o
a goldsmith in Dublin. He is said to have preserved the secret for
upward of twenty years, but marrying a young wife, he imprudently
confided his discovery to her, and she, believing her husband to be mad,
immediately revealed the circumstance to her relations, through whose
means it was made public. This was toward the close of the year 1795,
and the effect it produced was remarkable. Thousands of people of every
age and sex hurried to the spot, and from the laborer who could wield a
spade or pickaxe to the child who scraped the rock with a rusty nail,
all eagerly engaged in the search after gold. The Irish are a people
possessed of a rich and quick fancy, and the very name of a gold mine
carried with it ideas of inexhaustible wealth.

During the interval which elapsed between the public announcement of the
gold discovery and the taking possession of the mine by the
government--a period of about two months--it is supposed that upward of
two thousand five hundred ounces of gold were collected by the peasants,
principally from the mud and sand of Ballinvally stream, and disposed of
for about ten thousand pounds, a sum far exceeding the produce of the
mine during the government operations, which amounted to little more
than three thousand five hundred pounds.

The gold was found in pieces of all forms and sizes, from the smallest
perceptible particle to the extraordinary mass of twenty-two ounces,
which sold for eighty guineas. This large piece was of an irregular
form; it measured four inches in its greatest length, and three in
breadth, and in thickness it varied from half an inch to an inch; a gilt
cast of it may be seen in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. So pure
was the gold generally found, that it was the custom of the Dublin
goldsmiths to put gold coin in the opposite scale to it, and give weight
for weight.

The government works were carried on until 1798, when all the machinery
was destroyed in the insurrection. The mining was renewed in 1801, but
not being found sufficiently productive to pay the expenses, the search
was abandoned. There prevails yet, however, a lingering belief among the
peasants that there is still gold in Kinsella, and only the "lucky man"
is wanting.

THE STORY OF THE SUMMER BOARDER, MOSES, AND THE TWO VISITORS.

BY THE FAMILY STORY-TELLER.

I warn you, said Family Story-Teller, looking round upon the family
circle the next evening, that this is a story of mistakes. I