en the endless bleak slopes suddenly fell away before them
and they looked down into the wide green wonder of a new land. In less
than a week from that day, Felix's long dream had come true; he was
standing knee-deep in a rushing stream with a miner's pan in his
excited hands, he saw the gravel wash away, the muddy earth dissolve,
the black sand settle to the bottom to be dried and blown away,
leaving--it did not even then seem believable--the sparkling grains of
yellow gold.

They did well, he and Abner Blythe. Though their backs ached at the
end of the day and they came home to sleep, worn out, wet, and dirty,
their buckskin bags filled slowly with gold dust as the autumn
passed. Yet Felix could not put from his mind the talk of the man he
had met on the prairie, the tale of higher mountains, deeper valleys,
and richer diggings over to the southward. When the rains came and
there was little work to do, he thought of those words more and more,
and when the open weather came once more he gathered supplies, said
good-by one day to Abner and Anna, and set forth to seek a further,
greater fortune for them all.

It was a toilsome journey over the mountains, for very few had as yet
passed that way. The deep, shadowy canyons, the rushing streams, the
smooth faces of granite walls seemed impassable barriers, but Felix at
last passed them all and came into the wild, rugged valley of Bear
Creek. He staked his claim, put up his little tent, and went down to
the river to wash his first pan of gold. Yes, the prospector had been
right; here in this bleak, far region the toil was much heavier, but
the reward was unbelievably great.

There were not yet many miners who had come so far, but the one whose
claim was next to Felix's and whose rough shanty stood almost side by
side with his tent had been there among the first. He was a friend of
those men from whom the boy had first heard of the place, and he
willingly showed the newcomer the best slope for his claim and the
easiest way to wash the gold.

"There's room for all, so far," he said. "The others below there on
American River haven't had time to get discontented yet, but there
will be a rush up here soon. When the place begins to be crowded there
will be jumping of claims, and robbery and fights, with knives out and
blood shed, just as you have seen it down there. But we will be
peaceable and friendly here as long as we can."

The old miner seemed to take a great fancy to F