than he had expected, and he broke it several
times by strolls about the little town. In size it was much the same
as Plainville, but that was the chief point of resemblance. True, it
had its typical stores, selling everything from silks to coal oil;
its blacksmiths' shops, ringing with the hammer of the busy smith on
ploughshare or horseshoe; its implement agencies, with rows of
gaudily-painted wagons, mowers, and binders obstructing the
thoroughfare, and the hempen smell of new binder twine floating from
the hot recess of their iron-covered storehouses; a couple of banks,
occupying the best corners, and barber shops and pool-rooms in
apparent excess of the needs of the population. All these he might
have found in Plainville, but there were here in addition
half-a-dozen real estate offices, with a score or more curbstone
dealers, locaters, commission-splitters, and go-betweens, and the
number and size of the livery stables gave some clue to the amount of
prospecting going on from this base of supplies. The streets were
lined with traffic. Riles estimated that in two hours as many teams
passed him as might be seen in Plainville in a week; long rows of
box-cars were unloading on the side tracks; farmers' effects and
household goods of every description were piled in great heaps about
the railway yards; while horses, cattle, pigs, and poultry
contributed to the dust and din of the settlers' operations. Great
wagons of lumber were being loaded at the lumber yards, and an
unbroken procession of wagons and farm machinery of every description
was wending its way slowly into the distance where lay hope of home
or fortune for the new settler.

It was almost noon when Gardiner appeared on the scene. "You don't
hurt you'self in the mornin's," was Riles' greeting.

"Don't need to," he answered cheerily. "Besides, I'd a long session
after I left you last night. No, no particulars at present. I told
you you had spoiled your hands for that kind of work. How d'ye like
this air? Isn't that something worth breathing?"

"Good enough," said Riles, "but I didn't come out here for air."

"No, you came for land. I'm surprised you're not out bouncing over
the prairie in a buckboard long before this."

Riles shot a quick glance at Gardiner. But he was puffing a cigar and
drinking in the warm sunshine with obvious satisfaction.

"So I might o' been, but I thought we kind o' made a date last night,
didn't we?"

"Did we? Oh yes; now I r