Our  case  was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  The  hotel
was  very  crowded,  there  was  only  one  private  room
with  a  fireplace,  a  solitary  cow  gave  all  the  milk,
and  the  trout  had  no  appreciation  of  how  much  they
were  wanted.  Yankee  smartness  and  New  York
extravagance  vied  with  Chicago  bluster  in  the  effort
to  come  out  ahead  in  the  various  problems  of  food,
accommodation,  and  transportation,  and  the  modest
men  and  women,  who  only  wanted  their  fair  share  of
comforts  and  blessings,  were  often  poorly  served,  or
not  served  at  all.  The  rule,  "  every  one  for  himself, "
has  its  best  illustration  in  such  travels,  and  yet  I
have  known  people  who  were  very  happy  because
they  had  been  able  to  prefer  the  comfort  and  con-
venience of  others  to  their  own,  and  such  were  some
of  those  who  went  to  the  Yosemite  and  spent  the
week  with  us  there.
XXI

CALIFORNIA   BIG  TREES

MARIPOSA   AND  SANTA  CRUZ  GROVES — COMPARISONS  AND

MEASUREMENTS

We  were  sorry  to  leave  the  Yosemite  Valley  for
two  reasons.  One  was  because  it  was  unlikely  that
we  should  ever  look  again  upon  those  grand  walls  of
rock,  those  beautiful  waterfalls,  the  lakes  that  mirror
the  mountains,  and  the  dark,  green  river  of  pure
water  that  flows  through  the  verdant  floor  of  the
valley.  These  things  will  be  for  memory  to  rest  upon
and  rejoice  in  through  coming  years,  but  they  will
not  be  like  the  oft-repeated  views  of  Niagara  and  the
White  Mountains,  nor  even  familiar  friends  as  Mount
Blanc  and  many  scenes  of  the  Swiss  Alps.
The  other  sorrow  at  leaving  the  valley  was  pro-
spective. A  vision  of  future  misery  was  before  us.
