IT was in the early days.

I was not a college professor then.

I was a humble-minded young land-surveyor, with the world before me--to survey, in case anybody wanted it done.

I had a contract to survey a route for a great mining-ditch in California, and I was on my way thither, by sea -- a three or four weeks' voyage.

There were a good many passengers, but I had very little to say to them; reading and dreaming were my passions, and I avoided conversation in order to indulge these appetites.