“Clearing up our new purchase,” answered Tom, quietly.
The doctor’s shrewd face broadened into a smile.
“I see,” he said, pleasantly. “But how much are we to pay you boys for outwitting us? I saw Pylant yesterday, and was told that you had the land. The old man was nearly crazy, when one of us said we would be willing to go as high as twenty dollars an acre.”
“I reckon we don’t care to sell at present,” said Dave. “Our twenty acres wouldn’t make much difference to you, who own as many thousand around the lakes.”
The doctor and his friends laughed good-humoredly.
“That’s right, boys,” said the one called professor; “hold the land for an advance. It will come sooner than you expect, perhaps. But we shall want your services for the next three months, to help our surveyors; so be at our camp in the morning.”
After this the boys could not complain
of loneliness. A few weeks of surveying outlined the streets and blocks of the new town; a sawmill was quickly under way; buildings went up rapidly, and here and there were displayed the new goods of enterprising young merchants.
The fame of the new town spread through the surrounding country, and every day brought new arrivals, seeking work; and soon hundreds of axes could be heard on the hillside, clearing the land and making ready for the numerous young groves to be put out in the spring.
Dave and Tom had all the work they could do, and utilized the evenings and odd moments in burning the trees and stumps on their land. By the first of February they had five acres cleared and fenced, and ready for trees.