loafers from the village, visited the tunnel from time to time, and their

verdicts were always the same and always disheartening--"No coal in that

hill." Now and then Philip would sit down and think it all over and

wonder what the mystery meant; then he would go into the tunnel and ask

the men if there were no signs yet? None--always "none."

He would bring out a piece of rock and examine it, and say to himself,

It is limestone--it has crinoids and corals in it--the rock is right"

Then he would throw it down with a sigh, and say, "But that is nothing;

where coal is, limestone with these fossils in it is pretty certain to

lie against its foot casing; but it does not necessarily follow that

where this peculiar rock is coal must lie above it or beyond it; this

sign is not sufficient."

The thought usually followed:--"There is one infallible sign--if I could

only strike that!"

Three or four tines in as many weeks he said to himself, "Am I a

visionary? I must be a visionary; everybody is in these days; everybody

chases butterflies: everybody seeks sudden fortune and will not lay one

up by slow toil. This is not right, I will discharge the men and go at

some honest work. There is no coal here. What a fool I have been; I

will give it up."

But he never could do it. A half hour of profound thinking always

followed; and at the end of it he was sure to get up and straighten

664

The Gilded Age