Silas Bradford's Boy by Joseph C. Lincoln

If, as Captain Abijah had declared, Banks Bradford began that hearing as the town goat, he ended it as the town lion. Not a mature and majestic lion, of course--the case of Tadgett versus Truman was scarcely important enough for that--but certainly a lion cub, for whom growth and majesty were prophesied. He had made a monkey of Oscar Brooks, and Denboro, the greater part of it, chuckled.

Banks' triumph was, generally speaking, a popular one, even though entirely unexpected. Mrs. Elijah Truman was not loved in Denboro. She was respected because of her money and social position, but she had snubbed or ignored too many citizens, male and female, to be a favorite.