over a half-mile splotched with vervain and yarrow, yet to bloom, toward
a long, thin range of trees that seemed to mark the course of some small
stream. But between us and that possible stream there soon developed
much besides the sprinkling of prairie flowers. We began to notice
rough-ploughed strips of land that seemed to mean streets for some new
subdivision; piles of lumber, here and there, which should serve to
realize the ideals of the "home-seekers"; and presently a gay,
improvised little shack with a disproportionate sign to blazon the
hopes and ambitions of a well-known firm back in town. And in the
doorway of the shack stood Johnny McComas.

He was as ruddy as ever, and his blue eyes were a bit sharper. He was
slightly heavier than either of us, but no taller. He knew us as quickly
as we knew him. For some reason he did not seem particularly glad to see
us. He made the reason clear at once.

"They had me out here last Sunday," he said, looking about his chaotic
domain disparagingly, "and they say they may have to have me out here
next Sunday--somebody's sick or missing. But they won't," he continued
darkly. It was a threat, we felt--a threat that would make some
presumptuous superior cower and conform. "I really belong at our branch
in Dellwood Park, where there _is_ something; not out here, beyond the
last of everything." And he said more to indicate that his energies and
abilities were temporarily going to waste.

But having put himself right in his own eyes and in ours, he began to
give rein to his fundamental good nature. Emerging from the cloud that
was just now darkening his merits and his future, he asked, interestedly
enough, what we ourselves were doing.

I had to confess that I was still a student. Raymond mentioned briefly
and reluctantly the bank. It was nothing to him that he, no less than
Johnny, was now a man on a salary.

"Bank, eh?" said Johnny. "That's good. We're thinking of starting a bank
next year at our Dellwood branch. It's far enough in, and it's far
enough out. Plenty of good little businesses all around there. And I'm
going to make them let me have a hand in managing it."

This warm ray of hope from the immediate future quite illumined Johnny.
He told us genially about the prospects of the venture in the midst of
which he was encamped, and ended by feigning us as a young bridal couple
that had come out to look for a "home."

"There may be one or two along pretty soon, if the