y
dawned upon the settlers that land--their land--was worth money.

It was the farmers from the United States, scouting for cheaper lands
than were available in their own communities, who first drove the
conviction home. They came with money in their wallets; they were
actually prepared to exchange real money for land. Such a thing had
never before been heard of in Plainville district. At first the
settlers were sceptical. Here were two facts almost beyond the grasp
of their imagination: that farmers should buy land with money, and
the farmers should have money with which to buy land. True, a few of
them had already bought railway lands at three or four dollars an
acre, but they bought oil long terms, with a trifling investment, and
they aimed to pay for the lands out of the crops or not at all.

But a few transactions took place; lands were sold at five dollars,
six dollars, eight dollars an acre. The farmers began to realize that
land represented wealth--that it was an asset, not a liability--and
there was a rush for the cheap railway lands that had so long gone
a-begging. Harris was among the first to sense the change in the
times, and a beautiful section of railway land that lay next to his
homestead he bought at four dollars an acre. The first crop more than
paid for the land, and Harris suddenly found himself on the way to
riches.

The joy that came with the realization that fortune had knocked at
his door and he had heard was the controlling emotion of his heart
for a year or more. But gradually, like a fog blown across a moonlit
night, came a sense of chill and disappointment. If only he had
bought two sections! If at least he had proved up on his pre-emption,
which he might have had for nothing! He saw neighbours about him
adding quarter to quarter. None of them had done better than himself,
but some had done as well. And in some way the old sense of oneness,
the old community interest which had held the little band of pioneers
together amid their privations and their poverty, began to weaken and
dissolve, and in its place came an individualism and a materialism
that measured progress only in dollars and cents. Harris did not know
that his gods had fallen, that his ideals had been swept away; even
as he sat at supper this summer evening, with his daughter's arms
about his neck, he felt that he was still bravely, persistently,
pressing on toward the goal, all unaware that years ago he had left
that goal like