thousands in those
days and underneath it were two similar rockers, but here the
resemblance ended. One end of the cradle-box was a little higher than
the other end, which was left open, so that the water loaded with the
waste dirt could run out; and on the upper end stood a hopper, or
riddle-box, as it was frequently called, about twenty inches square,
with sides four inches high and a bottom made of sheet-iron, pierced
with holes half an inch in diameter. Directly under the hopper, which
was not nailed to the cradle-box, was an apron of wood, fastened to the
sides of the cradle-box and sloping down from the lower end of the
hopper to the upper end of the cradle-box. Two strips of wood, about an
inch square, called riffle-bars, were nailed across the bottom of the
cradle-box, one at the middle and the other near the lower end. An
upright piece of wood, nailed to one side of the cradle-box, furnished a
convenient handle for the man who did the rocking. Such, briefly
described, was the make of the curious machine that had so aroused the
interest of Thure and Bud.

"Ever see a cradle work before?" asked the man who was shoveling the
dirt and pouring the water into the hopper, as Thure and Bud came
running up, their eyes shining with interest.

"No," answered Thure. "It sure is a funny looking machine."

"It sure is," agreed the man. "But a fellow can clean two or three times
as much dirt with it as he can with a pan and do it better. This is the
philosophy of it," and he shoveled the pay-dirt into the hopper until it
was a little over half filled, and then, picking up a long-handled
dipper, began dipping water out of the reservoir and pouring it on the
dirt in the hopper, while the other man constantly kept the cradle
rocking back and forth. "You see," continued the man, "the motion and
the water loosens and softens the dirt until all of it, except the
larger stones, falls through the holes in the bottom of the hopper and
runs down the apron to the upper end of the cradle and then down the
bottom of the cradle and over the riffle-bars and out the lower end,
leaving the gold and the heavier particles of sand and gravel behind the
riffle-bars. But a fellow has to keep the cradle in constant motion, or
the sand will pack and harden behind the riffle-bars and allow the gold
to slide over it, instead of sinking down through it, as gold always
will when sand or gravel is loose or in motion," as he spoke, he thrust
his hand i