THE MAN WHO HUNTED FOR GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 22

THE MAN WHO HUNTED FOR GOLD.

There once lived a man and his wife lon a farm near a pretty wood, by the 'side of which flowed a rippling brook. 'The farm was small, and the man and his wife worked very hard, tilling the fields and tending their fowls and pigs and .goats, and taking their produce to the market. They had one son, of whom they were very proud. The son, whose name was Colin, did not like hard work. He hated the farm, and would sit near the stream on summer ;days fishing, or wander about in the ; woods, dreaming idly of the days when he would be old enough to leave his father and mother and go away to far lands to seek his fortune. He told his father and mother of his dreams and plans, and they, thinking that he was wiser than themselves, and being fond of him, worked harder still so that he could have money to pay for education in the big town some miles away. I At last the boy grew restless and weary of his quiet country home, and one day told his mother that he was about to set out to a foreign land, where it was said that men had only to dig up the ground, and find gold. "There will be no need for mc to plough and sow seed and to wait and work and reap the harvest and thresh the corn, as you do," he said, "for gold is there for the digging, -and so is silver, and I am going to discover these riches for myself." His parents were very sorrowful, but, thinking him clever and of superior intelligence, they gave him most of their little hoard of money, and he set out on !his quest for treasure. He wrote home to his parents now and then, telling them of his many adventures and often asking for more money for, though he was always on the point of finding gold and silver, somehow he did not manage to discover it just where he expected. At last his mother fell ill, and a message was sent to the 6on, Colin, asking him to return. Every day his mother asked if he had arrived, until one day a message came to say that he was sorry, but that he had heard of a wonderful place a few hundred miles further on from the town where he was staying, where there was a large quantity of silver hidden in the ground., and he was hurrying away to dig it up. His mother, sorely disappointed, asked no more for her son, and next day she died. A short time later the father also died, and the farm now belonged to the wandering Colin. He received the news of the death of his parents. just at a time when he was destitute and penniless, for the sliver mine had proved a failure. He heard of another place where there was; said to be tons of gold, and he only wanted a sum of money to enable him to set out on this new venture, so he sent a letter to the agent in his native town and asked him to sell his little farmstead. This was promptly done, and he received the money and again set out for the land of gold. He did not find any, for others had got there before him, and there was not enough to make many men rich. He had spent all the money that the farm had brougbt, and he began to feel lonely. He had an attack of illness, and when he recovered, he set out, trying at last to find work. No one wanted him in the city, so at i last he tramped and trudged about until he came to his native place. He had determined to go and ask the people who had bought his father's farm to allow him to work in the fields. He found the place greatly changed. Scores of men were busy near the road that led to wood, and he was surprised to find a railroad. Asking many questions, lie learned that the man who had bought the little farm had discovered gold near the little stream and had dug until he found a rich vein. He was now a wealthy man, and would not sell the land for all the money men could offer. Colin had wandered round the world in search of wealth, and it had been at home all the time, if he only had had the wisdom to look for it.