essly as
a day labourer. I only want to say, that if at any time you want a
friend, you can rely upon James Adams up to the last penny he has in the
world."

The next morning Mr. Adams and his son started for San Francisco, and
Frank and his party began to work their claims from the bottom of the
shaft. Although they paid well, they proved far less rich than they had
expected; they got good returns from the gravel, but found no pockets in
the bed rock, which was perfectly smooth and even. They found that on
either side of the Adams' claims the wall of rock behind swept round;
this, no doubt, had caused an eddy at this spot, which had worked out
the hole in the bed rock, and caused the deposit of so large a quantity
of gold here; and, singularly enough, Mr. Adams' dream had led him to
take up the exact spot under which alone the gold had been so largely
deposited. The party had taken on several hands, and six weeks sufficed
to clear out the paying stuff in their claims, and it was found that,
after paying all their expenses, there remained eight hundred ounces of
gold; a handsome result, but still very far below what they had reason
to expect from the richness of the stuff in the claims lying in the
centre of their ground.

This, however, added to the five hundred ounces they had received from
Mr. Adams, gave them a total of about a thousand pounds each. They held
a consultation on the night of the final clean-up. Two of the party were
disposed to return east with their money, but they finally came round to
Abe's view.

"A thousand pounds is a nice sum--I don't say it ain't--for less than
six months' work; still, to my mind, now we are here, with the chance of
doing just as well if we go on, I think it would be a fool's trick to
give it up. Five thousand dollars will buy a good farm east, but one
could work it with a good deal more comfort and sartainty if one had
another five thousand lying in the bank ready to draw upon in case of
bad times. We ain't fools; we don't mean to gamble or drink away what we
have made; it will just lie in the bank at Sacramento until we want to
draw it. If we work another year we may double it, but we can't make it
less; we have got our horses still, and I vote we go back to our work as
it was before, three of us digging and two carrying. We know that way we
can pay our expenses, however bad our luck may be, so thar ain't nothing
to loose in sticking to it for a bit longer, and thar may b