ere naturally so elastic that even now, in the
blasted autumn of his age, he could often compete with the springtime
gayety of other people. Enlivened by his brightening prospects, he
began to caper about the kitchen like a hobgoblin, with the queerest
antics of his lean limbs and gesticulations of his starved features.
Nay, in the exuberance of his feelings, he seized both of Tabitha's
hands and danced the old lady across the floor till the oddity of her
rheumatic motions set him into a roar of laughter, which was echoed
back from the rooms and chambers, as if Peter Goldthwaite were
laughing in every one. Finally, he bounded upward, almost out of
sight, into the smoke that clouded the roof of the kitchen, and,
alighting safely on the floor again, endeavored to resume his
customary gravity.

"To-morrow, at sunrise," he repeated, taking his lamp to retire to
bed, "I'll see whether this treasure be hid in the wall of the
garret."

"And, as we're out of wood, Mr. Peter," said Tabitha, puffing and
panting with her late gymnastics, "as fast as you tear the house down
I'll make a fire with the pieces."

Gorgeous that night were the dreams of Peter Goldthwaite. At one time
he was turning a ponderous key in an iron door not unlike the door of
a sepulchre, but which, being opened, disclosed a vault heaped up with
gold coin as plentifully as golden corn in a granary. There were
chased goblets, also, and tureens, salvers, dinner-dishes and
dish-covers of gold or silver-gilt, besides chains and other jewels,
incalculably rich, though tarnished with the damps of the vault; for,
of all the wealth that was irrevocably lost to man, whether buried in
the earth or sunken in the sea, Peter Goldthwaite had found it in this
one treasure-place. Anon he had returned to the old house as poor as
ever, and was received at the door by the gaunt and grizzled figure of
a man whom he might have mistaken for himself, only that his garments
were of a much elder fashion. But the house, without losing its former
aspect, had been changed into a palace of the precious metals. The
floors, walls and ceilings were of burnished silver; the doors, the
window-frames, the cornices, the balustrades and the steps of the
staircase, of pure gold; and silver, with gold bottoms, were the
chairs, and gold, standing on silver legs, the high chests of drawers,
and silver the bedsteads, with blankets of woven gold and sheets of
silver tissue. The house had evidently b