" exclaimed Sam, resting a moment from his exertions,
for he had already commenced to dig. "Ah done clean forgot 'em."

"Will that bring us hard luck?"

"Not at all," said George. "Sam said that one would bring you good luck
if you had it, but he didn't say it would be hard luck without it."

"I know that," said John, "but I thought that perhaps if you had a
chance to get one and didn't do it you might give yourself bad luck."

"You're as bad as Fred," exclaimed George disgustedly. "Why can't you
all be cheerful?"

"Why can't you all go to work is what I'd like to know?" exclaimed
Grant. "It seems to me that that is more important than luck."

"You're right, Grant," said George readily. "There's no such thing as
luck."

"There's such a thing as work, though," said Grant grimly. "Let's all do
some of it."

They fell to work with a will and dug busily and steadily for a long
time. A hole about four feet square was started and the boys were armed
with almost everything one could think of in place of real tools.
Sticks, flat pieces of rock, and hands almost more than anything else
were employed.

"It's a good thing for us we are digging in sand and not in clay,"
remarked Fred after some time had elapsed.

"I should say it is!" agreed John. "As it is, we aren't making a great
deal of headway it seems to me."

"Oh, yes, we are," exclaimed Grant. "The hole is at least a couple of
feet deep already."

"I wish we could all get in there at once," said George. "We could work
much faster then."

"Perhaps we won't have to go much deeper," said Grant hopefully.

"I think we shall though."

"Suppose we take turns down there with the knife," suggested Fred. "One
of us can loosen up the sand with it and then a couple more can get in
and throw it out."

"That's a good scheme," exclaimed John. "Give me the knife, Sam."

"Ah can do it mahself," protested Sam.

"No, you can't either," laughed John. "You've done enough work for
to-day anyway. Let me have it now and perhaps you can take another turn
at it later."

Reluctantly Sam gave up the knife and joined the others who stood and
watched John down in the hole. When he had loosened a considerable
amount of earth he climbed up and Fred and George took his place and
threw the loose sand out of the pit. This operation was repeated many
times with different ones doing the work. In this way the labor was
lightened and the hole grew amazingly.

It was George's turn with