an', like God, I said nothin' to any of 'em, but watched an'
was interested in 'em all.

"I suppose I enjoyed myself, for I couldn't help laughin' quietly at
their expense. 'What went ye out for to seek?' I would ask as, sittin'
by the outskirts o' the town, I saw this army o' men an' women
struggle in from the mountain trail. An' then I'd answer myself, 'We
have come that we may dig out gold, that others may take it from us.
We have come to exchange our health an' hope for disease an'
disappointment. We have come to gain all the world, which we shall not
gain--an' to lose our own souls.'

"I tell you, it's mighty strange to think o' where all the gold, which
those brave chaps o' the Old Virginia days dug out, has gone. Some o'
it's been made into a necklace t' hang about a lady's throat; and some
o' it's gone to Rome t' gild a cross; and some o' it's been made into
a weddin' ring that a young girl might get married. I don't suppose
the folk in the old lands ever think of how far the gold which they
wear has travelled, nor how many have died in its gettin'. Some, which
'as bin made into a watch and goes to the city every day, may have
come from King Solomon's mines in ships o' Tarshish; an' the king may
have worn it hisself in his temple, or have given it away to the
dark-skinned girl that he wrote that song about.

"When I thought o' these things in Old Virginia, it made me sort o'
happy, so that I didn't mind what the Mormons 'ad said. Time seemed so
endless, an' life so short, that I didn't seem called on to worry
myself--only t' watch. If I found a new claim which panned out rich, I
didn't work it myself; for I knew that, though I seemed lucky, I
should end unlucky. An' I didn't tell anyone else about it; an' if
they found it out for theirselves, I was angry. I'd found the Ophir,
an' hadn't made anythin' out o' it--that was a big enough present for
one man to make to his world.

"So I just looked on, an' saw the fools rushin' in who expected to
pile up fortunes. And I saw the camels comin' in an' out, carryin'
salt to Virginia from the desert. They'd bin brought from Asia, an' I
could see that they felt as I felt, an' despised the greed an' hurry
o' what was goin' on. Later some of 'em got so disgusted that they
escaped from their drivers--at that time they was bein' used in
Arizona t' carry ore. I've often smiled when I've fancied the terror
o' some lone prospector, should one o' them long-legged brutes poke u