The Braxtons of Miracle Springs by Michael Phillips

the last thing I expected to hear at a sad time like this—laughter.
    â€œHee, hee, hee,” sounded the cackle of Alkali Jones’ high-pitched voice. “You’re all talkin’ like a parcel o’ lily-livered old geese. Ain’t no more gold gonna be found round hereabouts without a dang sight more work ’n when we first came. Hee, hee, hee. What ye expect, Drum, fer the blame stuff t’ appear down at yer feet like it did when I first sloshed through this here Miracle creek? I ever tell ye about the size o’ the first nugget I took outta here? Why the blame thing was as big as—”
    â€œYep you have, Alkali—a time or two,” interrupted Pa, with a wink in Tad’s direction.
    â€œHee, hee, hee . . . couldn’t recollect if ye knew about that or not. But if ye can remember that fer back, surely ye ain’t fergot that when we found that blame quartz last year, there was two lines of it leadin’ into the dang hill.”
    Nobody said anything for a minute, and a few more glances went back and forth around the table.
    â€œYeah,” said Pa slowly. “But that other wasn’t no bigger than my little finger.”
    â€œHee, hee, hee—an’ I told ye that was the one ye oughta foller.”
    â€œThe other was six inches wide, Alkali—more quartz than I’d ever seen compacted in one vein like that.”
    â€œThe look o’ things don’t always tell ye all there is t’ know, Drum. I tell ye—ye went the wrong direction. Hee, hee, hee.”
    â€œWell, I’ll think about what you say, Alkali,” said Pa. “Maybe we’ll poke around tomorrow and see if we can find that little finger-vein you’re talking about.”
    I could tell by the tone of his voice that Pa wasn’t convinced in the slightest and that nothing Mr. Jones said had changed his mind.

Chapter 20 Uncertainty
    Nothing changed much for the next several days. Christopher and Pa and the boys went up to the mine the following morning just the same as they always did, though not quite so early.
    Pa was a little quieter than normal for the rest of the week. The others, and Almeda and I too, were kind of watching him to see what he was going to decide about the mine. Knowing Pa, he realized it too, and that only increased the pressure on him to make a final decision. When he told us about shutting down the mine, his words were almost like those of a decision, but they weren’t quite final. Then everything Alkali Jones said had muddied the water about what to do. And when Pa said nothing more, the future was left up in the air, and nobody knew quite what to think or what Pa expected.
    Everybody, I suppose, had their own reasons not to talk about it openly, because what Pa had said couldn’t help but cast doubt onto everyone’s future. Even Christopher and I didn’t talk about it right at first, and we usually talked about everything .
    Two days after Pa’s surprise announcement about shutting down the mine, Zack left for the afternoon to Little Wolf’s, and Christopher went over to Tom Woodstock’s again to help him finish up the fence they had been working on together. That left just Tad and Pa at the mine—Mr. Jones wasn’t feeling too well and left early too—and when the two of them came down about four o’clock, it was clear enough they were through for the day, even though they usually worked till six or seven.
    It was already obvious that everyone was thinking of a change. Meals gradually grew quieter. Zack began to spend more time with Little Wolf again. Two mornings later Tad rode into town, and we later found out he’d gone to see Mr. Simms about getting his old job at the livery stable back. Mr. Jones—I don’t know why, sensing maybe that Pa hadn’t taken kindly to his idea—didn’t come around for several days.
    I didn’t like what was going on, but I was