THE YOUNG MINER

CHAPTER I.

THE GOLD-SEEKERS.


A dozen men, provided with rockers, were busily engaged in gathering and
washing dirt, mingled with gold-dust, on the banks of a small stream in
California. It was in the early days, and this party was but one of
hundreds who were scattered over the new Eldorado, seeking for the
shining metal which throughout the civilized world exercises a sway
potent and irresistible.

I have said there were a dozen men, but this is a mistake. One of the
party was a well-grown boy of sixteen, with a good-humored and even
handsome face. He was something more than good-humored, however. There
was an expression on his face which spoke of strength and resolution
and patient endurance. The readers of "The Young Adventurer" will at
once recognize in our young hero Tom Nelson, the oldest son of a poor
New England farmer, who, finding no prospects at home, had joined the
tide of emigrants pouring from all parts of the country to the land of
which so many marvelous stories were told. Tom had come to work; and
though he doubtless shared to some extent the extravagant anticipations
of the great body of Eastern visitors who hoped to make a fortune in a
year, he did not expect to succeed without hard toil.

His companions belonged to the same party with whom he had crossed the
plains, under the leadership of Phineas Fletcher, a broad-shouldered
Illinois farmer, who had his family with him. Next to Tom was Donald
Ferguson, a grave Scotchman, and Tom's special friend; a man of
excellent principles, thoroughly reliable, and held in high respect by
all though not possessed of popular manners. On the other side was
Lawrence Peabody, a young Boston clerk, who had spent several years
behind a dry-goods counter. He was soft and effeminate, with no talent
for "roughing it," and wholly unfitted for the hard work which he had
undertaken. He was deeply disappointed in his first work at
gold-hunting, having come out with the vague idea that he should pick up
a big nugget within a short time that would make his fortune and enable
him to go home a rich man. The practical side of gold-seeking--this
washing particles of dust from the dirt of the river-bed--was in the
highest degree unsatisfactory and discouraging. He was not a bad fellow;
and his companions, though they laughed at him, were well disposed
towards him.