I made no doubt that the latter had been infected
with some of the innumerable Southern superstitions about money
buried, and that his fantasy had received confirmation by the
finding of the scarabaeus, or, perhaps, by Jupiter's obstinacy in
maintaining it to be "a bug of real gold." A mind disposed to
lunacy would readily be led away by such suggestions--especially if
chiming in with favorite preconceived ideas--and then I called to
mind the poor fellow's speech about the beetle's being "the index
of his fortune." Upon the whole, I was sadly vexed and puzzled,
but, at length, I concluded to make a virtue of necessity--to dig
with a good will, and thus the sooner to convince the visionary, by
ocular demonstration, of the fallacy of the opinion he entertained.
The lanterns having been lit, we all fell to work with a zeal
worthy a more rational cause; and, as the glare fell upon our
persons and implements, I could not help thinking how picturesque a
group we composed, and how strange and suspicious our labors must
have appeared to any interloper who, by chance, might have stumbled
upon our whereabouts.
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