half-story-cottage out of sawed lumber,
boards and shingles, with one room below for living, eating, cooking and
storing provisions in, and one above for a dormitory. A corner of the
latter was partitioned off into a small room for him and me, with a bunk
for each, under which we stored our twelve kegs of powder, as being the
safest place we had for it. We slept on beds of hay with our blankets
over us, and in very cold weather piled on our entire stock of coats and
some empty provision sacks. In the room below was a good cook stove, and
there was wood in abundance, so we kept comfortable, though the house
was neither plastered nor sheeted, and considerable daylight came in
through cracks in the siding. We had a table and benches made of boards,
and Stubbs made me an armchair and a desk for my account books, papers
and stationery. What a luxury, after four months camping out, to be able
to sit down in a chair, eat from a table, sleep on a bed, write at a
desk, read by a candle at night and have regular, well-cooked meals.

To a lover of the picturesque in scenery our location was ideal.
Immediately around us was a semicircle of high, steep, pine-covered
hills spotted with prospect holes. To the east, through an opening in
the intervening mountain ranges, the plains were in full view over a
hundred miles away. Sometimes for days, they were covered with shifting
clouds which seemed far below us. Then an east wind would drive the
clouds and mist slowly up into the mountains, swallowing up first one
range and then another, till only a few peaks would stand out, above an