s when we were at
some particular part of our task. But there was no help for it, as we
were compelled to work by daylight for fear of the glow of our
furnace-fire taking attention if we attempted anything of the kind by
night.

That melting down was like a nightmare to me, and over and over again I
used to ask myself whether the gold were worth all this trouble. Slave,
slave, slave, till our fingers were sore; and now I would be blistering
my hands with a small-toothed saw which Tom had bought one day and
brought home in triumph for cutting through the gold, and next time
toiling away with a great file.

Yes, it seemed as if we were working ourselves to death for this bright
yellow metal; and several times over, without being led up to it by me,
Tom quite took my view.

"S'pose this here stuff's going to be very useful, Mas'r Harry," he
said.

"Useful, Tom?"

"Ay! I mean I hope it's going to be worth all this work and trouble.
My word, Mas'r Harry, soap-boiling's nothing to this!"

"Tired, Tom?" I said.

"Tired, Mas'r Harry? Not I! But I tell you what I am, and that's hot."

"Yes, it is hot work, Tom," I said.

"Ay, Mas'r Harry, that's just what it is, 'specially when you gets
ladling out the soup and pouring it into the moulds. Fine rich soup,
ain't it?" he said with a grin.

"The richest of the rich, Tom."

"Ah! it is, Mas'r Harry; but it is hot work, and no mistake, and it sets
me thinking a deal."

"Well, Tom, what of?" I asked, for we were waiting for the melting.

"'Bout setting up soap-boiling out here, Mas'r Harry," he said,
grinning.

"Well, what about it, Tom?"

"'Twouldn't do, Mas'r Harry," said Tom. "First of all, the work would
be a deal too hot; second of all, the trade wouldn't pay, 'cause the
people look as if they never washed. No, Mas'r Harry, I don't think the
folks here are fond of soap."

Two months of hard toil did we spend over that melting down. For first
of all, there was the preparation of the furnace; and a very hard task
that was, there being such difficulty in getting proper materials.
Stone seemed to go first into scales, and then into powder. The bricks
we obtained cracked; and it was not until my uncle had mixed up some
clay in a peculiar manner, and beaten it up into bricks of a big, rough
shape, that we managed to get on. These bricks we built up into the
furnace, and then slowly dried by leaving in a small fire; and this we
increased till it was hot