○  russell conwell : acres of diamonds  ○

man with a brain like mine working for $45 a week! let’s go out to california and stake out gold-mines and silver-mines, and be immensely rich.” said his mother, “now, charlie, it is just as well to be happy as it is to be rich.” “yes,” said charlie, “but it is just as well to be rich and happy too.” and they were both right about it. as he was an only son and she a widow, of course he had his way. they always do.

they sold out in massachusetts, and instead of going to california they went to wisconsin, where he went into the employ of the superior copper mining company at $15 a week again, but with the proviso in his contract that he should have an interest in any mines he should discover for the company. i don’t believe he ever discovered a mine, and if i am looking in the face of any stockholder of that copper company you wish he had discovered something or other. i have friends who are not here because they could not afford a ticket, who did have stock in that company at the time this young man was employed there. this young man went out there and i have not heard a word from him. i don’t know what became of him, and i don’t know whether he found any mines or not, but i don’t believe he ever did.

but i do know the other end of the line. he had scarcely gotten the other end of the old homestead before the succeeding owner went out to dig potatoes. the potatoes were already growing in the ground when he bought the farm, and as the old farmer was bringing in a basket of potatoes it hugged very tight between the ends of the stone fence. you know in massachusetts our farms are nearly all stone wall. there you are obliged to be very economical of front gateways in order to have some place to put the stone. when that basket hugged so tight he set it down on the ground, and then dragged on one side, and pulled on the other side, and as he was dragging that basket though this farmer noticed in the upper and outer corner of that stone wall, right next the gate

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