Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/318

284 “GOLD.

“Gold is a yellow metal that we are all familiar with, though not as much so as we  should like to be. It is used for money and for ornaments, and is very precious. It is found in a great many places in the world, and  a great deal in a place, but people always wish  there was some more of it. The most interesting place to us is in California. It was discovered there in 1848 by three men, partly Mormons. It was their daughter that found it and picked it up and said what a pretty stone. They tried to keep it a secret, but of course they couldn't, and pretty soon everybody was  going to California.

“At least, not everybody,” explained Phil conscientiously, as he looked up from his  paper, “but ever and ever so many people.”  Then he resumed,—

“The State was soon full of people, and it was admitted to the Union.

“There are a good many ways of gold-mining. Sometimes the mines are in veins in the hard rock. Then the miners bore down