“You’re doin’ well now, Robert, I take it?” said the trader.
“Better than I used to,” answered Robert.
He did not choose to make a confidant of Mr. Sands, who was a man of great curiosity and an inveterate gossip.
When the goods were done up in separate parcels Robert took out the two-dollar-and-a-half gold piece and passed it to the grocer.
“Why, I declare, it’s gold!” exclaimed Mr. Sands wonderingly.
“Yes, it is gold.”
“Of all things, I didn’t expect to get gold from you, Robert Coverdale. I reckon you’ve found a gold mine!”
“Perhaps I have,” said Robert, smiling.
As he put his hand in his pocket another gold piece dropped to the floor and he picked it up hastily, provoked at his carelessness, not, however, before the astonished trader had seen it.
He was sorely puzzled to know how a poor boy like Robert could have so much money in his possession and put one or two questions, which our hero evaded.