asy and rancid pork, bear's-meat, and venison, were all
the poor people could procure, although many a man there would have
given a thousand dollars--ay, all he possessed--for a single meal of
fresh potatoes. The men smitten with scurvy had, therefore, no chance
of recovering. The valley became a huge hospital, and the banks of the
stream a cemetery.

There were occasional lulls, however, in this dismal state of affairs.
Sometimes the rain ceased; the sun burst forth in irresistible
splendour, and the whole country began to steam like a caldron. A cart,
too, succeeded now and then in struggling up with a load of fresh
provisions; reviving a few sinking spirits for a time, and almost making
the owner's fortune; but, at the best, it was a drearily calamitous
season,--one which caused many a sick heart to hate the sight and name
of gold, and many a digger to resolve to quit the land, and all its
treasures, at the first opportunity.

Doubtless, too, many deep and earnest thoughts of life, and its aims and
ends, filled the minds of some men at that time. It is often in seasons
of adversity that God shews to men how mistaken their views of happiness
are, and how mad, as well as sinful, it is in them to search for joy and
peace apart from, and without the slightest regard for, the Author of
all felicity. Yes, there is reason to hope and believe that many seeds
of eternal life were sown by the Saviour, and watered by the Holy
Spirit, in that disastrous time of disease and death,--seed which,
perhaps, is now blessing and fertilising many distant regions of the
world.

In one of the smallest and most wretched of the huts, at the entrance of
the valley of Little Creek, lay a man, whose days on earth were
evidently few. The hut stood apart from the others, in a lonely spot,
as if it shrank from observation, and was seldom visited by the miners,
who were too much concerned about their own misfortunes to care much for
those of others. Here Kate Morgan sat by the couch of her dying
brother, endeavouring to soothe his last hours by speaking to him in the
most endearing terms, and reading passages from the Word of God, which
lay open on her knee. But the dying man seemed to derive little comfort
from what she said or read. His restless eye roamed anxiously round the
wretched hut, while his breath came short and thick from between his
pale lips.

"Shall I read to ye, darlin'?" said the woman, bending over the couch to
catch