Although American author Bret Harte is most readily associated with stories about the West, it is his skill with characterization that distinguishes him from the hundreds of others who set fictional tales in the region. The miners, soldiers, gamblers, entrepreneurs, and lost souls who populate these pages are limned with Harte's unique combination of dry wit and tender pathos.

This charming collection of Harte's short stories focuses on life in old California and includes "Openings in the Old Trail", "Colonel Starbottle for the Plaintiff", "The Landlord of the Big Flume Hotel", "A Buckeye Hollow Inheritance", "The Reincarnation of Smith", "Lanty Foster's Mistake", "An Ali Baba of the Sierras", "Miss Peggy's Proteges", and "The Goddess of Excelsior".