"An' who iver said they was after gold, now ?" Mike's jaw went slack while he stared dully at his partner.

"An' if they ain't after gold, what they diggin' fer, then ?" he demanded, when he had collected what he could of his scattered thoughts.
"A-ah, now, an' thot's a diffrunt story, Mike, me boy." Murphy broke off a piece of bannock, on the side least burned, and nodded his head in a peculiarly knowing manner.

"Av ye could kape yer tongue quiet fr'm clappin' all ye know, Mike, I cud tell ye somethin'-- I cud thot." "Wh-why, nobudy ever heard _me_ talkin' things that's tol' in secret," Mike made haste to asseverate.

"Why, one time in Minnesota, they was a feller, he tol' _me_, min' yuh, things 't he wouldn't tell his own mthrrr!" Mike, poor man, could not say mother at all.

He just buzzed with his tongue and let it go at that.