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Show 520 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ger of being driven off by the Arabs of the forest, and springs flow before them as pure as any that refreshes this verdant earth. When I stand at my door, and watch the weary, way-worn travelers approach, their wagons holding together by a miracle, their stock in the last stage of emaciation, and themselves a perfect exaggeration of caricature, I frequently amuse myself with iinagining the contrast they 1nust offer to the tout ensemble and general appearance they presented to their admiring friends when they first set out upon their journey. We will take a fancy sketch of them as they start fron1 their homes. We will fancy their strong and well-stored wagon, bran-new for the occasion, and so firmly put together that, to look at it, one would suppose it fit to circumrotate the globe as many times as there are spokes in the wheels; then their fat and frightened steers, so high-spirited and fractious that it takes the father and his two or three sons to get each under the yoke; next, the ambitious emigrant and his proud family, with their highly-raised expectations of the future that is before them: the father, so confident and important, who deems the Eastern States unworthy of his abilities, and can alone find a sufficiently ample field in the growing republic on the Pacific side; the mother, who is unwilling to leave her pleasant gossiping friends and early associations, is still half tempted to believe that the crop of gold that waits their gathering may indemnify her for her labors; so they pull up stakes, and leave town in good style, expecting to return with whole cart-loads of gold dust, and dazzle their neighbors' eyes with t~eir excellent good fortune. JAM.ES P. BECKWOURTH I C lTlZE~· ::< I>R."ESEI. |