y. "It seems t' me as if I had come from some other planet.
Thar don't rightly seem t' be no place fur me. I tell you what it's
like. It's as if I'd come down t' enlist in th' ranks, an' found 'em
full,--every man marchin' along in his place, an' no place left fur me."

Kate could not find a reply.

"I ain't a friend,--not a friend! I ain't complainin'. It ain't th'
fault of any one--but myself. You don' know what a durned fool I've
bin. Someway, up thar in th' gulch I got t' seemin' so sort of important
t' myself, and my makin' my stake seemed such a big thing, that I
thought I had only t' come down here t' Helena t' have folks want t'
know me. I didn't particular want th' money because it wus money. But
out here you work fur it, jest as you work fur other things in other
places,--jest because every one is workin' fur it, and it's the man who
gets th' most that beats. It ain't that they are any more greedy than
men anywhere else. My pile's a pretty good-sized one. An' it's likely to
be bigger; but no one else seems t' care. Th' paper printed some pieces
about it. Some of th' men came round t' see me; but I saw their game. I
said I guessed I'd look further fur my acquaintances. I ain't spoken to
a lady,--not a real lady, you know,--t' talk with, friendly like, but
you, fur--years."

His face flushed in that sudden way again. They were passing some of
those pretentious houses which rise in the midst of Helena's ragged
streets with such an extraneous air, and Kate leaned forward to look at
them. The driver, seeing her interest, drew up the horses for a moment.

"Fine, fine!" ejaculated Roeder. "But they ain't got no garden. A house
don't seem anythin' t' me without a garden. Do you know what I think
would be th' most beautiful thing in th' world? A baby in a rose-garden!
Do you know, I ain't had a baby in my hands, excep' Ned Ramsey's little
kid, once, for ten year!"

Kate's face shone with sympathy.

"How dreadful!" she cried. "I couldn't live without a baby about."

"Like babies, do you? Well, well. Boys? Like boys?"

"Not a bit better than girls," said Kate, stoutly.

"I like boys," responded Roeder, with conviction. "My mother liked boys.
She had three girls, but she liked me a damned sight the best."

Kate laughed outright.

"Why do you swear?" she said. "I never heard a man swear before,--at
least, not one with whom I was talking. That's one of your gulch habits.
You must get over it."

Roeder's blond