ts
value."

"Melt it up," said Mitch, "or polish it maybe."

"Yes," said the old feller, "melt it up and polish it, and put his elbow
grease on it. And nobody but him could do it. He couldn't hire it done.
For if he had, he'd a lost the treasure--the cost of doin' that would
have wasted all the treasure. And this the clerk knew. That's why he
didn't know what it was worth, though he knew it was worth a lot and he
was a happy man."

"Well," said Mitch, "what was it--tell me--I can't wait."

"Books," said the old feller--"two law books. Blackstone's
Commentaries."

"Oh, shucks," said Mitch.

"Shucks," said the old man. "Listen to me. Here you boys dig in the sun
like niggers for treasure, and you'll never find it that a way. It ain't
to be found. And if you did, it wouldn't amount to nothin'. But suppose
you get a couple of books into your head like Abe Linkern did, and
become a great lawyer, and a president, and a benefactor to your
fellows, then you have found treasure and given it too. And it was out
of that barl that Linkern became what he was. He found his treasure
there. He might have found it sommers else; but at least he found it
there. And you can't get treasure that's good that the good of you
wasn't put into it in getting it. Remember that. If you dug up treasure
here, what have you put into the getting of that treasure? Just your
work with the shovel and the pick--that's all--and you haven't got rich
doin' that. The money will go and you'll be where you was before. But if
there's good in you, and you put the good into what you find and make it
all it can be made, then you have found real treasure like Linkern did."

Mitch was quiet for a minute and then said: "Don't you 'spose the man
who sold the barl to Linkern knew the books was in there? Of course he
did. And if he did, why didn't he take the books and study and be
president? He couldn't, that's why. If you call books treasure, they
ain't unless they mean something to you. But take money or jewels, who
is there that they don't mean somethin' to? Nobody. Why there're
hundreds of books around our house, that would do things if they meant
anything. And I've found my book. It's 'Tom Sawyer.' And till I find
another I mean to stick by it, as fur as that goes. One book at a time."

I don't know where Mitch got all this talk. He was the wonderfulest boy
that ever lived, but besides he heard his pa talk things all the time,
and his pa could talk Greek an