Nelly's Silver Mine Part 48

Nelly watched with all her might. Sure enough, flash! flash! flash!

in all three of the cups it went; the cups were fiery red; as Mr.

Kleesman took them out, they turned yellow; they looked like the yolk of a hard-boiled egg hollowed out,--and there, in the bottom of each, lay a tiny, tiny silver b.u.t.ton! Mr. Kleesman carried them into the front room and weighed them. Two of them were heavy enough to more than weigh down the little b.u.t.ton which was always kept in the left-hand scale. That showed that the ore had silver enough in it to make it worth while to work it. The third one was so small you could hardly see it. That was the one which belonged to the old man.

"You ore are not worth not'ing," said Mr. Kleesman to him. Nelly looked sorrowfully at the old man's face; but he only smiled, and said:--

"Well, that's just what I've suspicioned all along. I didn't believe much in all that blow-pipe work. I'm out about a hundred dollars,--that's all,--not counting my time any thing. It's the time I grudge more'n the money. Much obliged to ye, sir." And the philosophical old fellow handed out his three dollars to pay for the a.s.say, and walked off as composedly as if he had had good news instead of bad.

Nelly looked very grave. She was thinking of what her father had said about Mr. Scholfield's blow-pipe.

"Perhaps Mr. Scholfield was all wrong too, just like this other man.

Perhaps our mine isn't good for any thing."

Nelly's face was so long that kind-hearted Mr. Kleesman noticed it, and said:--

"You haf tired: it are too long that you look at too many t'ings.

You shall sit here and be quiet."

"Oh, no, thank you," said Nelly: "I am not tired. I was only thinking."

Mr. Kleesman really loved Nelly, and it distressed him to see her look troubled. He wanted to know what troubled her; but he did not like to ask. He looked at her very sympathizingly, and did not say any thing.

"Is not a blow-pipe good for any thing to tell about silver?" said Nelly, presently.

"Oh, ho!" thought Mr. Kleesman to himself: "now I know what the little wise maiden is thinking: it is her father's mine. It did not escape her one word which this man said."

But he replied to her question as if he had not thought any thing farther.

"Not very much: the blow-pipe cannot tell true. It tell part true; not all true."

Nelly sighed, and said:--

"Come, Rob: it is time for us to go. We are very much obliged to you for letting us see the a.s.say. It is the most wonderful thing I ever saw. It is just like a fairy story. Come, Rob."

Rob also thanked Mr. Kleesman; and they went slowly down the steps.

"Stay! stay!" said Mr. Kleesman. "Little one, vill you not ask your father that he send me some of the ore from the Goot Luck mine? I shall a.s.say it for you, and I vill tell you true how much silver there should come from each ton, that you are not cheated at the mill vere dey take your ore to make in de silver brick."

Nelly ran back to Mr. Kleesman, and took his hand in hers.

"Oh, thank you! thank you!" she said: "that was what I was thinking about. I was thinking what if our mine should turn out like that man's that was here this morning."

"Oh, no: I t'ink not. Every von say it iss goot, very goot," said Mr. Kleesman. "But I like to make a.s.say. You tell your father I make it for nothing: I make it for you."

"I will tell him," said Nelly; "and I am sure he will be very glad to have you do it. I will bring some of the ore next time. Good-by!"

And she and Rob ran off very fast, for it was past Ulrica's dinner-time.

When they reached the house it was shut up: the curtains down, and the door locked. Ulrica had gone away for the day, to do washing at somebody's house; and Jan had taken his dinner to the mill. The children sat on the doorstep and ate their lunch, much disappointed.

Then they tried to think of some way to let Ulrica know they had been there.

"If we only had a card such as ladies used to leave for mamma when she was away," said Rob, "that would be nice."

"I'll tell you," said Nelly: "we'll p.r.i.c.k our names on two of the cottonwood leaves in the top of your hat: they'll do for cards."

Rob always put a few green leaves in the top of his hat, to make his head cool. It keeps out the heat of the sun wonderfully. One variety of the cottonwood leaf is a smooth, shining leaf, about as large as a lilac leaf, and much like it in shape. This was the kind Rob had in his hat. Nelly picked out the two biggest ones, and then with a pin she slowly p.r.i.c.ked "Nelly" on one and "Rob" on the other.

"There!" she said, when they were done: "aren't those nice cards?

Now I'll pin them on the door, close above the handle, so that Ulrica can't open the door without seeing them."

"What fun!" said Rob. "I say, Nell, you're a capital hand to think of things."

Nelly laughed.

"Why, Rob," she said, "sometimes you find fault with me just because I do 'think of things,' as you call it."

"Oh, those are different things," said Rob. "You know what I mean: bothers. Such things as these cards are fun."

When Ulrica came home at night from her washing, she was very tired; and she put her hand on the handle of her door and turned it almost without looking, and did not at first see the green leaves. But, as the door swung in, she saw them.

"Ah, den! vat is dat?" she exclaimed. "Dem boys at deir mischiefs again!" And she was about to tear the leaves down angrily, when she caught sight of the fine-p.r.i.c.ked letters. She looked closer, and made out the word "Nelly;" then on the other one "Rob."

"Ach! mine child! mine child!" she exclaimed. "She haf been here: she make that the green leaf say her name to me. Mine blessed child!" And Ulrica took the leaves and laid them away in a little yellow carved box, in the shape of a tub, which she had brought from Sweden. When Jan sat down at his supper, she took them out, and laid them by his plate, and told him where she found them. Jan was much pleased, and looked a long time curiously at the p.r.i.c.ked letters. Then he laid the leaves back in the box, and said to Ulrica:--

"Why do you not make for the child a gown, such as the Swede child wears, of the blue and the red? Think you not it would please her?"

"Not to wear," said Ulrica. "She would not like that every one should gaze."

"Oh, no, not to wear for people to see," said Jan; "but to keep because it is strange and different from the dress of this country.

The rich people that did come travelling to Sweden did all buy clothes like the Swede clothes, to take home to keep and to show."

"Yes! yes! I will!" exclaimed Ulrica, much delighted at the thought; "but it shall have no b.u.t.tons: we cannot find b.u.t.tons."

"Wilhelm Sachs will make them for me out of tin: that will do very well, just for a show," said Jan. "It is not for money; but only that they shine and be round."

So after supper Ulrica took the roll of blue cloth out of the chest, and began to measure off the breadths.

"How tell you that it is right?" said Jan.

"By my heart," said the loving Ulrica: "I know mine child her size by my heart. It vill be right."

But for all that it turned out that she cut the breadths too long, and had to hem a deep hem at the bottom; which wasted some of the cloth, and vexed Ulrica's economical soul. But we have not come to that yet. We must go home with Nelly and Rob.

Nelly had made up her mind not to tell her father any thing about Mr. Kleesman's proposal to make the a.s.say until she could see him all alone; but she forgot to tell Rob not to speak of it; and they had hardly taken their seats at the tea-table when Rob exclaimed:--

"Papa! don't you think Mr. Kleesman says a blow-pipe isn't good for any thing to tell about silver with. And there was a man there to-day, with ore out of his mine, and it hadn't any silver at all in it,--not any to speak of,--and he thought it was splendid: he and two other men; they had tried it with a blow-pipe."

Mr. Scholfield was taking tea with the Marches this night. He listened with a smile to all Rob said. Then he said:--

"That's just like Kleesman. He thinks n.o.body but he can tell any thing. It's the money he's after. I see through him. Now I know I can make as good an a.s.say with my blow-pipe as he can with all his little cups and saucers and gimcracks, any day."