ho had done well at Pine-tree
Gulch; he had come across the plains with his father, who had died when
half-way over, and Dick had been thrown on the world to shift for
himself. Nature had not intended him for the work, for he was a
delicate, timid lad; what spirits he originally had having been years
before beaten out of him by a brutal father. So far, indeed, Dick was
the better rather than the worse for the event which had left him an
orphan.

They had been travelling with a large party for mutual security against
Indians and Mormons, and so long as the journey lasted Dick had got on
fairly well. He was always ready to do odd jobs, and as the draught
cattle were growing weaker and weaker, and every pound of weight was of
importance, no one grudged him his rations in return for his services;
but when the company began to descend the slopes of the Sierra Nevada
they began to break up, going off by twos and threes to the diggings, of
which they heard such glowing accounts. Some, however, kept straight on
to Sacramento, determining there to obtain news as to the doings at all
the different places, and then to choose that which seemed to offer the
best prospects of success.

Dick proceeded with them to the town, and there found himself alone. His
companions were absorbed in the busy rush of population, and each had so
much to provide and arrange for, that none gave a thought to the
solitary boy. However, at that time no one who had a pair of hands,
however feeble, to work need starve in Sacramento; and for some weeks
Dick hung around the town doing odd jobs, and then, having saved a few
dollars, determined to try his luck at the diggings, and started on foot
with a shovel on his shoulder and a few day's provisions slung across
it.

Arrived at his destination, the lad soon discovered that gold-digging
was hard work for brawny and seasoned men, and after a few feeble
attempts in spots abandoned as worthless he gave up the effort, and
again began to drift; and even in Pine-tree Gulch it was not difficult
to get a living. At first he tried rocking cradles, but the work was far
harder than it appeared. He was standing ankle deep in water from
morning till night, and his cheeks grew paler, and his strength, instead
of increasing, seemed to fade away. Still, there were jobs within his
strength. He could keep a fire alight and watch a cooking-pot, he could
carry up buckets of water or wash a flannel shirt, and so he struggled