filled our souls. We drew deep breaths;
and for the first time the great peace and majesty of these California
mountains cooled our spirits.

"I think it's a bully place, Yank," said Johnny soberly, "and that
little bench up above us looks flat."

We clambered across the slant of the flower-spangled meadow to the
bench, just within the fringe of the pines. It proved to be flat, and
from the edge of it down the hill seeped a little spring marked by the
feathery bracken. We entered a cool green place, peopled with shadows
and the rare, considered notes of soft-voiced birds. Just over our
threshold, as it were, was the sunlit, chirpy, buzzing, bright-coloured,
busy world. Overhead a wind of many voices hummed through the pine tops.
The golden sunlight flooded the mountains opposite, flashed from the
stream, lay languorous on the meadow. Long bars of it slanted through an
unguessed gap in the hills behind us to touch with magic the very tops
of the trees over our heads. The sheen of the precious metal was over
the land.

CHAPTER XVI

THE FIRST GOLD

We arose before daylight, picketed our horses, left our dishes unwashed,
and hurried down to the diggings just at sun-up carrying our gold pans
or "washbowls," and our extra tools. The bar was as yet deserted. We set
to work with a will, taking turns with the pickaxe and the two shovels.
I must confess that our speed slowed down considerably after the first
wild burst, but we kept at it steadily. It was hard work, and there is
no denying it, just the sort of plain hard work the day labourer does
when he digs sewer trenches in the city streets. Only worse, perhaps,
owing to the nature of the soil. It has struck me since that those few
years of hard labour in the diggings, from '49 to '53 or '54, saw more
actual manual toil accomplished than was ever before performed in the
same time by the same number of men. The discouragement of those
returning we now understood. They had expected to take the gold without
toil; and were dismayed at the labour it had required. At any rate, we
thought we were doing our share that morning, especially after the sun
came up. We wielded our implements manfully, piled our debris to one
side, and gradually achieved a sort of crumbling uncertain excavation
reluctant to stay emptied.

About an hour after our arrival the other miners began to appear,
smoking their pipes. They stretched themselves lazily, spat upon their
hands, and set to.