Gold Rush 1862
"There's gold in this here stream," I say to my posse who set off from Georgia some months ago. "All that stands in our way is the wilderness that God in his great wisdom gave man dominion over." We look down from the top of the gulch and see the pinprick of running water colored gold ever so slightly in our minds' eyes.
"Can you see the path? It's clear as day to me. I was born for this moment." I survey the footholds a lesser eye would miss. I see roots that might, just might hold my weight. I see fallen trees that, if I were man enough, I could leap onto. I conjure the wily natives of this land, whose weapon of choice is rock, sharp as a razor. See arrow heads flying at me from all directions below. That gold would be dear in the taking. "Time to test our mettle, boys." With that, I leap for a fallen tree stuck out from the steep bank. The pine rains dry bark like a cat sheds fur in the summer heat. I inch my way over, a trail of brown dust in my wake. A jut of granite beckons me with the promise of a sure grip. I take hold and work my way ever downward toward the stream of gold.
On the way down, I step on a hornets' nest and take every sting as fate testing my mettle. "We are being tested, boys!" As my face starts to swell, my wrists burn with the stings of God's lesser creatures. Halfway there. The babbling of the water on rocks below. Thwump. An arrow nearly pierces my reaching hand. Thwump. Thwump. Thwump. Three more follow suit. I swing around. I draw so fast my Colt .45 seems to appear out of thin air. Crack. Crack. Crack. Three Injuns shot down. "They thought they were safe on the level ground!" I spit down at their cooling bodies. I collect the arrows that came so close to ending my adventure. I'll show these to my kin. I'll tame this wild frontier and starting right now I am rich. The rest of the climb down was easy as peach cobbler. I stoop to drink from the cool stream and quench my great thirst. There they are. Gold chunks as big as my hand, glinting in the stream bed for as far as the eye can see.
"Billy, time for dinner!" My head snaps up from the creek. "Aww Mom, I was about to wrestle the alligator!"
"There's gold in this here stream," I say to my posse who set off from Georgia some months ago. "All that stands in our way is the wilderness that God in his great wisdom gave man dominion over." We look down from the top of the gulch and see the pinprick of running water colored gold ever so slightly in our minds' eyes.
"Can you see the path? It's clear as day to me. I was born for this moment." I survey the footholds a lesser eye would miss. I see roots that might, just might hold my weight. I see fallen trees that, if I were man enough, I could leap onto. I conjure the wily natives of this land, whose weapon of choice is rock, sharp as a razor. See arrow heads flying at me from all directions below. That gold would be dear in the taking. "Time to test our mettle, boys." With that, I leap for a fallen tree stuck out from the steep bank. The pine rains dry bark like a cat sheds fur in the summer heat. I inch my way over, a trail of brown dust in my wake. A jut of granite beckons me with the promise of a sure grip. I take hold and work my way ever downward toward the stream of gold.
On the way down, I step on a hornets' nest and take every sting as fate testing my mettle. "We are being tested, boys!" As my face starts to swell, my wrists burn with the stings of God's lesser creatures. Halfway there. The babbling of the water on rocks below. Thwump. An arrow nearly pierces my reaching hand. Thwump. Thwump. Thwump. Three more follow suit. I swing around. I draw so fast my Colt .45 seems to appear out of thin air. Crack. Crack. Crack. Three Injuns shot down. "They thought they were safe on the level ground!" I spit down at their cooling bodies. I collect the arrows that came so close to ending my adventure. I'll show these to my kin. I'll tame this wild frontier and starting right now I am rich. The rest of the climb down was easy as peach cobbler. I stoop to drink from the cool stream and quench my great thirst. There they are. Gold chunks as big as my hand, glinting in the stream bed for as far as the eye can see.
"Billy, time for dinner!" My head snaps up from the creek. "Aww Mom, I was about to wrestle the alligator!"
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