The Gun Rod And Saddle Or Nine Months in California

agon were seventeen hundred pounds of freight, viz: wheat, barley, potatoes, a few articles of furniture and farming implements, sugar, coffee, tea, salt, soap, dried fruit, a little salt pork for a pinch when game might fail, a keg of syrup, blankets, plenty of heavy woolen clothing, Doc's old rifle, "Tom," "Betsy," plenty of ammunition, and a keg of whiskey. Doc was under medical treatment, and the last article was in his physician's prescription. As we rolled out eastward, over the plain, on the south side of the Kaweah River, our road winding among the large oaks and cotton-woods, which in some places ventured to . grow a mile from the water, the afternoon sun shone bright upon the green foot-hills and snow-covered mountains. There, before us, lay a mighty panorama of mountain masses, as various as you see the clouds in the sky, rising toward heaven more than two miles, and extending along the horizon a full hundred. Had they been carved out of ivory, and set with emerald, they could not have been more beautiful. As we got through the heavy timber, and when the open plain spread before us, the hills seemed to recede. There were scattered trees and occasional houses and sheds of the ranchers. A little way from the road, some flocks of wild ducks swam upon a pond. Burton was riding the saddle-horse. I gave him "Betsy." He rode over, dismounted, crept along an old ditch, got into range, fired into a line of six, and soon came galloping after us,with five...