Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) FIRST FAM'LIES OF THE SIERRAS. By JOAQUIN MILLER AUTHOR OF "SONGS OF THE SIERRAS," "SONGS OF THE SUN-LANDS," "THE SHIP IN THE DESERT," ETC. CHICAGO: JANSEN, McCLURG & CO. 1876. COPYRIGHT, JANSEN, McCLURG & CO. A. D. 1876. LAKESIDE PUBLISHING & PRINTING CO. CHICAGO. TO MY OLD COMPANION IN ARMS, PRINCE JAMIE TOMAS, OF LEON, NICARAGUA. CONTENTS. IN THE FORKS LITTLE BILLIE PIPER THE FIRST WOMAN IN THE FORKS SUNDAY IN THE SIERRAS WASHEE-WASHEE SOME UNWRITTEN HISTORY THAT BOY SANDY'S COURTSHIP "THAT BOY" IS ILL A SCENE IN THE SIERRAS THE PARSON'S PURSUIT OF LOVE GRIT AN ANNOUNCEMENT A WEDDING IN THE SIERRAS WHAT'S THE MATTER NOW? WAS THE WOMAN INSANE? CAPTAIN TOMMY "BLOOD!" HOW DID IT HAPPEN? A FLAG OF TRUCE THE QUESTION NONE COULD ANSWER DEBATABLE GROUND ANOTHER WEDDING AT THE FORKS THE JUDGE IS LONESOME AFTER THE DELUGE--WHAT THEN? THE WIDOW IN DISGRACE BILLIE PIPER AND DEBOON THE GOPHER A NATURAL DEATH A FUNERAL THE CARAVAN OF DEATH THE END FIRST FAM'LIES OF THE SIERRAS. CHAPTER I. IN THE FORKS. Now there was young Deboon from Boston, who was a very learned man. He was in fact one of those fearfully learned men. He was a man who could talk in all tongues--and think in none. Perhaps he had sometime been a waiter. I am bound to say that the most dreadfully learned young men I have ever met are the waiters in the Continental hotels. Besides that he was very handsome. He was, indeed, almost as handsome as a French barber, or a first-class steward. Another thing that helped to defeat him in this hurried election was his love of animals and his dislike of hard work. The handsome fellow stood for election this day with a bushy-tailed squirrel frisking on his shoulder, and a pair of pink-eyed white mice peeping out like a handkerchief from the pocket of his red shirt. Then there was Chipper Charley--smart enough, and a man, too, who had read at least a dozen books; but the Forks didn't want him for an Alcalde any more than it did Deboon. Then there was Limber Tim, and Limber certainly could write his name, for he was always leaning up against trees and houses and fences, when he could find them, and writing the day and date, and making grotesque pictures with a great carpenter's pencil, which he carried in the capacious depths of his duck breeches' pocket. But when Sandy proposed Limber Tim, the Camp silently but firmly shook its head, and said, "Not for Joseph."