ested in this because it had not previously occurred to him that the city had been built. It grew, he had observed, by buildings being added, and it improved by old buildings being torn down and new ones being erected in their place. But accepting it as it was, he had neglected to speculate as to the time when there had been no city here at all.
He looked up with new interest at the surrounding buildings. Had Jeffrey, Second, he wondered, built any ones among these? Had he built them with his own hands, or simply "bossed" their building? How did one go about it to build a city." He began to feel a certain pride in his grandfather, the city-builder, and a desire to emulate him, considering whether, after he had grown up, he would not select an eligible site and construct a city for himself.
The original Jeffrey Markyn—he who had been concerned in the Markyn-Beman "wheat corner," whatever that might have been—had been his great-grandfather. These facts did not touch, however, the question which he had at heart.
