nything. He
had some men working with him. After some months they got the mill
done. This mill was built to run by water.

But when he started it, the mill did not run well. Marshall saw that he
must dig a ditch below the great water wheel, to carry off the water.
He hired wild Indians to dig the ditch.

When the Indians had partly dug this ditch, Marshall went out one
January morning to look at it. The clear water was running through the
ditch. It had washed away the sand, leaving the pebbles bare. At the
bottom of the water Marshall saw something yellow. It looked like
brass. He put his hand down into the water and took up this bright,
yellow thing. It was about the size and shape of a small pea. Then he
looked, and found another pretty little yellow bead at the bottom of
the ditch.

Marshall trembled all over. It might be gold. But he remembered that
there is another yellow substance that looks like gold. It is called
"fool's gold." He was afraid he had only found fool's gold.

Marshall knew that if it was gold it would not break easily. He laid
one of the pieces on a stone; then he took another stone and hammered
it. It was soft, and did not break. If it had broken to pieces,
Marshall would have known that it was not gold.

In a few days the men had dug up about three ounces of the yellow
stuff. They had no means of making sure it was gold.

Then Marshall got on a horse and set out for Sutter's Fort, carrying
the yellow metal with him. He traveled as fast as the rough road would
let him. He rode up to Sutler's in the evening, all spattered with mud.

He told Captain Sutter that he wished to see him alone. Marshall's eyes
looked wild, and Sutter was afraid that he was crazy. But he went to a
room with him. Then Marshall wanted the door locked. Sutter could not
think what was the matter with the man.

[Illustration: Weighing the First Gold.]

When he was sure that nobody else would come in, Marshall poured out in
a heap on the table the little yellow beads that he had brought.

Sutter thought it was gold, but the men did not know how to tell
whether it was pure or not. At last they hunted up a book that told how
heavy gold is. Then they got a pair of scales and weighed the gold,
putting silver dollars in the other end of the scales for weights. Then
they held one end of the scales under water and weighed the gold. By
finding how much lighter it was in the water than out of the water,
they found that it was