with me," said Richard
Dewey. "You're a good fellow, Jake Bradley, and I trust you more than
any man I have met since I came to California. Ben acted as escort to
Florence, and I owe him a debt for that which I hope some day to repay."

"Then it's all fixed," said Bradley, in a tone of satisfaction. "We four
are to keep together till we see you within reach of 'Frisco. When you
and your young lady meet you won't need us any more."

Richard Dewey smiled. "Florence will wish to thank you for your kind
care of me, Bradley," he said.

"I've no objection to that. You can invite me to the weddin', Dick."

"I give you that invitation now, and hope you may not have long to wait
for the occasion. All difficulties are not yet removed, but I hope they
may vanish speedily. I get impatient sometimes, but I try to curb my
impatient feeling."

"I reckon I would feel so myself if I was in your fix," observed
Bradley.

"I hope you may be, Jake."

Bradley shook his head.

"I'm a cross-grained old bachelor," he said, "and I reckon no gal would
look at me twice."

CHAPTER XII.

THE PROFITS OF MINING.

A few evenings later Ben and Bradley were sitting just outside the cabin
as the twilight deepened.

"It doesn't seem as if this was our last night in the old shanty," said
Jake Bradley, taking the pipe from his mouth. "It ain't a palace, but I
shall kinder hate to leave it."

"I've got to feel very much at home here myself, Jake; still, I should
like to get somewhere where it isn't quite so far out of the world."

"There's something in that, Ben."

"I haven't heard anything from home for a good many weeks; I wish I knew
whether my uncle's family are all well."

"How many is there in the family, Ben?"

"There's Uncle Job and Aunt Hannah and Cousin Jennie."

"That's just what I thought," said Jake.

"I don't understand you," said Ben, puzzled. "What did you think?"

"I thought there was a Cousin Jennie."

Our hero laughed, and, it may be, blushed a little. "What made you think
that?"

"There generally is, I notice," said Mr. Bradley, eagerly. "Is Cousin
Jennie pretty?"

"To be sure she is."

"I thought that too, Ben."

"What are you driving at, Jake?"

"I was sure there was some one besides the old folks that you was
anxious about."

"Well, you happen to be right," said Ben, laughing. "But I must tell you
that Jennie is only fourteen, and I am only sixteen."

"You'll both of you be older some day,