e,"
Todd Stewart said, half seriously.

The motion carried and Jim, looking big and handsome and kindly as always,
took the chair.

"I'll ask Mr. Champers to state the purpose of the meeting," he said.

"Gentlemen," Champers began with tremendous dignity, "I represent the firm
of the Champers Town Company, just chartered, with half a million dollars'
capital. Gentlemen, you have the finest valley in Kansas."

The same was said of every other valley in Kansas in the fat years of the
boom. But to do Darley justice, he had never made a finer effort in his
life of many efforts than he was bent on making tonight.

"And this site is the garden spot of it all," he continued. "The
elevation, the water power at the deep bend of Grass River (where at that
moment only a trace of water marked the river's grassy right of way), the
fine farming land--everything ready for a sudden leap into prosperity.
And, gentlemen, the A. and T. (Arctic and Tropic) North and South Railroad
will begin grading down this very stream inside of thirty days. A town
here this year will be a city next year, a danged sight bigger city than
Careyville will ever be. Why, that town's got its growth and is beginning
to decay right now. The A. and T. will miss it comin' south, by ten
mile."

He paused and looked at the men before him. They were farmers, drooped to
rest after the long summer day's work, yet they listened with intense
eagerness. Only Asher Aydelot sat in easy dignity, looking straight at
Darley Champers with steady interest. The four years' training in the
University of the Civil War had not been overcome by his hold on the plow
handles. And no farmer will grow hopelessly stooped in shoulders and sad
of countenance who lifts his face often from the clods beneath his feet to
the stars above his head.

"You all know crops was poor last year and only moderately promisin' this
year," Champers continued. "But this is temporary and you are stayers, as
I can testify. The Champers Town Company is ready to locate a townsite and
start a town right here at the deep bend of Grass River. We propose to
plat the prairie into town lots with a public square for the courthouse
and sites for the railroad station and grain elevators, a big hotel, an
opera house, and factories and foundries that's bound to come."

The speaker paused a moment. Then the inspiration of the evening came to
him.

"When you first came here, Aydelot, there wasn't nothing but imagin