ighted up. "I'd like to hear it from his own lips."

"Wal," grinned Ham, "jest tell him that he's 'bout th' most abused man
in all Californy, an', I reckon, he'll open his heart tew you. He's
pow'ful sore over everybudy else but he a-gettin' th' gold, an' he th'
discoverer."

"Maybe the hot coffee will do as well," laughed Bud, as he hurried back
to his guest.

The hot coffee, possibly even more the contagion of the joyous
enthusiasm of the two youths, did, indeed, seem to act like a charm on
Marshall's taciturn and soured disposition; for, before the meal was
half over, he was talking freely of his mining ventures with Thure and
Bud; and it needed but a few well-directed inquiries to bring the
desired story from his willing lips.

"How did I happen to discover the gold?" he began, as if the boys had
asked him directly for the story, which they had not. "Well, it all came
about in this way," and he settled himself into a comfortable position.
"In May, 1847, Captain Sutter sent me up the American River to look for
a good site for a sawmill that he wished me to build for him; and, after
a number of days of fruitless search, I found what looked like the exact
spot I was hunting for on the South Fork of the American about
forty-five miles from Sutter's Fort. Captain Sutter, you may be sure,
was well pleased when I told him of my success; and we entered into a
partnership, according to which I was to build the mill and he was to
find provisions, tools, teams, and pay a part of the men's wages; and in
August, everything being ready, I started out with six men and two
wagons loaded with the tools and provisions. We first put up log houses
in which to live; for we expected to remain there all winter. But this
was done in no time for the men were great with the ax. Then we cut
timber and fell to work hewing it for the framework of the mill and to
building the dam, which, with the help of about forty Indians, who had
gathered around us in great numbers, we put up in a kind of a way in
four weeks. When the mill was nearly completed, it was my custom every
evening after the men had quit work to raise the gate in the mill-race
and allow the water to run all night, in order to wash as much sand and
gravel as possible out of the race during the night; and in the morning,
while the men were getting breakfast, I would go down and shut the gate
and walk along the race to see where the work needed to be done for the
day.

"One clear