contented with any amount of wealth."--"Your observation," exclaimed
Malcolm, "puts me in mind of a story which my father used to tell of a
farmer, a friend of his, who once took his rent, the odd money short,
to an old miserly landlord rolling in wealth. He was asked by him why
he had not brought the full amount. 'Why,' replied the farmer, 'I
thought you had enough.'--'Enough!' said the miser; 'do you know what
_enough_ is? I'll tell you--Enough is _something more_ than a man
hath!'"

Mr. Larkin then spoke of the effects of the "mineral yellow fever," as
he called it, having been most extraordinary in San Francisco. When he
left that town, he said more than two-thirds of the houses were
deserted. We were not surprised at this, as we knew the people who were
continually arriving here must have come from somewhere. Nearly all the
ships in the harbour too had lost a great part of their crews by
desertion. A barque called the Amity had only six men left when Mr.
Larkin started from the port. On board another ship from the Sandwich
Islands the captain was left actually and literally alone. On the road
Mr. Larkin fell in with another captain who had started off for the
gold region with every man of his crew, leaving his ship unprotected in
port. On Mr. Larkin remonstrating with him on the flagrancy of his
conduct, he merely replied, "Oh, I warrant me her cables and anchors
are strong enough to last till we get back." Mr. Larkin told us what we
were fully prepared to hear, namely, that wages and salaries of all
classes have risen immensely; clerks, he said, were getting from nine
hundred to twelve hundred dollars, instead of from four hundred to five
hundred and fifty dollars, with their board. Both the _Star_ and
_Californian_ newspapers, he said, had stopped. Thinking to surprise
us, he told us that shovels which used to be one dollar were selling in
San Francisco, when he left, for five and six dollars each. Bradley