've been
snoring all the night. See how the fellows used to say it at Worksop.
I never believed them."

"But when father says it you may believe him, for when he has fits of
the old jungle fever come back, I'm obliged to give him his doses to
make him sleep."

"Well I woke ever so many times wondering whether it was time to get up.
Once the moon was shining over the sea, and it was lovely. It would
have been a time to have gone off to Pen Ree Rocks congering."

"Ugh, the beasts!" exclaimed Joe. "But, I say, what a thing it will be
if the place turns out no good after all this trouble and expense."

"Don't talk about it," said Gwyn. "But Sam says it's right enough."

"And Tom Dinass shakes his head and says--as if he didn't believe it
could be--that he hopes it may turn out all right, but he doubts it."

"Tom Dinass is a miserable old frog croaker. Sam knows. He says
there's no doubt about it. The mine's rich, and it must have been
worked in the old days in their rough way, without proper machinery,
till the water got the better of them, and they had to give it up."

"I hope it is so," said Joe, with a sigh. "But, I say, what about going
down?"

"Your father won't go down."

"Oh, yes, he will. He says he shall go in the skep if your father
does."

"Oh, my father will go, of course; but he said I'd better not go till
the mine was more dry, and the man-engine had been made and fitted."

"Hurrah! Glad of it!"

"What do you mean by that?" cried Gwyn, angrily.

"What I say! I don't see why you should be allowed to go, and me stay
up at grass."

"Humph! Just the place for you," said Gwyn.

"And what do you mean by that?" cried Joe, angrily in turn.

"Proper place for a donkey where there's plenty of grass."

"Ah, now you've got one of your nasty disagreeable fits on. Just like a
Cornishman--I mean boy."

"Better be a Cornish chap than a Frenchy."

"Frenchy! We've been long enough in England to be English now," cried
Joe. "But it's too hard for us not to go."

"Regular shame!" said Gwyn. "I've been longing for this day so as to
have a regular examination. It must be a wonderful place, Joe. Quite a
maze."

"Oh, I don't know," said Joe, superciliously; "just a long hole, and
when you've seen one bit you've seen all."

"That's what the fox said to the grapes," said Gwyn, with a laugh.

"No, he didn't; he said they were sour."

"Never mind; it's just your way. The place will be wond