hing which is the measure of
values, something which all races of men recognize at once, something
indestructible and peculiarly precious, which can be drawn into a
thread-like silk, or hammered into a leaf so thin that a breath will
carry it away; it is the very spirit of the rock, the part that is
imperishable. Moreover, it is labor made immortal, for, tried by fire, it
grows bright and loses no grain of its weight. Could we find a piece of
the beaten gold that overlaid the temple of Israel's greatest king, it
would, to-day, represent the labor of one of those miners that toiled in
Ophir and fell back to dust thirty generations before the Christ was
born.

"Moreover, it is and has been from the first one of the measures of the
civilization of nations. Where gold and silver are in general circulation
among the people they are always prosperous, their children are always
educated, and the advance is so marked that it can be measured by decades
of years. A nation's decay or enlightenment can be traced by the
decreasing or increasing volume of gold and silver in circulation.

"Miners thus engrossed, producing such a substance, and carrying such
hopes and aspirations in their souls, as a rule, grow stronger, more
manly and more true.

"I do not say that there are not many rough characters among them. I do
not say that when the influence of true women is in great part withdrawn
from any class of men, they do not more and more gravitate toward
savagery, for they but follow a natural law; but the tenderest, truest,
bravest, best, most generous and most just men I have ever known have
been miners in the far West of the United States."

While talking, Sedgwick had seemed to forget where he was, but as
he ceased he glanced across the table and noticed a look of full
appreciation on Rose's face, and smiling, he added: "I was talking for
Jack's sake, Miss Rose."

It was a pleasant dinner, and a pleasant evening followed. There was a
running fire of conversation, broken only when the young ladies sang or
played. When Sedgwick first heard Grace sing, he sat, as he said
afterward, "in mortal terror lest wings should spread out from her white
shoulders and she should disappear through the ceiling."

In point of fact, she sang well, but she was not nearly ethereal enough
to want to give up the substantial earth to take to the ether.

But amid all the contending emotions, Sedgwick kept a furtive watch upon
the two old men. They