human
I don't know about its being like a picter, said Hiram, dryly, as he flicked away a fly from the shoulder of his horse,
gpt
Oh, is that the Gale farm, where the silver-mine is said to be?
human
Yes, marm; at least, it's the farm where the man lived that, 'cordin' to what folks say, said he'd found a silver-mine. I don't take a great deal of stock in the story myself.
gpt
A silver-mine! That sounds interesting, said a pretty girl on the front seat, who had been driving the horses half the way, aided and abetted by Hiram, with whom she was a prime favorite.
human
Tell me about it, Mr. Swift. Is it a story, and when did it all happen?
gpt
Well, I don't know as it ever did happen, responded the farmer, cautiously.
human
All I know for certain is, that my father used to tell a story that, before I was born (nigh on to sixty years ago, that must have been), Squire Asy Allen--that used to live up to that red house on North Street, where you bought the crockery mug, you know, Miss Rose--come up one day in a great hurry to catch the stage, with a lump of rock tied in his handkerchief. Old Roger Gale had found it, he said, and they thought it was silver ore; and the Squire was a-takin' it down to New Haven to get it analyzed. My father, he saw the rock, but he didn't think much of it from the looks, till the Squire got back ten days afterward and said the New Haven professor pronounced it silver, sure enough, and a rich specimen; and any man who owned a mine of it had his fortune made, he said. Then, of course, the township got excited, and everybody talked silver, and there was a great to-do.
gpt
And why didn't they go to work on the mine at once?
human
Well, you see, unfortunately, no one knew where it was, and old Roger Gale had taken that particular day, of all others, to fall off his hay-riggin' and break his neck, and he hadn't happened to mention to any one before doing so where he found the rock! He was a close-mouthed old chap, Roger was. For ten years after that, folks that hadn't anything else to do went about hunting for the silver-mine, but they gradooally got tired, and now it's nothin' more than an old story. Does to amuse boarders with in the summer, concluded Mr. Swift, with a twinkle.
gpt
For my part, I don't believe there ever was a mine.
human
But there was the piece of ore to prove it.
gpt
Oh, that don't prove anything, because it got lost. No one knows what became of it. An' sixty years is long enough for a story to get exaggerated in.
human
I don't see why there shouldn't be silver in Beulah township, remarked the lady on the back seat.
gpt
You have all kinds of other minerals here,--soapstone and mica and emery and tourmalines and beryls.
human
Well, ma'am, I don't see nuther, unless, mebbe, it's the Lord's will there shouldn't be.
gpt
It would be so interesting if the mine could be found!
human
It would be _so_, especially to the Gale family,--that is, if it was found on their land. The widow's a smart, capable woman, but it's as much as she can do, turn and twist how she may, to make both ends meet. And there's that boy of hers, a likely boy as ever you see, and just hungry for book-l'arnin', the minister says. The chance of an eddication would be just everything to him, and the widow can't give him one.
gpt
It's really a romance,