horizon, specked here and there
by infrequent little black shacks and by huge stacks of straw half
buried in snow. Suddenly his attention was arrested by a trim line
of small buildings cosily ensconced behind a plantation of poplars
and Manitoba maples.

"What are those structures?" he enquired of his neighbour in careful
book English, and with slightly foreign accent.

"What? That bunch of buildings. That is a Mennonite village,"
was the reply.

"Mennonite! Ah!"

"Yes," replied his neighbour. "Dutch, or Russian, or something."

"Yes, Russian," answered the stranger quickly. "That is Russian, surely,"
he continued, pointing eagerly to the trim and cosy group of buildings.
"These Mennonites, are they prosperous--ah--citizens--ah--settlers?"

"You bet! They make money where other folks would starve. They know
what they're doing. They picked out this land that everybody else
was passing over--the very best in the country--and they are making
money hand over fist. Mighty poor spenders, though. They won't buy
nothing; eat what they can't sell off the farm."

"Aha," ejaculated the stranger, with a smile.

"Yes, they sell everything, grain, hogs, eggs, butter,
and live on cabbages, cheese, bread."

"Aha," repeated the stranger, again with evident approval.

"They are honest, though," continued his neighbour judicially;
"we sell them implements."

"Ah, implements?" enquired the stranger.

"Yes, ploughs, drills, binders, you know."

"Ah, so, implements," said the stranger, evidently making
a mental note of the word. "And they pay you?"

"Yes, they are good pay, mighty good pay.
They are good settlers, too."

"Not good for soldiers, eh?" laughed the stranger.

"Soldiers? No, I guess not. But we don't want soldiers."

"What? You have no soldiers? No garrisons?"

"No, what do we want soldiers for in this country?
We want farmers and lots of them."

The stranger was apparently much struck with this remark.
He pursued the subject with keen interest. If there were no
soldiers, how was order preserved? What happened in the case
of riots? What about the collecting of taxes?

"Riots? There ain't no riots in this country. What would we riot for?
We're too busy. And taxes? There ain't no taxes except for schools."

"Not for churches?" enquired the foreigner.

"No, every man supports his own church or no church at all if he
likes it better."

The foreigner was deeply impressed. What a country it was, to be
s