"Paddle!" echoed Stanley. "What sense is there in paddling before we've found a single ha'porth of gold? Hallo! Come here, quick!" he continued, excitedly, as something large and hard rolled from side to side of the sieve. "Oh, Lessels! I've found a monster nugget! Come and help me lift it out. Hurrah!"
"'KEEP THE GUN LOADED; WE'LL HAVE ROBBERS ALONG PRESENTLY.'"
"Wait till I get my sock off," replied Lessels, indifferently. "Is it weal gold?"
"Of course it is, you little duffer! Never mind your sock!" roared the excited miner. "It's a large, square nugget—yellow, and broken in two. I wonder who's stole the other half."
"Looks like a bwick," remarked the pard, suspiciously, after carefully surveying the find. "An' it isn't clean an' bwight like weal money."
"I tell you it's a nugget," replied the lucky miner, in a tone which was intended to put an end to all argument on the subject. "Keep the gun loaded; I guess we'll have some robbers along presently."
"Where can we spend it?" asked Lessels, anxiously.
"There's a stall where they sell ginger-beer and ice-cream, about half a mile along the beach," replied Stanley; "you can just see it in the distance. If you like, you can walk over there and bring back half a dozen of beer, three gipsy cakes, and about twenty sovereigns' worth of change. But don't let the storekeeper cheat you."