e California train, in which I
supposed you were, before they came to the Sierras. But we had accidents
and delays, and failed to come up with that train anywhere on the route.

"At last we arrived in the mining country, and my new friends speedily
scattered abroad, looking for gold. I was still too feeble to work in
the water, washing out, or to dig. I had no money or property of any
kind, and was obliged to accept any means that offered of earning a
subsistence. Meanwhile I made such inquiry as I could under the
circumstances, and in such a country, but without learning anything of
any of my former friends and acquaintances, for two years. Before this
time, however, my health was restored, notwithstanding great hardships;
and being quite successful in mining, I was laying up considerable
gold-dust.

"About this time a man came into our camp from Oregon. As I was in the
habit of inquiring of any newcomer concerning you, and the people in the
train you were in, I asked this man if he had ever met a Mrs. Greyfield,
or any of the others. He replied that he thought there was a woman of my
name living in Portland, Oregon, a year or two before--he was sure he
had heard of a young widow of that name. I immediately wrote to you at
that place; but whether the letter was lost on the way, or whether it
was intercepted there (as by some intimations I have from Benton, it
might have been), no reply ever came to it. I also sent a letter to Mr.
----, in whose care I had left you, but nothing was ever heard from
him.

"When I had waited a reasonable length of time I wrote again to the
postmaster of the same place, asking him if he knew of such a person as
Mrs. Greyfield, in Oregon. The reply came this time from a man named
Seabrook, who said that there had been a woman of the name of Greyfield
in Portland at one time, but that both she and her child were dead. This
news put an end to inquiries in that direction, though I continued to
look for any one who might have known you, and finally found one of our
original party, who confirmed the intelligence of your having gone to
Oregon instead of California, and so settled the question, as I
supposed, forever.

"You may wonder, dear Anna, that I did not go to Oregon when I had the
barest suspicion of your being there. The distance and the trouble of
getting there were not what deterred me. I was making money where I was,
and did not wish to abandon my claim while it was producing well,