ut the pipe
in his vest pocket, stretched himself, and reached for his cap. It was
plain that he considered the interview at an end. The persuasive Mr.
Morrissey tried to get a wedge in somewhere to reopen it, but he tried
in vain. Enos Walker was adamant. So, disappointed and discomfited,
the emissaries of Colonel Richard Butler bade "good-day," to the
oracle of Cobb's Corners, and drove back to Chestnut Hill.

CHAPTER VII

On the morning after the interview with Enos Walker, Mr. Morrissey and
Mr. Campbell went up to Bannerhall to report to Colonel Richard
Butler. But they went hesitatingly. Indeed, it had been a question in
their minds whether it would not be wiser to say nothing to Colonel
Butler concerning their experience at Cobb's Corners, and simply to go
elsewhere and hunt up another tree. But Mr. Walker's tree was such a
model of perfection for their purpose, the possibility of finding
another one that would even approach it in suitability was so
extremely remote, that the two gentlemen, after serious discussion of
the question, being well aware of Colonel Butler's idiosyncrasies,
decided, finally, to put the whole case up to him, and to accept
cheerfully whatever he might have in store for them. There was one
chance in a hundred that the colonel, instead of scornfully resenting
Enos Walker's proposal, might take the matter philosophically and
accept the old man's terms. They thought it better to take that
chance.

They found Colonel Butler in his office adjoining the library. He was
in an ordinarily cheerful mood, although the deep shadows under his
eyes, noticeable only within the last few weeks, indicated that he had
been suffering either in mind or in body, perhaps in both.

"Well, gentlemen," he said when his visitors were seated; "what about
the arboreal errand? Did you find a tree?"

Mr. Hubert Morrissey, as he had been the day before, was again,
to-day, the spokesman for his committee of two.

"We found a tree," he replied.

"One in all respects satisfactory I hope?" the colonel inquired.

"Eminently satisfactory," was the answer. "In fact a perfect beauty. I
doubt if it has its equal in this section of the state. Wouldn't you
say so, Mr. Campbell?"

"I fully agree with you," replied Mr. Campbell. "It's without a peer."

"How will it measure?" inquired the colonel.

"I should say," responded Mr. Morrissey, "that it will dress up to
about twelve inches at the base, and will stand ab