had been pointed out by Mrs. Peyton and her brother that Clarence's
association with Jim Hooker had made him a doubtful companion for Susy,
and even the Judge himself was forced to admit that the boy's apparent
taste for evil company was inconsistent with his alleged birth and
breeding. Unfortunately, Clarence, in the conviction of being hopelessly
misunderstood, and that dogged acquiescence to fate which was one of his
characteristics, was too proud to correct the impression by any of the
hypocracies of childhood. He had also a cloudy instinct of loyalty to
Jim in his disgrace, without, however, experiencing either the sympathy
of an equal or the zeal of a partisan, but rather--if it could be said
of a boy of his years--with the patronage and protection of a superior.
So he accepted without demur the intimation that when the train reached
California he would be forwarded from Stockton with an outfit and a
letter of explanation to Sacramento, it being understood that in the
event of not finding his relative he would return to the Peytons in one
of the southern valleys, where they elected to purchase a tract of land.

With this outlook, and the prospect of change, independence, and all
the rich possibilities that to the imagination of youth are included in
them, Clarence had found the days dragging. The halt at Salt Lake,
the transit of the dreary Alkali desert, even the wild passage of the
Sierras, were but a blurred picture in his memory. The sight of eternal
snows and the rolling of endless ranks of pines, the first glimpse of a
hillside of wild oats, the spectacle of a rushing yellow river that to
his fancy seemed tinged with gold, were momentary excitements, quickly
forgotten. But when, one morning, halting at the outskirts of a
struggling settlement, he found the entire party eagerly gathered around
a passing stranger, who had taken from his saddle-bags a small buckskin
pouch to show them a double handful of shining scales of metal, Clarence
felt the first feverish and overmastering thrill of the gold-seekers.