noon
When pa died , the settlers on the Solomon talked of making bound boys of us . Mr. Paul was the one who saw us as we are to-day . '' `` I wish mother could have lived to see us now -- shipping beeves by the train-load -- and buying cattle by the thousand . '' An eager market absorbed the beeves , and before noon they had crossed the scale . A conference , jubilant in its nature , took place during the afternoon , in the inner office of the commission firm . The execution of a new contract was a mere detail ; but when the chief bookkeeper handed in a statement covering the shipments of this and the previous year , a lull in the gayety was followed by a moment of intense interest . The account showed a balance of sixty-odd thousand dollars in favor of Wells Brothers !