Finally being openly ignored by Mr. Monroe when the two met face to face,
Pop became angry and took his secret to a jeweller on Main Street. The
jeweller laughed and told Pop that the gold in the basket must be worth at
least a thousand dollars, but he was not in a position to buy crude gold.
Then the jeweller made known to many that Pop Thornberry was crazy over
some lumps of mud and mica that he mistook for gold.
After that, people would stop Pop on the street and say:
"Let's see a piece of the gold in your basket."
Pop, astonished that his secret was out, but somewhat proud at being
thought the possessor of a treasure, would hesitate and then comply. The
small boys soon recognized in Pop's delusion a new means of fun. Observing
the solicitude with which he watched his clod while out of his own hands,
they would innocently ask for a glimpse into his basket. This granted, they
would grasp a piece of his treasure and run away, greatly annoying the old
man, who was in a state of keen distress until he recovered the abstracted
clod. These affairs between Pop and the boys were of hourly recurrence.
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