long, Sep," he said, "and let's see if we can't make your
father's fortune."

He was quite at home in our house, and I followed him into the back
kitchen, where he set me at work powdering up the specimens with a
hammer on a block of stone, while he built up in the broad open
fireplace quite a little furnace with bricks, into which he fitted a
small deep earthen pot, one that he chose as being likely to stand the
fire, which he set with wood and charcoal, after mixing the broken and
powdered ore with a lot of little bits of charcoal, and half filling the
earthen pot. This he covered with more charcoal, shut in the little
furnace with some slate slabs, and then, when he considered everything
ready, started the fire, which it became my duty to blow.

This did not prove necessary after the fire was well alight, for the
doctor had managed his furnace so well that it soon began to roar and
glow, getting hotter and hotter, while, as the charcoal sunk, more and
more was heaped on, till the little fire burned furiously, and the
bricks began to crack, and turn first of a dull red, then brighter, and
at last some of them looked almost transparent.

All this took a long time, and our task was a very hot one, for from
between the places where the bricks joined, the fire sent out a
tremendous heat, where it could be seen glowing and almost white in its
intensity.

But hot as it was on a midsummer day, the whole business had a great
fascination for me, and I would not have left it on any account.

The doctor, too, seemed wonderfully interested. Kicksey came about two
o'clock to say that the dinner was ready, but the doctor would not leave
the furnace; neither would I, and each of us, armed with a pair of tongs
from the kitchen and parlour, stood as close as we could, ready to put
on fresh pieces of charcoal as the fire began to sink.

"How long will it take cooking, sir?" I said, after the furnace had
been glowing for a long time.

"Hah!" he said, "that's what I can't tell you, Sep. You see we have not
got a regular furnace and blast, and this heat may not be great enough
to turn the ore into metal, so we must keep on as long as we can to make
sure. It is of no use to be sanguine over experiments, for all this may
turn out to be a failure. Even with the best of tools we make blunders,
my lad, and with a such a set out as this, why, of course, anything may
happen."

"Anything happen, sir?" I said.

"To be sure. That