Money was that plentiful that everybody seemed to be full of it.

Gold began to be sent down in big lots, by the Escort, as it was called--sometimes ten thousand ounces at a time.

That was money if you liked--forty thousand pounds!--enough to make one's mouth water--to make one think dad's prophecy about the ten thousand pounds wasn't so far out after all.
Just at the start most people had a kind of notion that the gold would only last a short time, and that things would be worse than before.

But it lasted a deal longer than any of us expected.

It was 1850 that I'm talking about.