When wind and weather drove them home, the robust came with bags of gold rolled in their snug packs.  They called each other “lucky dogs,” yet looked like grimy beggars, with faces so bewhiskered, and clothing so ragged, or so wonderfully patched, that little children cried when they drew near, and wives threw up their hands, exclaiming, “For the land’s sake! can it be?” Yet each home-comer found glad welcome, and messengers were quick to spread the news, and friends gathered to rejoice with the returned.

Now each home-cooked dish was a feast for the camp-fed to contrast with their fare at Coloma, Wood’s Camp,[16] and sundry other places, where flour, rice, ship-bread, and coffee were three dollars a pound; salt pork and white beans, two dollars a pound; jerked beef, eight dollars a pound; saleratus, sixteen dollars an ounce; and salt, sugar, and raisins were put on the scales to balance their weight in gold dust; where liquor was fifty cents a tablespoonful, and candles five dollars each.  It was not the prices at which they complained, but at the dearth of these staples, which had forced them home to wait until spring should again open the road to supply-trains.

The homeless, who in the evenings found comfort and cheer around grandma’s table, would take out their treasure bags and boxes and pour their dust and grains of gold in separate piles, to show the quality and quantity, then pass the nuggets around that all might see what strange figures nature had moulded in secret up among the rocks and ravines of the Sierras.

One Roman Catholic claimed as his choicest prize a perfectly shaped cross of free gold, which he had cradled from the sands in the bed of a creek.  Another had an image of the Virgin and Child.  A slight stretch of the imagination turned many of the beautifully fretted pieces into miniature birds and other admirable designs for sweetheart brooches.  The exhibition over, each would scrape his hoard back into its receptacle, blow the remaining yellow particles on to the floor so that the table should not show stain, and then settle himself to take his part in relating amusing and thrilling incidents of life in the mining camps.  Not a window was closed, nor a door locked, nor a wink of sleep lost in those days, guarding bags of gold.  “Hands off” was the miners’ law, and all knew that death awaited him who should venture to break it.

Heavy purses made willing spenders, and generous impulses were untrammelled.  Nothing could be more gratifying or touching than the respect shown by those homeless men to the pioneer women and children.  They would walk long distances and suffer delays and inconveniences for the privilege of passing a few hours under home influences, and were ever ready to contribute toward pleasures in which all might participate.

There were so few young girls in the community, and their presence was so greatly desired, that in the early winter, Georgia and I attended as welcome guests some of the social gatherings which began at early candle-light, and we wore the little white dresses that were so precious in our eyes.