required a
higher vein of thought for my youth, was taking his words downright; and
I think that all this had a great deal to do with his treating all that
gold in such an exemplary manner; for if it had really mattered nothing,
what made him go in the dark and shoot a great barrow-load of gravel
over it?

CHAPTER XV

BROUGHT TO BANK

The sanity of a man is mainly tested among his neighbors and kindred by
the amount of consideration which he has consistently given to cash.
If money has been the chief object of his life, and he for its sake has
spared nobody, no sooner is he known to be successful than admiration
overpowers all the ill-will he has caused. He is shrewd, sagacious,
long-headed, and great; he has earned his success, and few men grudge,
while many seek to get a slice of it; but he, as a general rule,
declines any premature distribution, and for this custody of his wealth
he is admired all the more by those who have no hope of sharing it.

As soon as ever it was known that Uncle Sam had lodged at his banker's
a tremendous lump of gold, which rumor declared to be worth at least a
hundred thousand dollars, friends from every side poured in, all in
hot haste, to lend him their last farthing. The Sawyer was pleased with
their kindness, but thought that his second-best whiskey met the merits
of the case. And he was more particular than usual with his words;
for, according to an old saying of the diggers, a big nugget always has
children, and, being too heavy to go very far, it is likely to keep all
its little ones at home. Many people, therefore, were longing to seek
for the frogs of this great toad; for so in their slang the miners
called them, with a love of preternatural history. But Mr. Gundry
allowed no search for the frogs, or even the tadpoles, of his
patriarchal nugget. And much as he hated the idea of sowing the seeds
of avarice in any one, he showed himself most consistent now in avoiding
that imputation; for not only did he refuse to show the bed of his great
treasure, after he had secured it, but he fenced the whole of it in,
and tarred the fence, and put loopholes in it; and then he established
Jowler where he could neither be shot nor poisoned, and kept a man with
a double-barreled rifle in the ruin of the mill, handy to shoot, but not
easy to be shot; and this was a resolute man, being Martin himself, who
had now no business. Of course Martin grumbled; but the worse his temper
was, the b