A SEEKER AFTER GOLD. 337 



we ever meet again tell me what you think of it." I 

 took it, and, having heard nothing from him since, I 

 venture to reproduce it here, as it shows that he real- 

 ized something of what he had lost in the years gone 

 by, and also that in poetry as in life his favorite theme 

 was gold. It was inscribed " To Some Nuggets of 

 Brown County Gold," and ran as follows : 



TO SOME NUGGETS OF BKOWN COUNTY GOLD. 



Gold, gold, 



Tiny nuggets of yellow gold, 

 Brought from the north by a glacier cold, 

 Borne with the sands and the pebbles old 

 To the vales of Brown, and there out-doled 

 To remain alway. 



Gold, gold, 



Ever a curse to man the bold, 

 Luring him forth from his father's fold 

 To lands far away, where hills uprolled 

 Forever will be ; and bells untolled 

 Till the judgment day. 



Gold, gold, 



How many faces are pinched and old, 

 How many hearts once warm and bold 

 To-day are timid, and sere and cold, 

 How many bodies beneath the mold, 

 For search of thee? 



Gold, gold, 



To mortal ear the half's not told 

 Of men's souls lost and women's sold 

 For sake of such baubles as these I hold. 

 Then, curses upon thee, yellow gold, 

 Forever be. 



22 



