eaning to the immemorial calling that speaks to the hearts of the English
through the rude chanteys of the sea, something stirred me when the
refrain rose up exultantly, "Blow, boys, blow, for Californio, for there's
shining gold and wealth untold on the sunny Sacramento."

"Where did he learn the trick of it?" said Harry. "There's certainly
nothing in the words, and yet that song takes hold. I dare say many a poor
deserter devil has marched to his death to it. The seamen came up with the
vanguard when they found gold in Caribou. Wake up, and ring it out, Ralph.
A tribute to the fallen. 'Hey ho, Sacramento!'"

I have heard that chantey since. On certain occasions Harry brings out its
final chords on the Fairmead piano with a triumphant crash that has yet a
tremble in it, and each time it conjures up a vision of spectral pines
towering through the shadow that veils the earth below, while above the
mists the snow lies draped in stainless purity waiting for the dawn. Then
I know that Harry, who is only a tiller of the soil, had learned in the
book of nature to grasp the message of that scene, and interpret it
through the close of a seaman's ballad.

The full story of our journey would take long to tell, and a recital of
how we struggled through choked forests, floundered amid the drifts in the
passes, or crawled along the icy rock-slope's side, might prove
monotonous. We left the ashes of our camp-fires in many a burnt brulee and
among the boulders of lonely lakes, but though, after one pack-horse fell
over a precipice, provisions ran out rapidly, we failed to find the gorge
the prospector talked about; or rather, because the whole land was
fissured by them, we found many gorges, but each in succession proved to
be the wrong one. Then we held consultations, and the prospector
suggested that we should return and try again in the spring, to which
Harry agreed. Johnston, however, would not hear of this, and said with a
strange assurance:

"I suppose it's the gambler's spirit, but I've gone prospecting somewhat
too often before, and if one only keeps on long enough the luck is bound
to turn. This time I seem to know it's going to. Still, I'll fall in with
the majority. Ralph, as head of the firm you have the casting vote."

Then, and I always regretted it, I said: "We should never have come at
all. No sensible person goes prospecting in mid-winter; but, being here,
we had better spend three days more. That means further red