I went inside to get a tissue for my nose. I had to dodge past the kitchen where my mom was since I didn't want her to get all gushy and sympathetic about it. Her caring touch helps sometimes, but this was not one of those times.

I reached the bathroom, got a tissue, and held it up to my nose as the blood came dripping out. I waited in the bathroom until my nose stopped bleeding, and then went outside to play some more with Billy. "You okay now buddy?" Billy asked, feigning concern. "I'm better," I said, "and good enough to play a game of . . . TAG!" I slapped him on the back and sped away. "You're it!" I yelped.

After it was time for Billy to go home, I asked my dad about the big hole in the backyard. "All I know is that it's never been there before!" I said to my dad. "It's probably just nothing," he said casually. But each day the hole got bigger, and pretty soon it was three-foot deep! "You can't call that just nothing," I said to my dad one day after school. "Call what just nothing," he asked as if I had accused him of something. "That huge hole sitting in our backyard!" I yelled. "Why don't you ask Mr. Pinewaters?" he sneered. "The hole seems suspiciously close to his side of the fence - don't you think?"

Mr. Pinewaters is our neighbor. He mostly keeps to himself except when he has lost something and thinks we stole it. We never have (stole any thing of his - that is), but he always thinks we have anyway. I went over and asked him if he was the one that had been digging the now incredibly deep hole in our backyard. He denied the whole thing, saying he had done nothing in our yard. "Why would I want to dig a hole in your stupid yard?" he answered stubbornly.

But later, after the hole grew to a tremendous depth of 10-feet, he admitted his wrongdoing. "I was digging for gold, okay?" he growled with his scratchy voice. "What?" I laughed. "You were digging for gold in my backyard?" It was pretty hard to believe. Your neighbor - digging for gold - in your own backyard? It was pretty astonishing to tell you the truth. He said he had been tricked by a couple of teenagers who said that there was an old gold mine under our property. I can't believe a smart guy like him could be tricked by a couple of teenagers!

At noon the next day when he started to fill up the hole, I could have sworn I saw something shimmer brightly under the rays of the sun at the bottom of the hole.