Page:Aristopia (1895).pdf/84

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deaths. The location was high and healthful, the water pure and cool, the food good and plentiful, and everything had been ordered with so much forethought, that not only was disaster, but even discomfort, avoided. The crops ripened and added to the colonists' store. Of course, in the crude, freshly-cleared soil they were not so good as the next year's crops should be, but they were fair.

During the latter part of the summer the colonists had leisure to build another square of cabins for the new immigrants whose arrival was expected, and to provide a large supply of stave bolts, sassafras and cedar for loading the Flora as soon as she should arrive and discharge her cargo.

In August, Ralph and his two brothers went to work in the mine to get out more gold. The quartz about the mass of gold was dug out all around for a depth of two feet or more. It was then found that the gold filled a crevice in the quartz, in a solid sheet about six inches thick, and from six to eight feet long, the length in the same direction as that of the quartz dike. A small hole being dug to a depth of ten feet, it was found that the mass extended still farther downward. Ralph was