One day observing a workman, Francis Suter, standing in one of the trenches wet and wearied with toil, Mr.Tupper said to him in a tone of pleasantry, 'Wouldn't you like to dig up there a crock full of gold ?'--'If I did,' said the man, 'it would do me no good, because merely finding it would not make it mine.'-- 'But suppose you could not only find such a treasure, but might honestly keep it, wouldn't you think yourself lucky ?'--'Oh yes, sir, I suppose I should--but,' after a pause, 'but I am not so sure, sir, that it is the best thing that could happen to me.
I think, on the whole, I would rather have steady work and fair wages all the season than find a crock of gold.' "Here was wisdom.

The remark of the honest trench-digger at once set in motion a train of thought in the mind of the author.

He entered his study, wrote in large letters on a sheet of paper these words, 'The Crock of Gold, a Tale of Covetousness,' and in less than a week that remarkable story was written.

By the advice of his wife, however, he spent another week in rewriting it, and then gave it to the world in its finished state." In the same Butlerian volume occurs the following MS.

notice written by me (in about 1853) respecting the origins of my two other tales, the three being issued together:-- "As in the instance of my 'Crock of Gold,' both 'The Twins' and 'Heart' were undoubtedly the outcome in after years of early observations, anecdotes, and incidents, whereof memory kept in silence an experimental record.