out fifty feet to
the ball on the summit. Shouldn't you say so, Mr. Campbell?"

"Just about," was the reply. "Not an inch under those figures, in my
judgment."

"Good!" exclaimed the colonel. "Permit me to congratulate you,
gentlemen. You have performed a distinct public service. You deserve
the thanks of the entire community."

"But, colonel," said Mr. Morrissey with some hesitation, "we were not
quite able to close a satisfactory bargain with the owner of the
tree."

"That is unfortunate, gentlemen. You should not have permitted a few
dollars to stand in the way of securing your prize. I thought I gave
you a perfectly free hand to do as you thought best."

"So you did, colonel. But the hitch was not so much over a matter of
price as over a matter of principle."

"Over a matter of principle? I don't understand you, sir. How could
any citizen of this free country object, as a matter of principle, to
having his tree converted into a staff from the summit of which the
emblem of liberty might be flung to the breeze? Especially when he was
free to name his own price for the tree."

"But he wouldn't name any price."

"Did he refuse to sell?"

"Not exactly; but he wouldn't bargain except on a condition that we
were unable to meet."

"What condition? Who is the man? Where does he live?"

Colonel Butler was growing plainly impatient over the obstructive
tactics in which the owner of the tree had indulged.

"He lives," replied Mr. Morrissey, "at Cobb's Corners. His name is
Enos Walker. His condition is that you go to him in person to bargain
for the tree. There's the situation, colonel. Now you have it all."

The veteran of the Civil War straightened up in his chair, threw back
his shoulders, and gazed at his visitors in silence. Surprise, anger,
contempt; these were the emotions the shadows of which successively
overspread his face.

"Gentlemen," he said, at last, "are you aware what a preposterous
proposition you have brought to me?"

"It is not our proposition, colonel."

"I know it is not, sir. You are simply the bearers of it. Permit me to
ask you, however, if it is your recommendation that I yield to the
demand of this crude highwayman of Cobb's Corners?"

"Why, Mr. Campbell and I have talked the matter over, and, in view of
the fact that this appears to be the only available tree within easy
reach, and is so splendidly adapted to our purposes, we have thought
that possibly you might suggest some met