tone in which this proposal was made, and the fact that it _was_ the
last night of the year, induced Maryann to respond, with gracious
condescension:--

"Well, Richards, I'm agreeable."

"Here, then," said Richards, raising his cup on high, "I give you the
'ealth of Mr Larry O'Ale, Mr Bunco, an' all absent friends--wishin'
'em luck, an' lots o' gold."

"An' a 'appy deliverance from these 'orrible countries," added Maryann.

"I agree with _you_, Maryhann," said Jemima, draining her cup to the
dregs in honour of the toast.

But how did Larry and his friends spend that last night of the year in
the far-off golden land? Let Larry speak for himself, in a letter which
was received by Will Osten, many months afterwards, and which we now
give _verbatim et literatim_.

The letter in question was written in a remarkably cramped hand, on
several very dirty sheets of blue ruled foolscap, folded with much care
and crookedness, and fastened with a red wafer which bore the distinct
impression of an extremely hard knuckle. It ran thus:--

"Grizlie bar gultch first janooary.

"Dear mister osten, i taik up my pen, the its litil i has to do wid
sitch things, to let yoo no that this coms hopin' your al wel as it
leeves us--barrin bunko who overait hiself last nite at super but hees
al rite again, yool be glad to larn that we hav diskivered lots o goold.
wan day whin i wos up the straim i thowt id tri me luk in a hole, an
faix didnt i turn up a nugit o puer goold as big as my hid. i tuk it
down to the hous an' didnt we spind a nite over it! its glad i was we
had no likker for i do belaive weed have all got rorin drunk, as it was,
sure we danced haf the nite to the myoosik of a kitle drum--an owld tin
kitle it was, but we didnt mind that, niver a taist, for the nugit kep
up our sperits. Wel, we wint an turned up the hole kuntry after that,
an' got heeps o goold. yool niver belaive it--there was nugits o' all
sises from a pay to a pitaity. Kaptin dal wint to sanfransisky last
munth an hees paid of the det to mister zooleeno, interest an all, so
yoor free, an' theres a big sum in the bank, but i dont no ritely how
much, but Kaptin dal is to rite yoo soon as to that an' a good many
other things, he's too much exited about the nugit just now to midle wid
the pen, so he's maid me his depity, dee see, an its that saim im
allways willin to be, for im at all times as kool as a kookumber, an had
a first-rate eddikashun--good luk to the p