"Yes; it'll be very useful in the journey across the plains."
"Whose journey?"
"Mine," he said; then sang gayly:
"O California! oh, that's the land for me!
I'm bound for Sacramento,
With the washbowl on my knee."
"That's the tune of 'O Susannah,'" she said, as he ceased; "but where did you get those words?"
"Haven't you heard it before?" he asked. "They've been singing it all over town; the gold fever's raging, and a lot of fellows are talking of going off across the plains to the California diggings. If they do, I'd like to make one of the party."
The parents, silently listening, exchanged glances of mingled surprise and concern, while Fan exclaimed, "O Don, you can't be in earnest?"
"You'd better believe I am," laughed the lad. "Why, it would be the greatest fun in the world, I think, to go and dig gold."
"Exceedingly hard work, my boy," Mr. Keith said, raising his voice that it might reach the lad.