s
were to be erected in which to house them. Locations of the principal
derricks were selected and staked, as well as the sites for the entrance
to the shaft, for the machine and blacksmith's shops and for a storage
shanty for tools: the Maryland Mining Company's work would require
at least two years to complete, and a rational, well-studied plan of
procedure was imperative.

"And now, Jack, where are you going to live,--in the village?" asked his
Chief, resting the level and tripod carefully against a tree trunk and
seating himself beside Jack on a fallen log.

"Out here, if you don't mind, sir, where I can be on top of the work all
the time. It's but a short ride for Ruth and she can come and go all the
time. I am going to drop some of these trees; get two or three choppers
from the village and knock up a log-house like the one I camped in when
I was a boy."

"Where will you put it?" asked MacFarlane with a smile, as he turned
his head as if in search of a site. It was just where he wanted Jack to
live, but he would not have suggested it.

"Not a hundred yards from where we sit, sir--a little back of those
two big oaks. There's a spring above on the hill and sloping ground for
drainage; and shade, and a great sweep of country in front. I've been
hungry for this life ever since I left home; now I am going to have it."

"It will be rather lonely, won't it?" The engineer's eyes softened as
they rested on the young fellow, his face flushed with the enthusiasm of
his new resolve. He and Ruth's mother had lived in just such a shanty,
and not so very long ago, either, it seemed,--those were the happiest
years of his life.

"No!" exclaimed Jack. "It's only a step to the town; I can walk it in
half an hour. No, it won't be lonely. I will fix up a room for Uncle
Peter somewhere, so he can be comfortable,--he would love to come here
on his holidays; and Ruth can come out for the day,--she will be crazy
about it when I tell her. No, I will get along. If the lightning had
struck my ore beds I would probably have painted and papered some musty
back room in the village and lived a respectable life. Now I am going to
turn savage."

The next day the contracts were signed: work to commence in three
months. Henry MacFarlane, Engineer-in-Chief, John Breen in charge of
construction.

It was on that same sofa in the far corner of the sitting-room that
Jack told Ruth,--gently, one word at a time,--making the best of it, but
telli