"Ah, California! just look at _that_ now--look at people by scores and thousands, leaving their families, and friends, and homes--and what for but for gold? people with a comfortable competence already; but it's fine talking. Why, what are _you_ taking this very journey for?--why, I can answer for you--for gold, I doubt not; and every other action of your life is for that object: confess the real truth now." "I will, sir--I am come here from Indiana, for though I'm a Kentucky man, I live in the Hoosier State. I'm come here to see a dear brother; and instead of _gaining_ money I'm _spending_ it in these stages to get to see him and 'old Kentuck' agin. So you see, Sir, I love my brother--I do, more than money, poor man as I am; ay, and that I do, too." "Well, I dare say you do; but come now, just tell me--haven't you a little bit of a _speculation_, now, here, that you're come after, as well as your brother--some trifle of a speculation afoot? You know you have now. You _must_ have. Some horse, perhaps--" It was quite delightful to see and hear the indignant burst of eager denial which this elicited from the ingenuous Kentuckian. "No, sir! _no_, I have _not_--none whatever, indeed I have not:" his voice quivered with emotion; the earnest expression of his countenance was more than eloquent. If his interrogator had accused him of a serious crime he could hardly more anxiously and more earnestly have disclaimed it. To him, I thought the bare suspicion seemed like a coarse desecration of his real motives, a kind of undervaluing even of his "dear brother," to suppose he must have had a "little speculation on hand" to make it worth his while to go to see _him_. He went on in an agitated, eager tone: "And look ye here; I am _leaving off_ my work and money-making for some days on purpose--only for that, and spending money at it, too!" His somewhat case-hardened antagonist looked the least in the world discomfited; for that angry denial was a magnificent burst, and uttered in a tone that actually seemed to give an additional jolt to the rough coach; and I might say it had really a splendid theatrical effect, but that I should hesitate to use that expression with reference to one of the most beautiful natural exhibitions of deep feeling and generous sentiment I ever witnessed. "Where are you going to?" at last inquired the other, apparently about to commence a little cross-examination. "About twenty miles beyond Munsfordville," replied Kentucky, in his simple direct manner, "to"--I forget the name. "Why, you're come by the wrong stage, then," exclaimed the other, "you should have waited till to-morrow, and then taken the stage to ----, and then you would have gone direct." "Well, yes, sir; it's true enough, sir; but you see--in short, I couldn't _wait_--no, that I couldn't. I was so anxious, and I felt so like seeing my brother; and I was in such a mortal hurry to get to him."