rs; it came from the best business men in
the place and region.

The proprietor was in daily communication with his confederates and
tools, and the investors were one day electrified by the information
that the Continental had declared a monthly dividend of two per cent.
This was what was needed to unload Mr. Belcher of nearly all the stock
he held, and, within one month of his arrival from the oil-fields, he
had realized a sum sufficient to pay for his new purchase in the city,
and the costly furniture with which he proposed to illuminate it.

Sevenoaks was happy. The sun of prosperity had dawned upon the people,
and the favored few who supposed that they were the only ones to whom
the good fortune had come, were surprised to find themselves a great
multitude. The dividend was the talk of the town. Those who had
invested a portion of their small means invested more, and those whose
good angel had spared them from the sacrifice yielded to the glittering
temptation, and joined their lot with their rejoicing neighbors. Mr.
Belcher walked or drove among them, and rubbed his hands over their good
fortune. He knew very well that if he were going to reside longer among
the people, his position would be a hard one; but he calculated that
when the explosion should come, he should be beyond its reach.

It was a good time for him to declare the fact that he was about to
leave them; and this he did. An earthquake would not have filled them
with greater surprise and consternation. The industries of the town were
in his hands. The principal property of the village was his. He was
identified with the new enterprise upon which they had built such high
hope, and they had come to believe that he was a kindlier man than they
had formerly supposed him to be.

Already, however, there were suspicions in many minds that there were
bubbles on their oil, ready to burst, and reveal the shallowness of the
material beneath them; but these very suspicions urged them to treat Mr.
Belcher well, and to keep him interested for them. They protested
against his leaving them. They assured him of their friendship. They
told him that he had grown up among them, and that they could not but
feel that he belonged to them. They were proud of the position and
prosperity he had won for himself. They fawned upon him, and when, at
last, he told them that it was too late--that he had purchased and
furnished a home for himself in the city--they called a public me