Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/128



transparent pools  and  isle-dotted  lakes,  reflecting  cool groves and  grassy  resting  places,  only  to  be  borne  off by the  wind,  and  cruelly  snatched  from  their  grasp  on nearer  approach ;  so  to  the  ardent  longings  of  their inflamed brains,  fickle  fortune,  incarnated,  becomes  a true  prophetess,  and  beckons  them  on  with  pleasing illusions to  their  destruction. Alas ! that it  should be so ;  that  fortune,  fame,  and  happiness,  and  life  itsclf, should be  so  like  the  mirage  to  which  these  foot-sore desert-walkers so  often  anchored  their  hopes  I

At the  beginning  of  the  journey,  with  fresh  cattle, a plentiful  store  of  food,  and  a  road  that  lay  through grassy prairies  and  well-watered  valleys,  with  bright, cheerful warmth  by  day  and  restoring  sleep  at  night, each dropping  into  place,  and  all  attending  to  their several duties,  driving  their  teams,  seeking  water, preparing resting-places  for  the  night,  unyoking  oxen, picketing horses,  unpacking  the  wagons,  pitching  tents, gathering wood  and  cooking  the  supper,  mending broken wagons,  telling  stories  by  the  camp-fires, watching their  grazing  cattle,  or  scouring  the  adjacent plain for  the  strayed  or  such  as  had  been  stolen, chasing buflalo,  shooting  antelope,  parleying  with  the natives — in the  first  flush  of  sanguine  hope,  with  ex- pectation bright before  them,  this  sort  of  life  was  not so bad. When a  caravan  camped  at  night,  the  men made a  circle  of  their  wagons,  at  once  a  bulwark  and a corral  for  their  cattle. About this  they  pitched their tents,  and  surrounded  all  with  a  guard  of  blazing camp-fires, which  threw  their  glare  far  into  the  sur- rounding darkness, and  illuminated  the  groups  that cooked or  smoked  or  slept  beside  them. Golden- winged Eros  sometimes  dropped  in  among  them,  flut- tered about the  wagons,  and  a  clergyman  or  squire must be  hunted  up  among  the  trains  to  terminate  his sad doings  by  a  marriage. Once in  a  while  they  killed a buflalo,  and  then  they  munched  and  munched,  till marrow, and  fat,  and  fullness  made  their  worn,  wan faces to  shine  in  the  red  fire-light  like  the  satyrs.