"How did this country strike you when you got through?"
"Well, the old lady and me jest thought lots of it. We took up our claims in King's Valley—you know the place—jest the nicest kind of a place, with lots of grass and a nice river. You had all the timber you wanted on the mountains close by, and jest lots of deer and elk."
"Pretty lonely, though, wasn't it?"
"Well, it was kinder lonely, but we had lots to do, and the time passed very quick. The country settled up quick, and we had all the neighbors we wanted."
"Any trouble with Indians, uncle?"
"No; the Calapooyas would thieve a bit, but fifty of them cusses would jest scare from five or six of us settlers with our rifles. And the Klick-i-tats were good Injuns, and never troubled us any. Those were good old times, boys." And the old man rose to go, with a sigh.
CHANGED CIRCUMSTANCES.Think of the change the old gentleman has seen—for he lives there yet! Now, his white farmhouse, with good barn and out-buildings, fronts on a well-traveled road, leading past many a neighbor's house, and to the church and village. The woods on the hill-sides have disappeared, and the ruled furrows of the wheat-fields have replaced the native grass; the elk and deer which found him food as well as sport have retired shyly away into the far-off fastnesses round Mary's Peak and in the "green timber," and the fleecy flocks have usurped their place. The thievish Calapooyas and good Klick-i-tats have lost their tribal connections, and their shrunken remnants have been shifted away north to the Indian reserve. As you stand on the hill above his house, and the vision ranges over the gentle outlines of King's Valley, dotted with farms and lined with fences, it is but the noble forms of the distant mountains that could identify the scene with that which he scanned with wayworn eye as he halted his weary oxen after his six months' journey from distant Illinois.
CHAPTER XVII.
State and county elections—The Chinese question—Chinese house-servants—Washermen—Laborers—A large camp-Supper— Chinese trading—The scissors—Cost of Chinese labor—Its results—Chinese treaties—Household servants—Chee and his mistress—"Heap debble-y in there"—The photo album—Temptation —A sin and its reward—Good advice on whipping—Chung and the crockery—Chinese New Year—Gifts—"Hoodlums"—Town police—Opium.