mankind to me, and the very kindest, was
positively low-enough to believe, in his sad opinion of the female race,
that my young head was turned because of the wealth to which I had no
claim, except through his own justice. He had insisted at first that the
whole of that great nugget belonged to me by right of sole discovery.
I asked him whether, if any stranger had found it, it would have been
considered his, and whether he would have allowed a "greaser," upon
finding, to make off with it. At the thought of this, Mr. Gundry gave
a little grunt, and could not go so far as to maintain that view of it.
But he said that my reasoning did not fit; that I was not a greaser,
but a settled inhabitant of the place, and entitled to all a settler's
rights; that the bed of the river would have been his grave but for the
risk of my life, and therefore whatever I found in the bed of the river
belonged to me, and me only.

In argument he was so much stronger than I could ever attempt to be
that I gave it up, and could only say that if he argued forever it
could never make any difference. He did not argue forever, but only
grew obstinate and unpleasant, so that I yielded at last to own the half
share of the bullion.

Very well. Every body would have thought, who has not studied the nature
of men or been dragged through it heavily, that now there could be no
more trouble between two people entirely trusting each other, and only
anxious that the other should have the best of it. Yet, instead of that
being the case, the mischief, the myriad mischief, of money set in,
until I heartily wished sometimes that my miserable self was down in the
hole which the pelf had left behind it.

For what did Uncle Sam take into his head (which was full of generosity
and large ideas, so loosely packed that little ones grew between them,
especially about womankind)--what else did he really seem to think, with
the downright stubbornness of all his thoughts, but that I, his poor
debtor and pensioner and penniless dependent, was so set up and elated
by this sudden access of fortune that henceforth none of the sawing race
was high enough for me to think of? It took me a long time to believe
that so fair and just a man ever could set such interpretation upon me.
And when it became too plain that he did so, truly I know not whether
grief or anger was uppermost in my troubled heart.

CHAPTER XVII

HARD AND SOFT

Before very long it was manifest enough