Don't you want to come along ?" "I sure do," Daylight affirmed.
But the question had been put in fun, and Elijah ignored the acceptance.
"We're tacklin' the Stewart," he went on.

"Al Mayo told me he seen some likely lookin' bars first time he come down the Stewart, and we're goin' to sample 'em while the river's froze.

You listen, Daylight, an' mark my words, the time's comin' when winter diggin's'll be all the go.
There'll be men in them days that'll laugh at our summer stratchin' an' ground-wallerin'." At that time, winter mining was undreamed of on the Yukon.

From the moss and grass the land was frozen to bed-rock, and frozen gravel, hard as granite, defied pick and shovel.

In the summer the men stripped the earth down as fast as the sun thawed it.