“Mother,� he said drowsily, “will my sugar be enough——�
He was asleep before the question was finished.
CHAPTER IV
DICK was up early Monday morning, meekly and diligently hoeing the potato patch. But his father had seen this humility and industry follow too many offenses to overlook Saturday’s disobedience; so the culprit received a severe lecture ending with the command to spend his Saturday afternoons for a month working in the garden.
A month! A whole month before he could go back to the Old Sterling Mine! All that he could do, in the meantime, to help carry out his plan of working the mine and making a fortune, was to get tools and collect candles.
He rummaged among the old irons in the blacksmith’s shed on several afternoons, under pretense of finding horseshoes.
“What’s this old tool; and that one?� he asked with assumed carelessness, pulling out one after another, until he identified and set aside some that the miners had used.
Then he chose an occasion when Mr. Mallett was busy shoeing a fractious mule and said in an offhand way: “Mr. Mallett, I want to dig a hole, where I reckon there’s rock. May I take some of the old tools out of your shed?�
“Help yourself.�
“And I needn’t bring them back right away?�