CHAPTER XXVIII

'■■■ ■ ...... ■:'.:.;.'JEDGE. JULIAN. 1 :•.;_;. ■ - j It wa» court-week in the brisk, young towtt of Zadoc, and unusual excicement through| out its length and breadth. The street* were, full of stalwart, sun-browned men! galloping about upon tough little ponies •; boarding-houses were overflowing ; store! keepers wore broadssmiles of invitation ani satisfaction, for this was one of their riches! harvest - times ; an occasional waggo| clattered along the chief thoroughfare | everywhere there was bustle and activity! but nowhere' was it more noticeable thai around the modest building in which justicl was wont to be dispensed. ; The handsome new courfc-housej whicS is now the pride of Zadoc and all the coun| try for many miles around, was at that time only a "yawning, cavernous opening iffi the earth, surrounded by numerous Bugs gestive pilesiof building material. Cour^ was Btill held just across the way, in & rough wooden hall, once considered | thing of beauty by the Zadocese, bub no\i| left far behind in the march of progressive architecture. .■•'l A new judge was about to take his eeab| Old Judge. French, beloved bf all, and ; S» most • righteous judge,' had gone the way* of all the earth a few weeks, before, and in] his place Lawyer Julian, bad been, apj pointed. C Now Morris Julian was nob unknown to; these sturdy citizens of Dakota. He had] been practising law in Zadoc for nearly! five years. Ab first he was looked upon] with a good deal of mistrust. In spite ot; his wearing flannel shirts (imported), andj trying to conform in other scarcely lesal trying ways to the requirements of life inj this hurrying, hard-headed, no-nonsehse-f aboub-ib part of the world, the shrewd sonsj of the West detected a difference between; him and themselves. At the least display*! of his old imperiousness or the indulgence) beyond a very certain moderate limit of hisj sybaritic tastes, his influence would have; been for ever destroyed. But Morris Julian* had been learning some lessons of his; dearly-bought experience. He was careful to conceal every evidence of wealth in his) daily living; little by little he invested in* real estate; he established small industries; and he attended successfully to bis rapidlys increasing legal business. Gradually he gained the confidence of his townsmen, and especially of the farmers in the neighbour^ ing country. 