odel cottages for the operatives. As soon
as the estimates were prepared, he looked the ground over to see how
far he could draw upon local resources for material.

There was good brick clay on the outskirts of the town, where bricks
had once been made; but for most of the period since the war such as
were used in the town had been procured from the ruins of old
buildings--it was cheaper to clean bricks than to make them. Since the
construction of the railroad branch to Clarendon the few that were
needed from time to time were brought in by train. Not since the
building of the Opera House block had there been a kiln of brick made
in the town. Inquiry brought out the fact that in case of a demand for
bricks there were brickmakers thereabouts; and in accordance with his
general plan to employ local labour, the colonel looked up the owner
of the brickyard, and asked if he were prepared to take a large
contract.

The gentleman was palpably troubled by the question.

"Well, colonel," he said, "I don't know. I'd s'posed you were goin' to
impo't yo' bricks from Philadelphia."

"No, Mr. Barnes," returned the colonel, "I want to spend the money
here in Clarendon. There seems to be plenty of unemployed labour."

"Yes, there does, till you want somethin' done; then there ain't so
much. I s'pose I might find half a dozen niggers round here that know
how to make brick; and there's several more that have moved away that
I can get back if I send for them. If you r'al'y think you want yo'r
brick made here, I'll try to get them out for you. They'll cost you,
though, as much, if not more than, you'd have to pay for machine-made
bricks from the No'th."

The colonel declared that he preferred the local product.

"Well, I'm shore I don't see why," said the brickmaker. "They'll not
be as smooth or as uniform in colour."

"They'll be Clarendon brick," returned the colonel, "and I want this
to be a Clarendon enterprise, from the ground up."

"Well," said Barnes resignedly, "if you must have home-made brick, I
suppose I'll have to make 'em. I'll see what I can do."

Colonel French then turned the brick matter over to Caxton, who, in
the course of a week, worried Barnes into a contract to supply so many
thousand brick within a given time.

"I don't like that there time limit," said the brickmaker, "but I
reckon I can make them brick as fast as you can get anybody roun' here
to lay 'em."

When in the course of another week the colo