he must have done so, for he roused himself up and looked around with a sobbing start. He had not forgotten that his father was lying dead beside him, that he was keeping watch for the last time-but he thought he had heard a stealthy footstep outside the tent, and that the shadow of a man fell across the entrance. But no one came, and there was no sound but the fretting of the river, as the moon sank behind the hills, and left him in darkness and solitude.

There was not time for grieving over the dead, or for more than the simplest burial rites, in that rude mountain life.

The men came again, at earliest light, and found the boy sitting where they had left him, his long hair falling over his face, bowed down upon his knee. Sam understood why they had come, and rose to follow them, though no one spoke a word to him, as they wrapped Mr. Gilman in the blanket on which he laid, and carried him away. His was not the only grave they had prepared at midnight, for other low mounds of earth marked a little slope, half way up the bluff. And here they laid him, with kindly, not loving, hands, he was a stranger to them all,

and but one solitary mourner stood near. There was no audible prayer, though no one can tell what thoughts or wishes passed through their minds, as the men stood silently for a moment,: with uncovered heads, when their task was finished. It was but a moment, and then their voices, and their footsteps sounded down the hill, as quick and as careless, as if death could not reach them.

Sam thought they had all gone, but some one came and laid a hand on his shoulder. It was the Major, who said cheerfully

"Come, come, my boy, don't give up; you've got a long life before you yet.”

"A hard one," Sam said, turning away his face even from those friendly eyes, and leaning his head against a tree. No wonder his voice sounded hopeless, for he was yet a boy, and thousands of miles from any one who knew him or cared for him, in the first great trouble of his life.

"It's hard enough, anyhow, for that matter, but there's no use crying over it. I suppose you think I'm a jolly dog-most people do.Well, I haven't seen the day for these six years,

that I couldn't thank any body who'd help me out of it. Let's sit down here a minute and talk it over. Do you suppose any body is really happy?"

"Any body!" Sam repeated wonderingly, but he sat down on the grass beside his stranger friend, who began hacking the root of the tree with his knife as he talked. He forgot his own troubles, wondering what such a good-hearted, careless man could be miserable about.

But the Major did not seem disposed to talk any more about himself; only he said

"I never had a brother. I don't know how I'd feel towards one; but if there's any thing I can do for you let me know it. I'd advise you to go home, if you've got enough to take you there. California's not the place for boys like you."

"I don't know that I am different from other boys," Sam began to say.

"Oh, yes, you are," the other interrupted. "You don't swear, and you don't drink, you don't gamble,-now I'd like to know what other boy of your age, would stand a voyage round the Horn, and three months in California, without