C. Right! "Gold fever" is an obsession with finding lots and lots of gold. During the Gold Rush, many people were willing to live under harsh conditions in hopes that they would be lucky and "strike it rich."

You can still get "gold fever," because plenty of gold is still waiting to be mined out of the California Mother Lode! People are still panning for gold today. The author, Sid Fleischman, caught gold fever when he was a teenager. He learned to pan gold in Weaverville, California. This experience inspired him to write the book, By the Great Horn Spoon!