"Yes; I used to watch them on the road up Bear Mountain, at Lame Gulch." "Know how to drill a hole in a rock?" "Learned that when I was a boy." "Know the difference between _joint_ powder and the black stuff?" "Yes; though I never handled giant powder myself." "Wal, don't be too free with it, that's all. And, say!" he called, as Wakefield in his turn made as if to go. "Look's like as though you'd got somethin' up to Lame Gulch. Wal, you hold on to it, that's all!" "You believe in Lame Gulch, then?" "Lame Gulch is all right. It's chockfull of stuff, now I tell ye! Only folks thought they was goin' to fish it out with a rod 'n line." "Then you really think there 's something in it?" "Somethin' in it? I tell ye, it's chockfull o' stuff! Only folks have got it into their heads that the one thing in this world they kin git without workin' for it, is _gold_! If that was so, what would it be wuth? Less than pig-iron! I tell ye, there ain't nothin' in this world that's to be got without workin' for it, 'n the more work it takes, the more it's wuth! 'N the reason gold's wuth more 'n most things, is because it takes more work 'n most things; more diggin' 'n more calc'latin'. Why!" he went on, waxing more and more emphatic. "Ef diggin' gold wa' n't no harder 'n mendin' roads, 't wouldn't _pay_ any better,--now I tell ye!" "Perhaps you're right," Wakefield admitted, "but that's not what we're brought up to think." "That's what my boys was brought up to think, 'n they're actin' accordin'." "Have you got some boys up at Lame Gulch?" "Yes, four on 'em. 'N I've got a claim up there too, 'n they're workin' it." "Why don't you go up and work your claim yourself?" asked Wakefield. A humorous twinkle came into the man's eyes. "Wal, now I tell ye!" and his voice dropped to a confidential level. "Railroadin' _pays better_, so far!" "Do your boys get a living out of the mine?" "Not yet, not yet. But they're skilled miners. 'N when they git hard up, a couple on 'em put in a month's work for some skalliwag 'company' or other, 'n so they keep agoin'. The three married ones ain't up there at all." "So you've got seven sons?" "Yes; seven boys, all told. We lost a girl," he added, with an indefinable change in his voice. "Her name was Loretty." With that, Loretty's father passed up the path and disappeared within the house. "Nice old chap," Wakefield thought, as he walked on, past the little houses with the presumable mortgages on them. "Nice of him to go on caring for Loretty after he had lost her."