interval between the dances, coffee is consumed by the senoras, and
coffee with something, stronger by the senors; so that, as the, night
advances, the merriment gets, if not "fast and furious," at least
animated and imposing.

_25th June, Sunday_.--We have all of us, given over working on Sundays,
as we found the toil on six successive days quite hard enough. Last
week we had rather indifferent success, having realized only nineteen
ounces of gold, barely three ounces a man. The dust is weighed out and
distributed every evening, and each man carries his portion about his
person. Jose, who has amassed a tolerable quantity by working in his
spare time, is constantly feeling to see whether his stock is safe. He
weighs it two or three times a-day, to ascertain, I suppose, whether it
exhausts itself by insensible perspiration, or other means, and
invokes, by turns, every saint in the calendar--his patron-saint,
Joseph, in particular--and all his old heathenish spirits, to keep his
treasure safe. In accordance with a vow he made before he started from
Monterey, he has set apart one-fourth of his treasure for the Big
Woman, as he calls the Virgin Mary--in contradistinction to the Great
Spirit, I imagine; but I fancy her stock of gold decreases every day,
and that Jose doesn't play her fair.

We had a great deal of serious conversation this afternoon upon the
propriety of moving farther up the river, and trying some of the higher
washings; for our last week's labour was a terribly poor yield. We
remembered Captain Sutter's account of how Mr. Marshall had first
discovered the gold in the vicinity of his mill, and how plentiful it
seemed to lie there. Besides, the diggings are getting overcrowded; the
consequence of which is, that we have had several of our pans and
baskets stolen. We therefore decided that, if we could sell our cradles
to advantage--and there is some likelihood of this, for there is not a
carpenter left all through these diggings to make others for the
constant new-comers--to move higher up the Fork, and try our fortune at
a less crowded spot. There is one thing that I think I shall regret
leaving myself, and that is, the fandango and the two or three pretty
senoritas one has been in the habit of meeting at it almost every
night.

CHAPTER XII.

The party leave the Mormon diggings
Cradles sold by auction
Laughter and biddings
The wagon sent back
The route to the saw-mills
A horse in dan