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esent ends; he had no idea of laying it up for the future; married men, he thought, might, perhaps, with propriety, amass money for the benefit of their families, but _he_ wasn't a married man, and didn't mean to be one, so he felt in duty bound to spend all the gold he dug out of the earth. We do not pretend to enter into a disquisition as to the correctness or incorrectness of Ned's opinions; we merely state them, leaving our reader to exercise his own reasoning powers on the subject, if so disposed. For a few seconds after Ned's last speech, no sound escaped the lips of his comrades, save those resulting from the process of mastication. At last, Tom Collins threw down his knife, and slapped his thigh energetically, as he exclaimed, "I'll go with you, Ned! I've made up my mind. I'm tired of digging, too; and I'm game for a ramble into the heart of the Rocky Mountains, if you like." "Bravo! Tom," cried Captain Bunting, slapping his companion on the shoulder--"well and bravely spoken; but you're a goose for all that, and so, saving his presence, is Commodore Ned Sinton. Why, you'll just waste two months or so in profitless wandering, and return beggars to the Little Creek to begin the work all over again. Take my advice, lads--the advice of an old salt, who knows a thing or two--and remain where you are till we have worked out all the gold hereabouts. After that you may talk of shifting." "You're a very sour old salt to endeavour to damp our spirits in that way at the outset, but it won't do; my mind is made up, and I'm glad to find that there is at least one of the party who is strong enough to break these golden chains." "Faix I comed here for goold, an' I stop here for the same raison," remarked Larry, scraping the last morsels from the bottom of the kettle with an iron spoon; "I've thravelled more nor enough in me day, so I can affoord to stop at home now." "Get out, you renegade! do you call this home?" cried Ned. "'Tis all that's of it at present, anyhow." "When shall we start?" inquired Tom Collins. "To-morrow. We have few preparations to make, and the sooner we go the better; for when the rainy season sets in, our journeying will be stopped perforce. I have a plan in my mind which I shall detail to you after we retire to rest. Meanwhile I'll go and improve my bed, which has been so uncomfortable for some nights past that my very bones are aching." Ned rose, took up an axe, and, g
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