ty dollars to what some folks would call wealth.
First, he owned a prosperous hardware store. This was his business. It
netted him a couple of thousand dollars a year. The valley was his
avocation. It had netted him well over a hundred thousand dollars, most
of which was growing on the mountain sides in straight, clear spruce, in
birch, beech, and maple. It had netted him certain strategic holdings of
land along Coldriver itself, sites for future dams, for mills yet to be
built--for railroad yards, depots, and terminals. Quietly, almost
stealthily, he had gotten a hold on the valley. Now he was ready to grip
it with both hands and to make it his own.... That is why he journeyed
to the city.

He put his canvas telescope between his feet so that he could feel it.
It was as well, he determined, to practice caution where none was
needed, so he would be letter perfect in the art when he reached the
dangers of the city. Between Scattergood's shoes and the feet they
inclosed, were sox. Before his union with Mandy he had been a stranger
to such effeteness. Even now he was prone to discard them as soon as he
was out of range of her vision. To-day he had not escaped, for, warm as
the day was, heavy white woolen sox folded and festooned themselves
modishly over the tops of his shoes. He could not wriggle a toe, which
made his mental processes difficult, for his toes were first aids to his
brain.

However, he was going to visit a railroad president, and railroad
presidents were said by Mandy to go in for style. Scattergood mournfully
arose to the necessities of the situation.

The twenty-four-mile ride was not long to Scattergood, for he occupied
it by studying again every inch of his valley. He never tired of
studying it. As the law book to the lawyer so the valley was to
Scattergood--something never to be laid aside, something to be kept
fresh in mind and never neglected. He never passed the length of it
without seeing a new possibility.

Scattergood flagged the train. The four-hour ride to the city he
occupied in talking to the conductor or brake-man or any member of the
train's crew he could engage in conversation. He was asking them about
their jobs, what they did, and why. He was asking question after
question about railroads and railroading, in his quaint, characteristic
manner. It was his intention to own a railroad, and he was at work
finding out how the thing was done.

Next morning at seven he was on hand at the te