Whenever you see a dust through the trees, you look first to make sure it is not raised by stray cattle. Then when you are certain of your horse and man, you start a fire in the little stove. That is the invariable rule in the [California] mountains.The logic is simple, unanswerable, and correct. The presence of the man argues that he has ridden from some distant point, for here all points are more or less distant; and the fact in turn proves that somewhat of exercise and space have intervened last he has eaten. Therefore, no matter what the time of day, you feed him. It works out like a mathematical formula.Similarly in other camps, after you have chatted for a few moments, some one will slip quietly away. A sound of splitting crackles, a thin, fragrant smoke odour enters your nostrils. After an interval there is brought to you a lunch to which your attention is invited. The lunch varies from beans to a tin plate and rank coffee in a tin cup, to tea and yeast-bread, and gooseberry jelly and layer cake, according to whose camp you may happen to be in. But its welcome is the same, and you find yourself responding avidly at ten o'clock in the morning to the cordial invitation, "eat hearty". Such is mountain hospitality and mountain convention. It is as much a matter of course as the urban ring at the door bell, and is no more to be omitted than the offer of a chair."Light and rest yo' hat"; "Eat hearty"; "Take care of yoreself." These three speeches can cover the entire gamut of good-fellowship - greeting, entertainment, and good-bye.

• The Westerners (1901)
• The Claim Jumpers (1901)
• Conjurer's House (1903)
• The Forest (1903)
• Blazed Trail Stories (1904)
• The Mountains (1904)
• The Silent Places (1904)
• The Pass (1906), with S. H. Adams
• The Mystery (1907), with S. H. Adams
• Arizona Nights (1907)
• The Riverman (1908)
• The Cabin (1910)
• The Rules of the Game (1910)
• The Land of Footprints (1912)
• African Camp Fires (1913)
• Gold (1913)
• The Gray Dawn (1915)
• The Rose Dawn (1920)
• Rediscovered Country (1915)
• The forty-niners; a chronicle of the California trail and El Dorado (1918)
• The Killer (1919)
• Daniel Boone, wilderness scout (1922)
• Lions in the path; a book of adventure on the high veldt (1926)
• Back of Beyond (1926)
• Dog days, other times, other dogs; the autobiography of a man and his dog friends through four decades of changing America (1930)
• Pole Star (1935), with Harry DeVighne
• The Betty Book (1939)
• Across the Unknown [with Harwood White] (1939)
• The Unobstructed Universe (1940)
• The Road I Know (1942)
• Anchors to Windward
• The Stars are Still There
• With Folded Wings (1947)