The Golden Dream | Page 5

work, who love sitting still from
nine AM to ten PM, and whose bread I would be taking out of their
mouths by devoting myself to the legal profession, and--"
At this point Ned hesitated for a moment, and his uncle broke in with--
"Tell me, now, if every one thought about business as you do, how
would the world get on, think you?"
"Badly, I fear," replied the youth, with a smile; "but everybody doesn't
think of it as I do; and, tell me, uncle, if everybody thought of business
as you would wish me to do, what would come of the soldiers and
sailors who defend our empire, and extend our foreign trade, and
achieve the grand geographical discoveries that have of late added so
much lustre to the British name?"
Ned flushed and became quite eloquent at this point. "Now, look at
California," he continued; "there's a magnificent region, full of gold;
not a mere myth, or an exaggeration, but a veritable fact, attested by the
arrival of letters and gold-dust every month. Surely that land was made
to be peopled; and the poor savages who dwell there need to be

converted to Christianity, and delivered from their degraded condition;
and the country must be worked, and its resources be developed; and
who's to do it, if enterprising clergymen, and schoolmasters, and miners
do not go to live there, and push their fortunes?"
"And which of the three callings do you propose adopting?" inquired
Mr. Shirley, with a peculiar smile.
"Well uncle, I--a--the fact is, I have not thought much about that as yet.
Of course, I never thought of the first. I do not forget your own remark,
that the calling of a minister of the gospel of Christ is not, like other
professions, to be adopted merely as a means of livelihood. Then, as to
the second, I might perhaps manage that; but I don't think it would suit
me."
"Do you think, then, that you would make a good digger?"
"Well, perhaps I would," replied Ned, modestly.
Mr. Shirley gravely regarded the powerful frame that reclined in the
easy-chair before him, and was compelled to admit that the supposition
was by no means outrageous.
"Besides," continued the youth, "I might turn my hand to many things
in a new country. You know I have studied surveying, and I can sketch
a little, and know something of architecture. I suppose that Latin and
Greek would not be of much use, but the little I have picked up of
medicine and surgery among the medical students would be useful.
Then I could take notes, and sketch the scenery, and bring back a mass
of material that might interest the public, and do good to the country."
"Oh," said the old gentleman, shortly; "come back and turn author, in
fact, and write a book that nobody would publish, or which, in the
event of its being published, nobody would read!"
"Come, now, my dear uncle, don't laugh at me. I assure you it seems
very reasonable to me to think that what others have done, and are
doing every day, I am able to do."

"Well, I won't laugh at you; but, to be serious, you are wise enough to
know that an old man's experience is worth more than a youth's fancies.
Much of what you have said is true, I admit, but I assure you that the
bright prospects you have cut out for yourself are very delusive. They
will never be realised, at least in the shape in which you have depicted
them on your imagination. They will dissolve, my boy, on a nearer
approach, and, as Shakespeare has it, 'like the baseless fabric of a
vision, leave not a wrack behind,' or, at least, not much more than a
wrack."
Ned reverted to the golden dream, and felt uneasy under his uncle's
kind but earnest gaze.
"Most men," continued Mr. Shirley, "enjoy themselves at first, when
they go to wild countries in search of adventure, but they generally
regret the loss of their best years afterwards. In my opinion men should
never emigrate unless they purpose making the foreign land they go to
their home. But I won't oppose you, if you are determined to go; I will
do all I can to help you, and give you my blessing; but before you make
up your mind, I would recommend you to call on Mr. Moxton, and hear
what prospects he holds out to you. Then take a week to think seriously
over it; and if at the end of that time, you are as anxious to go as ever,
I'll not stand in your way."
"You are kind to me, uncle; more so than I deserve," said Ned earnestly.
"I'll do as you desire,