a rig, and said he
was drivin' out to Bender's house that was burned, and wanted ma to go.
She couldn't, and so I spoke up and asked him to take Mitch and me, and
he said get in. Then Little Billie began to cry to go--but pa said no,
and I did. But when we got on the way, I saw tears in Mitch's eyes, and
he said, "I'll never go again and leave Little Billie. It ain't fair and
I can't stand it." Mitch was the tenderest hearted boy you ever see.

By and by we got out there, and sure enough the house was burned down,
all fallen into the cellar. And Old Bender was pokin' around, and his
wife and the boy with the big mouth. Nigger Dick was there cleanin'
things away. My pa had sent him out to do it. We began to fuss around
too and pa was askin' Old Bender how the fire started and all that.

[Illustration: Nigger Dick]

Well, sir, what do you suppose? I got down in the cellar and began to
scrape around and kick ashes and sticks around; and all at once I struck
iron or something, and I scraped off the ashes and things and there was
a soap kettle turned upside down, and sunk like in the dirt floor of the
cellar. I leaned down and tugged and pulled it up and inside was a lot
of cans, four or five, and inside the cans the greatest lot of money you
ever see. Great big copper coins and silver dollars and paper dollars.
Well, I was just paralyzed. I couldn't believe my eyes. Struck it, I
says to myself--struck it without any more trouble or worry, and no need
to see Tom Sawyer and find out how to find treasure. Here it was before
my eyes. After a bit I called out, "O, Mitch"--but he was around sommers
and didn't come till I called again. Then he peeked over into the cellar
and I just pointed and couldn't speak. Mitch slid down into the cellar
and bent over lookin' at the money, and turned to me and said, "Well,
Skeeters, this is all right for you--but not for me. You found it, and I
didn't. You've won out, but I've got to go on and find some for my own
self."

[Illustration: Struck It, I Says]

"Not on your life," says I. "What's mine is yours. And besides we came
here together--we've been working together; if we hadn't, you wouldn't
have been here, and I wouldn't. It's all because we've been chums and
huntin' together--and half of this is yours, just the same as half of it
would be mine if you'd happened to get in the cellar first."

Just then Mitch found a piece of paper with Nancy Allen written on it,
and a little bundle w