d the girl, who was then gathering
berries in the wood. She saw that his face and hands were grimy and
his clothes were soiled.

"I heard that you found the unfortunate man. It was very sad," she
said. "But what have you been doing since?"

"Shoveling a ton or two of gravel. Then I assisted in jacking up one
side of the engine."

"Why? Did you enjoy it?"

George laughed; he had, as it happened, experienced a curious pleasure
in the work. He was accustomed to the more vigorous sports; but, after
all, they led to no tangible results, and in this respect his recent
task was different--one, as he thought of it, could see what one had
done. He had been endowed with some ability of strictly practical
description, though it had so far escaped development.

"Yes," he responded. "I enjoyed it very much."

The girl regarded him with a trace of curiosity.

"Was that because work of the kind is new to you?"

"No," George answered. "It isn't altogether a novelty. I once spent
three years in manual labor; and now when I look back at them, I
believe I was happy then."

She nodded as if she understood.

"Shall we walk back?" she suggested.

They went on together, and though the sun was now fiercely hot and the
distance long, George enjoyed the walk. Once they met a ballast train,
with a steam plow mounted at one end of it, and a crowd of men riding
on the open cars; but when it had passed there was nothing to break the
deep silence of the woods. The dark firs shut in the narrow track
except when here and there a winding lake or frothing river filled a
sunny opening.

Soon after George and his companion reached the train, the engine came
back with a row of freightcars, and during the afternoon the western
express pulled out again, and sped furiously through the shadowy bush.

CHAPTER IV

GEORGE MAKES FRIENDS

It was nearing midnight when George walked impatiently up and down the
waiting-room in Winnipeg station, for the western express was very
late, and nobody seemed to know when it would start. George was
nevertheless interested in his surroundings, and with some reason. The
great room was built in palatial style, with domed roof, tessellated
marble floor, and stately pillars: it was brilliantly lighted; and
massively-framed paintings of snow-capped peaks and river gorges
adorned the walls. An excursion-train from Winnipeg Beach had just
come in, and streams of young men and women in summer att