oon in early spring when I lounged disconsolately
about the streets of Winnipeg. The prairie metropolis had not then
attained its present magnitude, but it was busy and muddy enough; for when
the thaw comes the mire of a Western town is indescribable. Also odd
showers of wet snow came down, and I shivered under my new skin coat,
envying the busy citizens who, with fur caps drawn low down, hurried to
and fro. One and all wore the stamp of prosperity, and their voices had a
cheerful ring that grated on me, for I of all that bustling crowd seemed
idle and without a purpose. So, feeling utterly forlorn, a stranger in a
very strange and, at first sight, a forbidding land, I trudged up and
down, waiting for the evening train which was to bear me west, and
pondering over all that had happened during the past few weeks.

There was the parting with my uncle, who laid a strong hand on my shoulder
and lapsed into the speech of the country as he said, "I need not tell
thee to set thy teeth and hang on through the first few years, lad. Thy
father played out a losing game only too staunchly; and it's stey work at
the beginning. I mind when I started the mill--but that's an old story.
It's the man who can grin and bear it, coming up smiling after each fall,
who wins in the end. And thou hast all the world before thee. Still,
remember there are staunch friends behind thee here in Lancashire."

I think his fingers shook a little, but Martin Lorimer was not addicted to
much display of sentiment, and with a cough he hurried away; though I
remember that the old cashier, who had served him since he started,
putting a sealed envelope in my hand, said:

"It's a draft for one hundred pounds on the Bank of Montreal, and it's a
secret; but I'm not debiting the estate with it. Thou'rt a gradely fool
for thy trouble, Ralph Lorimer. But I knew thy father, and, like him, thou
mun go thy own way. Well, maybe it's for the best; and good luck go with
thee."

Next came my farewell from cousin Alice, who blushed as, laying before me
a fine Winchester repeating rifle, which must have cost her some trouble
to obtain in England then, she said:

"It's only a little keepsake, but I thought you would like it--and you
will remember your cousin when you use it. Ralph, you have chosen to work
out your own destiny, and for many a night your uncle fumed over it until
at last he said that the child who fought for scraps in the gutter grew to
be worth any two of