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Show .. PERSONAL ADVENTURES " Have you heard or seen anything of the sergeant of company D? How did he get along at the mines?'' " Oh, he has done capitally. Yon know he carried up a quantity of provisions, and, as soon as he got a little to rights, fell to tradin' with the \vild Ingins ; and, being a knowin' Yankee, gammoned them out of an immense sight o' gold. Although we worked like niggers, we couldn't come near him at all: so that it's my private opinion thradin' is a divilish dale more profitable than diggin'. The sergeant is now captain and part owner of a brig running up the Sacramento." " Then he's fairly on the road to fortune. Did you see or hear anything of Drew, while you were in the diggins?" "Oh, yes: he cut a great swell in Stocton and in San Francisco, before your arrival there. He has made and lost thousands of dollars by ·gamblin'; although he found it hard enough to raise the tin in Monterey. I heard of his sellin' his best pair of pants there, to raise a few dollars for the gaming- IN CALIFORNIA. 335 table. I don't know what's become of him; but he ·s sure to go to the divil, unless, after makin' a good haul, he has sense enough to clear out, and have done with it. That's the only way for thetn sort of customers. You remember Harry Wilson? He has started a ferry on one of the rivers, and is makin) money hand over fist. W ettermark is knockin' about somewhere in the neighbourhood of San Francisco, boat-building, and doing carpenters' work. He is the same quare old 'coon as ever, and is always grumblin', and complainin' and turnino- his hand to every Hddle faddle ' 0 that strikes his fancy. As for any chance he has of makin' a fortune out here, he might as well have remained in his own counthry. He has too many crotchets in his head, and too many strings to his fiddle, to get along among the rouo·h-and-readies of this wild place. 0 . • • ' If his mother has got any more hke hun, It s my sarious advice to her to keep them at home." " And the German Doctor? What's become of him?" |