"I hope you've forgiven me for those whippings, Mr. Bickford."

"They were jest what I needed, Mr. Kellogg. I was a lazy young
rascal, as full of mischief as a nut is of meat. You tanned my hide
well."

"You don't seem to be any the worse for it now."

"I guess not. I'm pretty tough. I say, Mr. Kellogg," continued
Joshua, with a grin, "you'd find it a harder job to give me a lickin'
now than you did then."

"I wouldn't undertake it now. I am afraid you could handle me."

"It seems cur'us, don't it, Joe?" said Joshua. "When Mr. Kellogg
used to haul me round the schoolroom, it didn't seem as if I could
ever be a match for him."

"We change with the passing years," said Kellogg, in a moralizing
tone, which recalled his former vocation. "Now you are a man, and we
meet here on the other side of the continent, on the banks of the
Yuba River. I hope we are destined to be successful."

"I hope so, too," said Joshua, "for I'm reg'larly cleaned out."

"If I can help you any in the sway of information, I shall be glad to
do so."

Joe and Bickford took him at his word and made many inquiries,