scarf and Lou a pair of stockings and a
box of candy, as a partial atonement for the wrong he was doing them in
not visiting home, Evan bought a pair of corduroy breeches and heavy
boots, subscribed for a farm magazine, and set out, with big A. P., for
the far-away fields. They say those fields always look green;
sometimes, perhaps, they _are_ green.

Just as that "Overland Limited" sped along must this story speed. The
boys fell asleep in New York State and awakened many miles from its
border. And here in this story, as in a Pullman, only more
obliviously, must the reader sleep--to awaken at a distance.

In a certain part of the Nicola Valley stood a cottage known as the
"Bachelors' Bungalow." It, was alone except for the companionship of
stables and out-houses. It was evidently not built in a land where
lumber was scarce, for wide, heavy verandahs almost surrounded it.

From any of these verandahs one could get a splendid view of the
mountains; to the south a green vista of valley stretched away.

A young man sat in the open, not listening to the greybirds or the
meadowlarks sing of spring, and not revelling in the beauty before and
around him, but working assiduously at a typewriter. On either side of
his little table magazines and newspapers lay in heaps; there were
Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver and other papers, and
various Canadian magazines. Now and then he paused in his writing to
pick up one of these periodicals and take note of a paragraph he had
marked.

"I wonder if Alfy ever stops to read any of these articles?" murmured
Evan, and laughed quietly. "Judging from the opinion he always had of
my disability I doubt if he would attribute literary efforts to me."

Now that we know who the young man is and what he is doing at a
typewriter in the Nicola Valley, it may be well to explain the
situation.

Three years had passed since Henty and Nelson landed in the green
fields of their dreams. They bought seed and other agricultural
necessities on the way out, old man Henty shipped them two cows, two
horses, a few hens, a pig, and some farming utensils. They ordered
lumber from a Revelstoke company, erected a shack, a temporary shelter
for the stock, and built a hen-house with a pig-pen annex.

A. P. showed that he was born to be a farmer. The way he handled the
plow put Evan to shame; but Evan made up in willingness to work what he
lacked in physical efficiency. He learned to