I haven't a doubt we can get a hundred thousand feet of bird's-eye out of that lot." "If Lurvey had known that," said I, "he wouldn't have stopped bidding at two thousand!" "You may be sure he wouldn't," the old Squire remarked, with a smile.
"As for the quarreling heirs," said Addison, "they'll be well satisfied to get that much for the farm." The next day the old Squire accompanied Addison to the savings bank and indorsed his note.

The bank at once lent Addison the money necessary to pay for the farm.
No one learned what Addison's real motive in bidding for the farm had been until the following winter, when we cut the larger part of the maple-trees in the wood-lot and sawed them into three-inch plank at our own mill.

Afterward we kiln-dried the plank, and shipped it to the furniture company.
Out of the three hundred or more sugar maples that we cut in that lot, eighty-nine proved to be bird's-eye, from which we realized well over $7,000.

We also got $600 for the firewood; and two years later we sold the old farm for $1,500, making in all a handsome profit.

It seemed no more than right that $3,000 of it should go to Addison.
The rest of us more than half expected that Addison would retain this handsome bonus, and use it wholly for his own education, since the fine profit we had made was due entirely to his own sagacity.
But no, he said at once that we were all to share it with him; and after thinking the matter over, the old Squire saw his way clear to add two thousand from his share of the profits.
We therefore entered on our course at the Academy the following spring, with what was deemed a safe fund for future expenses.
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