"A man here, fond of his wife and children, said to a friend a day or two after they went away for a visit to California: 'Did you ever see a motherless colt?' "'Oh, yes,' was the reply. "'Then,' said the man, 'you know just how I feel.' "'Yes,' said the friend. 'I suppose you feel as though you are not worth a dam.' "I know a brother lawyer who is somewhat famous for getting the clients whom he defends convicted. One morning he met a brother attorney, a wary old lawyer, and said to him: 'I heard some men denouncing you this morning and I took up your defense.' "'What did you say?' the other asked. "'Those men were slandering you and I took it upon myself to defend you,' said the first lawyer. "The old lawyer took the other by the arm, led him aside, then putting his lips close to the ear of his friend, in a hoarse whisper said: 'Don't do it any more.' "'I am going to lecture to-night at C----,' said a pompous man. "'I am glad of it,' was the quick answer. 'I have hated the people there for years. No punishment is too severe for them.' "'I am particular who I drink with,' said a man curtly to another. "'Yes?' was the answer. 'I outgrew that foolish pride long ago. I would as soon you would drink with me as not.' "'I do not require lecturing from you,' said a man. 'I am no reformed drunkard.' "'Then why do you not reform?' was the response. "This coast is full of the echoes of such things." The Professor spoke next. "I think," said he, "that there is more extravagance in figures of speech on this coast than in any other country. Marcus Shults had a difficulty in Eureka the other day, when I was there. He told me about it. Said he: 'I told him to keep away; that I was afraid of him. I wanted some good man to hear me say that, but I had my eye on him every minute, and had he come a step nearer, why--when the doctors would have been called in to dissect him they would have thought they had struck a new lead mine.'" Here Wright interrupted the Professor. "Marcus was from my State, Professor. Did you ever hear him explain why he did not become a fighter?" The Professor answered that he never had, when Wright continued: "Marcus never took kindly to hard work. Indeed, he seems to have constitutional objections to it. As he tells the story, while crossing the plains he made up his mind that, upon reaching California, he would declare himself and speedily develop into a fighter. His words, when he told me the story, were: 'They knew me back in Missouri, and I was a good deal too smart to attempt to practice any such profession there, but my idea was that California was filled with Yankees, and in that kind of a community I would have an easy going thing. Well, I crossed the Sierras and landed at Diamond Springs, outside of Placerville a few miles, and when I had been there a short time I changed my mind.' "Of course at this point some one asks him why he changed his mind, whereupon he answers solemnly: