tering cubes
of mineral that LOOKED like gold!

The road now began to descend towards a winding stream, shrunken by
drought and ditching, that glared dazzingly in the sunlight from its
white bars of sand, or glistened in shining sheets and channels. Along
its banks, and even encroaching upon its bed, were scattered a few mud
cabins, strange-looking wooden troughs and gutters, and here and there,
glancing through the leaves, the white canvas of tents. The stumps of
felled trees and blackened spaces, as of recent fires, marked the stream
on either side. A sudden sense of disappointment overcame Clarence. It
looked vulgar, common, and worse than all--FAMILIAR. It was like the
unlovely outskirts of a dozen other prosaic settlements he had seen in
less romantic localities. In that muddy red stream, pouring out of a
wooden gutter, in which three or four bearded, slouching, half-naked
figures were raking like chiffonniers, there was nothing to suggest
the royal metal. Yet he was so absorbed in gazing at the scene, and had
walked so rapidly during the past few minutes, that he was startled, on
turning a sharp corner of the road, to come abruptly upon an outlying
dwelling.

It was a nondescript building, half canvas and half boards. The interior
seen through the open door was fitted up with side shelves, a
counter carelessly piled with provisions, groceries, clothing, and
hardware--with no attempt at display or even ordinary selection--and a
table, on which stood a demijohn and three or four dirty glasses. Two
roughly dressed men, whose long, matted beards and hair left only their
eyes and lips visible in the tangled hirsute wilderness below their
slouched hats, were leaning against the opposite sides of the doorway,
smoking. Almost thrown against them in the rapid momentum of his
descent, Clarence halted violently.

"Well, sonny, you needn't capsize the shanty," said the first man,
without taking his pipe from his lips.

"If yer looking fur yer ma, she and yer Aunt Jane hev jest gone over to
Parson Doolittle's to take tea," observed the second man lazily. "She
allowed that you'd wait."

"I'm--I'm--going to--to the mines," explained Clarence, with some
hesitation. "I suppose this is the way."

The two men took their pipes from their lips, looked at each other,
completely wiped every vestige of expression from their faces with the
back of their hands, turned their eyes into the interior of the cabin,
and said, "Will yer c