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civilized nation after the cannons are silenced and the battlefields are quiet? The victor allows the vanquished to rest and restore in the interests of the common economics. The currency of a conquered nation is always redeemed—devalued, but still redeemed. Redeemed: look what is happening now in Germany—in Japan. The Federal Government has redeemed the enemy money and helped the vanquished restore itself. From time immemorial the currency of a defeated nation has been left in circulation. And the lira in Italy—did the Federal Government confiscate the lira? The lira, the yen, the mark—all, all were redeemed."
    The Judge was leaning forward over the table and his tie brushed his saucer of melted ice cream, but he did not notice.
    "But what happened after the War Between the States? Not only did the Federal Government of the United States free the slaves which were the
sine qua non
of our cotton economy, so that the very resources of the nation were gone with the wind. A truer story was never written than
Gone With the Wind.
Remember how we cried at that picture show?"
    Jester said: "I didn't cry."
    "You certainly did," the Judge said. "I wish I had written that book."
    Jester did not comment.
    "But back to the issue. Not only was the economy of the nation deliberately wrecked, but the Federal Government completely invalidated all Confederate currency. Not one cent could be redeemed for the wealth of the entire Confederacy. I have heard of Confederate bills used as kindling for fires."
    "There used to be a whole trunk of Confederate bills in the attic. I wonder what happened to them."
    "They're in the library in my safety box."
    "Why? Aren't they worthless?"
    The Judge did not answer; instead, he pulled from his vest pocket a Confederate thousand-dollar bill. Jester examined it with some of the wonder of his attic-playing childhood. The bill was so real, so green and believable. But the wonder illumined him only for a few instants, then was extinguished. Jester handed the bill back to his grandfather.
    "It would be a lot of money if it was real."
    "One of these days it might be 'real' as you say. It will be, if my strength and work and vision can make it so."
    Jester questioned his grandfather with his cold clear eyes. Then he said: "The money is nearly a hundred years old."
    "And think of the hundreds of billions of dollars squandered by the Federal Government during those hundred years. Think of the wars financed and public spending. Think of the other currencies redeemed and put back into circulation. The mark, the lira, the yen—all foreign currencies. And the South was, after all, the same flesh and blood and should have been treated as brothers. The currency should have been redeemed and
not
devalued. Don't you see that, Lamb?"
    "Well it wasn't and it's too late now."
    The conversation made Jester uneasy and he wanted to leave the table and go away. But his grandfather held him with a gesture.
    "Wait a minute. It's never too late to redress a wrong. And I am going to be instrumental in allowing the Federal Government to redress this historic and monumental wrong," the Judge stated pontifically. "I am going to have a bill introduced in the House of Representatives if I win the next election that will redeem all Confederate monies, with the proper adjustment for the increase of cost-of-living nowadays. It will be for the South what F.D.R. intended to do in his New Deal. It will revolutionize the economy of the South. And you, Jester, will be a wealthy young man. There are ten million dollars in that safety box. What do you say to that?"
    "How did that much Confederate money accumulate?"
    "There are ancestors of vision in our family—remember that, Jester. My grandmother, your great-great-grandmother, was a great lady and a woman of vision. When the war was over she traded for Confederate money, swapping now and then a few eggs and produce—once I remember her telling me she even swapped a laying hen for three