“And so there _is_ a vein, my boy, and we are just getting into it; deposites are always the first thing we look for in copper mining. As long as we have them we get on swimmingly; but you are so confoundedly skittish! I was just going to tell you, that in making the ‘cross-cut,’ Uptosnuff has struck ‘_the master vein_!’ and found an old ‘_drift_’ in the mountain, which you will see after a while, is important. In it he found old hatchets, and hammers, and images in copper, supposed to have been the rude efforts at mining and smelting by the Indians long ago—say before the Dutch had taken Holland, or achieved the renowned name of Knickerbockers, and had gone home copper-fastened.” Information so desirable as this would work its way out somehow, and gentlemen would now bet you a trifle—say champagne and cigars—that a dividend of twenty-five per cent. would be declared on the stock the first year; or would _give_ you a hundred dollars for agreeing to pay the annual dividend on a hundred shares. Jones is “satisfied _now_,” and forthwith buys five hundred shares more, as do other Joneses, and Browns, and Greens. Outsiders became as plenty as gooseberries, and as verdant; and it would seem, from the number of shares reported _at_ the Board, and “_after_,” that certificates had quadrupled, and never _could_ multiply fast enough to supply the demand. Indeed, as one old gentleman was heard to end a prolonged whistle, by exclaiming—“GAS!” the market became so inflated that the Joneses, Browns, and Greens, declined the attempt of _cornering_ the stock, in despair. “The company,” called for an additional installment at once. “Why, what the deuce,” asks Jones, “does the company want with _more_ installments? Haven’t they got copper enough!” “Copper _ore_, my dear fellow,” responded Grubemout. “Yes, _lots_ of it. But Uptosnuff wasn’t brought up in a Cornish mine for nothing. The furnaces at Baltimore and Boston want it for half-price, but as they are nearly _out_, we intend to make them _smoke_, ha! ha! But we must go to the expense of an “_adate_” in the meanwhile.” “Why, what’s the use of _that_—what good will that do?” asks Jones. “What _is_ an _adate_, anyway?” Poor Jones had a good deal yet to learn about copper-mining, and felt naturally alarmed at these ominous terms. The “cross-cut” was the beginning of puzzlers. He had yet to see—I may as well say he ultimately did see, “the drift,” to help along “the pumps,” as well as the adate with installments, and to become familiar with a variety of mining lore, which assists knowledge in its acquisition, by obligingly allowing us to pay for it. But I believe he never _did_ understand “what they wanted with so many work-shops—_he_ thought they were _miners_!” “An _adate_, Jones, is only a drain to relieve the mine when it is overcharged with water.” “Oh! is that all!”