“Pard, I wish you were goin’ with me,” he said, and the slow, sweeping gesture of the great horny hand had something of sublimity. He waved it away toward the east, and it signified the far places across the desert. “I’m rich. The years of lonely hell an’ never-endin’ toil are over. No more sour dough! No more thirst an’ heat an’ dust! No more hoardin’ of gold! The time has come for me to spend. I’ll bank my gold an’ draw my checks. At Frisco I’ll boil the alkali out of my carcass, an’, shaved an’ clipped an’ dressed, I’ll take again the name of my youth an’ fare forth for adventure. I’ll pay for the years of hard grub. I’ll eat the best an’ drink wine--wine--the sweetest an’ oldest of wine! Wine in thin glasses.... I’ll wear silk next my skin an’ sleep on feathers. I’ll travel like a prince. I can see the big niggers roll their eyes. ‘Yas, sah, yas sah, the best for you, sah!’ An’ I’ll tip them in gold.... I’ll go to my old home. Some of my people will be livin’. An’ when they see me they’ll see their ship come in. They’ll be rich. I’ll not forget the friends of my youth. That little village will have a church or a park as my gift. I’ll travel. I’ll see the sights an’ the cities. New York! Ha! if I like that place, I’ll buy it! I’ll see all there is to see, buy all there is to buy. I’ll be merry, I’ll be joyful. I’ll live. I’ll make up for all the lost years. But I’ll never forget the poor an’ the miserable. I can spend an’ give a hundred dollars a day for the rest of my life. I’ll cross the ocean. London! I’ve met Englishmen in the Southwest. Queer, cold sort of men! I’ll see how they live. I’ll go all over England. Then Paris! Never was I drunk, but I’ll get drunk in Paris. I want to see the wonderful hotels an’ shops an’ theaters. I’ll look at the beautiful French actresses. I’ll go to hear the prima donnas sing. I’ll throw gold double-eagles on the stage. An’ I’ll take a fly at Monte Carlo. An’ travel on an’ on. To Rome, that great city where the thrones of the emperors still stand. I’ll go spend a long hour high up in the ruins of the Coliseum. An’ dreamin’ of the days of the Cæsars--seein’ the gladiators in the arena--I’ll think of you, Wansfell. For there never lived on the old earth a greater fighter than you!... Egypt, the land of sun an’ sand! I’ll see the grand Sahara. An’ I’ll travel on an’ on, all over the world. When I’ve seen it I’ll come back to my native land. An’ then, that green farm, with wooded hills an’ runnin’ streams! It must be near a city. Horses I’ll have an’ a man to drive, an’ a house of comfort.... Mebbe there’ll come a woman into my life. Mebbe children! The thought you planted in me, pard, somehow makes me yearn. After all, every man should have a son. I see that now. What blunders we make! But I’m rich, I’m not so old, I’ll drink life to the very lees.... I see the lights, I hear the voices of laughter an’ music, I feel the comfortin’ walls of a home. A roof over my head! An’ a bed as