They looked at Bernard in a curious way and then at the signboard, but they scarcely grasped the situation, and plunged heroically into the five hundred yards of mud.
At nine o'clock a wealthy stockbroker came panting along, late for his train; so Bernard shouted to him: "Come my way, Mr Blunt; it will save you five hundred yards and all that horrid mud!" "Hullo, Gray; back from school ?" he gasped.

"What's the idea, eh ?" So Bernard told him his scheme in as few words as possible.
"Then I'll be your first patron, my boy," and Mr Blunt held out a shilling.

"There's your first capital." "Only a penny," laughed Bernard, pushing back the kind hand, and pointing to his signboard.
"Oh, we are proud," said Mr Blunt.

"Well, I wish you luck! Through you I shall catch my train, and it means a little matter to me to the tune of three hundred pounds." A week after this, scores of people went through Bernard's garden morning and evening, and the whole place rang with his plucky experiment.

"Four pounds, five and sixpence for the first week, Mother; but we will do better yet," said Bernard.
Many people came through the gates from sheer curiosity, and nearly everyone preferred paying him the penny toll, instead of walking the five hundred yards of uneven road, even on dry days! In the following spring, Endwell suddenly grew into such an important place that the railway company was compelled to enlarge the station, and a director being informed of Bernard's experiment, and the distinct value of a shorter approach, came to see Mrs Gray about her little property, but she would not be "talked over" by the smart director.