Jimmy, Lucy, and All | Page 6

nuffin', and I shan't
fall in the hole needer. So there! H'm! 'm! 'm!"
It was not easy to resist his pleading. Perhaps Aunt Vi saw how matters
were, for she appeared just then, bearing the news that she and Uncle
James were going to drive, and would like to take one of the children.
"And Eddo is the one we want. He is so small that he can sit on the seat
between us. Aren't the rest of you willing to give him up just for this
morning? He can go to walk with you another time."
So they all said they would try to give him up, and he bounded away
with Aunt Vi, his dear little face beaming with proud satisfaction.

III
LUCY'S GOLD MINE
The other children strolled leisurely along toward a place that looked
like a long strip of sand.
"A sand beach," said Kyzie.
"No," said Nate; "it isn't a beach and it isn't sand."
"What can you mean? What else is it, pray?"
She stooped and took up a handful of something that certainly looked
like sand. The others did the same.
"What do you call that?" they all asked, as they sifted it through their

fingers.
Nate smiled in a superior way.
"Well, I don't call it sand, because it isn't sand. I thought it was when I
first saw it; I got cheated, same as you. But there's no sand to it; it's just
tailings."
"What in the world is tailings?" asked Kyzie, taking up another handful
and looking it over very carefully. Strange if she, a girl in her teens,
couldn't tell sand when she saw it! But she politely refrained from
making any more remarks, and waited for Nate to answer her question.
He was an intelligent boy, between eleven and twelve.
"Well, tailings are just powdered rocks," said Nate.
"Powdered rocks? Who powdered them? What for?" asked Edith.
"Why, the miners did it years ago. They ground up the rocks in the
mine into powder just as fine as they could, and then washed the
powder to get the gold out."
"Oh, I see," said Edith. "So these tailings are what's left after the gold's
washed out."
"Yes, they brought 'em and spread 'em 'round here to get rid of 'em I
suppose."
"Is the gold all washed out, every bit?" asked Jimmy. "Seems as if I
could see a little shine to it now."
"Well, they got out all they could. There may be a little dust of it left
though. Mr. Templeton says the folks in 'Frisco that own the mine think
there's some left, and the tailings ought to be sent to San Diego and
worked over."
Jimmy took up another handful. Yes, there was a faint shine to it; it
began to look precious.

"Well, there's a heap of it anyway. It goes ever so far down," said he,
thrusting in a stick.
"It's from ten to twelve feet deep," replied Nate, proud of his
knowledge; "and see how long and wide!"
"I don't see how they ever ground up rocks so fine," said Kyzie.
"Exactly like sand. And it stretches out so far that you'd think 'twas a
sand beach by the sea,--only there isn't any sea."
"Well, it's just as good as a beach anyway," said Nate. "Just as good for
picnics and the like of that. When there's anything going on, they get
out the brass band and have fireworks and bring chairs and benches and
sit round here. I tell you it's great!"
"There are lots of benches here now," remarked Edith. "And what's that
long wooden thing?"
"That's a staging. That's where they have the brass band sit; that's
where they send up the fireworks."
"Oh, I hope they'll have fireworks while we're here, and picnics."
"Of course they will. They're always having 'em. And I heard
somebody say they're talking of a barbecue."
Edith clapped her hands. She did not know what a barbecue might be,
but it sounded wild and jolly.
"What a long stretch of mud-puddle right here by the tailings," said
Kyzie.
Nate laughed. "It is a damp spot, that's a fact!"
They all wondered what he was laughing at. "I guess there used to be
water here once," said Jimmy at a venture. "There's water here now
standing round in spots. And,--why, it's fishes!"
Lucy stooped all of a sudden and picked up a dead fish.

"Ugh! I never caught a fish before!" But next moment she threw it
away in disgust.
"How did dead fishes ever get into this mud-puddle?" queried Edith.
"Well, they used to live in it before it dried up," replied Nate. "Fact is,
this is a lake!"
Everybody exclaimed in surprise; and Kyzie said:--
"It doesn't seem possible; but then things