The land Scattergood required was owned by three individuals.  All of it was worthless—­except to a man of vision—­so, treading lightly, Scattergood went about acquiring what he needed.  His method was not direct approach.  He went to the owners of that land with proffers to sell, not to buy.  To Landers, who owned the marsh on both shores of the river, he tried to sell the newest development in mowing machines, and his manner of doing so was to hitch to the newly arrived machine, haul it to Landers’s meadow—­where the owner was haying—­drag it through the gate, and unhitch.

“Here,” he said, “try this here machine.  Won’t cost you nothin’ to try it, and I’m curious to see if it works as good as they say.”

Landers was willing.  It worked better.  Landers regarded the machine longingly, and spoke of price.  Scattergood disclosed it.

“Hain’t got it and can’t afford it,” said Landers.

“Might afford a swap?”

“Might.  What you got in mind?”

“Say,” said Scattergood, changing the subject, “ever try drainin’ that marsh in the fork?  Looks like it could be done.  Might make a good medder.”

Landers laughed.  “If you want to try,” he chuckled, “I’ll trade it to you for this here mowin’ machine.”

“Hum!...” grunted Scattergood, and higgled and argued, but ended by accepting a deed for the land and turning over the machine to Landers.  Scattergood himself had sixty days to pay for it.  It cost him something like half a dollar an acre, and Landers considered he had robbed the hardware merchant of a machine.

One side of the bottle neck Scattergood took in exchange for a kitchen stove and a double harness; the third parcel of land came to him for a keg of nails, five gallons of paint, sundry kitchen utensils, and twelve dollars and fifty cents in money....  And when Coldriver heard of the deals it chuckled derisively and regarded its hardware merchant with pitying scorn.

Then Scattergood left a youth in charge of his store and went softly to the state capital.  In after years his skill in handling legislatures was often remarked upon with displeasure.  His young manhood held prophecy of this future ability, for he came home acquainted with nine tenths of the legislators, laughed at by half of them as a harmless oddity, and with a state charter for his river company in his pocket....  When folks heard of that charter they held their sides and roared.

Scattergood returned to selling hardware, and waited.  He had an idea he would hear something stirring on his trail before long, and he fancied he could guess who and what that something would be.  He judged he would hear from two gentlemen named Crane and Keith.  Crane owned some twenty thousand acres of timber along the North Branch; Keith owned slightly lesser limits along the South Branch.  Both gentlemen were lumbering and operating mills in another state; their Coldriver holdings they had acquired, and, as the saying is, forgotten, until the time should come when they would desire to move into Coldriver Valley.