much that I
cannot call you to mind."

"Don't you remember a tall, slab-sided youngster of thirteen, that
used to stick pins into your chair for you to set on?"

Kellogg smiled.

"Surely you are not Joshua Bickford?" he said.

"Yes, I am. I am that same identical chap."

"I am glad to see you, Mr. Bickford," said his old school-teacher,
grasping Joshua's hand cordially.

"It seems kinder queer for you to call me Mr. Bickford."

"I wasn't so ceremonious in the old times," said Kellogg.

"No, I guess not. You'd say, 'Come here, Joshua,' and you'd jerk me
out of my seat by the collar. 'Did you stick that pin in my chair?'
That's the way you used to talk. And then you'd give me an all-fired
lickin'."

Overcome by the mirthful recollections, Joshua burst into an
explosive fit of laughter, in which presently he was joined by Joe
and his old teacher.

"I hope you've forgiven me for those whippings, Mr. Bickford."

"They were jest what I needed, Mr. Kellogg. I was a lazy young
rascal, as full of mischief as a nut is of meat. You tanned my hide
well."

"You don't seem to be any the worse for it now."

"I guess not. I'm pretty tough. I say, Mr. Kellogg," continued
Joshua, with a grin, "you'd find it a harder job to give me a lickin'
now than you did then."

"I wouldn't undertake it now. I am afraid you could handle me."

"It seems cur'us, don't it, Joe?" said Joshua. "When Mr. Kellogg
used to haul me round the schoolroom, it didn't seem as if I could
ever be a match for him."

"We change with the passing years," said Kellogg, in a moralizing
tone, which recalled his former vocation. "Now you are a man, and we
meet here on the other side of the continent, on the banks of the
Yuba River. I hope we are destined to be successful."

"I hope so, too," said Joshua, "for I'm reg'larly cleaned out."

"If I can help you any in the sway of information, I shall be glad to
do so."

Joe and Bickford took him at his word and made many inquiries,
eliciting important information.

The next day they took their places farther down the river and
commenced work.

Their inexperience at first put them at a disadvantage, They were
awkward and unskilful, as might have been expected. Still, at the
end of the first day each had made about five dollars.

"That's something," said Joe.

"If I could have made five dollars in one day in Pumpkin Hollow,"
said Mr. Bickford, "I would have felt like a rich man. Here it