he had received an answer from his wife. And so the years rolled by, the
spring rains came and went, the woods of Buckeye Hill were level with
the ground, the pasture on Dow's Flat grew sear and dry, Eureka Hill
yielded its pay-dirt and swamped its owner, the first dividends of the
Amity Company were made from the assessments of stockholders, there were
new county officers at Monte Flat, his wife's answer had changed into a
persistent question, and still old man Plunkett remained.

It is only fair to say that he had made several distinct essays toward
going. Five years before, he had bidden good-by to Monte Hill with much
effusion and hand-shaking. But he never got any farther than the next
town. Here he was induced to trade the sorrel colt he was riding for a
bay mare,--a transaction that at once opened to his lively fancy a vista
of vast and successful future speculation. A few days after, Abner Dean
of Angel's received a letter from him, stating that he was going to
Visalia to buy horses. "I am satisfied," wrote Plunkett, with that
elevated rhetoric for which his correspondence was remarkable,--"I
am satisfied that we are at last developing the real resources
of California. The world will yet look to Dow's Flat as the great
stock-raising centre. In view of the interests involved, I have deferred
my departure for a month." It was two before he again returned to
us--penniless. Six months later, he was again enabled to start for the
Eastern States; and this time he got as far as San Francisco. I have
before me a letter which I received a few days after his arrival, from
which I venture to give an extract: "You know, my dear boy, that I have
always believed that gambling, as it is absurdly called, is still in its
infancy in California. I have always maintained that a perfect system
might be invented, by which the game of poker may be made to yield a
certain percentage to the intelligent player. I am not at liberty at
present to disclose the system; but before leaving this city I intend to