assed, the men in it (who wore miners' costumes)
waved their hands--and see; they held up gunny sacks and salt bags,
stuffed full and heavy.

"Just from the mines," they shouted. "Back from the land of gold.
You're too late. We got it all."

The sight of those fat, heavy sacks created intense excitement aboard
the _Mary Ann_. The passengers rushed to the near rail; eyes bulged
and voices volleyed in a chorus of questions--and several persons
almost jumped overboard.

"Where'd you get it?"

"How much?"

"There's more, isn't there?"

"Wait a minute!"

"Stop the ship, captain!"

"Hey! Show us a handful!"

Charley was as excited as anybody. Big sacks of gold! Think of that!
Look at them! But the captain laughed, winking at Mr. Grigsby.

"Sand, boys; sand," he drawled. "That's a trick of those up-river
fellows. They load with bags of sand for ballast, and show them to the
other crowd. Bah!"

At this Charley felt better, although he did not begrudge anybody a
sack of gold, if only there was enough left.

The _Mary Ann_ made rather slow progress. The river, always broad and
smooth, curved in mighty sweeping bends, so that sometimes the breeze
was dead ahead. Then the _Mary Ann_ must tack and tack, gaining only a
few yards in several hundred. At night she tied up, to a tree; and
several of her passengers caught some fish from the rail. Charley
tended a line, for a few minutes, and caught a cat-fish that weighed
twenty pounds; he couldn't pull it in until his neighbor helped.

The Sacramento evidently flowed through a wide valley, for mountains
were visible beyond the timber on either hand. Each evening the
schooner stopped for the night, tying or anchoring. Not until noon of
the fifth day on the river was any sign of settlement along the banks
encountered, although boats continued frequent. But that noon a large
ranch was passed, where a settler by the name of Schwartz had been wise
enough to start in raising vegetables. He had made over $15,000
already, claimed people aboard the schooner--yet for all that nobody on
the _Mary Ann_ seemed ready to farm instead of mine.

Next, ahead on the right bank, above the Schwartz ranch, appeared a
collection of houses and tents. The _Mary Ann_ waxed excited again.

"There's Sacramento!"

"Get your things together, boys."

"Is that Sacramento, cap'n?"

"No, sir," answered the captain, shortly. "That's only Sutterville."

"Do we stop?"

"No, si