seemed clear to his boyish mind that, being now cast adrift upon the
world and responsible to no one, there was no reason why he should not
at once proceed to the nearest gold mines! The idea of returning to
Mr. Peyton and Susy, as a disowned and abandoned outcast, was not to
be thought of. He would purchase some kind of an outfit, such as he had
seen the miners carry, and start off as soon as he had got his supper.
But although one of his most delightful anticipations had been the
unfettered freedom of ordering a meal at a restaurant, on entering the
first one he found himself the object of so much curiosity, partly
from his size and partly from his dress, which the unfortunate boy was
beginning to suspect was really preposterous, and he turned away with a
stammered excuse, and did not try another. Further on he found a baker's
shop, where he refreshed himself with some gingerbread and lemon soda.
At an adjacent grocery he purchased some herrings, smoked beef, and
biscuits, as future provisions for his "pack" or kit. Then began his
real quest for an outfit. In an hour he had secured--ostensibly for some
friend, to avoid curious inquiry--a pan, a blanket, a shovel and
pick, all of which he deposited at the baker's, his unostentatious
headquarters, with the exception of a pair of disguising high boots that
half hid his sailor trousers, which he kept to put on at the last. Even
to his inexperience the cost of these articles seemed enormous; when
his purchases were complete, of his entire capital scarcely four dollars
remained! Yet in the fond illusions of boyhood these rude appointments
seemed possessed of far more value than the gold he had given in
exchange for them, and he had enjoyed a child's delight in testing the
transforming magic of money.

Meanwhile, the feverish contact of the crowded street had, strange
to say, increased his loneliness, while the ruder joviality of its
dissipations began to fill him with vague uneasiness. The passing