They had borne their poverty, if that term could be applied to a
light renunciation of all superfluities in food, dress, or ornament,
ameliorated by the gentle depredations already alluded to, with
unassuming levity. More than that: having segregated themselves from
their fellow-miners of Red Gulch, and entered upon the possession of the
little manzanita-thicketed valley five miles away, the failure of their
enterprise had assumed in their eyes only the vague significance of the
decline and fall of a general community, and to that extent relieved
them of individual responsibility. It was easier for them to admit
that the Lone Star claim was "played out" than confess to a personal
bankruptcy. Moreover, they still retained the sacred right of criticism
of government, and rose superior in their private opinions to their own
collective wisdom. Each one experienced a grateful sense of the entire
responsibility of the other four in the fate of their enterprise.
On December 24, 1863, a gentle rain was still falling over the length
and breadth of the Lone Star claim.
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