her bosom heaving with
excitement beneath her calico, and her nostrils wide. She was a
remarkably pretty girl; and this was certainly the moment of her
triumph.

We fell into sanity as respects our hours of work and the way we went at
it. Often we took as much as an hour and a half off at noon; or quit
work early in the day. Then it was pleasant to sit with other miners
under the trees or in the shade by the stream swapping yarns, doing our
mending or washing, and generally getting acquainted. As each man's
product was his own, no one cared how much or how little the others
worked. Simply when he quit, his share ceased. This does not mean that
we shirked our work, however; we merely grew to be a little sensible.

Some of our discussions were amusing, and several of them most
illuminating. Thus, one day, John Semple summed up a long talk in which
the conversation had swung wildly among the ideas of what each would do
when he had dug "enough" gold. That had led us to consider what amount
we thought would be "enough" for each of us. John settled it.

"Enough," said he, "is always a little more than a man has."

The political situation was fruitful of much idle discussion also.
California had not been formally placed on any footing whatever by the
United States Congress. Whatever any community did in the way of
legislation or regulation was extra-legal and subject to ratification. I
have heard grave discussions as to whether even murder could be
considered a crime, since in this no-man's land there was no real law
forbidding it!

A good many Chinese drifted in about this time, and established a camp
of their own a short distance downstream. We took some pride in them as
curiosities, with their queer, thatchlike hats, their loose blue
clothing, their pigtails wound tight around their heads, and their queer
yellow faces. They were an unobtrusive people, scratching away
patiently, though spasmodically, on the surface of the ground. We
sometimes strolled down to see them. They were very hospitable, and
pleased at the interest they excited.

We made from fourteen to seventeen ounces of gold dust a day for some
weeks, working our two cradles something like eight hours a day. With
gold at the then current rate of fourteen dollars an ounce this was a
good return, and we were quite happy. Besides, we were always hoping for
a big strike. One day, as I was in the very act of turning my shovelful
of dirt into the cradle, my eye