they are local preachers. The last time you saw the upper one,"
said Captain Dan with a smile, "you were seated in the Wesleyan chapel,
and he was in the pulpit dressed like a gentleman, and preaching as
eloquently as if he had been educated at college and trained for the
ministry."

"I should like very much to go down and visit them," said Oliver.

"'Tis a difficult descent. There are no ladders. Will your head stand
stepping from beam to beam, and can you lower yourself by a chain?"

"I'll try," said Oliver.

Without more words Captain Dan left the platform on which they had been
walking, and, descending through a hole, led his companion by the most
rugged way he had yet attempted. Sometimes they slid on their heels
down places that Oliver would not have dreamed of attempting without a
guide; at other times they stepped from beam to beam, with unknown
depths below them.

"Have a care here, sir," said the captain, pausing before a very steep
place. "I will go first and wait for you."

So saying, he seized a piece of old rusty chain that was fastened into
the rock, and swung himself down. Then, looking up, he called to Oliver
to follow.

The young doctor did so, and, having cautiously lowered himself a few
yards, he reached a beam, where he found the captain holding up his
candle, and regarding him with some anxiety. Captain Dan appeared as if
suspended in mid-air. Opposite to him, in the distance, the two "local
preachers" were hard at work with hammer and chisel, while far below, a
miner could be seen coming along the next level, and pushing an iron
truck full of ore before him.

A few more steps and slides, and then a short ascent, and Oliver stood
beside the man who had preached the previous Sunday. He worked with
another miner, and was red, ragged, and half-clad, like all the rest,
and the perspiration was pouring over his face, which was streaked with
slime. Very unlike was he at that time to the gentlemanly youth who had
held forth from the pulpit. Oliver had a long chat with him, and found
that he aspired to enter the ministry, and had already passed some
severe examinations. He was self-taught, having procured the loan of
books from his minister and some friends who were interested in him.
His language and manners were those of a gentleman, yet he had had no
advantages beyond his fellows.

"My friend there, sir, also hopes to enter the ministry," said the
miner, pointing, as he spoke, to