"I don't know," said Mrs. March. "If the mine really does turn out to be very valuable, it is giving him a good deal." "That is true," replied Mr. March. "But, on the other hand, perhaps it is not worth any thing; and, in that case, Scholfield has the worst of the bargain. He says, though, he can tell very soon. He has been in mining a good deal; and he can make his own assays with the blow-pipe. We're to start very early in the morning, and take Nelly along to show us the way. The dear child was nearly beside herself last night." "So that was your secret: was it?" said Mrs. March. "Yes, and a very hard one it was for the child to keep too," said Mr. March. "She was half crazy to tell Rob." "You'll take him along too: won't you?" asked Mrs. March. "Oh, yes," said Mr. March: "no more secrets now; that is, not in this house. We won't have it talked round, if we can help it. Scholfield says that the minute it is known we've found silver there, those ravines will just swarm with men prospecting for more claims." The next day, Mr. March and Mr. Scholfield and Rob and Nelly set out immediately after breakfast for the ravine. They stopped at Billy's house and took him with them. Mr. Scholfield had said to Mr. March, as they walked along:-- "If Long Billy'll go in with us, I'd rather have him than any man I know about here. He's as honest 's daylight; I don't think he's doing much this summer; I think he'll go to work digging right away." Wasn't Nelly a proud little girl as she walked ahead of the party? She kept hold of Rob's hand, and every now and then they would run so fast that the older people had to run, too, to keep up with them. "How do you know the way so well, Nelly?" said Mr. Scholfield. Nelly laughed. "If you watch closely, you can see what I tell by," she said. "It's in plain sight." "Yes, plain sight! plain sight!" shouted Rob, to whom Nelly had pointed out the little red stones. "It's out of a story." Mr. Scholfield and Mr. March and Billy all looked around, perplexed; but they could see nothing. "Oh, tell us the secret, Guide," said Mr. March. "We are stupid: we can't find it out." Then Nelly told them; and as soon as she pointed to the red stones they wondered very much that they had not noticed them before. It seemed a very short way to the ravine, this time: Nelly had reached it before she thought of its being near. "Why, here it is," she said; "I didn't think we were half way there." Then she and Rob sat on the ground and watched the others. Rob was very quiet. He was a good deal overawed at the idea of a real silver mine all for their own. "Do you suppose it's right here, right under our feet, Nell?" said he, stamping his foot on the ground. "I dare say," said Nelly. "Perhaps it is all over round here: some of them are as big as a mile." "I wonder if they'll let us go down as often as we want to," said Rob. "They'll have to, won't they, if it's our own mine?"