LITMIR.BIZ

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heap you know about gold mining!"

      "That's all right. Every one has to learn. I guess he didn't know anything about it at first," said the stout youth.

      "Perhaps not. But what chance have we to go out West in the mining country?"

      "None, I guess, Will, but I can't help thinking of it. I certainly would like to go West and be a gold miner. Think of digging gold instead of potatoes."

      "There's only one thing about that," replied his brother, who was not so inclined to look on the rosy side of things, "when you're digging for potatoes you go to a field where potatoes have been planted, and when you dig, you know you're going to get some."

      "Well?"

      "Well, when you dig for gold you have to go it blind. It may be there and it may not. Oftener not, and you have all your digging for nothing."

      "So you do here, sometimes, when the droutht or too much rain has ruined the potato crop," retorted Jed. "I guess it's about an even thing, Will."

      "Maybe so. But I guess dad wouldn't let us go West."

      "Probably not. Come on, we'll do ten more rows each, and then it will be time to go home to supper. My! But I'm glad this day will soon be over! It's been a scorcher!"

      It had been very hot, and the unclouded sun, beating down on the two lads in the cornfield, seemed to fairly be trying to shrivel them up.

      "I'm done!" exclaimed Jed at length, as he reached the end of the tenth row, which he had set as his "stent."

      "So'm I," added his brother a minute later. "Come on, Pete. You're moving slow on account of the run you had this morning. Hark! What's that, Jed?"

      "Sounded like thunder."

      The two brothers listened a moment. Off in the west there was a dull rumble, where some copper-colored clouds had gathered.

      "It is thunder!" exclaimed Will. "Say, I do believe it's going to rain. Won't dad be glad!"

      "He sure will," spoke Jed.

      "But I'm afraid it's too late to do any good," went on Will.

      "Nonsense! There you go again. Always looking on the dark side of things. Why don't you say the rain will do all sorts of good?"

      "I suppose I'm not built that way. But I hope it does."

      "Of course it will. Come on. Let's hurry up. I don't want to get wet."

      "I'll be glad to," declared Will. "Seems as if I never was so hot. I'd like to get in a tubful of ice water and stay there an hour or so."

      As the lads unhitched the horses from the cultivators, leaving the machines in the field, in readiness for the work on the next day, and started homeward with the steeds, the rumble of thunder became louder, and there were flashes of lightning in the western sky.

      "She's a-coming!" cried Jed. "It'll be a corker, too, after this long dry spell."

      The boys had scarcely reached home before it began to rain. First there were only a few large drops, each the size of a half dollar. There was no wind, and the crack of thunder seemed like the discharge of heavy guns.

      Then the trees began to bend before the blast. The wind howled through their branches. The dust from parched fields and long dry highways rose in big clouds, making a yellow haze as the sun shone through it. Then the sky was quickly overcast with a yellow cloud. The wind blew harder. Louder crashed the thunder and then, with a rushing, hissing sound, the rain fell in torrents.

      "Just in time!" cried Gabe Harrison, as the boys, having put the horses in the barn, rushed up on the side porch of the farm house. "This is going to be a great shower. I knew my old corn wasn't aching for nothing."

      "I guess your corn isn't any gladder of the rain than the corn we've been cultivating all day," retorted Jed. "It was almost parched with the heat."

      "This will be a godsend to us farmers," spoke Mr. Crosby, as he came out to see the storm. "It would have been worth a lot more had it come sooner, but it will save part of my crops for me."

      There was another crash of thunder, and it seemed as if several clouds, right overhead, opened and let out their flood of rain, so fiercely did the big drops dash down.

      "Nettie, are all the windows shut?" asked Mrs. Crosby of her daughter.

      "Yes, ma. I looked to 'em when I saw the shower coming up. They're all closed."

      "Are you sure you shut the one in my bedroom?"

      "Yep."

      "I'm afraid you didn't. I'm going to look, and make certain."

      If there was one worry Mrs. Crosby had, it was that the windows were not shut when a storm came up. She was afraid of the rain coming in, and she was also afraid of lightning, for, like many country women, she believed the electrical current only waited for the chance of darting in an open window to wreak damage. So she hurried off to oversee the work her daughter had said was already done.

      The storm became worse. The farmer and his two sons, who, with the old miner, were watching it from the side porch, had to go in, as a shift of the wind sent the rain into their shelter.

      "Now if this will keep up all night, we'll have water enough," commented Mr. Crosby.

      "Do you need as much as that?" asked Gabe.

      "Yes, and more too. Half the springs around here are dried up. Our well didn't have much more water in it, and the creek was lower than I ever saw it before."

      They went inside the house. Mrs. Crosby finished her supervision of the windows, and came into the sitting-room, where the others were gathered.

      "Jed," she called to her eldest son, "don't sit so close to the window."

      "Why not?"

      "You might be struck. Lightning always comes in a window."

      "But this one is closed."

      "That doesn't matter. Come away, do, please."

      Not wanting to worry his mother, Jed obeyed. Hardly had he moved back when there came a terrific crash. It was so loud, and sounded so close, that, for a moment, every one in the room was stunned.

      "That struck somewhere around here!" cried Mr. Crosby, as soon as the rolling thunder sound had died away.

      "I should say so!" added Will. "You can smell the sulphur."

      There was a noticeable odor in the room, like when an old-fashioned match is lighted.

      "Oh, dear! I'm afraid it hit the house!" cried Mrs. Crosby. "We'll all be killed!"

      "If it struck the house we wouldn't be sitting here," replied Jed. "We'd be knocked off our chairs. Come on, Will, we'll go see what damage it did."

      Following that one terrible clap the storm seemed to let up a bit, though it rained harder than ever. The two boys, taking heavy coats, from nails in the kitchen, went out. No sooner had they reached the porch than Jed cried:

      "It struck our cow barn! The place is on fire! Come on and get the cow out!"

      His cry was heard in the sitting-room, and his father and the miner ran out. They did not need to be told what had happened. The cow shed, a small structure, near the barn, but not attached to it, was in flames.

      "We must save the cow!" exclaimed Mr. Crosby. "She's worth fifty dollars!"

      The men and boys rushed to the little stable. The lightning had torn out one complete side, and it was burning fiercely in spite of the drenching rain. But one look inside showed Mr. Crosby that more bad luck had come to him. Though the rain had arrived in time to save part of his crops, the lightning had struck the cow, and the poor creature was stretched out dead on the floor of the small stable.

      CHAPTER VI

      THE GOLD STRIKE

      "You can't save that cow, Mr. Crosby!" cried Gabe Harrison. "Come on, boys, get pails and we'll see if we can't put out the fire! Where's there a well or a cistern?"

      "Right over this way," replied Jed.

      "More

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