e sorting of sifted
gravel. Day soon began to break, so I filled my sieve and separated the
sand from the gravel, placing the latter in a heap on the plank.

There was not enough light for sorting; I sat on a tussock and watched
the east grow white.

But the morning was chill, so I sprang up and went to work with the
pick, uprooting the grass and bushes. Day waxed and a few men appeared.
When I thought the light strong enough, I crouched down and began
sorting the gravel on the board. With the scraper I separated a small
handful from the heap, and spread it out so that every individual
pebble became visible. These would be swept off the board and the
former process repeated. But before I got half-way through the heap my
heart leaped to my throat, and I almost swooned with ecstasy there in
the middle of the spread-out gravel glittered a diamond. It was very
small, not much more than half a carat in weight, still, it was most
indubitably a diamond.

I searched in the pockets of my somewhat ragged coat for a scrap of
paper wherein to wrap my treasure. Then I put the diminutive parcel
away very carefully, as I thought. I finished sorting the heap of
gravel and again filled the sieve. I sorted this and loosened more
ground. I worked hard and feverishly, loosening the ground with the
pick, filling the sieve with my bare hands, sifting out the sand, and
sorting what remained. However, no more diamonds could I find. I had
brought in my pocket a lump of roster-koek (a lump of unleavened dough,
flattened out and roasted on a gridiron). This I munched as I worked.
More and more people arrived. Soon the thudding of picks and the
"whish, whish" of sieves sounded from every direction.

Some one shouted. I looked up and saw numbers of people running towards
a certain spot. I leapt up and ran too. A diamond had been found, and
around the lucky finder an excited and curious crowd soon collected.
The stone, a clear yellow octahedron of about ten carats' weight, was
passed from hand to hand to be admired and appraised. After an
enthusiastic "hip hip hurrah" the crowd dispersed, each one eager to
test his claim.

I hugged my secret; no one should know of my good fortune until after
my partners had arrived and I had confounded their skepticism. I
rehearsed the prospective scene in imagination; what a lofty lecture I
meant to read them on the unreasonableness of their incredulity. Within
a few minutes another shout rang out; another cr