icked it and broke its leg," said Tom. "Stamps made
veal of it, and in two months it was 'Thet heifer o' mine'--in six months
it was a young steer----"

"Now it's a yoke of oxen," said Rupert; "and they were the pride of the
county."

"Lord! Lord!" said Tom, "the United States has got something to
engineer."

CHAPTER XXIII

It was doubtless Stamps who explained the value of the De Willoughby
claim to the Cross-roads. Excited interest in it mounted to fever heat in
a few days. The hitching rail was put to such active use that the horses
shouldered each other and occasionally bit and kicked and enlivened the
air with squeals. No one who had an opportunity neglected to appear at
the post-office, that he or she might hear the news. Judge De
Willoughby's wealth and possessions increased each time they were
mentioned. The old De Willoughby place became a sort of princely domain,
the good looks of the Judge's sons and daughters and the splendour of
their gifts were spoken of almost with bated breath. The coal mines
became gold mines, the money invested in them something scarcely to be
calculated. The Government at Washington, it was even inferred, had not
money enough in its treasury to refund what had been lost and indemnify
for the injury done.

"And to think o' Tom settin' gassin' yere with us fellers," they said,
admiringly, "jest same es if he warn't nothin'. A-settin' in his shirt
sleeves an' tradin' fer eggs an' butter. Why, ef he puts thet thar claim
through, he kin buy up Hamlin."

"I'd like ter see the way he'd fix up Sheby," said Mis' Doty. "He'd hev
her dressed in silks an' satins--an' diamond earrings soon as look."

"Ye'll hev to go ter Washin'ton City sure enough, Tom," was the remark
made oftenest. "When do ye 'low to start?"

But Tom was not as intoxicated by the prospect as the rest of them. His
demeanour was thoughtful and unexhilarated.

"Whar do ye 'low to build yer house when ye come into yer money, Tom?" he
was asked, gravely. "Shall ye hev a cupoly? Whar'll ye buy yer land?"

The instinct of Hamlin County tended towards expressing any sense of
opulence by increasing the size of the house it lived in, or by building
a new one, and invariably by purchasing land. Nobody had ever become rich
in the neighbourhood, but no imagination would have found it possible to
extend its efforts beyond a certain distance from the Cross-roads. The
point of view was wholly primitive and patriarchal.