in favored localities."

"Do you mean to say you'll let such a splendid chance slip by?" demanded
the younger lad, straightening up and looking his brother full in the
face. "And let it slip, too, when we're in such trouble here?"

"No, I didn't say that, Randy. But we ought to consider the matter
carefully before we make up our minds. According to the letter we'll
have to spend at least two years in the gold fields."

"I'll spend ten if I can make money."

"Uncle said in that other letter that no one seemed to care to stay in
the upper portion of Alaska more than two or three years at a time."

"Well, I'm in for the trip, heart and soul. Hurrah for the--what's the
name of that creek?--Klondike! Hurrah for the Klondike! I wonder if it's
on the map."

Randy rushed over to the little shelf which contained all the
school-books the family had ever possessed, and brought forth a large
geography, much the worse for wear. There was no separate map of Alaska,
but there was one of North America, and this he scanned with interest.

"Here's the Yukon and here's the Porcupine and the Pelly rivers, but I
don't see any Klondike," he said seriously. "I wonder where it can be."

"You can't expect to find a little creek on a map that shows up the
Yukon River as less than two inches long," said Earl. "Why, the Yukon is
between two and three thousand miles long. Circle City must be up
there," he continued, pointing to where the Yukon touched the 144 deg. of
longitude, "and if that's so, this new gold field can't be so very far
off, although in such a great territory a few hundred miles this way or
that are hardly counted."

"But you'll go, won't you, Earl?" pleaded Randy, as he restored the
geography to the shelf. "We'll never make more than our pork and beans
out here in the woods."

Earl picked up a small stick from the fireplace and brought out his
pocket-knife. He always had to go to whittling when he wanted to do some
hard thinking. "If we accepted Uncle Foster's invitation to come to San
Francisco, there would be no turning back," he remarked, after a moment
of silence.

"We shouldn't want to turn back as soon as that."

"And we couldn't turn back after we once got into Alaska. There is no
such thing as travelling back and forth between the months of October
and May. The rivers freeze up, and everything is snow and ice."

"Well, we'd have plenty of provisions--Uncle would be sure to see to
that. We've got to vacate h