Porky got turrible inter_est_ed. "Say," he says t' Shackleton, "what you think of that land of Barnes's?" "Wal," answers Hank, "I'll tell y': Oncet I seen another strip that looked _just_ like hisn on top. And it was rich in gold. It was so blamed rich in the colour that when the feller who owned it (he was as lazy as a government mule)--when that feller wanted more t'bacca, 'r some spuds, 'r a piece of pig, why, he'd just go out into the yard and roll. Then he'd hike to town, and when he'd get into the bank, he'd shake hisself--good--pick up what fell to the floor, git it weighed, and the payin'-teller would hand him out what was comin' t' him." Porky peeled his eyes. (It was plain he didn't swaller it all.) But, after talkin' with that real-estate feller, he hunted up Sam and bought ev'ry square inch he had. "'Cause it's dollars to doughnuts," he says, "that Briggs City'll grow this way." "Wal, I don't know," says Sam. "Bergin is powerful strong in pollytics, and he figgers to git the Court House _er_ected on the other side of town--where his wife's got some land." The new parson and the doc showed up that same afternoon. And I reckon they liked that Court House idear, 'cause they took the north half of the Starvation Gap property straight off. "The City Park," they says, "should allus be next the public buildin's." "The City Park," says Buckshot Milliken, "will likely be further north, right agin the University. I _know_--fer the reason that they was a meetin' of the University _di_rectors last night. Then, the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank is goin' to be located facin' the Park, and so is the Grand Op'ra House." Porky gave Buckshot a' awful sharp look. But Buckshot's a' Injun when it comes to actin' innocenter'n a kitten. So then the millionaire gent looked _tickled_ ('cause, just think!--if we was _ex_cited a'ready about a boom, what a pile of trouble it'd save him and his pardners!) Wal, he waddled off and hunted 'em up. And that night they pur_chased_ 'most all of them north lots--payin' good. It was the next mornin' that they got holt of ole man Sewell and bought the Andrews place. Sewell wasn't _on_--he hadn't been into town since I come from Goldstone. But the real-estate gent was used to puttin' up a good figger by now, and the boss made a fair haul. Right off, the Andrews chunk was laid out in fifty-foot lots. It was just rows and _rows_ of white stakes, and when the West-bound was stopped at the deepot fer grub, I seen Bill Rawson pointin' them stakes out to two poor ole white-haired women. "Ladies," he says, "that's the battlefield where Crook fit the Kiowas. Ev'ry stake's a stiff." As the train pulled out, she was tipped all to one side kinda, and runnin' on her off wheels, 'cause the pass'ngers was herded along the west side of the cars, lookin' at that big graveyard.