Sentence:  For four days he worked hard at the cradle, although there was not the least occasion for it, since the proportion of gold in the dirt was so large that every <WSD>cradleful</WSD> of stuff yielded several pounds weight of the metal, and it could only be the work of a few hours when his father and brother returned. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A quantity of mined earth that is washed at one time in a cradle.