All at last being loaded down with the stock, and no new buyers coming in, Alpha began to tumble. The Horners and the Huffs and the Howards became frightened and began to sell. The stock then tumbled more rapidly than ever, and the Hornbecks[Hornbecks] and Doolittles and Turners became panic-stricken and threw their stock upon the market, when from $280 per share it finally went down to $42 and stopped there dead and flat.
One day, soon after this low price had been reached, our stock-sharp said to his wife: “By the way, my dear, how did you come out with that Alpha stock of yours? You sold, I presume, while it was up?”
“Why, n-no, dear,” hesitatingly answered his better-half, “I thought from all I heard that it would go to $500 and so I held on to it and have got it all yet.”
“Well, well,” said the husband, “did I ever hear the like in my life! Got all of your stock yet? Tut! tut! then you’ve lost your $6,000! Well, dear, don’t mind it. Here is a check for $6,000; take it, and don’t you ever again try speculating in stocks. You don’t understand it, my dear—indeed you don’t!”
CHAPTER LV.
HOLIDAYS AND FUN.
The people of the land of the “big bonanza” do not toil always and without ceasing; but, as in other lands, give some time to pleasure and recreation.
There are a number of places of summer resort to which all may flee for a few weeks each year during the hot weather of July and August. Most popular among these is Lake Tahoe, situated high among the grand scenery of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and distant but thirty-five miles from Virginia City. No land can boast a more beautiful sheet of water than Lake Tahoe, and its surroundings form a fit setting for such a gem. Donner Lake, also in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and situated but a few miles north of Lake Tahoe, is almost as popular as the latter, though it is much smaller. Its surroundings are, however, grand and picturesque, turn which way we may.
There are, besides, Webber and Independence Lakes, which are in the same neighborhood, and which are easy of access. In Hope Valley on or near the summit of the Sierras, where many pleasure-seekers go, there is found fine trout-fishing in all the brooks, and excellent quail and grouse-shooting everywhere among the hills. Indeed, for those who have the time and means to spend a few weeks in the bracing atmosphere and amid the wild and picturesque scenery of the mountains, there is no lack of attractions. The man of meditative disposition, who is weary of the bustle and strife and the noise and crowds of towns, will wander along by himself and be happy in many and many a place away up by the tall peaks in the grand solitudes, where whispers from heaven seem to come down through the pines.
Lake Tahoe lies one mile and a quarter above the level of the sea, and is surrounded on all sides by most romantic and picturesque mountain scenery. The lake is about thirty miles in length from north to south, and from eight to fifteen miles in width. It lies partly in California and partly in Nevada. Its waters are of extraordinary purity and clearness and, in places, have been sounded to a depth of over two thousand feet.