He put every dollar he could get into town lots, paying for all he
bought and avoiding mortgages. Also he joined Colonel Culpepper in
putting the College Heights upon the market. "For what," explained the
colonel, when the propriety of using the name for his addition was
questioned, when no college was there nor any prospect of a college
for years to come--"what is plainer to the prophetic eye than that
time will bring to this magnificent city an institution of learning
worthy of our hopes? I have noticed," added the colonel, waving his
cigar broadly about him, "that learning is a shy goddess; she has to
be coaxed--hence on these empyrean heights we have provided for a
seat of learning; therefore College Heights. Look at the splendid
vista, the entrancing view, in point of fact." It was the large white
plumes dancing in the colonel's prophetic eyes. 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,