e and some less of the precious
dust; but nobody's fortune was yet made, and the rainy season set in.

The heavy rains confined us for days to the shelter of tent and wagon;
but the days were nothing to the nights, which on the banks of the
Sacramento are almost equinoctial throughout the year; and we had
neither coal nor candle. All the fuel that could be found was rather
too little for culinary purposes. Concerning the rest of our comforts,
there is no use in being particular; but at intervals between the
drowning showers, we were willing enough to come out and work, though
the muddy soil and the swollen river made our labour still harder, and
our profits less. The best service was done us by an honest Paisley
weaver, who had left his helpmate and two children at San Francisco,
in hopes of taking back, quite full, a strong chest, of some two
hundredweight capacity, which he had brought with infinite pains to
the diggings. He enlivened our wet leisure by repeating whole volumes
of Burns and Scott. Bill also returned to his wonderful stories,
though the captain and mate sneered at them more than ever; indeed,
they were by far the most discontented of the company, and an
unaccountable sort of distrust seemed growing between them and Bill.
At length, fever and ague began to thin the ranks of the gold-seekers;
we saw the working-parties around us diminish day by day, and graves
dug in the shadows of the low coppice. Our company kept lip amazingly,
perhaps because, according to the captain's counsel, we held but
little communication with other workers; but the want of the
buffalo-meat, which the Indian traders were accustomed to bring, was
much felt among us; and one day less rainy than usual, Bill Williams,
as the idlest, was sent up the river's bank, on their wonted track, to
look out for their coming. The rest were busy, and did not miss him;
but I thought he stayed long. The sky became unusually dark; great
clouds floated over us from the west, and then broke with a sudden
thunder-crash, which was renewed every five minutes with such rain and
lightning as I had never seen. We ran to our tents, and, when fairly
sheltered, Bill also arrived, wet to the skin, out of breath, and
looking terribly frightened. He said, hastily, that he had seen
nothing, and no word of the Indians; but the poor fellow began to
shiver as he spoke, and before evening the fever was strong upon him.

To keep the rest safe, he was quartered alone i