Part 15 (1/2)

Next day Mr. Clifford said he would take all the children, except Miss Flyaway, to see a coal mine. It was nothing new to Horace, who was in the habit of exploring his native town as critically as a regularly employed surveyor. You could hardly show him anything which he had not already seen and examined carefully, from a steamboat to a dish of ”sour-krout.” Grace and Ca.s.sy were by no means as learned, and had never ventured under ground. They feared, yet longed, to make the experiment.

As for Dotty, she knew Jennie Vance's ring had been found in a mine.

She had a vague notion that strange, half-human creatures were at work in the bowels of the earth, hunting for similar bits of jewelry. She had a secret hope that, if she went down there, she might herself see something s.h.i.+ning in a dark corner; and what if it should be a piece of yellow gold, just suitable to be made into a ring to contain the oyster pearl!

How surprised Jennie Vance would be to see such a precious treasure on her little friend's finger!

”She didn't find her ring herself, and it isn't a pearl. But I shan't give mine away, and shan't promise to, and then tell that I never.

That's a _hyper'blee_!”

Dotty had found a new name for white lies.

”It is so nice,” said Grace, as they started from the door, ”to have a little cousin visiting us! for it makes us think of going to a great many places where we never went before.”

”Then I'm glad there _is_ a little cousin, and _very_ glad it's me.”

”They like to have me here,” she thought, ”almost as much as if I was Prudy.”

Horace enjoyed the distinction of walking with the handsome Miss Dimple.

When they met one of the boys of his acquaintance, he found an opportunity to whisper in his ear,--

”This is our little cousin from Down East. Isn't she a beauty? She can climb a tree as well as you can.”

Dotty heard the whisper, and unconsciously tossed her head a little. She could not but conclude that she was becoming a personage of some consequence.

”I'm a beauty; and now I'm growing pleasant, too. I don't have any temper, and haven't had any for a great while.”

Dotty did not reflect that there had been no occasion for anger. If one cannot be amiable when one is visiting, and is treated with every possible attention, then one must be ill-natured indeed! Dotty deceived herself. The lion was still there; he was curled up, and out of sight in his den.

They pa.s.sed several lager-beer saloons and candy shops; saw Dutchmen smoking meerschaums under broad awnings; and heard them talking in the guttural German language, as if--so Dotty thought--they had something in their throats which they could not swallow.

After walking a long distance on a level road, and seeing nothing which looked like a hill, they came to the coal mines. Such a dirty spot!

There were men standing about with faces as black as night, and out of the blackness gleamed the whites of their eyes like bits of white paper surrounded by pools of ink.

Dotty stood still and gazed.

”Horace,” she whispered, ”my conscience tells me they are niggroes.”

”Then, dear, your conscience has made a mistake; they are white men when they are clean.”

Mr. Clifford went up to one of the men, and asked if himself and the little people, might have an inside view of the mine. The man smiled a black and white smile, which Dotty thought was horrible, and said,--

”O, yes, sir; come on.”

There was a large platform lying over the top like a trap-door, and through this platform was drawn a large rope. Grace and Ca.s.sy both screamed as they stood upon the planks, and caught Mr. Clifford by the arms.

Dotty was not afraid; she liked the excitement. The men said it was as safe as going down cellar, and she believed them.

But she was not exactly prepared for the strange, wild, dizzy sensation in her head when they began to sink down, down into the earth. It was delightful. ”It seemed like being swung very high in the air,” she said, ”only it was just as _different_, too, as it could be.”