Adrift in the Wilds

he was opposite the California shore, only a day's sail distant from the City of the Golden Gate, and many of the passengers had already begun making pr

and California. She had rather more than her full cargo of freight and pas

'Rooney, Elwood Brandon and Howard Lawrence. The first was a burly, good-natured Irishman, and the two

home in Brooklyn, New York, one evening worse than penniless. While he was meditating, dejected and gloomy, as to the means by which he was to keep the wolf from the door, his clerk brought him a letter which had been overlooked in the afternoon's mail, po

partner, and ended by urging Mr. Brandon to accept the position. The bankrupt merchant laid the epistle in his lap, removed his spectacles and looke

inancial crash, as it had only become known on the street within the last twenty-four hours. Mr. Brandon deemed it proper, therefore, before closing with the of

ited the answer. It came in the gratifying form of a draft for $1,000 to def

with their state-rooms engaged for California. They had but one child, Elwood, whom they had placed at a private school where he was to prepare himself

a few years he found himself almost as wealthy as in his palmiest days, when his name was such a power in Wall Street. He had come to like the young

a remarkable resemblance in person, character and disposition. Both had dark, curling, chestnut hair, hazel eyes, and an active muscular organization that made them leaders in boyish pastimes and sports. If there was any perceptible difference between the two, it was tha

tumn, and that the summer of this year should be spent by the boys with their parents in California. They had been separated from them for five years, during which they had met but once, when the p

the employ of Mr. Lawrence for eight years, almost ever since his arrival

California. They had closed their school studies a week before, and boy-like were now anxious to be off upon their journey. Suddenly an Irishman

mer sails on Saturday, and we'll go in it. Her

g, and see whether

houldn

re, and the beard is getting so stiff on my chin

making you look as fierce as

e merely glanced up, puffed harder than ever and w

emanded. "Can't a dacent man be passing the sthrats widout being i

nd assured them that his instructions were to bring them home as soon as possible. Accordingly, they embarked on the steamer on the following Saturday; and,