king or
loaf deliciously under one of the big elms. Most precious of all--the
evenings she and her boy had sat in the yard, with the cool south breeze
blowing up from the pasture, the cows looking on placidly, the frogs
fluting rhythmically in the pond, the birds chirping their good-night
calls, and the dip and swell of the farm land pulling at them like
a haunting tune, almost too lovely to be endured. Oh, there had been
moments all the sweeter and more poignant because they had been so
fleeting.

As she passed successfully through one whole round of planting,
harvesting and garnering of grain, she began to realize her own ability
and to be tempted more and more seriously to remain on the farm. She
understood it, and Martin would have liked her to run it. If it had not
been for the problem of keeping dependable hired hands and the sight
of the mine-tipple, which, towering on the adjoining farm, reminded her
more and more constantly of Bill, she would not even have considered the
offer of Gordon Hamilton, one of Fallon's leading business men, to buy
her whole section.

"There's a bunch going into this deal, together, Rose," Bert Mall
explained. "They want to run a new branch of their street car line
straight through here and they're going to plat this quarter into
streets and lots. The rest they'll split up into several farms and rent
for the present. It's a speculation, of course, but the way the mines
are moving north and west it's likely this'll be a thickly settled camp
in another two or three years."

"But they only offer seventy-five an acre," Rose expostulated, "and it's
worth more than that as farm land. There's none around here as fertile
as Martin made this--and then, all the improvements!"

"They'll have to dispose of them second-hand. It's a pity they're in
exactly the wrong spot. Well, of course, I'm not advising you, Rose," he
added, "but forty-five thousand ain't to be sneezed at, is it, when it
comes in a lump and you own only the surface? You may wait a long while
before you get another such bid. Seems to me you've worked hard enough.
I'd think you'd want a rest."

In the end, Mrs. Wade capitulated to what, as Martin had foreseen so
clearly, was sooner or later inevitable. She was a little stunned by
the vast amount of available money now in her possession and at her
disposal. "But it's all dust in my hands," she thought sadly. "What do
I want of so much? It's going to be a terrible worry. I don't