"The third day it was gone and a lemon pie was there, all with nice kind of brownish snow on top. I was on my way out then, pushin' the mule. I took one lingerin' last look and felt proud of myself when I saw the hump in the pack made by my bag of beans. "'That-like flummery food's no kind of diet to be trackin' up pay-rock on,' I says to kind of cheer myself. "Four weeks later I struck it. And six weeks after that I had things in shape so't I was able to leave. I was nearer to other places 'twas bigger, but I made fur Grand Bar, lettin' on't I wanted to see about a claim there. I'd 'a' felt foolish to have anyone know jest why I was makin' the trip. "On the way I got to havin' night-mares, 'fear that Chink would be gone. I knew if he was I'd go down to my grave with something comin' to me because I'd never found jest that identical cake I'd been famishin' fur. "When I got up front of the window, you can believe it or not, but that Chink was jest settin' down another like it. Now you know how that Monte Cristo carried on after he'd proved up. Well, I got into his class, all right. I walked in past a counter where the Chink had crullers and gingerbread and a lot of low-grade stuff like that, and I set down to a little table with this here marble oil-cloth on it. "'Bring her back,' I says, kind of tremblin', and pointin' to the window. "The Chink pattered up and come back with a little slab of it on a tin plate. I jest let it set there. "'Bring it all,' I says; 'I want the hull ball of wax.' "'Six doll's,' he says, kind of cautious. "I pulled out my buckskin pouch. 'Bring her back and take it out of that,' I says--'when I get through,' I says. "He grinned and hurried back with it. Well, son, nothing had ever tasted so good to me, and I ain't say'n' that wa'n't the biggest worth of all my money't I ever got. I'd been trainin' fur that cake fur twenty odd year, and proddin' my imagination up fur the last ten weeks. "I et that all, and I et another one with jelly, and a bunch of little round ones with frostin' and raisins, and a bottle of brandied peaches, and about a dozen cream puffs, and half a lemon pie with frostin' on top, and four or five Charlotte rushes. The Chink had learned to make 'em all in 'Frisco. "That meal set me back $34.75. When I went out I noticed the plain sponge cakes and fruit cakes and dried-apple pies--things that had been out of my reach fur twenty years, and--My! but they did look common and unappetisin'. I kind of shivered at the sight of 'em. "I ordered another one of the big cakes and two more lemon pies fur the next day. "Fur four days I led a life of what they call 'unbridled licentiousness' while that Chink pandered to me. I never was any hand fur drink, but I cut loose in that fancy-food joint, now I tell you.