and no doubt had plenty of beef to eat, with very few wants to provide for.  We noticed some few people paying for small things at the stores with small money.  The women all dressed much alike.  The dress was of some cheap material, sandals on feet, and a kind of long shawl worn over the head and thrown over the shoulder.  There seemed to be neither hoops nor corsets in their fashions.  The men wore trousers of white cotton or linen, with a calico shirt, sandals, and a broad rimmed snuff colored hat.  The Indians and their wives went bareheaded.

Near the end of the street we came to a boarding house and went in and sat down in the empty room.  Soon a man came in, better dressed than ourselves, and much to our surprise it was one of the old Death Valley travelers, the Rev. J.W.  Brier whom I last saw in his lone camp in the desert, discoursing to his young sons on the benefits of an early education.  I know the situation struck me very strangely, with death staring them in the face and he preaching!

We had a long talk about the hard journey we had each experienced.  As his party had not waited they had come through ahead of us.  He said himself and Mr. Granger had started a boarding house when they arrived, and had been doing a good business.  He said that as long as the emigrants continued to come he could get along very well.  We asked him if there was any chance for us to work and get money to get some provisions to help us on the way to the mines.  He said he could give work to one of us hauling water for the house with oxen and cart, and the one who could manage oxen was the man.  I was an ox driver and so told him I would take his team and cart and set out with the work.  He said he could pay fifty dollars a month, and I accepted the offer quickly as I saw it was a good chance to build up my exhausted strength and flesh.

I turned the little mule out in the hills near by, and began my work.  It was not hard, for the boarders were thinning out.  The natives did not patronize this hotel very much, but grub disappeared pretty fast at my corner of the table, for my appetite began to be ravenous.  There was not much variety to the food and very few luxuries or delicacies, which were hard to obtain on such a bare market, but all seemed satisfied with the food, and to me it tasted extra good.

Rogers went back to the old camp and helped them there, and I often went over after dark, when my work was done.  Moody and Skinner had been active in trying to get Mr. Bennett ready to go up the coast with them.  Bennett had sold his repeating rifle and with the proceeds and the help of his friends had got another ox, making two yoke for him.  They fixed up a wagon for him, and yokes enough could be found where people had traded off their oxen for horses.  Provisions enough had been gathered by Moody and Skinner for them all, and Rogers would go along with the party to help them with the teams.