The fire gleamed brightly on the hearth, and, no longer resisting the prevailing influence, I silently watched the spurting flame, listening to the wind which continually shook the tenement.  Besides the one chair which had acquired a new importance in my eyes, I presently discovered a crazy table in one corner, with an ink bottle and pen; the latter in that greasy state of decomposition peculiar to country taverns and farmhouses.  A goodly array of rifles and double-barreled guns stocked the corner; half a dozen saddles and blankets lay near, with a mild flavor of the horse about them.  Some deer and bear skins completed the inventory.  As I sat there, with the silent group around me, the shadowy gloom within and the dominant wind without, I found it difficult to believe I had ever known a different existence.  My profession had often led me to wilder scenes, but rarely among those whose unrestrained habits and easy unconsciousness made me feel so lonely and uncomfortable I shrank closer to myself, not without grave doubts—­which I think occur naturally to people in like situations—­that this was the general rule of humanity and I was a solitary and somewhat gratuitous exception.  It was a relief when a laconic announcement of supper by a weak-eyed girl caused a general movement in the family.  We walked across the dark platform, which led to another low-ceiled room.  Its entire length was occupied by a table, at the farther end of which a weak-eyed woman was already taking her repast as she at the same time gave nourishment to a weak-eyed baby.  As the formalities of introduction had been dispensed with, and as she took no notice of me, I was enabled to slip into a seat without discomposing or interrupting her.  Tryan extemporized a grace, and the attention of the family became absorbed in bacon, potatoes, and dried apples.

The meal was a sincere one.  Gentle gurglings at the upper end of the table often betrayed the presence of the “wellspring of pleasure.”  The conversation generally referred to the labors of the day, and comparing notes as to the whereabouts of missing stock.  Yet the supper was such a vast improvement upon the previous intellectual feast that when a chance allusion of mine to the business of my visit brought out the elder Tryan, the interest grew quite exciting.  I remember he inveighed bitterly against the system of ranch-holding by the “greasers,” as he was pleased to term the native Californians.  As the same ideas have been sometimes advanced under more pretentious circumstances they may be worthy of record.

“Look at ’em holdin’ the finest grazin’ land that ever lay outer doors.  Whar’s the papers for it?  Was it grants?  Mighty fine grants—­most of ’em made arter the ’Merrikans got possession.  More fools the ’Merrikans for lettin’ ’em hold ’em.  Wat paid for ’em?  ’Merrikan and blood money.

“Didn’t they oughter have suthin’ out of their native country?  Wot for?  Did they ever improve?  Got a lot of yaller-skinned diggers, not so sensible as niggers to look arter stock, and they a sittin’ home and smokin’.  With their gold and silver candlesticks, and missions, and crucifixens, priests and graven idols, and sich?  Them sort things wurent allowed in Mizzoori.”