Chapter I: Preface

"Pioneer Boys of the Gold Fields" relates the adventures of three sturdy youths who go west to seek their fortune during the great rush to California in 1849.

At the start the boys are unknown to each other--one coming from the city, another from the country, while a third is just home from a long whaling voyage. But the magic word, "Gold!" is on every lip, and in company with thousands of others, they make the long and perilous journey across the plains and the mountains, to the Land of Promise. On the way they have several encounters with wild beasts and with Indians,--scenes taken from actual life. When the gold diggings are reached they find that a great deal of hard labor lies before them, but they do not shirk, and their success is well deserved. They find the gold fields overrun with bad men, and at the height of their prosperity they are robbed of their treasure. What happens after that, the pages which follow relate in detail.

In writing this story the author has had but one purpose in view--to give his readers a faithful picture of the exciting times of '49, when rich and poor, high and low, laborers and bankers, journeyed by land or by water to California in search of gold. The excitement was intense, equaled only by that when gold was first discovered in the Klondyke region. In those days there were no railroads across the western portion of our country, and the journey had to be made on foot or on horseback and took months where it now takes but days. Those who did not go by land sailed either to the Isthmus of Panama, crossed, and went up the coast of California by ship, or else took the still longer voyage around Cape Horn. Surely the hearts of these Argonauts were of the stoutest, and their deeds deserved to be chronicled!

CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL.

_August 15, 1906._

CONTENTS

I. MARK AND HIS DIFFICULTIES

II. NEWS FROM CALIFORNIA

III. MARK RUNS AWAY

IV. MARK MAKES A FRIEND

V. UP A TREE

VI. TWO BOYS AND A MULE

VII. TAKING IN ANOTHER PARTNER

VIII. OFF FOR THE LAND OF GOLD

IX. A STORM AND A WASHOUT

X. AT FORT LARAMIE

XI. SAG RUFF'S THREAT

XII. SUFFERING FROM THIRST

XIII. A FIGHT WITH AN ELK

XIV. THE STEALING OF THE OUTFIT

XV. A SNAKE, A DEER, AND A SURPRISE

XVI. GETTING BACK THE OUTFIT

XVII. AMONG THE INDIANS

XVIII. SI TAKES A TUMBLE

XIX. A GLOOMY OUTLOOK

XX. AT THE TRADING CAMP

XXI. ANOTHER BRUSH WITH THE INDIANS

XXII. THE COMING OF SPRING

XXIII. NUGGETS OF VALUE

XXIV. THE RESULTS OF A CAVE-IN

XXV. THE MAN FROM PHILADELPHIA

XXVI. MARK'S SICKNESS

XXVII. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MAYBE DIXON

XXVIII. STRIKING A BONANZA

XXIX. A FORTUNE IN NUGGETS

XXX. THE LANDSLIDE

XXXI. A CRUSHING LOSS

XXXII. THE TRAIL OF THE GOLD THIEVES

XXXIII. BROUGHT TO BAY--CONCLUSION

PIONEER BOYS OF THE GOLD FIELDS