I stood in that spot looking around for a few minutes. I was noticing that overall there was very little snow in this area, and a lot more mud. Plus, there were little piles of stones and sticks and things that the streams carried and dropped at certain points. I think it was just about then that Layla guessed that I must not know how to pan for gold after all. Since I obviously had no idea where to begin, she grabbed the mess tin out of my hand and walked into the slow part of the stream. Then she started sifting pebbles and dirt out of the water.

“What, do I have to do everything around here?” she said, half annoyed and half kidding. I walked up close to her to watch what she was doing. Then she let me have a turn. She showed me how to sift the sediment out of the water in the pan. We even found a fleck of gold or two. It was kind of a kick. A moment after that I was focusing pretty hard on the pan, when I heard some branches snap and what sounded like footsteps. I was startled, so I jumped and then immediately slipped. Somehow I managed to land face down in the riverbed with my hand caught under a rock. Layla just looked at me in disbelief. A badger came scampering through with some small victim in its mouth—kind of gross but definitely not a ghost. “Well, that was scary,” Layla said sarcastically and smiled at me.