een taught to be frugal, economical, and to work. All I've
earned either has gone back into land, into the bank, or into books,
very plain food, and such clothing as you now see me wearing. Just the
value of this place as it stands, with its big trees, its drug crops
yielding all the year round, would be difficult to estimate; and I don't
mind telling you that on the top of that hill there is a gold mine, and
it's mine----ours since four o'clock."

"A gold mine!"

"Acres and acres of wild ginseng, seven years of age and ready to
harvest. Do you remember what your few pounds brought?"

"Why it's worth thousands!"

"Exactly! For your peace of mind I might add that all I have done or got
is paid for, except what I bought to-day, and I will write a check for
that as soon as the bill is made out. My bank account never will feel it
Truly, Ruth, I am not doing or going to do anything extravagant. I can't
afford to give you diamond necklaces, yachts, and trips to Europe; but
you can have the contents of this box and a motor boat on the lake, a
horse and carriage, and a trip----say to New York perfectly well. Please
take it."

"I wish you wouldn't ask me. I would be happier not to."

"Yes, but I do ask you," persisted the Harvester. "You are not the
only one to be considered. I have some rights also, and I'm not so
self-effacing that I won't insist upon them. From your standpoint I
am almost a stranger. You have spent no time considering me in near
relations; I realize that. You feel as if you were driven here for
a refuge, and that is true. I said to Belshazzar one day that I must
remember that you had no dream, and had spent no time loving me, and
I do I know how this wedding seems to you, but it's going to mean
something different and better soon, please God. I can see your side;
now suppose you take a look at mine. I did have a dream, it was my
dream, and beyond the sum of any delight I ever conceived. On the
strength of it I rebuilt my home and remodelled these premises. Then
I saw you, and from that day I worked early and late. I lost you and I
never stopped until I found you; and I would have courted and won you,
but the fates intervened and here you are! So it's my delight to court
and win you now. If you knew the difference between having a dream that
stirred the least fibre of your being and facing the world in a demand
for realization of it, and then finding what you coveted in the palm
of your hand, as it were