And , secondly , Ralph Cranfield had a firm belief that there was a mighty treasure hidden somewhere in the earth of which the burial-place would be revealed to none but him . When his feet should press upon the mysterious spot , there would be a hand before him pointing downward -- whether carved of marble or hewn in gigantic dimensions on the side of a rocky precipice , or perchance a hand of flame in empty air , he could not tell , but at least he would discern a hand , the forefinger pointing downward , and beneath it the Latin word '' Effode '' -- `` Dig ! '' And , digging thereabouts , the gold in coin or ingots , the precious stones , or of whatever else the treasure might consist , would be certain to reward his toil . The third and last of the miraculous events in the life of this high-destined man was to be the attainment of extensive influence and sway over his fellow-creatures . Whether he were to be a king and founder of a hereditary throne , or the victorious leader of a people contending for their freedom , or the apostle of a purified and regenerated faith , was left for futurity to show . As messengers of the sign by which Ralph Cranfield might recognize the summons , three venerable men were to claim audience of him . The chief among them -- a dignified and majestic person arrayed , it may be supposed , in the flowing garments of an ancient sage -- would be the bearer of a wand or prophet 's rod . With this wand or rod or staff the venerable sage would trace a certain figure in the air , and then proceed to make known his Heaven-instructed message , which , if obeyed , must lead to glorious results . With this proud fate before him , in the flush of his imaginative youth Ralph Cranfield had set forth to seek the maid , the treasure , and the venerable sage with his gift of extended empire . And had he found them ? Alas ! it was not with the aspect of a triumphant man who had achieved a nobler destiny than all his fellows , but rather with the gloom of one struggling against peculiar and continual adversity , that he now passed homeward to his mother 's cottage . He had come back , but only for a time , to lay aside the pilgrim 's staff , trusting that his weary manhood would regain somewhat of the elasticity of youth in the spot where his threefold fate had been foreshown him . There had been few changes in the village , for it was not one of those thriving places where a year 's prosperity makes more than the havoc of a century 's decay , but , like a gray hair in a young man 's head , an antiquated little town full of old maids and aged elms and moss-grown dwellings . Few seemed to be the changes here . The drooping elms , indeed , had a more majestic spread , the weather-blackened houses were adorned with a denser thatch of verdant moss , and doubtless there were a few more gravestones in the burial-ground inscribed with names that had once been familiar in the village street ; yet , summing up all the mischief that ten years had wrought , it seemed scarcely more than if Ralph Cranfield had gone forth that very morning and dreamed a day-dream till the twilight , and then turned back again . But his heart grew cold because the village did not remember him as he remembered the village . `` Here is the change , '' sighed he , striking his hand upon his breast . `` Who is this man of thought and care , weary with world-wandering and heavy with disappointed hopes ? The youth returns not who went forth so joyously . ''
And now Ralph XXXXX was at his mother 's gate , in front of the small house where the old lady , with slender but sufficient means , had kept herself comfortable during her son 's long absence .
Cranfield Heaven-instructed burial-place futurity ingots thatch third twilight world-wandering year