In PIGEON POST - why make a nugget?


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Posted by Ed Kiser on July 04, 2005 at 19:10:04 from 205.188.116.6 user Kisered.

In PIGEON POST, they had a tin of what they thought was gold dust, a collection of tiny grains resulting from the crushing and panning. For some reason, they wanted to turn this bunch of loose grains into a solid nugget, so they could present it to Captain Flint. At first, they wanted to get advice from Slater Bob as to the proper method of making that nugget, but when they found that Squashy Hat and Slater Bob had been comparing notes, they did not want to disclose their find to the 'enemy' so could not go to Slater Bob for that technical advice. This resulted in their first having to prepare the charcoal, and then the smelting process in the furnace fueled with their own charcoal.

What I do not understand is why they felt they needed to do anything further with the flakes of metal they got from the panning. Why did they think it was necessary to convert it to a nugget before presenting it to Captain Flint? Wouldn't he have been just as impressed to see those shiny grains of metal in the tin?

Their goal was to have something to show to Captain Flint so he would stay home and pay attention to the mining prospects in their own local neighborhood. It would seem that the tin of metal grains would have served that purpose just fine.

Of course, from the story's plot point of view, the cooking of the charcoal and the firing of the smelting furnace are all very important to be a source of fear to Mrs. Tyson, as it was fire that was her greatest concern. If they had been satisfied with the tin of metal flakes, they would not have bothered with the charcoal and the furnace, both of which are very involved in fire which would bother Mrs. Tyson.

The dramatic shift in the plot is when Mrs. Tyson's strong fear of fire and her suspicion of their having started the disasterous fire was all changed to gratitude when she finally understood that with their pigeon and their help fighting the fire, and with her finally understanding that they were not the cause of the major fire, but were instrumental in solving that problem.

But to satisfy Captain Flint, that tin of shining metal flakes would have been just as good.

So what was the reason they felt they had to convert the flakes into a nugget?

Of course, it would not have been as cliff-hanger of a story if they had stopped with the grains. All the drama of the disaster of losing the gold in the furnace would have been lost.

As it finally turned out, it was just a pinch of the metal flakes was all Dick had to show Captain Flint in the study, and that was enough to get his attention. It would have been nice if they could have shown him that whole tin full instead of just a pinch.

They sure went through a lot of work that really was not necessary, except to enhance the plot of the story.

Ed Kiser, South Florida


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