In the preceding chapter, it was necessary to show to the reader the dark side of the cloud; but it has a golden lining, and though many a cursory observer, or disappointed speculator, may deny this fact, yet thousands have seen it, and know to their heart’s content that it is there. Yes! Life in the mountains has many charms. The one great blessing is perfect freedom. Untrammelled by the artificial restraints of more highly organized society, character developes itself so fully and so truly, that a man who has a friend, knows it, and there is a warmth and depth in the attachment which unites the dwellers in the wilderness, that is worth years of the insipid and uncertain regard of so-called, polite circles, which, too often, passes by the name of friendship, and, sometimes, insolently apes the attributes, and dishonors the fame of love itself. Those who have slept at the same watch-fire, and traversed together many a weary league, sharing hardship and privations, are drawn together by ties which civilization wots not of. Wounded or sick, far from home, and depending for life itself, upon the ministration and tender care of some fellow traveller, the memory of these deeds of mercy and kindly fellowship often mutually rendered, is as an oasis in the desert, or as a crystal stream to the fainting pilgrim. As soon as towns are built, society commences to organize, and there is something truly cheering in the ready hospitality, the unfeigned welcome, and the friendly toleration of personal peculiarities which mark the intercourse of the dwellers in the land of gold. Every one does what pleases him best. Forms and ceremonies are at a discount, and generosity has its home in the pure air of the Rocky Mountains. This virtue, indeed, is as inseparable from mountaineers of all classes, as the pick and shovel from the prospector. When a case of real destitution, is made public, if any well known citizens will but take a paper in his hand and go round with it, the amount collected would astonish a dweller in Eastern cities, and it is a fact that gamblers and saloon keepers are the very men who subscribe the most liberally. Mountaineers think little of a few hundreds of dollars, when the feelings are engaged, and the number of instances in which men have been helped to fortunes and presented with valuable property by their friends, is truly astonishing.