Page:Boys Life of Mark Twain.djvu/139

THE PIONEER. In a letter home he describes this fire in a fine, vivid way. At one place he says:

He was acquiring the literary vision and touch. The description of this same fire in Roughing It, written ten years later, is scarcely more vivid.

Most of his letters home at this time tell of glowing prospects—the certainty of fortune ahead. The fever of the frontier is in them. Once, to Pamela Moffett, he wrote:

From the same letter we gather that the brothers are now somewhat interested in mining claims:

This was written about the end of October. Two months later, in midwinter, the mining fever came upon him with full force. 112