y big business man means thousands of little men without any
business at all except to work for the big ones. They're the losers,
don't you see? An' if they don't like it they can lump it, but it won't
do them no good. They can't yoke up their oxen an' pull on. There's no
place to pull on. China's over there, an' in between's a mighty lot of
salt water that's no good for farmin' purposes."

"That's all clear enough," Saxon commented.

"Yes," her brother went on. "We can all see it after it's happened, when
it's too late."

"But the big men were smarter," Saxon remarked.

"They were luckier," Tom contended. "Some won, but most lost, an' just
as good men lost. It was almost like a lot of boys scramblin' on the
sidewalk for a handful of small change. Not that some didn't have
far-seein'. But just take your pa, for example. He come of good Down
East stock that's got business instinct an' can add to what it's got.
Now suppose your pa had developed a weak heart, or got kidney disease,
or caught rheumatism, so he couldn't go gallivantin' an' rainbow
chasin', an' fightin' an' explorin' all over the West. Why, most likely
he'd a settled down in San Francisco--he'd a-had to--an' held onto them
three Market street lots, an' bought more lots, of course, an' gone
into steamboat companies, an' stock gamblin', an' railroad buildin', an'
Comstock-tunnelin'.

"Why, he'd a-become big business himself. I know 'm. He was the most
energetic man I ever saw, think quick as a wink, as cool as an icicle
an' as wild as a Comanche. Why, he'd a-cut a swath through the free an'
easy big business gamblers an' pirates of them days; just as he cut a
swath through the hearts of the ladies when he went gallopin' past on
that big horse of his, sword clatterin', spurs jinglin', his long hair
flyin', straight as an Indian, clean-built an' graceful as a blue-eyed
prince out of a fairy book an' a Mexican caballero all rolled into
one; just as he cut a swath through the Johnny Rebs in Civil War days,
chargin' with his men all the way through an' back again, an' yellin'
like a wild Indian for more. Cady, that helped raise you, told me about
that. Cady rode with your pa.

"Why, if your pa'd only got laid up in San Francisco, he would a-ben one
of the big men of the West. An' in that case, right now, you'd be a rich
young woman, travelin' in Europe, with a mansion on Nob Hill along with
the Floods and Crockers, an' holdin' majority stock most likely in the