become,
we could still see what looked like tiny bubbles and pits in the wood.

"Bird's-eye, isn't it?" the old Squire said, taking up a chip in his
fingers. "Bird's-eye maple. Was there more than one tree of this?"

"More than forty, sir, that I saw myself, and I've no doubt there are
others," Addison replied.

"Ah!" the old Squire exclaimed, with a look of understanding kindling in
his face. "I see! I see!"

During our three or four winters at the old Squire's we boys had
naturally picked up considerable knowledge about lumber and lumber
values.

"Yes," Addison said. "That's why I planned to get hold of that wood-lot.
I wrote to Jones & Adams to see what they would give for clear,
kiln-dried bird's-eye maple lumber, for furniture and room finish, and
in this letter they offer $90 per thousand. 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 fu