"Oh! these are a great deal bigger than any I saw in Mr. Kleesman's office. Our mine must be a good one." Mr. Scholfield was in great glee. He made the most extravagant statements, and talked very foolishly about the mine: said he would not take half a million of dollars for his third of it; and so on, till old, experienced miners shook their heads and said he was crazy. But, when they saw the round buttons of shining silver which he had extracted from the stones, they stopped shaking their heads, and thought perhaps he was right. The fame of "The Good Luck" spread all over town; and, as Billy had said there would be, there were many who persisted in calling the mine "The Nelly." Almost everybody in Rosita knew Nelly by sight by this time; and it gave the mine much greater interest in their eyes that it had been found by this good, industrious little girl, whom everybody liked. Whenever Nelly went to town now, people asked her about her mine. She always answered:-- "It isn't my mine: it is my papa's." "But you found it," they would say. "I found the black hat it wore on its head," was Nelly's usual reply: "that is all. Mr. Scholfield and Billy found the silver." It happened that it was nearly three weeks before Rob and Nelly went to Mr. Kleesman's house again. They had now a new interest, which made them hurry through with all they had to do in Rosita, so as to have time on their way home to stop at "The Good Luck," and watch Billy and Mr. Scholfield at work. It was an endless delight to them to see the windlass wind, wind, wind, and watch the heavy bucket of stone slowly coming up to the mouth of the hole. Then Billy would let Rob take the bucket and empty it on the pile of shining gray ore which grew higher and higher every day. Sometimes the children stayed here so late that it was after dark when they reached home; and at last Mrs. March told them that they must not go to the mine every time they went to Rosita: it made their walk too long. She said they might go only every other time. "Let's go Tuesdays," said Rob. "Why?" said Nelly. "It never seems half so long from Tuesday till Friday as it does from Friday to Tuesday," said Rob. "Why, why not?" asked Nelly. "Oh, I don't know," said Rob. "Sunday's twice as long as any other day: I guess that's it." "But you've got the Sunday each week," exclaimed Nelly: "it isn't any shorter from Tuesday to Tuesday than from Friday to Friday: what a silly boy! The Sunday comes in all the same. Don't you see?" Rob looked puzzled. "I don't care," he said "it seems ever so much shorter." The first day that they were not to go to the mine, Rob said:-- "See here, Nell: if we can't go to the mine, let's go and see old Mr. Kleesman. His furnace must be done by this time. Perhaps he'll be making an assay to-day." "Oh, good!" said Nelly. "I declare I'd almost forgotten all about him: hadn't you?" "No, indeed!" said Rob: "I liked the mine better; but let's go there to-day."