leggings, Polly removed her shoes and stockings, but, with royal
foresight, tied them up in her handkerchief. The last link between them
and civilization was broken.

"Let's go to the Slumgullion."

"Slumgullion" was the name given by the miners to a certain soft,
half-liquid mud, formed of the water and finely powdered earth that
was carried off by the sluice-boxes during gold-washing, and eventually
collected in a broad pool or lagoon before the outlet. There was a
pool of this kind a quarter of a mile away, where there were "diggings"
worked by Patsey's father, and thither they proceeded along the ridge
in single file. When it was reached they solemnly began to wade in its
viscid paint-like shallows. Possibly its unctuousness was pleasant
to the touch; possibly there was a fascination in the fact that their
parents had forbidden them to go near it, but probably the principal
object of this performance was to produce a thick coating of mud on the
feet and ankles, which, when dried in the sun, was supposed to harden
the skin and render their shoes superfluous. It was also felt to be
the first real step towards independence; they looked down at their
ensanguined extremities and recognized the impossibility of their ever
again crossing (unwashed) the family threshold.

Then they again hesitated. There was a manifest need of some
well-defined piratical purpose. The last act was reckless and
irretrievable, but it was vague. They gazed at each other. There was a
stolid look of resigned and superior tolerance in Wan Lee's eyes.

Polly's glance wandered down the side of the slope to the distant little
tunnels or openings made by the miners who were at work in the bowels of
the mountain. "I'd like to go into one of them funny holes," she said to
herself, half aloud.

Wan Lee suddenly began to blink his eyes with unwonted excitement.
"Catchee tunnel--heap gold," he said quickly. "When manee come outside
to catchee dinner--Pilats go inside catchee tunnel! Shabbee! Pilats
catchee gold allee samee Melican man!"

"And take perseshiun," said Hickory.

"And hoist the Pirate flag," said Patsey.

"And build a fire, and cook, and have a family," said Polly.

The idea was fascinating to the point of being irresistible. The eyes of
the four children became rounder and rounder. They seized each other's
hands and swung them backwards and forwards, occasionally lifting their
legs in a solemn rhythmic movement known only to childho