336 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



I engaged him in conversation and found that he 

 hud been washing the sands for three weeks and longer, 

 but with very poor success less than an ounce being 

 the total result of his labor all in small grains, the 

 one just found being the largest. "I am doing this 

 work more for pleasure than for profit," said he. " I 

 do not have to work, for I spent many years pros- 

 pecting in the west and finally found a paying lead, 

 sold out and came home, not rich, but with enough 

 to keep me from want for .the remainder of my days. 

 The bright Indian summer weather of the past few 

 weeks has tempted me forth and again have I been 

 seeking the yellow grains in the sands and gravel of 

 these streams." 



Talking farther with him, I found him to be a man 

 of fine education a graduate of an eastern college, 

 but a life long rover who, like thousands of others, 

 had given his years, more than thirty of them, to the 

 search for gold forsaking friends, society, all, in a 

 vain seeking for great wealth. 



He invited me to his tent, pitched on a near-lty 

 sunny slope, and there for an hour or longer enter- 

 tained me with anecdotes of his prospecting life 

 among the hills and mountains of the distant west. 

 Noticing a number of books in the tent, I led him to 

 talk of them, and found his knowledge of poetry to 

 be extensive, Bryant and Wordsworth being his ac- 

 knowledged favorites. As I was leaving he took from 

 between the covers of one of the volumes a folded 

 piece of paper and handing it to me said : "At times I 

 indulge a little in poetry myself. Here is a copy of 

 my latest verse. When you get home, read it, and if 



