CONCLUSION. 
347 
breakfast," said he, gently, to the dog. " Like's not they'll 
be hungry. " 
The rest of the story is short. I linger over the last 
few pages of manuscript, dear boys and girls, with a 
pleasure that is touched with pain. Long as you have 
lived in the company of the Buttons, the author has lived 
longer with them ; for not only does the writing take far 
more time than the reading of a story, but Flossie and 
Robert and Solomon and the rest have been my compan- 
ions, night and day, since the words Chapter I. were 
written. I hope you have learned to love them as I have, 
and that you will feel a little sorry at parting with them. 
For part we must at last. There is no need of telling 
you in detail how they journeyed to the navigable waters 
of the Copper River ; how they said good-bye to Solomon 
and Peeschee, watching them from the raft until it passed 
around a bend in the river, and they were lost to view ; 
how the little expedition reached the coast in safety, took 
passage in a small fishing smack to Sitka, and thence by 
packet-ship to San Francisco. 
You will be interested to learn that Mr. Button suc- 
ceeded so well in convincing half a dozen California capi- 
talists of the practical value of his claim that they formed 
a stock company for working the mines, allotting him a 
share in the enterprise, which he sold out, four years later, 
for a trifle over half a million dollars. 
Mrs. Button is much exercised over a site for an edu- 
