So it happened that more real estate buyers than clients came to the office of Ward and Barclay.

But as the general that fall had been out of the office running for Congress on the Greeley ticket, still protesting against the crime of paying the soldiers in paper and the bondholders in gold, he did not miss the clients, and as John saw to it that there was enough law business to keep Mrs.Ward going, the general returned from the canvass overwhelmingly beaten, but not in the least dismayed; and as Jake Dolan put it, "The general had his say and the people had their choice--so both are happy." As the winter deepened John and Colonel Culpepper planted five hundred elm trees on the campus on College Heights, lining three broad avenues leading from the town to the campus with the trees.

John rode into the woods and picked the trees, and saw that each one was properly set.
And the colonel noticed that the finest trees were on Ellen Avenue and spoke of it to Mrs.Culpepper, who only said, "Yes, pa--that's just like him." And the colonel looked puzzled.

And when the colonel added, "They say he is shining up to that Mason girl from Minneola, that comes here with Molly," his wife returned, "Yes, I expected that sooner than now." The colonel gave the subject up.

The ways of women were past his finding out.