“Well, there’s a heap of it anyway.  It goes ever so far down,” said he, thrusting in a stick.

“It’s from ten to twelve feet deep,” replied Nate, proud of his knowledge; “and see how long and wide!”

“I don’t see how they ever ground up rocks so fine,” said Kyzie.  “Exactly like sand.  And it stretches out so far that you’d think ’twas a sand beach by the sea,—­only there isn’t any sea.”

“Well, it’s just as good as a beach anyway,” said Nate.  “Just as good for picnics and the like of that.  When there’s anything going on, they get out the brass band and have fireworks and bring chairs and benches and sit round here.  I tell you it’s great!”

“There are lots of benches here now,” remarked Edith.  “And what’s that long wooden thing?”

“That’s a staging.  That’s where they have the brass band sit; that’s where they send up the fireworks.”

“Oh, I hope they’ll have fireworks while we’re here, and picnics.”

“Of course they will.  They’re always having ’em.  And I heard somebody say they’re talking of a barbecue.”

Edith clapped her hands.  She did not know what a barbecue might be, but it sounded wild and jolly.

“What a long stretch of mud-puddle right here by the tailings,” said Kyzie.

Nate laughed.  “It is a damp spot, that’s a fact!”

They all wondered what he was laughing at.  “I guess there used to be water here once,” said Jimmy at a venture.  “There’s water here now standing round in spots.  And,—­why, it’s fishes!”

Lucy stooped all of a sudden and picked up a dead fish.

“Ugh!  I never caught a fish before!” But next moment she threw it away in disgust.

“How did dead fishes ever get into this mud-puddle?” queried Edith.

“Well, they used to live in it before it dried up,” replied Nate.  “Fact is, this is a lake!”

Everybody exclaimed in surprise; and Kyzie said:—­

“It doesn’t seem possible; but then things are so queer up here that you can believe almost anything.”

“Really it is a lake.  It’s all right in the winter, and swells tremendously then; but this is a dry year, you know, and it’s all dried up.”  Kyzie forgave the lake for drying up, but pitied the fishes.  Edith thought Castle Cliff was “a funny place anyway.”

“What little bits of houses!  Did they dry up too?”

“Oh, those are just the cabins and bunk-houses that were built for the miners, ever so long ago when the mine was going.  Fixed up into cottages now for summer boarders.  Do you want to see the mine?”

They went around behind the shaft-house and beyond the old saw-mill.

“O my senses!” cried Edith, “is that the old gold mine, that monstrous great thing?  Isn’t it horrid?”

They all agreed that it was “perfectly awful and dreadful,” and that it made you shudder to look into it; and that they were glad baby Eddo was safely out of the way.  The mine was a deep, irregular chasm, full of dirty water and rocks.  It had a hungry, cruel look; you could almost fancy it was waiting in wicked glee to swallow up thoughtless little children.