noon
I felt that he was in good hands , and that his kind Californian nurse and her husband would do all that they could for him . Their kind treatment of my poor friend offered a striking contrast to the callous selfishness around . I journeyed by slow marches along the banks of the Sacramento , passing several colonies of gold-finders on my way . At noon I halted at one of these , and loitered some little time round about the camp . The rapidly-decaying vegetation -- here unusually rank -- was producing a malaria , and sickness was doing its ravages ; but still the poor infatuated people , or rather such of them as were not prevented by positive inability , worked on until they sunk under the toil . Every one seemed determined to labour as hard as possible for the few weeks left before the rainy season set in , and the result was , that many of them met their deaths . There were others , though , who sought to enrich themselves with the shining gold by a quicker and , perhaps , less dangerous process than all this weary toil .