"It was this a way," he began. "There was a man here who was clerkin' in one of the stores; and one day a feller drove up and said 'hallow' and this clerk came out of the store and says, 'What is it?' The traveler says, 'Here's a barl I have no use for and don't want to carry on my wagon any furder, and I'll sell it to you.' And the clerk says, 'I ain't got no use for the barl.' 'Well,' says the traveler, 'you can have it for fifty cents, and it will accommodate me; and besides I don't want to just throw it away.' So the clerk says all right, and gave him fifty cents and took the barl in the store and put it in the corner. It was kind of heavy too--had somethin' in it--had treasure in it, as you'll see. And after a few days this here clerk took the barl and turned it upside down and there was treasure." "How much?" said Mitch. "Gee, but that was wonderful." "Well," said the old feller, "you can believe it or not, it was treasure too much to count. You've heard of a man bein' suddenly rich and not realizin' it, or havin' somethin' given to him that he didn't know the value of, and findin' out afterwards. It was just this way." "Well," said Mitch, "why didn't he count it, right away, or was it diamonds or rubies?" "He couldn't count it all right there. It couldn't be done, because it had to be weighed and tested and tried out, and put on the market; for you might say some of it was rubies, and to know what rubies are worth takes experience and time and a lot of things." Mitch got more and more interested and I did too. Then the old feller went on. "But that ain't sayin' that this clerk didn't know it was treasure--he did--but it was treasure that he had to put work on to bring out all its 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.