During the spring and summer the work over the river went on so grandly and surely, that the most skeptical doubted no longer that the great enterprise would be accomplished. Bricks, of many shapes and colors and forms, were ready by hundreds of thousands. The forest was laid out in broad winding avenues, according to the plan; the water-main from the lake was laid, the sewers and drains leading to the river in their places, the great subterranean galleries for ventilation constructed, the cellars completed, and the broad stone foundations of the immense palace and buildings were all completed. Every mail from France brought letters from the count giving the most minute directions, and so harmoniously did everything work, that scarcely a day’s labor was lost by any change of details in the plan. The bridge had been completed long ago, and Oakdale was well pleased with the light, elegant structure placed there as if by enchantment. For when the piers were laid, the railroad disgorged at the station, one evening, a quantity of strange-looking iron-ware, every part made exactly for its place and fitted to its neighbor part. Some strangers, men from the Phœnix Works, accompanied the charge, and in an incredibly short space of time, lo! the bridge was laid and carriages bearing curious visitors and heavy carts were passing over it. The jocose Social Palace laborers declared that they passed over the river to their work in paddle-boats one morning, and at night returned by the bridge! The scrip issued by the town authorities to aid the building of the bridge, passed everywhere without question, from the banking-house of Kendrick & Burnham to the farmer’s stall in the Oakdale market. In fact, the people rather preferred it to “greenbacks,” though at first they had eyed it suspiciously, and asked questions. Then it came to be called “Bridge Scrip,” and the “count’s money,” and was everywhere the text of crude, or deep, financial theories. Said Kendrick, one of the town-council, “This paper is out to the amount of fifty thousand dollars. The taxes have just been collected, but the people took no pains to pay their taxes with it. They did so only in a few cases. I don’t see why it might not be kept forever in circulation.” “Only,” said another, “we stand committed to burn it as fast as it comes in.” “Of course. I know that, and don’t intend to prevent it; but I only say, why would anything but good come by keeping it in circulation? The men who built the bridge are paid. Von Frauenstein was paid by this paper. He has got it all paid out to his workmen. The scrip has done its work, and it still keeps on working. I only ask, why not let it work for us—that is, the town? It is not only as good as it was at first, but a good deal better, for the town is rich, as everybody knows. What do you think about it, Dr. Forest?”