"I don't understand. Why is it so valuable?"
"That's Thomas Jefferson's desk. It comes from his heirs; the Declaration of Independence was written on it!"
"That's a pretty story. Where's your proof? Without documentary evidence, it's not worth more than a hundred dollars."
"I have the proof, Doctor. Look here."
The proprietor then rolled back the top. He put his finger upon a secret drawer. He took out a letter and handed it in silence to Doctor Morton.
He read as follows:
Monticello, June 12, 1821.
This secretary which is five feet four inches high and three feet wide, made of Santa Domingo mahogany, was purchased by me in Philadelphia in November, 1775, of Robert Aitken, the printer. Upon this desk, I wrote in my home on High Street near Seventh, the celebrated instrument known as the Declaration of Independence. Thinking that my heirs and others would value this article for its association with the sacred cause of liberty, I make this statement.
Witness my hand and seal, this twelfth day of June, 1821, and the year of American Independence, the forty-fifth.
THO. JEFFERSON.