d in England, Montreal, or the cities down Puget
Sound. They're rending new roads through the mountains to let in
progress and civilization, and making fast the foundations of the
future greatness of a wide and prosperous land. Already, because of
what they and their kind have done, you can travel through it without
seeing a ragged, slatternly woman, or a broken-down, desperate man.
Besides, many of them, and certainly most of the small bush ranchers,
lead lives characterized by the old heroic virtues that seem to have
gone out of fashion in the cities, though you'll find some of them
held up for emulation in the Pauline epistles."

Weston gazed at her in blank astonishment. She made a little,
half-contemptuous gesture.

"You can't understand that? Well, one really couldn't expect you to.
You have never starved your body, or forced it day after day to a task
that was crushing you. Those men work in icy water, keep the trail
with bleeding feet, and sleep in melting snow. They bear these things
cheerfully, and I think there are no men on this earth who can match
their wide charity. The free companions never turn away the ragged
stranger. What is theirs is his, from the choicest of their provisions
to the softest spruce-twig bed."

She laughed, and then continued:

"That's in a general way. To be particular, I'll try to tell you what
Clarence Weston has done. It's worth hearing."

She had spoken more clearly the last few moments, and it became
evident at length that she had secured the attention of everybody.
With an impulsive gesture she invited them all to listen.

"I'll tell you what that picture leaves out," she said. "There was an
old man in the railroad camp, played-out and useless. The boys were
handling him roughly because he'd spoiled their supper rather often,
when Clarence Weston stepped in. The old man, you must understand,
hadn't a shadow of a claim on him. Now, those are not nice men to make
trouble with when they have a genuine grievance, and there were three
or four of them quite ready to lay hands on Weston, while there was
nobody who sympathized with him. He stood facing them, one man against
an angry crowd, and held them off from the stranger who had no claim
on him. Have you heard of anything finer?

"Again, when Arabella lamed herself up on a great snow range--he'd
carried our food and blankets since sunrise--he went down to bring
help in the darkness, through the timber and along the edge of