Jimmy, Lucy, and All | Page 6

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 are so queer up here that you can believe almost anything."
"Really it is a lake. It's all right in the winter, and swells tremendously then; but this is a dry year, you know, and it's all dried up." Kyzie forgave the lake for drying up, but pitied the fishes. Edith thought Castle Cliff was "a funny place anyway."
"What little bits of houses! Did they dry up too?"
"Oh, those are just the cabins and bunk-houses that were built for the miners, ever so long ago when the mine was going. Fixed up into cottages now for summer boarders. Do you want to see the mine?"
They went around behind the shaft-house and beyond the old saw-mill.
"O my senses!" cried Edith, "is that the old gold mine, that monstrous great thing? Isn't it horrid?"
They all agreed that it was "perfectly awful and dreadful," and that it made you shudder to look into it; and that they were glad baby Eddo was safely out of the way. The mine was a deep,