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Description
Josiah Scutt was a failure by any measure. He had spent years standing knee-deep in freezing creeks and rivers, patiently swilling water around a shallow pan, hoping to glimpse the tell-tale glitter of gold amongst the dirt. He was still there, long after most of his fellow miners had packed up and headed home, or found other, less backbreaking ways to earn a living. Josiah refused to give up on his golden dream, even though the gold flakes he took to the assessor were barely enough to cover the cost of food and supplies.

In time, modern machinery drove the pick and shovel miners out of business, and even Josiah had to concede defeat. He left California with less than he arrived with. Too poor and embarrassed to return home, he tried prospecting in Arizona and Colorado, but still, that one big strike eluded him. People started calling him Hard Luck Scutt.

His wife, tired of his drinking and increasingly surly disposition, ran off with a Yankee whiskey peddler. Josiah drank and gambled away what little money he had left. Flat broke, he headed south into New Mexico with his burro Maria (named for his absent wife) and soon found himself among the canyons and cliffs of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

He spent his time drinking and making a pretence of prospecting, until one day a voice whispered to him from the rocks, calling him by name and asking if he would like to be rich. It led him to a cave, where a skeleton lay in the darkness, clutching a faintly glowing object in one fleshless hand. Josiah set his lantern down and went to investigate, discovering that its bony fingers were wrapped around a shining pocket watch.

"Take the watch," the voice told him, "and your luck will change."

Figuring his luck couldn't get any worse, Josiah prized the timepiece out of the skeleton's fingers. Something caught his eye and he examined the cave's walls more closely. To his astonishment, he saw shimmering streaks of gold running through the rock. The voice that had guided him had not led him astray - it had brought him to a treasure beyond his wildest dreams. Hard Luck Scutt was about to become one of the wealthiest men in the territory.

Created using DALL·E 3, Leonardo and Krita

Description
Josiah Scutt was a failure by any measure. He had spent years standing knee-deep in freezing creeks and rivers, patiently swilling water around a shallow pan, hoping to glimpse the tell-tale glitter of gold amongst the dirt. He was still there, long after most of his fellow miners had packed up and headed home, or found other, less backbreaking ways to earn a living. Josiah refused to give up on his golden dream, even though the gold flakes he took to the assessor were barely enough to cover the cost of food and supplies.

In time, modern machinery drove the pick and shovel miners out of business, and even Josiah had to concede defeat. He left California with less than he arrived with. Too poor and embarrassed to return home, he tried prospecting in Arizona and Colorado, but still, that one big strike eluded him. People started calling him Hard Luck Scutt.

His wife, tired of his drinking and increasingly surly disposition, ran off with a Yankee whiskey peddler. Josiah drank and gambled away what little money he had left. Flat broke, he headed south into New Mexico with his burro Maria (named for his absent wife) and soon found himself among the canyons and cliffs of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

He spent his time drinking and making a pretence of prospecting, until one day a voice whispered to him from the rocks, calling him by name and asking if he would like to be rich. It led him to a cave, where a skeleton lay in the darkness, clutching a faintly glowing object in one fleshless hand. Josiah set his lantern down and went to investigate, discovering that its bony fingers were wrapped around a shining pocket watch.

"Take the watch," the voice told him, "and your luck will change."

Figuring his luck couldn't get any worse, Josiah prized the timepiece out of the skeleton's fingers. Something caught his eye and he examined the cave's walls more closely. To his astonishment, he saw shimmering streaks of gold running through the rock. The voice that had guided him had not led him astray - it had brought him to a treasure beyond his wildest dreams. Hard Luck Scutt was about to become one of the wealthiest men in the territory.

Created using DALL·E 3, Leonardo and Krita