er, though the rest of him
was in fine modeling, and he had a pleasant face of the English
blue-eyed type. Just then it was shining with boyish merriment, and
indeed an irresponsible gayety was a salient characteristic of the man.
One would have called him handsome, though his mouth was a trifle slack,
and though a certain assurance in his manner just fell short of swagger.
He was the kind of man one likes at first sight, but for all that not
the kind his hard-bitten neighbors would have chosen to stand by them
through the strain of drought and frost in adverse seasons.

As it happened, the grim, hard-faced Sager, who had come there from
Michigan, was just then talking about him to Stukely.

"Kind of tone about that man--guess he once had the gold-leaf on him
quite thick, and it hasn't all worn off yet," said Sager. "Seen more
Englishmen like him, and some folks from Noo York, too, when I took
parties bass fishing way back yonder."

He waved his hand vaguely, as though to indicate the American Republic,
and Stukely agreed with him. They were right as far as they went, for
Hawtrey undoubtedly possessed a grace of manner which, however, somehow
failed to reach distinction. It was, perhaps, just a little too
apparent, and lacked the strengthening feature of restraint.

"I wonder," remarked Stukely reflectively, "what those kind of fellows
done before they came out here."

He had expressed a curiosity which is now and then to be met with on the
prairie, but Sager, the charitable, grinned.

"Oh," he responded, "I guess quite a few done no more than make their
folks on the other side tired of them, and that's why they sent them out
to you. Some of them get paid so much on condition that they don't come
back again. Say"--and he glanced toward the dancers--"Dick Creighton's
Sally seems quite stuck on Hawtrey by the way she's looking at him."

Stukely assented. He was a somewhat primitive person, as was Sally
Creighton, for that matter, and he did not suppose that she would have
been greatly offended had she overheard his observations.

"Well," he said, "I've thought that, too. If she wants him she'll get
him. She's a smart girl--Sally."

There were not many women present--perhaps one to every two of the men,
which was rather a large proportion in that country, and their garments
were not at all costly or beautiful. The fabrics were, for the most
part, the cheapest obtainable, and the wearers had fashioned their gowns