CHAPTER III.
HOW THE NEW MINE CAPTAIN CAME Tom Hamon and Peter Mauger seated themselves on a rock within a few feet of the narrow slit out of which Nance and Bernel had been looking.
"Ouaie," said Tom, taking up his parable--"wanted me to join him in getting a loan on farm, he did." "Aw, now!" "Ouaie--a loan on farm, and me to join him, 'cause he couldn' do it without.

'And why ?' I asked him." "Ah!" "An' he told me he was goin' to make a fortune out them silver mines." "Aw!" "Ouaie! He'd put in every pound he had and every shilling he earned.

An' the more he could put in the more he would get out." "Aw!" "'But,' I said, 'suppos'n it all goes into them big holes and never comes out--'" "Aw!" "But he's just crazy 'bout them mines.

Says there's silver an' lead, and guyabble-knows-what-all in 'em, and when they get it out he'll be a rich man." "Aw!" said Peter, nodding his head portentously, as one who had gauged the futility of earthly riches.
He was a young man of large possessions but very few words.

When he did allow his thoughts out they came slowly and in jerks, with lapses at times which the hearer had to fill in as best he could.
His father had been an enterprising free-trader, and had made money before the family farm came to him on the death of his father.