Out of my half of the book I got $15,000 or $20,000; out of the play I got $75,000 or $80,000--just about a dollar an acre.

It is curious: I was not alive when my father made the investment, therefore he was not intending any partiality; yet I was the only member of the family that ever profited by it.

I shall have occasion to mention this land again, now and then, as I go along, for it influenced our life in one way or another during more than a generation.

Whenever things grew dark it rose and put out its hopeful Sellers hand and cheered us up, and said "Do not be afraid--trust in me--wait." It kept us hoping and hoping, during forty years, and forsook us at last.

It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us--dreamers and indolent.