to go up on the hill-sides or in some of the
canyons and look for a mine, the latter at first laughed, and then grew
rather serious, and began to talk about the danger of being led away by
this desire to be suddenly rich without labor.

"You hear, my boy," he said, "about the one, two, or three men who
succeed, but not a word about the hundreds, and even thousands, who make
failure after failure, and pass their lives in the misery of 'hope
deferred.'"

Tom listened respectfully to his father, but could not make up his mind
that it would not be a fine thing to find a silver mine. He began to
take walks by himself, and look out for the signs about which various
miners had told him. At times he would think that he had found
something, and he would bring little pieces of rock to show to a friend
whose acquaintance he had made in the little town. This was an old miner
named Sam, a rough but very kind-hearted man, who did not laugh at all,
but told him pleasantly that he had not yet found any mine.

One day, while walking in a canyon near the hotel, and chipping with a
hammer at the broken rock, he saw two poorly dressed men carrying
bundles, as if on a journey, who stopped and asked what he was doing.
They told him that there was no use in searching in that place, but that
they had an excellent prospect hole, already showing "pay gravel," which
they had been compelled to abandon on account of pressing engagements
elsewhere, and which, although it was worth many thousands, they would
sell him for ten dollars. Poor little Tom had just that sum, which his
father had given him on his birthday, and to which he had proposed to
add his savings, for the purpose of buying some fishing-tackle. Perhaps
his slight "craze" about a mine made him less cautious than usual. At
all events, he accepted the men's offer, and promised to meet them that
afternoon near a tree which they pointed out.

He was there on the minute, with his ten dollars in his pocket. The men
took him up the hill, and showed him a rather deep hole, into which a
rough ladder led. Down this they went, and Tom saw some ore of just the
kind that his friend Sam had told him he ought to find. Then the men set
two stakes in the ground, on which they rudely marked "T. C.," took his
money, and walked hastily away. Tom went down to the hotel full of his
purchase. His father had gone to Georgetown, but Sam was there, and to
him Tom eagerly narrated what he thought his good fort