had it, he floated on top of it big rafts of lumber
on the Miramichi and codfish on the Grand Banks and lesser fish in the
Fundy Bay. You've heard perhaps of the Tidal Transportation Company, and
Fundy Fisheries Corporation, and the Paspebiac Pulp and Paper Unlimited?
Well, all of those were Pupkin senior under other names. So just imagine
him in Mariposa! Wouldn't he be utterly foolish there? Just imagine him
meeting Jim Eliot and treating him like a druggist merely because he
ran a drug store! or speaking to Jefferson Thorpe as if he were a barber
simply because he shaved for money! Why, a man like that could ruin
young Pupkin in Mariposa in half a day, and Pupkin knew it.

That wouldn't matter so much, but think of the Pepperleighs and Zena!
Everything would be over with them at once. Pupkin knew just what the
judge thought of riches and luxuries. How often had he heard the
judge pass sentences of life imprisonment on Pierpont Morgan and
Mr. Rockefeller. How often had Pupkin heard him say that any man who
received more than three thousand dollars a year (that was the judicial
salary in the Missinaba district) was a mere robber, unfit to shake
the hand of an honest man. Bitter! I should think he was! He was not so
bitter, perhaps, as Mr. Muddleson, the principal of the Mariposa high
school, who said that any man who received more than fifteen hundred
dollars was a public enemy. He was certainly not so bitter as Trelawney,
the post-master, who said that any man who got from society more
than thirteen hundred dollars (apart from a legitimate increase in
recognition of a successful election) was a danger to society. Still,
he was bitter. They all were in Mariposa. Pupkin could just imagine how
they would despise his father!

And Zena! That was the worst of all. How often had, Pupkin heard her
say that she simply hated diamonds wouldn't wear them, despised them,
wouldn't give a thank you for a whole tiara of them! As for motor cars
and steam yachts,--well, it was pretty plain that that sort of thing had
no chance with Zena Pepperleigh. Why, she had told Pupkin one night in
the canoe that she would only marry a man who was poor and had his way
to make and would hew down difficulties for her sake. And when Pupkin
couldn't answer the argument she was quite cross and silent all the way
home.

What was Peter Pupkin doing, then, at eight hundred dollars in a bank in
Mariposa? If you ask that, it means that you know nothing