hat they'll bring. You can sue this town and recover the real
value of the cows, along with interest at twelve per cent. That is to
say, you can get judgment against the town for that amount."

"And then I can go over to my neighbor's and grab away any loose
property I can find of his?"

"You can do it!"

"Look here, Squire, that makes it nothing except a game of 'tag, you're
it,' and a case of 'I've got my fingers crossed'! The whole of us
running around in circles, and the lawyers picking up all the loose
change we drop from our pockets. Where do we wind up?"

The Squire shook his head slowly and reached down and stroked one of
Eli's ears. "Eli was telling me that Jones thought he had invented
perpetual motion when he tied a piece of liver to a pup's tail and set
the pup to revolving; but the pup wore out."

Grant sat for some minutes and harkened to the bang of the hammers
across the way. "I don't understand how a farseeing man like Tasp Britt
dares to build a good house here," he growled.

"Oh, the pup may be worn out by the time it is finished--or those
towers may mean that he intends to list it as a meetinghouse and have it
exempted from taxation, Jared. We shall see!"

But whatever it was that the selectman saw, as he sat there and stared
at the wall of Squire Hexter's office, it evidently was not serving in
the way of comfort.

The Squire's prediction about other seekers for law was fulfilled before
long. The deputy sheriff had proceeded on his travels. The afflicted
parties came up the Squire's stairs. Arden Young reported that three
of his best cows were driven away. George Jordan and his cousin J. O.
Jordan each surrendered two faithful moolies. It was plain that Sheriff
Dowd proposed to make sure that there was auction material enough to
yield one hundred and ninety dollars, along with the costs.

"Jared," suggested the notary, "you'd better have an accounting and find
out how many of those town orders were issued when the reckless spirit
was on. Somebody has decided to milk the old town. It is being done
scientifically, seeing that this first mess is so modest. But we need to
know about how many messes we're expected to give down."

Inside of a fortnight there were two more milkings.

At about that time Tasper Britt started proceedings to foreclose a
couple of mortgages. The debtors despondently declared that they would
not attempt to redeem the property; they told Britt that he could
have it f