Mr. Smithson supplied the place vacated by Benton without delay. He engaged a man of middle age who had come back from the mines with a fair sum of money. Before the first week was up, he made his employer an offer for the restaurant, and after some negotiation¹ the transfer was made.

“I should like to have you continue Grant Colburn in your employment,” said Smithson, with a kindly² consideration for his young waiter.

“I am sorry to say that I cannot do it,” answered his successor. “I have a young townsman at the mines who has not been very successful. I have promised to send for him in case I went into business.”

“It is of no consequence,” said Grant. “I have always wanted to go to the mines, and 189now I have money enough to make the venture.”

The same day, by a lucky coincidence, Grant received the following letter from Tom Cooper:
Howe’s Gulch³, October 5.

Dear Grant:

I have been meaning to write you for some time, but waited till I could tell whether I was likely to succeed or not. For the first month I was here I only got out enough gold-dust to pay my expenses, and envied father and you, who have a sure thing. The fact is, nothing is more uncertain than mining. You may strike it rich, or may fail entirely⁴. Till last week it looked as if it would be the last in my case. But all at once I struck a pocket, and have thus far got two hundred and seventy-five dollars out of it, with more in prospect⁵. That will make up for lost time. I tell you, Grant, it is a very exciting life. You are likely any day to make a strike. Further down the creek⁶ there is a long, lank⁷ Vermonter, who in a single week realized a thousand dollars from his claim. He took it pretty coolly, but was pleased all the same. “If this sort of thing continues a little longer,” he told me, “I’ll become a bloated bondholder, and go home and marry Sal Stebbins. She’s waitin’ for me, but the old man, her father, told her she’d have to wait till I could show him two thousand dollars, all my own. Well I don’t think I’ll have to wait long before that time comes,” and I guess he’s right.

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