Years spent in life of this kind lead men to love the mountains. They feel a sympathy with Nature and a companionship in her presence. When they have to visit the town for supplies, they long to get back to their little cabins. They feel lost in the whirl and confusion of the city. Summer is a delightful time at the many little miners' cabins scattered through the mountains. The air is invigorating, the water pure and cold. There is everything in the surroundings to make one happy. In the winter the miner sits by his great fireplace, with the flames roaring up the chimney. He has no stove to make the air close and oppressive. About the fireplace his dishes are arranged--the kettle for beans, the coffee-pot, and the Dutch oven in which the bread is baked. If there are some old paper-covered story-books at hand, it does not matter how fiercely the storms rage without. Ask any old prospector who has spent years in this manner if he would exchange his cabin for a house in the city, and he will most decidedly answer "no." This lonely life in the mountains seems to engender hospitality. The old-time prospector will make you welcome to his cabin and will share his last crust with you. When he asks you in to have some coffee and beans, he does not do it merely for the sake of being polite, and he will feel hurt if you do not accept his hospitality. His dishes may not be as white as those to which you are accustomed, but I will venture to say that you have never tasted better beans than those with which he will fill your plate from his soot-begrimed kettle. We ought all to see more of this wildlife. Even if we do not care to, make our permanent homes among the mountains, it would do us good to go there every summer at least, and so not only become stronger, but cultivate that familiarity with and love for outdoor life which our ancestors enjoyed. GOLD AND GOLD-MINING Gold derives its value partly from its purchasing power, partly from those properties which make it serviceable in the arts, and partly from its beauty. The high esteem in which gold money is held is as much the result of its comparative rarity as of its physical properties. Among nearly all the nations of the world it has been agreed upon as a standard of exchange. Gold has one disadvantage as a medium of exchange; it is rather too soft to wear well. But this difficulty is overcome by alloying the gold with another mineral of nearly the same color,--copper, for instance.