Quite a few are nicely varnished, and in a general way they've hall-marked gold or silver tops.

The hallmark, however, guarantees only the trimmings, and from one or two specimens that I've come across I've a suspicion that in some cases the timber's rotten.

When you choose a stick you want a sound one--one that you can lean on when you face a hill, and I guess that's a thing my girl will have to do now and then." His tone had grown a trifle graver as he went on, but his companion waited, feeling that he had a little more to say, and that he might offer her a hint of some kind, as, in fact, he presently did.
"The sound sticks don't grow in stove-warmed houses, but out in the wind and sun," he said.
That was sufficient for Mrs.Frisingham, who had rather more than a suspicion that Stirling already had in his mind somebody who had not been bred in the city.

An unknown man who built new railroad bridges in the wilderness, or a bush rancher, it seemed most probable.
"Well," she said, "I might perhaps warn you that the right choice is a rather serious matter, and that, after all, it's wiser to consider the opinions--call them prejudices if you like--of your own order." "When my daughter chooses," said the contractor, smiling, "she'll choose wisely, and I'm going to be satisfied.

I've had the pleasure of reassuring another lady on that point already.