My Great Disappointment

With a heavy heart I saw two of the companies start forth from our town, their faces set toward Pikes Peak, with the intention of traveling thither by what was known as the Arkansas Valley trail. I am ashamed to say that I shed bitter tears because of not being allowed a place with one or the other; first, because I was looked upon as too young to do a man's work, and again owing to the fact that even though I gave up all my inheritance, it would not be sufficient to pay my proper share of the expenses.

As the days wore on, there came straggling back by way of our town of Lawrence man after man, and company after company of the gold seekers, who had turned homeward in discouragement, having wasted all they had in their useless ventures.

Their stories of the disappointments of gold digging, and the knowledge that there was no truth in the tales of wealth gained by a few days' work, helped to cure me of that fever which

I had caught from the people with whom I had come in contact. Finally it became clear to my mind that whoever would set himself to perform honest labor, whatever it might be, would succeed in earning more money than, he could hope to gain by gold hunting.