  There was a conspiracy at the homestead. Great whispering and talking and planning among the younger set. Great fossicking among old tins and gardening implements; and then, one fine day, a party of four set off to the river, down to the Rocky Bend. It was nearly a quarter of a mile to the Namoi from the Gillong gate, and they all trudged across the track, each carrying bulky parcels. Down at the river Willie turned and addressed the company in a pompous voice: “Yes, I believe there’s gold here—any amount of it. Why, look at them rocks—they’re shining again! I bet we’ll knock gold dust out of ’em before long.” “Oh, Willie!” they all gasped. “Do you really think so?” “’Course I do. It’s a wonder all you people never thought of it before. Why, there’ll be a gold-field on your place yet,” he went on, with his eyes shining. “Yes, a great big diggings, and I’ll be the one that found them.” “Oh, Willie! wouldn’t it be lovely?” they all shrieked. “Wouldn’t it be great,” he went on, “to have monster big diggings and crowds and crowds of people and miners’ huts and tents and all that up here, all through me finding out a gold-field——” “Oh, Willie!” they all shrieked again. “Why, look at that sand there! Why, there’s gold in it, sure enough!” “Oh, Willie! however’ll we set about getting it out?” cried Eva. “We’ll fix it up,” said Willie, confidently. “We’ll get it out somehow. I’ve seen chaps in pictures with old dishes, and they wash the sand and strain off the water, and the gold dust’s left behind, or something like that. Anyhow, we’ll have a try at it.” “Oh, yes, let’s try!” they cried in chorus. Then the four of them set to work with little dishes, and scooped up sand and washed and strained the water off, and looked very important, indeed. “We’ll ex—ex—periment,” said Willie. “Yes, we’ll ’speriment,” said Doris. “Periment,” said Baby, as she swung an old tin pint wildly in the air. They worked patiently for an hour, without results, and then Doris shouted out that she had found some. “Where, Doris, where?” “Look at this—it’s a lot shinier than the other.” “I believe it is,” said Willie. “I believe it is,” echoed Eva. So they emptied it on to an old tin tray to dry, and set to work again with a will. By-and-by the others shouted that they had struck gold, too, and more shining yellow sand was poured on to the tray. They looked round for Baby, but she was busy building sand castles and wells and filling them up with water from the old pint. She made dozens and dozens of trips to the water’s edge, and filled the old pint to carry back to the wells; and as the pint was leaking, there was only about a quarter left when she reached the wells. But Baby didn’t care. The more trouble she had, the better she seemed to like it. “Look at her,” said Willie, in tones of disgust. “A smart lot of good she’d be on a gold-field! Let her build her old castles and her old wells—a smart lot of good they’ll do her!” Then he went on working harder than ever. “Do you know,” he cried a minute later; “I believe there’s another way—chopping up rocks and stones, and getting it out like ore or something. Let’s try it.” “Oh, yes, let’s!” cried Doris, who was getting tired of this slow old way. “There’ll be more fun chopping up rocks than washing old sand.” “And we’ll send the ore away to Sydney for some of them chaps to look at and tell us what it’s worth.” “Oh!” they cried in the one breath. “Won’t that be grand? Let’s start chopping.” “She made dozens of trips to the water’s edge.” “Wait a bit, there’s only one tomahawk,” cried Willie. “Let me go first, ’cause I thought of it,” and he slashed with a will into the shining rocks, and before half an hour great blisters had risen on his soft hands. “Let’s have a hit at it,” cried Eva, and she took the tomahawk and bashed into the stone. Then they heard the thud of horses’ hoofs up on the bank, and Eva dropped the tomahawk and looked up as Big Tom rode to the top of the bank. “Hullo! making mud pies?” he cried, as he dismounted. “Ye-es,” shouted Willie, and they all exchanged telegraphic glances. They mustn’t let Big Tom into the secret. They mustn’t let anyone know until gold was discovered, and those wonderful Sydney men had examined it and told them what it was worth. Then they would tell their wonderful news, and then the rush to the gold-fields would begin! “Yes, the sand’s lovely down here,” cried Eva. “Oh, lovely!” said Doris. “Lovely!” echoed Willie. “Lubly tand!” cried Baby. “Nearly as good as the sand on the beaches, eh, young man?” said Tom, as he came down the bank. “Ye-es,” said Willie, as he made a sign to Eva to sit on the tomahawk, and she hastily hid it in the sand and then sat on it. “Yes, it’s nearly as good,” went on Willie. “I mean I believe it’s better, Tom; it’s real yellow, and the beach sand is white.” “Oh, this is richer sand than yours!” said Tom, as he stooped down to the water’s edge and took a long drink. “Richer?” cried Willie, looking round at the others. Had Tom guessed there was gold lying about in the gleaming sand? “Yes,” chuckled Tom, “richer. It’s like yellow butter and white butter—which would you rather have?” “Oh, the yellow, Tom!” they cried, quite relieved, for now they knew that Tom didn’t mean anything about gold when he said rich, and their secret was still safe. “Why, Baby’s got the best castles of the whole lot of you!” said Tom, surveying Baby’s buildings, “and wells and roads and all.” “Oh, yes, Tom!” they all agreed. “We’ve only been fooling.” Then Tom sat on the sand and talked. Another time they would have liked talking to Tom, but to-day they did want to go on with their prospecting. At last he rose to go, and Willie accompanied him up the bank, and stayed there till Tom was almost out of sight, and then he dashed into the work again. “Hello! is this where you are?” a fresh young voice called out from the top of the bank, and they glanced up to see Mollie’s laughing face. Oh, dear, dear! what bad luck! They didn’t mean to tell Mollie, and now they’d have to, because she’d wonder what they were working so hard at and why their hands were blistered. In fact, she’d ask all kinds of questions, and here she was coming down the steep bank! What a sickening place it was! They couldn’t even have a secret to themselves. First Tom, and then Mollie. The river was miles and miles long. Why ever didn’t they keep away from the Rocky Bend just for that evening? “Here, Mollie, you promise not to laugh at us?” cried Willie, sturdily. “Of course I won’t laugh,” said Mollie. “And promise not to tell?” “No, I never tell, either. But what are you doing?” and she commenced to sink down on the sand near the wonderful tray. “Mind the specimens!” cried Willie. “Specimens?” cried Mollie. “Yes, we’re mining—gold-mining!” said Willie, stubbornly. “Oh, playing mines?” said Mollie. “No, not playing, either. We’re serious. We think we’ve struck a patch, and we’re going to work——” “And later on,” chimed Doris, “there’ll be tents and huts and camps, and hundreds and thousands of men here, minin’.” Mollie laughed gaily. “There, I said you’d laugh, and you promised not to,” said Willie, in disgust. “Oh, I couldn’t help it!” cried Mollie. “Who ever heard of such a thing?” “Because they’re all too silly to see it,” cried Willie, hotly. “Why, any fool with common eyesight would know that there was gold in this sand and in those rocks!” By-and-by Mollie grew serious, and listened. “I’ll tell you what,” she said at last. “Why don’t you ask someone?” “Ask someone?” said Willie, witheringly. “Who’s to ask?” “Why, old Joe; he was years and years and years on the gold-fields when he was young.” “So he was,” cried Eva. “Oh, Mollie! was he?” cried Willie. “Oh, he ought to know!” “Yes, let’s ask him,” cried Eva. “Oh, let’s!” gasped Doris, “quick as ever we can. Let’s hurry home and ask him before he has his tea.” “No, you don’t!” cried Willie. “I’ll ask him, ’cause I found the gold and did all the work. I’ll do the asking.” “Yes, we’ll wait till after tea,” said Mollie, “when he’s smoking. Let’s all go over to the stable and ask him.” “Oh, yes, let’s!” agreed Doris again. It was nearly sunset, so they hurried and gathered up their treasures—the “gold dust” and “specimen ore”—and trudged off home; and after tea a deputation of five waited on Joe, who listened attentively, and then with the aid of a kerosene lantern examined the specimens. “So you think you’ve struck gold in the Namoi River, eh? Gold at the Rocky Bend? Why, there’s no more gold in that sand than there is in my foot!” But some dreams die hard, and Willie and his little band still worked away at their gold-field. Teddo was again pressed into the service, and one day posted a small tin of “dust” away to Willie’s father, to be examined by an expert, and the verdict came back on very official looking paper—“Just ordinary sand from the river-bed.” |
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