rd of
the camp-packer.

"Don't you think there's a certain danger of her going through the
wood and choosing the crooked stick after all?" she asked.

Stirling smiled. "I don't know that you could call New York or London
a wood. A hothouse would be nearer it," he said with an air of
reflection. "Still, to fall in with the simile, there are no doubt
plenty of sticks in both places, just as there are right here in this
city. In fact," and his eyes twinkled suspiciously, "I'm not quite
sure that isn't an excellent name for them. Quite a few are nicely
varnished, and in a general way they've hall-marked gold or silver
tops. The hallmark, however, guarantees only the trimmings, and from
one or two specimens that I've come across I've a suspicion that in
some cases the timber's rotten. When you choose a stick you want a
sound one--one that you can lean on when you face a hill, and I guess
that's a thing my girl will have to do now and then."

His tone had grown a trifle graver as he went on, but his companion
waited, feeling that he had a little more to say, and that he might
offer her a hint of some kind, as, in fact, he presently did.

"The sound sticks don't grow in stove-warmed houses, but out in the
wind and sun," he said.

That was sufficient for Mrs. Frisingham, who had rather more than a
suspicion that Stirling already had in his mind somebody who had not
been bred in the city. An unknown man who built new railroad bridges
in the wilderness, or a bush rancher, it seemed most probable.

"Well," she said, "I might perhaps warn you that the right choice is a
rather serious matter, and that, after all, it's wiser to consider the
opinions--call them prejudices if you like--of your own order."

"When my daughter chooses," said the contractor, smiling, "she'll
choose wisely, and I'm going to be satisfied. I've had the pleasure of
reassuring another lady on that point already. As to the other matter,
the opinions of people of the station to which I now belong don't
count for much with me. For quite a long while they were dead against
my getting here at all; but I did work that this country wanted done,
and I'm where I am. You don't expect me to alter my views out of
deference to them?"

He broke off for a moment, and nodded to her pleasantly as he went on
again.

"We're old friends, Susan, and I guess you mean to be kind; but I've
been warned before, and it didn't affect me much," he said. "If Ida
wants to go back