“I don’t like it,” returned Mr. Venus moodily, as he put his head between his knees and stuck up his dusty hair. “And there’s no encouragement to go on.”

“Not them Mounds without,” said Mr. Wegg, extending his right hand with an air of solemn reasoning, “encouragement? Not them Mounds now looking down upon us?”

“They’re too big,” grumbled Venus. “What’s a scratch here and a scrape there, a poke in this place and a dig in the other, to them. Besides; what have we found?”

“What have we found?” cried Wegg, delighted to be able to acquiesce. “Ah! There I grant you, comrade. Nothing. But on the contrary, comrade, what may we find? There you’ll grant me. Anything.”