A Pre-Columbian Mine. 



" Let's to plain prose and talk as men of sense ; 

 No mouthing of great mystery, or rolling eyes 

 At colors brighter than the world e'er saw ; 

 Let's to the world of hard and rugged fact." 



oO my companion thought to take the wind from 

 my sails, as though only a mining engineer could 

 deal with the facts before us. But I would not 

 listen, and go about our work with but a compass 

 and tape-line. It is not always to play the fool to 

 link arms with a lively fancy. If a rosy light plays 

 over a heap of stones, why not say so ? No one 

 will be deceived because I say I heard Indians 

 chipping flint while I sat at the entrance of the 

 mine whence had come the rainbow-tinted jasper 

 that to-day, as marvels of aboriginal handicraft, 

 are scattered up and down the valley of the 

 Delaware. I even went a step farther, and above 

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