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Show 73. Over and over this summer xrhen they had a l l been a t the creek, Bill had heard the father give the rules, never once showing impatience. In a month Sunny had become an expert screener. He m s on his oxm noxr , and, at seventeen, the youngest man in the gold camp. Bill loaded up xrith xrood-knocking the snow off of each piece xrith his right hand and stacking i t along his left arm. As he opened the shack door, L i t t l e Bill pulled himself up, leaned on the r a i l i n g of his bed-his light hair damp and darker on one side because the room had been so xrarm, and looked sleepily from Olaf to Sunny and then a t Bill again, as though unable to figure out xrhy they xrere a l l up before he xras. Then, s t a r t i n g to baxrl half-heartedly, he l e t go of the r a i l i n g and f e l l back doxm. Bill xrent to the bread can and got him a biscuit, thankful noxr that he'd stayed axrake so long the night before so that he'd slept through this awful morning. About ten o'clock Weasel xralked in. He'd left J a k e 's ^ s s - s o o n a f t e r the blizzard had stopped. He said i t had been miserable and cold there this morning. They'd run out of f i r e wood, because Jake hadn't had his xrood hauled over from log canyon yet. Bill looked a t Weasel and thought, you ran out of something else too from the looks of your jib and I ' d guess it xras gold. Bill had seen that look on miner's faces before. Weasel seemed unmoved by the suddenness of Dad's death . |