t
yet."

"Was his name Langston?"

"Yes, I remember because I liked the name. I was so eager to earn
something, and I can't leave here just now because Aunt Molly is very
ill, so the thought came that possibly I could gather stuff worth money,
after my work was finished. I went out and asked questions. They said
nothing brought enough to make it pay any one, except this ginseng
plant, and the Langston man almost had stripped the country. Then uncle
said he used to get stuff here, and he might have got some of that. I
asked what it was like, so they told me and I hunted until I found that,
and it seemed a quantity to me. Of course I didn't know it had to be
dried. Uncle took a root I dug to a store, and they told him that it
wasn't much used any more, but they would give him fifty cents a pound
for it. What MAKES you think you can get five dollars?"

"With your permission," said the Harvester.

He seated himself on the log, drew from his pocket an old pamphlet,
and spreading it before her, ran a pencil along the line of a list of
schedule prices for common drug roots and herbs. Because he understood,
his eyes were very bright, and his voice a trifle crisp. A latent anger
springing in his breast was a good curb for his emotions. He was closely
acquainted with all of the druggists of Onabasha, and he knew that not
one of them had offered less than standard prices for ginseng.

"The reason I think so," he said gently, "is because growing it is the
largest part of my occupation, and it was a staple with my father before
me. I am David Langston, of whom you heard those men speak. Since I was
a very small boy I have lived by collecting herbs and roots, and I get
more for ginseng than anything else. Very early I tired of hunting other
people's woods for herbs, so I began transplanting them to my own. I
moved that bed out there seven years ago. What you found has grown since
from roots I overlooked and seeds that fell at that time. Now do you
think I am enough of an authority to trust my word on the subject?"

There was not a change of expression on her white face.

"You surely should know," she said wearily, "and you could have no
possible object in deceiving me. Please go on."

"Any country boy or girl can find ginseng, gather, wash, and dry it, and
get five dollars a pound. I can return yours to-morrow and you can cure
and take it to a druggist I will name you, and sell for that. But if you
will allow me to make a su