Gold Fever Poem by Victoria Dame

'Mother Dear, hear me now, gather the children
for we are California bound.'
'Father, surely you are joking? ' my mother said to him.
'Think of the children and your health is not too sound.'
But all her pleading was to no avail, for father had a fever,
a gold fever, one that was to run us aground.

At eleven o'clock of the morning, of the 16th of March,
Father put us in a wagon, we were all westbound.
With a two year supply of provisions complete with
camping and mining outfit. He even brought Jeff, our hound.
With much farewell kissing from family and friends,
we pulled out with the shout of 'Wagon Ho' all around.

'Look Mother, isn't the land so wild and magnificently grand?
Don't the mountains make a wonderful background? '
Mother, who was so tired she could hardly stand from all the walking
she done that day, smiled and nodded, 'Yes I am just spellbound.
But tell me Father how much longer till we reach California?
How much longer must I endure a campground? '

'Not much further, we just have one more hard trial ahead,
we'll cross a desert. Just this one more round.
Then all this traveling will be over and we'll be rich.
There's gold in California just lying on the ground.
You and I, the kids will rake it up and put it in sacks
And you'll see this journey of ours was well-found! '

Most of our stuff we had packed, had to be left,
lying scattered across the bleak desert ground.
We lost two of our oxen and our one milk cow,
on this trek through the desert, on sand so brown.
But we crossed that desert and at its end was,
California, with riches to be found!

Father, kept his promise to mother but not
with gold he had found.
But he got rich, from a general store, that
he bought from a woman whose husband had drowned.
And to this day my family is part of the California
Gold Rush history that is so renowned.