"Do you want me to give you this property?" asked Talbot.
But he could get no higher bid, and he descended from the stump amid laughter that bordered closely on something else.
Then they resumed their journey.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE COIN OF GOLD
Prescott had been at home some months. Johnston's army, too, had surrendered. Everywhere the soldiers of the South, seeing that further resistance would be criminal, laid down their arms. A mighty war, waged for four years with unparalleled tenacity and strewn all the way with tremendous battles, ceased with astonishing quickness.
The people of Richmond were already planning the rebuilding of the city; the youthful were looking forward with hope to the future, and not the least sanguine among them were a little group gathered as of old in the newspaper office of Winthrop. They had been discussing their own purposes.