Mr. March picked up a bit of the stone and looked closely at it. "Ah, Rob," he said, "the reason it doesn't shine now, is because the sun has gone under a cloud. There are little points of mica in these stones, and mica shines in the sun; but there isn't any silver here, dear. Did you really think you had made all our fortunes?" Rob did not speak. He had hard work to keep from crying. He stood still, slowly kicking the pile of stones with one foot. His father pitied him very much. "Never mind, Rob," he said; "you're not the first fellow that has thought he had found a mine, and been mistaken." Rob stooped down and picked up two big handfuls of the stones and threw them as far as he could throw them. "Old cheats!" he said. "Yes, real old cheats!" said Nelly; and she began to scatter the stones with her foot. "And they were awful heavy. Oh, mamma, I'm so hungry!" "So'm I," said Rob. "Isn't it dinner-time?" "Dinner-time!" exclaimed their mother. "Did you really not have any more idea of the time than that! Why, it is three o'clock! Where have you been?" "Not very far, mamma," answered Nelly; "only up where old Molly tumbled in. Rob thought perhaps that hole was a mine. It's all full of these shining stones. Isn't it too bad, mamma?" "Isn't what too bad, Nell?" said Mrs. March. "Why, too bad that they ain't silver," replied Nelly. "We thought we could all have every thing we wanted." Mrs. March laughed. "What do you want most of all this minute?" she said. "Something to eat, mamma," said Nelly. "Well, that you can have; and that I hope we can always have without any silver mine: and to-day we have something very good to eat." "Oh! what, mamma, what? say, quick!" said Rob. "Chicken pie," said Mrs. March, in a very comical, earnest tone. "Chicken pie!" shouted Rob. "Hurrah! hurrah!" and both he and Nelly ran toward the house as hard as they could go. "There is a wish-bone drying for you on the mantelpiece," called out Mr. March. "They'll both wish for a silver mine, I expect," laughed Mrs. March, as she and her husband walked slowly along. "What a queer notion that was to come into such children's heads!" "I don't know," said Mr. March, reflectively; "I think it's a very natural notion to come into anybody's head. I'd like a silver mine myself, very much." "We mightn't be any happier if we had one, nor half so happy," replied Mrs. March. "I'd rather have you well, and the children well, than have all the silver mines in Colorado." "If you had to choose between the two things, I dare say," answered Mr. March; "but I suppose a person might have good health and a silver mine besides. How would that do?" "Well, I'll make sure of the health first," said Mrs. March, laughing. "I'm not in so much hurry for the silver mine." After Rob and Nelly had eaten up all the chicken pie which had been saved for them, they took down the wish-bone from the mantelpiece, and prepared to "wish."