Addison, who was much interested in
mineralogy, had come across what he believed to be silver in a ledge.

Every one knows that there is silver in Maine. Not a few know it to
their sorrow; for there is nothing more discouraging than a mine that
yields just a little less than enough to pay running expenses. But to us
boys Addison's discovery suggested the possibilities of vast fortunes.

Addison felt very sure that it was silver, but we decided to say nothing
to any one until we were certain. All that winter, however, we cherished
rosy hopes of soon being wealthy. At the first opportunity we meant to
make a quiet trip up there with hammer and drill to obtain specimens for
assay, but for one reason or another we did not get round to it until
August, when we planned the blackberrying excursion.

While we were at the breakfast table that morning there came a
thundershower, and a thundershower in the early morning is unusual in
Maine. The sun had risen clear, but a black cloud rose in the west, the
sky darkened suddenly, and so heavy a shower fell that at first we
thought we should have to give up the trip.

But the shower ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and the sun shone out
again. Ellen, who had gone to the pantry for something, called to us
that there was a bright rainbow in the northwest.

"Do come here to the back window!" she cried. "It's a lovely one!"

Sure enough, there was a vivid rainbow; the bright arch spanned the
whole northwestern sky over the great woods.

"Rainbow in the morning,
Good sailors take warning,"

the old Squire remarked, smiling. "Better take your coats and umbrellas
with you to-day."

We did not know then how many times during that day our thoughts would
go back to the rainbow and the old superstition.

After breakfast we hitched up Old Sol, drove round by the Edwardses' to
pick up Tom and Kate, and from there followed the lumber road into the
great woods, to Otter Brook. The "burnt lots" were perhaps a mile beyond
the brook.

Addison and I picked blackberries for a while with the others; then,
watching our chance, we stole away and made for the ledges, a mile or
two to the northeast.

I had managed to bring a drill hammer along in my basket, wrapped up in
my jacket; and Addison had brought a short drill in his pocket. We found
the ledge where Addison had made his discovery and had no great trouble
in chipping off some specimens. I may add here that the specimens later