or the sake of obedience? Does such
bondage never end? Am I not of age?"

"I will speak to him. Wait and see. Talk it over with him again to-day
after banking hours."

"I--I--have something I must--must do to-day." He was thinking he
would go out to the Ballards' in spite of the rain.

The dinner hour passed without constraint. In these days Peter Junior
would not allow the long silences to occur that used often to cast a
gloom over the meals in his boyhood. He knew that in this way his
mother would sadly miss him. It was the Elder's way to keep his
thoughts for the most part to himself, and especially when there was
an issue of importance before him. It was supposed that his wife could
not take an interest in matters of business, or in things of interest
to men, so silence was the rule when they were alone.

This time Peter Junior mentioned the topic of the wonderful new
railroad that was being pushed across the plains and through the
unexplored desert to the Pacific.

"The mere thought of it is inspiring," said Hester.

"How so?" queried the Elder, with a lift of his brows. He deprecated
any thought connecting sentiment with achievement. Sentiment was of
the heart and only hindered achievement, which was purely of the
brain.

"It's just the wonder of it. Think of the two great oceans being
brought so near together! Only two weeks apart! Don't they estimate
that the time to cross will be only two weeks?"

"Yes, mother, and we have those splendid old pioneers who made the
first trail across the desert to thank for its being possible. It
isn't the capitalists who have done this. It's the ones who had faith
in themselves and dared the dangers and the hardships. They are the
ones I honor."

"They never went for love of humanity. It was mere love of wandering
and migratory instinct," said his father, grimly.

Peter Junior laughed merrily. "What did old grandfather Craigmile pull
up and come over to this country for? They had to cross in sailing
vessels then and take weeks for the journey."

"Progress, my son, progress. Your grandfather had the idea of
establishing his family in honorable business over here, and he did
it."

"Well, I say these people who have been crossing the plains and
crawling over the desert behind ox teams in 'prairie schooners' for
the last twenty or thirty years, braving all the dangers of the
unknown, have really paved the way for progress and civilization. The
railroad is being laid