“Not digging gold, I suppose?”

“Diggin’ potatoes, and sich.”

“I’m going to the mines myself, Mr. Bickford.  What do you say to going along with me?”

“I’m on hand.  You know the way, don’t you?”

“We can find it, I have no doubt.  I have never been there, but my friend Mr. Watson is an experienced miner.”

“How much gold did you dig?” asked Joshua bluntly.

“Two thousand dollars,” answered Watson, not thinking it necessary to add that he had parted with the money since at the gaming-table.

“Two thousand dollars?” exclaimed Joshua, duly impressed.  “That’s a heap of money!”

“Yes; it’s a pretty good pile.”

“I’d like to get that much.  I know what I’d do.”

“What would you do, Mr. Bickford?”

“I’d go home and marry Sukey Smith, by gosh!”

“Then I hope you’ll get the money, for Miss Smith’s sake.”

“There’s a feller hangin’ round her,” said Joshua, “kinder slick-lookin’, with his hair parted in the middle; he tends in the dry-goods store; but, if I come home with two thousand dollars, she’ll have me, I guess.  Why, with two thousand dollars I can buy the farm next to dad’s, with a house with five rooms into it, and a good-sized barn.  I guess Sukey wouldn’t say no to me then, but would change her name to Bickford mighty sudden.”

“I hope you will succeed in your plans, Mr. Bickford.”

“Seems to me you’re kinder young to be out here,” said Bickford, turning his attention to Joe.

“Yes; I am not quite old enough to think of marrying.”

“Have you got money enough to get out to the mines?” asked Joshua cautiously.

“I think I can raise enough,” said Joe, smiling.

“My young friend is the owner of this restaurant,” said Watson.

“You don’t say!  I thought you hired him.”

“No.  On the contrary, I am in his employ.  I have agreed to run the restaurant for him while he is at the mines.

“You don’t say!” exclaimed Bickford, surveying our hero with curiosity.  “Have you made much money in this eating-house?”

“I’ve done pretty well,” said Joe modestly.  “I own the building and the two adjoining lots.”

“You don’t say!  How old be you?”

“Sixteen.”

“You must be all-fired smart!”

“I don’t know about that, Mr. Bickford.  I’ve been lucky and fallen in with good friends.”

“Well, I guess Californy’s the place to make money.  I ain’t made any yet, but I mean to.  There wasn’t no chance to get ahead in Pumpkin Hollow.  I was workin’ for eight dollars a month and board.”

“It would be a great while before you could save up money to buy a farm out of that, Mr. Bickford.”

“That’s so.”

“My experience was something like yours.  Before I came out here I was working on a farm.”

“Sho!”

“And I didn’t begin to get as much money as you.  I was bound out to a farmer for my board and clothes.  The board was fair but the clothes were few and poor.”