The Gem of the Mines

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE GEM OF THE MINES. CHAPTER I. iK I am going to California said the Vy young and beautiful Agnes, as she entered her mother's house, six months after her marriage with the wealthy and aristocratic Mr. Alling. You going to California? why, what do you mean, my child, by such strange talk? said her...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE GEM OF THE MINES. CHAPTER I. iK I am going to California said the Vy young and beautiful Agnes, as she entered her mother's house, six months after her marriage with the wealthy and aristocratic Mr. Alling. You going to California? why, what do you mean, my child, by such strange talk? said her mother, looking up with astonishment. Do you really mean what you say, or are you only talking for talk's sake, to see what effect it will have on me? Oh, no indeed, mother it is not vain talk; we are really going; we sail the day after to-morrow. Mr. Alling put me in the cars to come and see you to day, and he comes up to-morrow to get me and to say good-by to you, and the next day we set sail for the ' golden shores of the Pacific, ' said Agnes, her eyes beaming with delight at the idea of beholding for herself that far-famed land of golden sunset and twilight shadows; the land of flowers, of romance, and beauty. Bat, continued Agnes, bursting into a joyous laugh, you don't ask me to take off my things. I suppose I may as well help myself, at the same time untying her bonnet, and laying aside her travelling cloak. I supposed you were at home in your mother's house, my child, though really I was so surprised at the sudden announcement of your leaving for California, that I thought of nothing else; but tell me, Agnes, what has put this strange idea into your head ? Was it your husband's notion or yours, to leave your poor old mother alone the few years or months that remain to her of this life, and go so many thousand miles away, and perhaps never return again? Or if you should be spared to visit once more the old home of your childhood, it may be with a broken constitution, or shattered in mind and penniless. You know not the toils and privation...