reached
to the level of their eyes, yet laden and breaking beneath the weight of
their ludicrously disproportionate fruit. What seemed to be a vast green
plateau covered with tiny patches, that headed the northern edge of
the prospect, was an enormous bed of strawberry plants. But everywhere,
crossing the track, bounding the fields, orchards, and vineyards,
intersecting the paths of the whole domain, were narrow irrigating ducts
and channels of running water.

"Those," said the major, poetically, "are the veins and arteries of
the ranch. Come with me now, and I'll show you its pulsating heart."
Descending from the wagon into pedestrian prose again, he led Rose a
hundred yards further to a shed that covered a wonderful artesian well.
In the centre of a basin a column of water rose regularly with the even
flow and volume of a brook. "It is one of the largest in the State,"
said the major, "and is the life of all that grows here during six
months of the year."

Pleased as the young girl was with those evidences of the prosperity and
position of her host, she was struck, however, with the fact that the
farm-laborers, wine-growers, nurserymen, and all field hands scattered
on the vast estate were apparently of the same independent, unpastoral,
and unprofessional character as the men of the wheat-field. There were
no cottages or farm buildings that she could see, nor any apparent
connection between the household and the estate; far from suggesting
tenantry or retainers, the men who were working in the fields glanced
at them as they passed with the indifference of strangers, or replied to
the major's greetings or questionings with perfect equality of manner,
or even businesslike reserve and caution. Her host explained that the
ranch was worked by a company "on shares;" that those laborers were, in
fact, the bulk of the company; and that he, the major, only furnished
the land, the seed, and the implements. "That man who was driving the
long roller, and with whom you were indignant because he wouldn't get
out of our way, is the president of the company."

"That needn't make him so uncivil," said Rose, poutingly, "for if it
comes to that you're the LANDLORD," she added triumphantly.

"No," said the major, good-humoredly. "I am simply the man driving the
lighter and more easily-managed team for pleasure, and he's the man
driving the heavier and more difficult machine for work. It's for me to
get out of his way; and looked at