m. He
kissed his mother, wrung Pen's and Dennis' hands, then climbed aboard
the train and reappeared on the observation platform. His face was
rigid. His hat was clenched in his fist. None of the watching group was
to forget the picture of him as the train pulled out. The tall, boyish
figure in the blue Norfolk suit, the thick brown hair tossed across his
dreamer's forehead, and the half sweet, half wistful smile set on his
young lips.

There were tears on Jim's mother's cheeks and in Pen's eyes, but Uncle
Denny broke down and cried.

"He's me own heart, Still Jim is!" he sobbed.

CHAPTER VII

THE CUB ENGINEER

"Humans constantly shift sand and rock from place to place.
They call this work. I have seen time return their every
work to the form in which it was created."

MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT.

It was hard to go. But Jim was young and adventure called him. As the
train began its long transcontinental journey, Jim would not have
exchanged places with any man on earth. He was a full-fledged engineer.
He was that creature of unmatched vanity, a young man with his first
job. And Jim's first job was with his government. The Reclamation
Service was, to Jim's mind, a collection of great souls, scientifically
inclined, giving their lives to their country, harvesting their rewards
in adventure and in the abandoned gratitude of a watching nation.

Jim was headed for the Green Mountain project which was located in the
Indian country of the far Northwest. There were not many months of work
left on the dam or the canals. But Jim was to report to the engineer in
charge of this project to receive from him his first training.

This was Jim's first trip away from the Atlantic coast. He was a typical
Easterner, accustomed to landscapes on a small scale and to the human
touch on everything. Until he left St. Paul, nothing except the extreme
width of the map really surprised him. But after the train had crossed
the Mississippi valley, it began to traverse vast rolling plains,
covered from horizon to horizon with wheat. At endless intervals were
set tiny dwellings like lone sentinels guarding the nation's bread.
After the plains, came an arid country where a constantly beaten
vegetation fought with the alkali until at last it gave way to a world
of yellow sand and purple sky.

After a day of this, far to the west appeared a delicate line of
snowcapped peaks toward