CHAPTER XII
NELLY'S SILVER MINE
Nelly would not give any reason, but put the stone carefully back inher pocket. She was determined not to tell Rob any thing about it,unless she found the stones; and the more she racked her brains themore confused she became as to where it was she had seen them. Allthe way home she was in a brown study, trying to think where itcould have been. She was in such a brown study that she was walkingstraight past Lucinda's door without seeing her, when Lucinda calledher name aloud.
"Why, Nelly," she said, "ain't you going to stop long enough tospeak?"
"She hasn't spoken a word all the way," said Rob, discontentedly. "Ican't get any thing out of her. She's real cross."
"Oh, Rob! Rob! how can you!" cried Nelly: "I wasn't cross a bit."
"Then you're sulky," retorted Rob; "and mamma says that's worse."
"Tut, tut," said Lucinda: "Nelly doesn't look either sulky or cross.I guess you're mistaken, Rob."
Nelly felt a little conscience-stricken. She knew she had beenthinking hard, all the last hour, about the black stones.
"Never mind, Rob!" she said: "I'll talk now." And she began to tellLucinda all about the pictures they had seen at Mr. Kleesman's.
"Oh, yes!" said Lucinda: "I know all about those. My littlesister's got one of them: Mr. Kleesman gave it to her. He's realfond of little girls. It's a picture he made of the black nurse hehad for his little boy. She's got the baby in her arms."
"Why, has Mr. Kleesman got any children?" exclaimed Nelly, very muchsurprised.
"Oh, yes!" said Lucinda: "he's got a wife and two children over inGermany. That's what makes him so blue sometimes. His wife hatesAmerica, and won't come here."
"Then I should think he'd stay there," said Nelly.
"So should I," said Lucinda; "but they say it's awful hard to make aliving over there; and he's a layin' up money here. He'll go backone of these days."
"Oh! I wish he'd take me with him," said Rob.
"Rob March! would you go away and leave papa and mamma and me?" saidNelly.
Rob hung his head. The longing of a born traveller was in his eyes.
"I should come back, Nell," he said. "I shouldn't stay: only just tosee the places."
"Well," said Nelly, slowly, "I wouldn't go away from all of you, notto see the most beautiful things in all the world; not even to seethe city of Constantinople."
Rob did not answer. He was afraid that there must be something wrongabout him, to be so willing to do what seemed to Nelly such adreadful thing. To see Constantinople, and hear the muezzins callout the hours for prayers from the mosques, Rob would have set offthat very minute and walked all the way.
After Nelly went to bed that night, she lay awake a long time, stillthinking about the black stones. She had put the little piece ofstone on the bureau, and while she was undressing she hardly tookher eyes off it. She recollected just how the place looked where shesaw them. It was in a ravine: there were piles of stones in thebottom of the ravine, and a good many scattered all along the sides.There were pine trees and bushes too: it was quite a shady place.
"I should know it in a minute, if I saw it again," said Nelly toherself; "but where, oh! where was it!"
At last, all in one second, it flashed into her mind. It was one daywhen she had started for Rosita later than usual, and had thoughtshe would take a short cut across the hills; but she had found itany thing but a short cut. As soon as she had climbed one hill shefound another rising directly before her, and, between the two, agreat ravine, down to the very bottom of which she must go beforeshe could climb the other hill. She had crossed several of theseravines,--she did not remember how many,--and had come out at laston the top of the highest of all the hills above the town: a hill sosteep that she had always wondered how the cows could keep on theirfeet when they were grazing high up on it. It was in one of theseravines that she had seen the black stones; but in which one shecould not be sure. Neither could she recollect exactly where she hadleft the road and struck out to cross the hills.
"I might walk and walk all day," thought Nelly, "and never find it.How shall I ever manage?"
Fortune favored Nelly. The very next day, Billy came to the house toask if Mrs. March could spare Nelly to go and stay two days withLucinda, while he was away. He had an excellent chance to make somemoney by taking a party of gentlemen across the valley and up intoone of the passes in the range, where they were going to fish. Hewould be at home the second night: Nelly need stay only over onenight. Lucinda was not well, and Billy did not like to leave heralone.
Mrs. March said, "Certainly: Nelly could go."
As soon as she told Nelly of the plan, Nelly's heart seemed to leapin her bosom with the thought:--
"Now that's just the chance for me to look for the stones."
She set off very early, and reached Lucinda's house before eighto'clock. After she had unpacked her bag, and arranged all her thingsin the little room where she was to sleep, she asked Lucinda ifthere were any thing she could do to help her.
Lucinda was quilting a big bedquilt, which was stretched out onchairs and long wooden bars, and took up so much of the room in thekitchen it was hard to get about.
"Mercy, no, child!" said Lucinda. "I hain't got nothin' to do butthis quilt, an' I expect you ain't much of a hand at quiltin'.'Twan't my notion to have ye come,--not but what I'm always glad tosee ye; ye know that,--but I wan't afraid to be alone. But Billyhe's took it into his head 'tain't safe for me to be alone herenights. Now if there's any thing ye want to do, ye jest go 'n' doit."
"Would it make any difference to you if I were gone all day, so I amhere to sleep?" said Nelly.
"Why, no," replied Lucinda; "not a bit. Did ye want to go into thetown?"
"No," said Nelly; "but I wanted to find a place I saw once, on theway there. It was a real deep place, almost sunk down in the ground,full of pines and bushes: a real pretty place. But it wasn't on theroad. I don't know 's I can find it; but I'd like to."
"All right," said Lucinda: "you go off. I'll give ye some lunch incase ye get hungry. Ye won't be lonesome, will ye, without Rob?"
"Oh, no!" said Nelly: "I like to be all alone out doors."
Then she bade Lucinda good-by, and set off. For a half mile or so,she walked in the road toward Rosita. She recollected that she hadpassed Lucinda's before she turned off from the road. But the moreshe tried to remember the precise spot where she had turned off themore confused she became. At last she sprang out of the road, on theleft hand side, and began running as fast as she could.
"I may as well strike off in one place as another," she thought,"since I can't remember. It cannot be very far from here."
She climbed one steep hill, and ran down into the ravine beyond it;then another hill, and another ravine,--no black stones. The sun wasby this time high, and very hot. Nelly had done some severeclimbing.
"On the top of the next hill I'll eat my lunch," she thought.
The next hill was the steepest one yet. How Nelly did puff and pantbefore she reached the top; and when she reached it, there was not asingle tree big enough to shade her!
"Oh, dear!" said Nelly; and looked up and down the ravine, to see ifshe could spy any shade anywhere. A long way off to the north, shesaw a little clump of pines and oaks. She walked slowly in thatdirection, keeping her foothold with difficulty in the rollinggravel on the steep side of the hill. Just as she reached the firstoak-bush, her foot slipped, and she clutched hard at the bush tosave herself: the bush gave way, and she rolled down, bush and all,to the very bottom of the ravine. Luckily, it was soft, sandy gravelall the way, and she was not in the least hurt: only very dirty anda good deal frightened.
"I'll walk along now at the bottom, where it is level," said Nelly,"and not climb up till I come to where the trees are."
There had been at some time or other a little stream in this ravine,and it was in the stony bed of it that Nelly was walking. Shelooked very carefully at the stones. They were all light gray orredd
ish colored: not a black one among them. She had in her pocketthe little piece Mr. Kleesman had given her: she took it out, andlooked at it again. It was totally unlike all the stones she sawabout her.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Nelly: "I expect I won't find it to-day. I'llcome again to-morrow. At any rate, I'll go to that nice, shady placeto eat my lunch."
It was further than she thought. In Colorado, every thing looks agreat deal nearer to you than it really is: the air is so thin andlight that mountains twenty miles away look as if they were not morethan three or four; and there are a great many funny stories of themistakes into which travellers are led by this peculiarity of theair. They set off before breakfast, perhaps, to walk to a hill whichlooks only a little way off; and, after they have walked an hour ortwo, there stands the hill, still seeming just as far off as ever.One of the funniest stories is of a man who had been cheated in thisway so often that at last he didn't believe his eyes any longer asto whether a distance were long or short; and one day he was foundtaking off his shoes and stockings to wade through a little ditchthat anybody could easily step over.
"Why, man alive!" said the people who stood by, "what are you about?You don't need to wade a little ditch like that! Step across it."
"Ha!" said he, "you needn't try to fool me any more. I expect thatditch is ten feet wide."
Nelly walked on and on in the narrow stony bed of the dried-upstream. The stones hurt her feet, but it was easier walking than onthe rolling gravel of the steep sides above. She stopped thinkingabout the black stones. She was so hot and tired and hungry, all shethought of was getting to the trees to sit down. At last she reachedthe place just below them. They were much higher up on the hillsidethan she had supposed. She stood looking up at them.
"I expect I'll tumble before I get up there," she thought. It lookedabout as steep as the side of the roof to a house. But the shade wasso cool and inviting that Nelly thought it worth trying for.Half-way up her feet slipped, and down she came on her knees. Shescrambled up; and, as she looked down, what should she see, in theplace where her knees pressed into the gravel, but a bit of theblack stone! At first she thought it was the very piece she had hadin her pocket; but she felt in her pocket, and there was her ownpiece all safe. She took it out, held the two together, looked atthem, turned them over and over: yes! the stones were really,exactly the same color! Now she was so excited that she forgot allabout the heat, and all about her hunger.
"This must be the very ravine!" she said, and began to look eagerlyabout her for more of the stones. Not another bit could she find! Inher eager search, she did not observe that she was slowly workingdown the hill, till suddenly she found herself again at the bottomof the ravine, in the dried bed of the brook. Then she stood still,and looked around her, considering what to do. At last she decidedto walk on up the ravine.
"The big pile of them was right in such a deep place as this,"thought Nelly: "I guess it's farther up."
It was very hard walking, and Nelly was beginning to grow tired anddiscouraged again, when lo! right at her feet, in among the graystones and the red ones, lay a small black one. She picked it up: itwas of the same kind. A few steps farther on, another, and another:she began to stoop fast, picking them up, one by one. She had onehand full: then she looked ahead, and, only a little farther on,there she saw the very place she recollected so well,--the ravinefull of bushes, and low pine trees, and piles of stones among them.She had found it! Can you imagine how Nelly felt? You see shebelieved that it was just the same thing as if she had found a greatsum of money. How would you feel if you should suddenly find at yourfeet thousands and thousands of dollars, if your father and motherwere very poor, and needed money very much? I think you would feeljust as Nelly did. She sat straight down on the ground, and lookedat the stones, and felt as if she should cry,--she was so glad! Thenthe thought came into her mind:--
"Perhaps this land belongs to somebody who won't sell it. Perhaps heknows there is a mine here!" She looked all about, but she could notsee any stakes set up to show that it was owned by any one: so shehoped it was not.
_There she saw the very place she recollected sowell._ _Page 257._]
Now that the excitement of the search was over, she began to feelvery hungry again, and ate her lunch with a great relish. Thethoughtful Lucinda had put in the basket a small bottle of milk.Nelly thought she had never tasted any thing so good in her life asthat milk. When you are very thirsty, milk tastes much better thanwater. After Nelly had eaten her lunch, she filled her basket withthe black stones, and set off for home. Presently she began towonder if she could find her way back again to the spot.
"That would be too dreadful," thought she: "to lose it, now I'vejust found it." Then she recollected how, in the story of Hop o' MyThumb, it said that when he was carried off into the forest he slylydropped beans all along the way, to mark the path, and thus foundhis way back, very easily by means of them. So she resolved to walkalong in the bed of the stream, till it was time to climb up andstrike off toward Lucinda's, and then to drop red stones all alongthe way she went, till she reached the beaten road. She took up theskirt of her gown in front, and filled it full with little redstones. Then she trudged along with as light a heart as ever anylittle girl had, scattering the stones along the way, like a farmerplanting corn.
When she reached the road, she was surprised to see that she hadcome out the other side of Lucinda's house, full quarter of a milenearer home.
"Now this isn't anywhere near where I left the road before," shesaid. "How'll I ever tell the place?"
At first she thought she would put a bush up in the crotch of alittle pine-tree that stood just there.
"No, that won't do," she said: "the wind might blow it out."
Then she thought she would stick the bush in the sand; but shefeared some horse or cow might munch it and pull it up. At last shedecided to break down a small bough of the pine-tree, and leave ithanging.
"We can't make a mistake, then, possibly," she thought.
When she reached the house, Lucinda had cleared the bedquilt allaway, and had the table set for supper, though it was only half-pastfour o'clock. Nelly was not hungry. It seemed to her only a fewminutes since she ate her lunch.
"Did you find the place, Nelly?" said Lucinda.
"Yes," said Nelly.
"Was it as pretty as it was before?" Lucinda asked.
"Oh, yes!" said Nelly; "but it was awful steep getting down to it. Ikept tumbling down."
"Well, you're the curiousest child ever was!" exclaimed Lucinda."Anybody'd think you got walkin' enough in a week without trampin'off this way."
Nelly did not reply. She felt a little guilty at letting Lucindathink it was only to find a pretty place she had gone; but she wassure it would not be best to tell anybody about the black stonestill she had told her father. She had hid them all in a pile nearthe pine-tree whose branch she had broken down; and she meant topick them up on her way home the next night. In the morning itlooked to Nelly as if it never would be night, she was in such ahurry to see her father.
"Oh, Lucinda," she said, "do give me something to do! I don't wantto go off to-day. I want to stay with you." So Lucinda gave her somebrown towels to hem, and also let her snap the chalked cord withwhich she marked off the pattern on her quilt; and, by help of thesetwo occupations, Nelly contrived to get through the day, till fouro'clock, when she set out for home. As good luck would have it, whenshe was within quarter of a mile from home she saw her father atwork in a field. She jumped over the fence and ran to him.
"Papa! papa!" she said, breathless: "look here!" And she held up herbasket of black stones. "This is the kind of stone that comes wherethe silver is. There is a mine underneath it always: Mr. Kleesmansaid so. And I've found a mine: I'll show you where it is."
Mr. March laughed very heartily.
"Why, my dear little girl!" he said, "what ever put such an ideainto your head? I don't believe those stones are good for anything."
Nelly set down her basket, and pulled
her pocket-handkerchief out ofher pocket: the little piece of black stone she had got from Mr.Kleesman was tied firmly in one corner.
"Look at that, papa," she said, "and see if the stones in the basketare not just like it." Then she told her father all about the man'scoming into the assayer's office with a bag of stones like that one,and what Mr. Kleesman said to him.
"Don't you see, papa," she said, vehemently, "that it must be amine? Why, there are piles of it: it has all slipped down into thebottom of this steep place; there used to be a brook down there. Iknow it's a mine, papa! And if I found it, it's ours: isn't it?"
Nelly's cheeks were red, and her words came so fast they almostchoked her.
"Nelly, dear," said her father, "don't you recollect that oncebefore you thought you had found silver ore, you and Rob, up in theUte Pass?"
Nelly looked ashamed.
"Oh, papa," she said, "that was quite different. That was when wewere little things. Papa, I know this is a mine. If you'd heard whatMr. Kleesman said, you'd think so too. He said in his country theyhad a proverb, that no mine was good for any thing unless it had ablack hat on its head; and that meant that there were always blackstones on top like this."
Mr. March turned the little bit of black stone over and over, andexamined it carefully.
"I do not know much about minerals," he said. "I think I never saw astone like this."
"Nor I either, papa," exclaimed Nelly: "except in this one place. Iknow it's a mine, and I'll give it to you all for your own. It'smine, isn't it, if I found it?"
"Yes, dear, it's yours, unless somebody else had found it beforeyou."
"I don't believe anybody had," said Nelly; "for there weren't anystakes stuck down anywhere near; and all the claims have stakesstuck down round them. Oh, papa! isn't it splendid! now we can haveall the money we want."
Mr. March smiled half sadly.
"My dear little daughter," he said, "there are a great many morepeople who have lost all the money they had in the world trying toget money out of a mine, than there are who have made fortunes inthat way. You must not get so excited. Even if there is a mine inthe place where you found these stones, I don't think I have moneyenough to open it and take out the ore. But I will show these stonesto Mr. Scholfield. He knows a great deal about mines."
"Oh, do! do! papa," exclaimed Nelly. "I know it's a mine."
"I am going down there to-night," said Mr. March. "I will carry yourstones, and see what he says. In the mean time, we will not say anything about it to anybody. You and papa will just have a littlesecret."
When Nelly kissed her father for good-night, she nodded at him witha meaning glance, and he returned the nod with an equally meaningone.
"What are you two plotting?" cried Mrs. March. "I see mischief inboth your eyes."
"Oh, it's a little secret we have, Nelly and I," said Mr. March. "Itwon't last long: we'll tell you to-morrow."
It turned out that Mrs. March did not have to wait till the next daybefore learning the secret. Mr. March got home about midnight fromMr. Scholfield's. Mrs. March had been sound asleep for two hours:the sound of Mr. March's steps wakened her.
"Is that you, Robert?" she called.
"Yes," he said. There was something in the tone of his voice whichwas so strange that it roused her instantly. She sat up straight inbed and exclaimed:--
"What is the matter?"
"Nothing," said Mr. March.
"Nonsense!" said Mrs. March: "you can't deceive me. Something hashappened. Come in here this minute and tell me what it is."
Then Mr. March told her the whole story. He had taken Nelly's stonesto Mr. Scholfield, who had said immediately that there was withoutdoubt a mine in the place where that mineral was found; and, whenMr. March had told him as nearly as he could from Nelly'sdescription where the spot was, he had said that no mines had yetbeen discovered very near that place, and no claims were staked out.
"Scholfield says we must go immediately and stake out our claim.He'll go shares with me in digging; and at any rate will see what'sthere," said Mr. March.
"Do you believe in it yourself, Robert?" asked Mrs. March. She wasmuch afraid of new schemes for making money.
"Why, I can't say I'm very enthusiastic about it," replied Mr.March; "but then I don't know any thing about mines, you see.Scholfield was near wild over it. He says we've got silver theresure."
"Will you have to find money to begin with?" asked Mrs. March,anxiously.
"Well, Sarah, considering that we haven't got any money, I don't seehow I can: do you?" laughed Mr. March. "But Scholfield says that ifI will give him a third of the mine, he'll take another man in, andthey two'll pay for the working it at first. That seems very fair:doesn't it?"
"I don't know," said Mrs. March. "If the mine really does turn outto be very valuable, it is giving him a good deal."
"That is true," replied Mr. March. "But, on the other hand, perhapsit is not worth any thing; and, in that case, Scholfield has theworst of the bargain. He says, though, he can tell very soon. He hasbeen in mining a good deal; and he can make his own assays with theblow-pipe. We're to start very early in the morning, and take Nellyalong to show us the way. The dear child was nearly beside herselflast night."
"So that was your secret: was it?" said Mrs. March.
"Yes, and a very hard one it was for the child to keep too," saidMr. March. "She was half crazy to tell Rob."
"You'll take him along too: won't you?" asked Mrs. March.
"Oh, yes," said Mr. March: "no more secrets now; that is, not inthis house. We won't have it talked round, if we can help it.Scholfield says that the minute it is known we've found silverthere, those ravines will just swarm with men prospecting for moreclaims."
The next day, Mr. March and Mr. Scholfield and Rob and Nelly set outimmediately after breakfast for the ravine. They stopped at Billy'shouse and took him with them. Mr. Scholfield had said to Mr. March,as they walked along:--
"If Long Billy'll go in with us, I'd rather have him than any man Iknow about here. He's as honest 's daylight; I don't think he'sdoing much this summer; I think he'll go to work digging rightaway."
Wasn't Nelly a proud little girl as she walked ahead of the party?She kept hold of Rob's hand, and every now and then they would runso fast that the older people had to run, too, to keep up with them.
"How do you know the way so well, Nelly?" said Mr. Scholfield.
Nelly laughed.
"If you watch closely, you can see what I tell by," she said. "It'sin plain sight."
"Yes, plain sight! plain sight!" shouted Rob, to whom Nelly hadpointed out the little red stones. "It's out of a story."
Mr. Scholfield and Mr. March and Billy all looked around, perplexed;but they could see nothing.
"Oh, tell us the secret, Guide," said Mr. March. "We are stupid: wecan't find it out."
Then Nelly told them; and as soon as she pointed to the red stonesthey wondered very much that they had not noticed them before.
It seemed a very short way to the ravine, this time: Nelly hadreached it before she thought of its being near.
"Why, here it is," she said; "I didn't think we were half waythere."
Then she and Rob sat on the ground and watched the others. Rob wasvery quiet. He was a good deal overawed at the idea of a real silvermine all for their own.
"Do you suppose it's right here, right under our feet, Nell?" saidhe, stamping his foot on the ground.
"I dare say," said Nelly. "Perhaps it is all over round here: someof them are as big as a mile."
"I wonder if they'll let us go down as often as we want to," saidRob. "They'll have to, won't they, if it's our own mine?"
"That'll be for papa to say," answered Nelly, decidedly. "I've givenit to him. It's his mine."
While the children was thus building their innocent air-castles in asmall way, the brains of the older people were building no lessactively, and on a larger scale. Both Billy and Mr. Scholfield weremuch excited. Billy ran from spot to spot, now ha
mmering a stone intwo with his hammer, now digging fiercely into the ground with hispick-axe. Mr. Scholfield went about picking up the black stones, andpiling them together, till he had quite a monument of them.
"I declare," he said at last, "it beats me that this place hasn'tever been found before, much 's this country's been prospected overand over. I don't know what to make of it. But there isn't a sign ofa claim here for miles: I know that."
"Well, I'll tell yer what I'm a thinkin'," said Billy. "I'm athinkin' that 's fur back 's them fust prospectin' days there was acreek in here; 'n' thet's the reason there didn't nobody look here.I've heern it said hundreds o' times in town thet there wan't no uselookin' along these ridges; they'd all been looked over thorough,'n' there wan't nothin' in 'em. But we've struck a silver mine,sure: I hain't any doubt of it. Let's name her 'The Little Nelly.'"
Mr. March's face grew red. He did not like the idea of having a minecalled after Nelly; but he did not want to hurt Billy's feelings.Before he could speak, Mr. Scholfield cried out:--
"Good for you, Billy! That's what we'll call it! That's a name tobring good luck. 'The Little Nelly!' and may she turn out not so'little,' after all; and the first bucketful of ore we draw up,Nelly, we'll drink your health, and christen the mine."
Nelly did not quite understand what all this meant.
"Did you mean that I am to name the mine, sir?" she said.
"No," said Mr. Scholfield: "we meant that we were going to name itfor you, by your name. But you can name it, if you like. That wouldbe luckier still. Don't you like to have it called by your name?"
Nelly hesitated.
"I think I would rather not have it named after me," she said: "someof the mines have such dreadful names. But I know a name I thinkwould be a real pretty name."
"What's that?" said her father.
"The Good Luck," said Nelly.
Billy clapped his knee hard with his hand.
"By jingo!" said he, "that's the best name ever was given to a mineyet. 'The Good Luck' it shall be; and good luck it was to you,Nelly, the day you struck it. Old Pine he said, one day lastspring, mebbe you'd find a mine, when I was a tellin' him how you'n' Rob was allers lookin' for one."
"But I wasn't looking for this, Billy," said Nelly. "I gave uplooking for one a long time ago, when we began to sell the eggs. Itwas just an accident that I happened to remember the black stones inhere."
"That's the way some of the best mines have been found," said Mr.Scholfield: "just by sheer accident. There was a man I knew, inCalifornia, had his mule run away from him one day: it was somewherein that Tuolomne region; and if that mule didn't run straight downinto a gulch that was just washed full of free gold,--and the fellowhad been walking in it some time before he noticed it! There's aheap o' luck in this world."
"Yes," said Mr. March, "there's a great deal of luck; but there is agreat deal which is set down to luck which isn't luck. Now, if mylittle girl here hadn't had the good-will and the energy to try toearn some money for her mother and me, she wouldn't have beensearching for a short cut to Rosita over these hills, and wouldnever have found this mine."
"That's so," said Mr. Scholfield, looking admiringly at Nelly."She's a most uncommon girl, that Nelly of yours. I think we oughtto call the mine after her; it's hers."
"No," said Mr. March: "I like her name for it best. Let us call it'The Good Luck.'"
Mrs. March was watching for her husband and children when they camedown the lane. She had been much more excited about the silver minethan she had confessed to Mr. March. All day long she had beenunable to keep it out of her mind. The prospect was too tempting."Why should it not have happened to us, as well as to so manypeople," she thought. "Oh! if we only could have just money enoughto give Rob and Nelly a good education, I would not ask for anything more. And, even if this is not very much of a mine, it mightgive us money enough for that." With such hopes and imaginations asthese Mrs. March's mind had been full all day long; and, when shesaw Mr. March and Rob and Nelly coming toward the house, she feltalmost afraid to see them, lest she should see disappointmentwritten on their faces.
Not at all. Rob and Nelly came bounding on ahead, and, as they drewnear the door, they shouted out:--
"The Good Luck! The Good Luck! It is named 'The Good Luck.'"
"They wanted to call it 'The Little Nelly,' but Nelly wouldn't,"said Rob. "I don't see why. If I'd found it, I'd have called it 'TheRob,' I know. They didn't ask me to let them call it for me. If theyhad, they might and welcome."
"It is really a mine, then?" said Mrs. March, looking at herhusband.
"Yes, Sarah, I think it is," he replied. "If Scholfield and Billyknow,--and they seem to be very sure,--there is good promise ofsilver there; and Nelly herself has named it 'The Good Luck.'"
"Oh, Nelly! did you, really?" exclaimed Mrs. March. "You dearchild!" And she threw both arms around Nelly, and gave her a greathug. "That's a lovely name. I do believe it will bring luck."
"I didn't want it named after me," said Nelly. "It isn't as if itwas a live thing--"
"Subjunctive mood, dear! 'as if it were,'" interrupted Mrs. March.
"As if it were," repeated Nelly, looking confused. "I wish they'dleft the subjunctive mood out of the grammar. I sha'n't ever learnit! It isn't as if it were a live thing like a baby or a kitten. Iwouldn't mind having such things called after me, but some of themines have the awfullest names, mamma: real wicked names, that Ishouldn't dare to say."
"Well, they'll call it after you, anyhow, Nell," cried Rob. "Billysaid so, coming home."
"They won't either," said Nelly, "when it was my own mine, only Igave it to papa, and I asked them not to; I think it would be realmean."
"Oh, I don't mean Mr. Scholfield and Billy," said Rob: "they calledit 'The Good Luck' as soon as you said so; but the men around town.They'll hear it was you found it; and they'll call it 'The Nelly,'always: you see if they don't."
"Rob, don't tease your sister so," said Mrs. March.
"Why, does that tease you, Nell?" asked Rob, pretending to be veryinnocent. "I was only telling you what Billy said."
"I don't believe it," said Nelly: "do you, papa?"
"No," replied Mr. March. "I do not see why they should give it anyother name than the one the owners give it."
"Well, you'll see," said Rob. "There are ever so many mines that goby two or three different names. There's one way off in the northsomewhere, where Billy used to haul ore, is called 'Bobtail,' someof the time, and 'Miss Lucy,' some of the time. They tried to change'Bobtail' into 'Miss Lucy,' and they couldn't."
"Couldn't!" exclaimed Nelly: "what do you mean by that?"
"Why, the people wouldn't," said Rob, saucily: "that's all."
"'That's all' about a great many things in this world, Rob,"laughed his mother. "'Couldn't' is very apt to be only another wordfor 'wouldn't' with a little boy I know."
Rob laughed, and left off teasing Nelly about the name of her mine.
Nelly's Silver Mine: A Story of Colorado Life Page 12
