University of Virginia Library

25. CHAPTER XXV.

WASHINGTON sent grand good news to Col. Sellers
that night. To Louise he wrote:

“It is beautiful to hear him talk when his heart is full of
thankfulness for some manifestation of the Divine favor.
You shall know him, some day my Louise, and knowing him
you will honor him, as I do.”

Harry wrote:

“I pulled it through, Colonel, but it was a tough job,
there is no question about that. There was not a friend to
the measure in the House committee when I began, and not
a friend in the Senate committee except old Dil himself, but
they were all fixed for a majority report when I hauled off
my forces. Everybody here says you can't get a thing like
this through Congress without buying committees for straight-out
cash on delivery, but I think I've taught them a thing or
two—if I could only make them believe it. When I tell the
old residenters that this thing went through without buying
a vote or making a promise, they say, `That's rather too
thin.' And when I say thin or not thin it's a fact, anyway,
they say `Come, now, but do you really believe that?' and
when I say I don't believe anything about it, I know it, they
smile and say, `Well, you are pretty innocent, or pretty blind,
one or the other—there's no getting around that.' Why

[ILLUSTRATION]

VISIONS OF A HAPPY MAN.

[Description: 499EAF. Page 229. In-line image of a man dreaming about $40,000 while sitting at a desk.] they really do believe that votes have been bought—they do
indeed. But let them keep on thinking so. I have found
out that if a man knows how to talk to women, and has a little
gift in the way of argument with men, he can afford to
play for an appropriation against a money bag and give the
money bag odds in the game. We've raked in $200,000 of
Uncle Sam's money, say what they will—and there is more
where this came from, when we want it, and I rather fancy I
am the person that can go in and occupy it, too, if I do say
it myself, that shouldn't, perhaps. I'll be with you within a
week. Scare up all the men you can, and put them to work
at once. When I get there I propose to make things hum.”

The great news lifted Sellers into the clouds. He went to
work on the instant. He flew hither and thither making
contracts, engaging men, and steeping his soul in the ecstasies
of business. He was the happiest man in Missouri. And
Louise was the happiest woman; for presently came a letter
from Washington which said:

“Rejoice with me, for the long agony is over! We have
waited patiently and faithfully, all these years, and now at
last the reward is at hand. A man is to pay our family $40,
000 for the Tennessee Land! It is but a little sum compared
to what we could get by waiting, but I do so long to see the
day when I can call you my own, that I have said to myself,
better take this and enjoy life in a humble way than wear out

our best days in this miserable separation. Besides, I can
put this money into operations here that will increase it a
hundred fold, yes, a thousand fold, in a few months. The
air is full of such chances, and I know our family would consent
in a moment that I should put in their shares with mine.
Without a doubt we shall be worth half a million dollars in a
year from this time—I put it at the very lowest figure,
because it is always best to be on the safe side—half a million
at the very lowest calculation, and then your father will give
his consent and we can marry at last. Oh, that will be a
glorious day. Tell our friends the good news—I want all to
share it.”

And she did tell her father and mother, but they said, let
it be kept still for the present. The careful father also told
her to write Washington and warn him not to speculate with
the money, but to wait a little and advise with one or two
wise old heads. She did this. And she managed to keep
the good news to herself, though it would seem that the most
careless observer might have seen by her springing step and
her radiant countenance that some fine piece of good fortune
had descended upon her.

Harry joined the Colonel at Stone's Landing, and that
dead place sprang into sudden life. A swarm of men were
hard at work, and the dull air was filled with the cheery
music of labor. Harry had been constituted engineer-in-general,
and he threw the full strength of his powers into his
work. He moved among his hirelings like a king. Authority
seemed to invest him with a new splendor. Col. Sellers,
as general superintendent of a great public enterprise, was all
that a mere human being could be—and more. These two
grandees went at their imposing “improvement” with the
air of men who had been charged with the work of altering
the foundations of the globe.

They turned their first attention to straightening the river
just above the Landing, where it made a deep bend, and
where the maps and plans showed that the process of straightening
would not only shorten distance but increase the “fall.”
They started a cut-off canal across the peninsula formed by

[ILLUSTRATION]

EXODUS OF THE NATIVES.

[Description: 499EAF. Page 231. In-line image of a couple of turtles and rabbits running around.] the bend, and such another tearing up of the earth and slopping
around in the mud as followed the order to the men,
had never been seen in that region before. There was such
a panic among the turtles that at the end of six hours there
was not one to be found within three miles of Stone's Landing.
They took the young and the aged, the decrepit and
the sick upon their backs and left for tide-water in disorderly
procession, the tadpoles following and the bull-frogs bringing
up the rear.

Saturday night came, but the men were obliged to wait,
because the appropriation had not come. Harry said he had
written to hurry up the money and it would be along presently.
So the work continued, on Monday. Stone's Landing
was making quite a stir in the vicinity, by this time.
Sellers threw a lot or two on the market, “as a feeler,” and
they sold well. He re-clothed his family, laid in a good
stock of provisions, and still had money left. He started a
bank account, in a small way—and mentioned the deposit
casually to friends; and to strangers, too; to everybody, in
fact; but not as a new thing—on the contrary, as a matter of
life-long standing. He could not keep from buying trifles
every day that were not wholly necessary, it was such a
gaudy thing to get out his bank-book and draw a check,

instead of using his old customary formula, “Charge it.”
Harry sold a lot or two, also—and had a dinner party or two
at Hawkeye and a general good time with the money. Both
men held on pretty strenuously for the coming big prices,
however.

At the end of a month things were looking bad. Harry
had besieged the New York headquarters of the Columbus
River Slack-water Navigation Company with demands, then
commands, and finally appeals, but to no purpose; the appropriation
did not come; the letters were not even answered.
The workmen were clamorous, now. The Colonel and Harry
retired to consult.

“What's to be done?” said the Colonel.

“Hang'd if I know.”

“Company say anything?”

“Not a word.”

“You telegraphed yesterday?”

“Yes, and the day before, too.”

“No answer?”

“None—confound them!”

Then there was a long pause. Finally both spoke at once:

“I've got it!”

“I've got it!”

“What's yours?” said Harry.

“Give the boys thirty-day orders on the Company for the
back pay.”

“That's it—that's my own idea to a dot. But then—but
then——”

“Yes, I know,” said the Colonel; “I know they can't wait
for the orders to go to New York and be cashed, but what's
the reason they can't get them discounted in Hawkeye?”

“Of course they can. That solves the difficulty. Everybody
knows the appropriation's been made and the Company's
perfectly good.”

So the orders were given and the men appeased, though
they grumbled a little at first. The orders went well enough

[ILLUSTRATION]

HARRY BRIERLY FLIES FROM THE MOB.

[Description: 499EAF. Illustration of a man on a white horse, who is having stones thrown at him while he rides away.]

for groceries and such things at a fair discount, and the work
danced along gaily for a time. Two or three purchasers put
up frame houses at the Landing and moved in, and of course
a far-sighted but easy-going journeyman printer wandered
along and started the “Napoleon Weekly Telegraph and
Literary Repository”—a paper with a Latin motto from
the Unabridged dictionary, and plenty of “fat” conversational
tales and double-leaded poetry—all for two dollars a
year, strictly in advance. Of course the merchants forwarded
the orders at once to New York—and never heard of them
again.

At the end of some weeks Harry's orders were a drug in
the market—nobody would take them at any discount whatever.
The second month closed with a riot.—Sellers was
absent at the time, and Harry began an active absence himself
with the mob at his heels. But being on horseback, he
had the advantage. He did not tarry in Hawkeye, but went
on, thus missing several appointments with creditors. He was
far on his flight eastward, and well out of danger when the
next morning dawned. He telegraphed the Colonel to go
down and quiet the laborers—he was bound east for money
—everything would be right in a week—tell the men so—tell
them to rely on him and not be afraid.

Sellers found the mob quiet enough when he reached the
Landing. They had gutted the Navigation office, then piled
the beautiful engraved stock-books and things in the middle
of the floor and enjoyed the bonfire while it lasted. They
had a liking for the Colonel, but still they had some idea of
hanging him, as a sort of make shift that might answer, after
a fashion, in place of more satisfactory game.

But they made the mistake of waiting to hear what he had
to say first. Within fifteen minutes his tongue had done its
work and they were all rich men.—He gave every one of
them a lot in the suburbs of the city of Stone's Landing,
within a mile and a half of the future post office and railway
station, and they promised to resume work as soon as Harry
got east and started the money along. Now things were

[ILLUSTRATION]

ENJOYING THE BONFIRE.

[Description: 499EAF. Page 234. In-line image of men starting a bonfire with all sorts of home items, like chairs and paintings.] blooming and pleasant again, but the men had no money, and
nothing to live on. The Colonel divided with them the
money he still had in bank—an act which had nothing
surprising about it because he was generally ready to divide
whatever he had with anybody that wanted it, and it was
owing to this very trait that his family spent their days in
poverty and at times were pinched with famine.

When the men's minds had cooled and Sellers was gone,
they hated themselves for letting him beguile them with fine
speeches, but it was too late, now—they agreed to hang him
another time—such time as Providence should appoint.