At this Captain Corbet seemed deeply offended. He caressed the stick affectionately, and looked reproachfully at Bart. “A stick?” said he at last; “a common stick? No, _sir_. ’Tain’t a stick at all. Excuse me. Thar’s jest whar you’re out of your reckonin. ’Tain’t a stick at all; no, nor anythin like it.” “Well,” said Bart, “if that isn’t a stick, I should like to know what you call one.” “O, you’ll know--you’ll know in time,” said Captain Corbet, whose air of mystery now returned, and made the boys more anxious than ever to find out the cause. “If it isn’t a stick, what is it?” asked Bruce. “Wal--it ain’t a stick, thar.” “What is it, then?” “It’s--a--ROD,” said Captain Corbet, slowly and impressively. “A rod? Well, what then? Isn’t a rod a stick?” “No, _sir_, not by a long chalk. Besides, this here’s a very pecooliar rod.” # “How’s that?” Captain Corbet rose, went to the door, looked on every side with eager scrutiny, then returned, and looked mysteriously at the boys; then he stepped nearer; then he bent down his head; and finally he said, in an eager and piercing whisper,-- “_It’s a mineral rod!_” “A mineral rod?” “Yes, sir,” said Captain Corbet, stepping back, and watching the boys eagerly, so as to see the full effect of this startling piece of intelligence. The effect was such as might have satisfied even Captain Corbet, with all his mystery. A mineral rod! what could be more exciting to the imagination of boys? Had they not heard of such things? Of course they had. They knew all about them. They had read of mineral rods as they had read of other things. They had feasted their imaginations on pirates, brigands, wizards, necromancers, alchy-mists, astrologers, and all the other characters which go to make up the wonder-world of a boy; and among all the things of this wonder-world, nothing was more impressive than a mineral rod. This was the magic wand that revealed the secrets of the earth--this was the resistless “sesame” that opened the way to the hoarded treasures of the bandit--this was the key that would unlock the coffers, filled with gold, and buried deep in the earth by the robber chief or the pirate captain. What wonder, then, that the very mention of that word was enough to excite them all in an instant, and to turn their minds from good-natured contempt to eager and irrepressible curiosity?