in their own way. I have known a score of cases
where dreams came true."

"Yes, I dare say you have," Frank said; "but then there are tens of
thousands of cases in which dreams don't come true. A man dreams, for
instance, that his wife, or his mother, or some one he cares for, is
dead; when he gets home he finds her all right, and never thinks any
more about the dream, or says anything about it. If in one case out of
ten thousand he finds she is dead, he tells every one about his dream,
and it is quoted all about as an instance that dreams come true."

"Yes, perhaps there's something in that," Abe agreed. "But I think
there's more than that too. I know a case of a chap who was out in the
plains hunting for a caravan on its way down to Santa Fe. There weren't,
as far as he knew, any Injins about, and what thar was had always shown
themselves friendly and peaceable. He laid down by the fire and went to
sleep, and he dreamed that a party of Injins scalped him. He woke in a
regular sweat from fright, and he was so badly scared that he scattered
the ashes of his fire and took to his horse, and led him into a cedar
bush close by. He hadn't been thar twenty minutes when he heard tramping
of horses, and along came a party of Injins. They halted not twenty
yards away from where his fire had been, and camped till the morning,
and then rode on again. He could see by thar dress and paint they were
up to mischief, and the very next day they fell upon a small caravan
and killed every soul. Now that man's dream saved his life; thar warn't
no doubt about that. If he hadn't had warning, and had time to scatter
his fire, and move quiet into the bush, and get a blanket over his
horse's head to prevent it snorting, it would have been all up with him;
and I could tell you a dozen tales like that."

"I think that could be accounted for," Frank said. "The man perhaps was
sleeping with his ear on the ground, and in his sleep may have heard the
tramping of the Indians' horses as they went over a bit of stony ground,
long before he could hear them when he arose to his feet, and the noise
set his brain at work, and he dreamt the dream you have told me. But I
know from what I have heard that gold-miners are, almost to a man, full
of fancies and superstitions, and that they will often take up claims
from some idea of luck rather than from their experience and knowledge
of ground."

After the work was over Abe and Frank went down to the claim.