Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/503

Charles Dickens] employment such as it is consistent with my self-respect to accept. And mind you, I will accept no more than the usual wages, and no less." Still acting under medical advice, the son humoured the harmless delusion of the father, and paid him regularly his weekly wages. At last the old man died, happy that he could earn his honest bread to the last, and happier still, in the consciousness that he had so good a son.

Wealth is a great and a good thing; but who would part with his nose for any amount of it? Or with his eyesight? Or with the use of his limbs? Or with his reason? Not I! And not anybody to whom the rational enjoyment of wealth is better than wealth itself.

A CLUSTER OF LYRICS.

OCCULT SYMPATHIES. THE FIRST IDEA.

NATIVE TRIBES OF NEW MEXICO.

IN THREE CHAPTERS. CHAPTER II. the Pimas the productions are chiefly maize, wheat, beans, melons, pumpkins, onions, chilli Colorado (red pepper), &c.; they own a small quantity of stock, horned cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, mules, and poultry. They rely, however, for support chiefly upon agricultural productions, milk, and eggs. So much in excess are their productions above their requirements, that they dispose annually of more than a million bushels of grain to the government agents, at from four to six cents a pound, which, in our money, is nearly twopence. They used to grow cotton, but now they find it far easier to buy the few goods they require. Major Emory, of the United States regular army, was, I believe, the first American to visit this people in 1846, when, as Lieutenant Emory, he took charge of a military reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego on the Pacific. He thus describes the scene: " We had no sooner encamped, eight or nine miles from the Pimas villages, than we met a Maricopa Indian looking for his cattle. The frank confident manner in which he approached us was a strange contrast to that of the suspicious Apaches. Some six or eight of the Pimas came up soon after at full speed, to ascertain who we were and what we wanted. They told us that the first trail we had seen along the river was that of their people, sent to watch the movements of their enemies, the Apaches. Their joy was unaffected at seeing that we were Americans and not Apaches, and word to that effect was immediately sent back to the chief. Although the nearest villages were nine miles distant, our camp in three hours was filled with Pimas loaded with corn, beans, honey, and water-melons, so that a brisk trade was opened at once. Their mode of approach was perfectly frank and unsuspicious; many would leave their packs in our camp and be absent for hours, theft seeming to be unknown to them. On reaching the villages we were at once impressed with the beauty, order, and disposition of the arrangements for irrigating and draining the land. Maize,