y make me tired, and
when I feel I want some excitement for my money I get it another way.
That one seems tame to me."

"What sort of excitement do you like?"

The man laughed. "There are a good many that appeal to me. Once it was
collecting sealskins off other people's beaches, and there was zest
enough in that, in view of the probability of the dory turning over, or
a gunboat dropping on to you. Then there was a good deal of very genuine
excitement to be got out of placer-mining in British Columbia,
especially when there was frost in the ranges, and you had to thaw out
your giant-powder. Shallow alluvial workings have a way of caving in
when you least expect it of them. After all, however, I think I like the
prairie farming best."

"Is that exciting?"

"Yes," returned Wyllard, "if you do it in one way. The gold's
there--that you're sure of--piled up by nature during I don't know how
many thousand years, but you have to stake high, if you want to get much
of it out. One needs costly labor,--teams--no end of them--breakers, and
big gang-plows. The farmer who has nerve enough drills his last dollar
into the soil in spring, but if he means to succeed it costs him more
than that. He must give the sweat of his tensest effort, the uttermost
toil of his body--all, in fact, that has been given him. Then he must
shut his eyes tight to the hazards against him, or look at them without
wavering--the drought, the hail, the harvest frost, I mean. If his teams
fall sick, or the season goes against him, he must work double tides.
Still, it now and then happens that things go right, and the red wheat
rolls ripe right back across the prairie. I don't know that any man
could want a keener thrill than the one he feels when he drives in the
binders!"

Agatha had imagination, and she could realize something of the toil, the
hazard, and the exultation of that victory.

"You have felt it often?" she inquired.

"Twice we helped to fill a big elevator," Wyllard answered. "But I've
been very near defeat."

The girl looked at him thoughtfully. It seemed that he possessed the
power of acquisition, as well as a wide generosity that came into play
when by strenuous effort success had been attained. So far as her
experience went, these were things that did not invariably accompany
each other.

"And when the harvest comes up to your expectations, you give your money
away?" she asked with a lifting of her brows.

Wyllard laughed. "You sho