A/N: I wrote this for my English class as a short story, hope you like it. I used some Gold Rush slang in this and tried to make it authentic. Enjoy! Please review!

Eureka!

What is gold? To some people it is worth the world. No matter where you go there are people-- craving gold. Some go to all lengths to get this metal, even just a small pebble of it. Why? For the fame and glory of being rich? For whatever reasons gold means a great deal to some, as it did to Ellen Sander's father. The Sander's family, like millions of others, left their home for California. They left with the hopes and dreams of starting a new and better life in "Paradise."

Unfortunately, most people's lives weren't as wondrous as they seemed. In California people suffered, just like they would have anywhere else. The difference in California was people knew there was gold. There was a small margin of hope everyday that they would be the one. The one that found gold.

A heavy fog hung over the Sacramento Valley as Ellen brushed her golden hair over her shoulders. She sighed deeply, staring at the bleak fog surrounding Sutter's Fort. Her family had reached Sacramento early in 1849 in hopes of finding gold. What they found when they arrived was a horde of people who were deprived and didn't have anything. Her parents weren't rich, but they weren't poor either. They found a small cottage close to Sutter's Fort and received small jobs to do while her father searched for gold. She sighed again as she watched a couple passing by the window.

Ellen happened to be an only child, and her parents wanted her to marry a well-off man named Thomas Murphy. This disgusted Ellen because she was in love with another, William Griffith. He was a poor miner, who mined for gold with her father. A few nights prior her father made her a deal that ended all hope she had of marrying Will.

"Ellen you have permission to marry Will when he finds enough gold to support you," he had told her. Ellen had accepted miserably, hoping that one day he would strike gold.

"It's impossible," she murmured helplessly.

"What's impossible?" asked a small voice from behind her. Ellen swiftly turned around and stared at the happy face of her friend Becca. Though they were wonderful friends, Becca had a rather large gab and Ellen was always making judgment calls on what to tell and what not to her.

"I was just thinking about how…"

"Ellen! Oh Ellen! Look what we found in one of the mines! Look! We found gold!" a voice shouted from outside. Flinging open the door, Will ran into the small room and wrapped Ellen into a big bear hug. "We finally found it!"

Ellen scrunched her eyes, not believing what he was saying. She gave a small smile that met his gigantic one.

"We found gold Ellen! Can you believe it?"

"Gold?" she asked, tentative. He nodded at her happily. Thoughts ran through her head. Could their dreams really be coming true? After all they had been through?

"Where?" she asked letting the joy of the moment overcome her.

"In the mine closest to us. We only have this piece right now, but we'll have more soon!" he told her. Opening his hand he gave her a small pebble the size of a penny. It was round, smooth and glistened, even though the light was scarce. His smile promptly won her over and she flung into his awaiting arms again.

"Does this mean that we can finally get married?" she asked hopefully. He gently loosened his grip on her and looked her straight in the eye.

"If I find more this afternoon, we will tell your father, first thing this evening. I must go now. So long, Ellen, I love you."

Ellen waved her hand happily in the air.

"Gold," She mumbled to herself. "We finally found it."

It's remarkable when gold is found-- the town seems to come alive. Unexpectedly people hidden in the bores of everyday-life become energetic and hopeful. By nightfall the entire town had gathered at Sutter's Fort, all talking about the newest discovery.

Ellen stood outside the crowded room, getting a breath of fresh air. She hadn't been able to find Will and was wondering what he was doing at the present hour.

"Ellen?" came a deep voice. Ellen whirled around and her hopeful brown eyes fell on Thomas.

"What?" she asked disappointedly, noticing it was Thomas.

"You see Ellen, your father gave me permission to marry you." Thomas knelt before her, presenting a golden ring. The sparkle of the gold caught Ellen's eye. Quickly glancing away she noticed Will, as Thomas asked her to marry him.

"Thomas…I apologize, I will have to get back to you." She focused her eyes on Will, not letting herself look at Thomas's pained eyes.

"Will! Will! Listen to me. We have to tell father now about the gold or else I'm going to have to marry Thomas."

"But Ellen…"

"It's urgent. Will, father won't let me shilly-shally in my decision, you know that. Please, come," she took him by the hand and led him to where her father was seated.

"Ellen, I've got to tell you something…"

"Father, Will has something to tell you," Ellen cut off, nudging Will toward her father.

"Mr. Sanders, today I discovered…well…I thought I discovered gold in the mine," Will told him.

"Thought you did? Father he discovered gold this morning, look." Ellen pulled out the shinning pebble of gold and smiled. "So father, may we get married?"

Mr. Sanders looked at the two of them. They had abundant love for each other, but Will had little material value. Even if he found gold, would he really make a suitable husband for his only daughter? Then again, he did promise his daughter if Will found gold they could be married. How could he break a promise like that? Taking a deep breath, he began to speak,

"Yes, you may get married. I gave you my word after all."

"Oh thank you father!" Ellen cried as she gave her father a jubilant hug. Will smiled gratefully, but didn't seem overly happy. Ellen sensed this and quickly led him outside.

"Will, what is it? Something's wrong, isn't it? If you don't want to get married anymore that's okay, I only thought…"

"No, it's not you. I want to marry you more than anything in the world," he told her honestly. "Ellen, I just can't."

"Why can't you?" she asked. Worry swept over her. What possibly could be wrong? He shook his head as tears flowed down his checks.

"It's just all fake! All of it!" he screamed as he threw the pebble of gold down on the damp mud.

"What's fake? What?" Ellen asked. "Tell me!"

"Everything, look I just can't be your husband now, but I will love you, always. He kissed her passionately, looked into her eyes lovingly one last time and then ran away without looking back.

"Why can't you just tell me?" Ellen screamed to the back of his head. She wiped away one of her wet tears, flowing down her face, as she bent down to pick-up the small pebble on the ground.

The warm, golden sunlight of the next day was a sharp contrast to Ellen's mood. She had not slept well at all the night before.

"Ellen? Are you all right?" Becca asked. "You're mother told me about last night; I'm sorry."

"Is the whole town gabbing?" Ellen asked.

"Well not just about you, about other things too, I wouldn't worry too much. Look up, things will get better. Maybe if you can meet some new people…"

"Becca, I don't think I can go out and meet new people. Staying in here forever is better than being broken hearted, or an ace of spades. Tell me, is he gone?"

Becca looked at her face. She could see the outlines of loss, anger and hurt. "To be honest, I don't know. I'd imagine he ran away," she sighed.

"What did he have to run away from?" Ellen asked confused. "He just discovered gold." Becca's eyes grew wide.

"Ellen, you didn't know?"

"Didn't know what?" she asked hesitantly.

"It was fool's gold, Ellen. They never found real gold. Only fool's gold." The sun quickly dipped beneath two thunderstorm clouds. "Come, we must put our horses in the stable before it rains."

The girls ran to the stables and led the horses into them seconds before the rain started falling. Sitting down in the hay, Becca began to tell Ellen what had happened.

"I guess they found a pebble of real gold, but they searched for more and all they found was fool's gold. You know how it is, the person who announces that gold was found always pays the price when they are mistaken."

"You think he fled?" Ellen asked, wide-eyed.

"Either that or he is in the mine searching for gold."

"Oh Fudge! At a time like this? It's dangerous to be in a mine when it's rainy."

"We must find him then."

"What? You're joking, right? Besides, I'm very clammed and chapt and it's too dangerous," her eyes lit up with fear. "We could die."

"Oh Ellen, don't be so chicken-hearted. I know you want to find him and besides I think if its God's plan for us to die, it wouldn't make any difference where we are." Ellen grimaced as Becca led her through the rain and into Ellen's house to grab their coats. They slowly walked to the mine in the pouring rain. The mining area was not too far from where Ellen's house was, so they reached it with little trouble.

"What should we do now?" Ellen asked as they reached the entrance of the mine.

"Well, we should go in and look." Ellen stared at Becca, dumbfounded.

"Becca, we are only women."

"What? Did you say what I think you did? Come on Ellen, women are much stronger than men at times. We're more important to this world; they couldn't survive without…"

A loud noise silenced Becca. They looked at each other in complete and utter horror.

"Was that someone falling into the…"

"Oh come on Becca!" Ellen shouted as she pulled her friend to the noise, sprinting to the shaft where the noise came from.

"Ellen, go and get help now!" a man yelled from below her. Recognizing the voice Ellen ran to the hole.

"Thomas?" she gasped.

"Ellen you must get help, hurry." Becca glanced at Ellen.

"You stay here, I'll go." She yelled as she ran out of the mine. Ellen looked down below and saw Thomas applying dirt to a severe cut on Will's chest. She gasped when she saw the large bruise already forming around his ribs. After a few intense moments of staring, she mustered a small whisper.

"Thomas, is he dead?" As he opened his mouth to speak she heard footsteps behind her.

"What in the name of God is going on around here?" It was none other than Mr. Saunders along with the police, doctors and along with others following them as well.

"Well…" Thomas began.

"Speak. Did you kill this man?" Before he had a chance to answer he heard someone running behind him.

"No!" Ellen shrieked suddenly. Thomas turned around just in time to jump in front of a man with a pistol in his hand, pointing toward Will. He wrestled the pistol from him. The man was relentless and before he let go, he shot himself in the head. Shock consumed Ellen as she fell to the ground.

"Well you see your Honor, Will and I were both looking for gold. I thought if I could find anymore then I could give it to Mr. Saunders's, so I could have his daughter's hand. We both thought there was some in there. We had found that little pebble of real gold after all. Then the floor beneath me crumbled. Will jumped down to try to save me, he did, but he also hurt himself. The next thing I knew there was another man trying to kill Will. I had to stop him. Especially after he saved my life."

"What condition is Will in today?" The judge asked.

"Oh much better, Sir. He even came to the case today!" Thomas replied.

The court declared Thomas innocent and declared the man trying to kill Will a numbscull and a gallows bird. They closed the case with one final statement.

"Mr. Murphy, did you realize that this is what the deceased man may have been protecting?" he asked as he pulled out a chunk of gold. Ellen and Will gasped as they looked at the huge piece of metal lying before their eyes. "It's all your's Mr. Murphy, you have earned it," The judge said.

"Thank you," Thomas said genuinely, "I will accept this, but I also would like to bestow it to, Will, as an early wedding present. It looks like you have finally found your gold."

Ellen looked for her father's approval. He smiled gently and nodded his head. She skipped over to Will and gently laid her hands on his shoulders.

"No Thomas, I've always had my gold. I just haven't been looking in the right places," he told him as he hugged Ellen tightly. Releasing Ellen, he walked over to Thomas and shook his hand.

"Thank you Thomas. I will forever be in your debt," he told him genuinely.

"Take good care of her, Will," Thomas answered. They smiled at each other as Ellen stepped closer to them.

"Thomas, we'll forever be grateful to you. You will never be forgotten." Ellen told him. He nodded and kissed her gently on her check. Will took her gently by the hand and led her outside. They watched the golden sun set beneath the hills. Ellen's golden blond hair shinned even brighter than the piece of gold in her hand.

"I think I have all I need now," he murmured. "I propose we give all this gold to the poor keep enough just to get by."

"You want to give it all away? Darling, you've been searching for gold your whole entire…"

"Ssh…I know, but I found it in other places. In you…and in every simple thing God has given me. The Earth, the sun, the stars, the mountains…and you, all of this-- is worth more than gold."