Gold Rush

Hello there. My name is Sam, and I am a prospector. That is a big word for someone who looks for treasure. One sunny morning, I heard some very exciting news. A friend told me a secret. He whispered that far, far away, in a sunny place called California, people were finding sparkly gold in the rivers. Gold. It is shiny and yellow and so pretty. My heart went thump, thump, thump. An adventure. I wanted to go on a big adventure to find the sparkly gold. I packed my special pan and my warm blanket and said goodbye to my home. I was ready to find a treasure.

The journey to California was very long, but I made new friends on the way. When we got there, I saw a beautiful, clear river. I took out my special round pan and dipped it in the cool water. I scooped up some sand and little rocks. Then I started to swoosh the pan. Swoosh, swoosh, back and forth. Then I started to swish it. Swish, swish, round and round. The water and sand washed out over the side. I looked very closely. What was that. At the bottom of my pan, I saw something tiny. It was shiny. It was yellow. It was a tiny piece of gold. I found it. I found my first piece of treasure. I felt so happy.

I looked for gold for many days. Some days I found a little, and some days I found none. My new friends were looking too. We did not all find lots of gold, but we found something much better. We found each other. We all decided to stay in sunny California and build a new town together. We built houses and shops and a school. The real treasure was not the sparkly gold. The real treasure was our wonderful new friends and the happy new home we made.