Raymond S. Spears

“ No thought had occurred to him except the interest he had in possessing the old fellow's secret. A night-walker gets many a secret out of the bosom of the dark.
By and by, having his night-eyes open, Molden discovered others of old Flint's secrets. He took to watching for the old man. Flint had been one of the most jeering and scornful against Molden, because the young man was always chasing off across the fields, or staying out nights to catch bullheads or shoot foxes or something like that. He was always talking about Molden's squandering his life living outdoors, working—but at such jobs! ”

“ Birds and fish and game, flowers in every phase of their existence, wild apples and fruits and berries of a hundred square miles—butternuts, walnuts, hickory-nuts, beech-nuts. None knew how he lived, because none dreamed that every time he came home with his pockets or his game-bag bulging, he was storing up the fat of the land to live on. In his own garden grew a thousand wonderful weeds, and some few luxuriant vegetables. ”

“ Molden, a night-bird, had discovered the old miser's secrets one by one. A stone was loose in the foundation of the big main barn, and behind that stone was a fruit-can with the top carefully screwed down on a rubber, and it was full of hundred- and fifty-dollar bills. The mid-lot fence-corner had another hoard, treasure all in gold. A flat stone, right in the corner, under a sod and a boulder, contained at least twenty pounds of gold—say three hundred and twenty ounces troy, worth not less than six thousand dollars, when it came to purchasing commodities or the labor of one's fellow-men. ”

“ The leading citizens were competent men, and they were hard-working.
Darius Molden was the son of a man who had been a leading citizen, but who was dead; and Darius' mother was dead also. He lived in the old house, which was not a large one, but comfortable. He dwelt in a kind of reputable squalor, never out of debt, but always taking in a little money from the curious results of his desultory wanderings around—a few dollars for furs which he trapped, and a few dollars for herbs and roots and leaves which he collected and sold. ”