“THE HAUNTED HOUSE”
“Well, you jus’ tell me,” demanded William, “you jus’ give me one reason why we shun’t dig for gold.”
“’Cause we shan’t find any,” said Douglas simply.
“How d’you know?” said William the ever-hopeful, “how d’you know we shan’t? You ever tried? You ever dug for gold? D’you know anyone what’s ever dug for gold? Well, then,” triumphantly, “how d’you know we shan’t find any?”
“That’s ’cause why,” said Douglas with equal triumph, “’cause no one’s ever done it ... ’cause they’d of done it if there’d been any chance....”
“They didn’t think of it,” said William impatiently. “They sim’ly didn’t think of it. In the fields an’ woods f’rinstance—no one can ever of dug there an’ f’all you know it’s full of gold an’ jewels an’ things. How can anyone tell till they’ve tried diggin’. People in England sim’ly didn’t think of it—that’s all.”
“All right,” said Douglas, tiring of the argument. “I don’t mind diggin’ a bit an’ tryin’.”
“You can’t tell it at once—gold,” said William importantly. “You’ve gotter wash it in water an’ then it shows up sud’nly. So we’d better start diggin’ by some water.”
They began operations the next morning by the pond, and had dug patiently for two hours before they were chased furiously from the spot by Farmer Jenks and a dog and a shower of sticks and stones. The washing of the soil had been the only part of the proceeding they had really enjoyed and a good deal of the resultant mud still adhered to their persons. They wandered down the road.
“Well, we’ve not found much gold yet, have we?” said Douglas sarcastically.