The Old Man and his Gold

By John J. Law

The old man didn't know how long he had been digging and plugging away on the hard ground with his ax and pick. His tired old eyes had grown weary of seeing the same old sights. He was tired of seeing his rusty pan, sifting through the dirt and gravel to look for the shiny bits of dust and dirt. The fateful gleam of gold was hardly ever there, he did spot a few bits of them, now and then, but nothing truly significant to change his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.C. Hulsey Books
• Release date: Mar 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224236176

Book preview

Prologue

The old man didn't know how long he had been digging and plugging away on the hard ground with his ax and pick. His tired old eyes had grown weary of seeing the same old sights. He was tired of seeing his rusty pan, sifting through the dirt and gravel to look for the shiny bits of dust and dirt. The fateful gleam of gold was hardly ever there, he did spot a few bits of them, now and then, but nothing truly significant to change his life.

He had been doing this for most of his conscious life, but to no avail. Through the years of toiling and labor, he often questioned himself and his life. Was this the right path to take in his long and dreary life? All his life he had known mostly hard work, toil and suffering with little reward. Panhandling and prospecting for gold just didn't seem to provide the reward he was looking for.

That all would change today.

When the old man's pickax struck the hard, rocky surface on the cave, he knew he had hit something significant. There was a gleam and a shine that was different from before. He had been toiling away at this, and breaking his back indefinitely with no significant reward. Until now.

The gleaming and glistening gold hurt his eyes when it first popped up from the surface. The old man could see it now clearly, and he could see that there was a significant amount of gold right there. He began to pick at, and hack at the rocky surface with renewed vigor. While he picked away at the ground, he was careful not to break the gold into too many small pieces.

Eventually, he managed to clear away a significant amount of the rock and gravel and expose the gold underneath. He took some sizable chunks of the gold nuggets in his hand. The old man was excited and enthusiastic now. There was a lot of gold in his hand, and the discovery of the gold here was a sure indication that there was a lot more gold from where it came from.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and took several moments to just stare at the gold nuggets he held in the palm of his hand. Those small golden fragments he held were the culmination of so many years of hard work in his life, and he wanted to simply pause and enjoy the moment for a while.

They said that that there was no gold round these parts but I knew they were wrong. I knew that they hadn't explored the area extensively enough. I knew that there was gold to be found here, but no one believed me! Well, I proved 'em wrong today, and I'm a made man!

The old man walked out of the abandoned mine triumphantly. His spirit soared as he held the small, but valuable gold nuggets in the