ess, and, on equal terms,
one of the most serviceable of men. He also had something of the
expression of a Scottish country elder, who, by some peculiarity, should
chance to be a Hebrew. He had a projecting under lip, with which he
continually smiled, or rather smirked. Mrs. Kelmar was a singularly kind
woman; and the oldest son had quite a dark and romantic bearing, and
might be heard on summer evenings playing sentimental airs on the
violin.

I had no idea, at the time I made his acquaintance, what an important
person Kelmar was. But the Jew store-keepers of California, profiting at
once by the needs and habits of the people, have made themselves in too
many cases the tyrants of the rural population. Credit is offered, is
pressed on the new customer, and when once he is beyond his depth, the
tune changes, and he is from thenceforth a white slave. I believe, even
from the little I saw, that Kelmar, if he chose to put on the screw,
could send half the settlers packing in a radius of seven or eight miles
round Calistoga. These are continually paying him, but are never
suffered to get out of debt. He palms dull goods upon them, for they
dare not refuse to buy; he goes and dines with them when he is on an
outing, and no man is loudlier welcomed; he is their family friend, the
director of their business, and, to a degree elsewhere unknown in modern
days, their king.

For some reason, Kelmar always shook his head at the mention of Pine
Flat, and for some days I thought he disapproved of the whole scheme and
was proportionately sad. One fine morning, however, he met me, wreathed
in smiles. He had found the very place for me--Silverado, another old
mining town, right up the mountain. Rufe Hanson, the hunter, could take
care of us--fine people the Hansons; we should be close to the Toll
House, where the Lakeport stage called daily; it was the best place for
my health, besides. Rufe had been consumptive, and was now quite a
strong man, ain't it? In short, the place and all its accompaniments
seemed made for us on purpose.

He took me to his back door, whence, as from every point of Calistoga,
Mount Saint Helena could be seen towering in the air. There, in the
nick, just where the eastern foot-hills joined the mountain, and she
herself began to rise above the zone of forest--there was Silverado. The
name had already pleased me; the high station pleased me still more. I
began to inquire with some eagerness. It was but a little