thought Castle Cliff was "a funny place anyway."

"What little bits of houses! Did they dry up too?"

"Oh, those are just the cabins and bunk-houses that were built for the
miners, ever so long ago when the mine was going. Fixed up into cottages
now for summer boarders. Do you want to see the mine?"

They went around behind the shaft-house and beyond the old saw-mill.

"O my senses!" cried Edith, "is that the old gold mine, that monstrous
great thing? Isn't it horrid?"

They all agreed that it was "perfectly awful and dreadful," and that it
made you shudder to look into it; and that they were glad baby Eddo was
safely out of the way. The mine was a deep, irregular chasm, full of
dirty water and rocks. It had a hungry, cruel look; you could almost
fancy it was waiting in wicked glee to swallow up thoughtless little
children.

"It doesn't seem as if anybody could ever have dug for gold in that
horrid ditch," exclaimed Kyzie.

"You'd better believe they did, though," said the young guide. "They
used to get it out in nuggets, cart-loads of it."

He was not quite sure of the nuggets, but liked the sound of the word.

"Yes, cart-loads of it. I tell you 'twas the richest mine in the whole
Cuyamaca Mountains."