"And how did you get your education, Mr. Martin?"

"Oh, they kept me at school pretty steadily, except in harvest and hay
time, until I was fourteen, and after that in the winter months. When I
was sixteen I got a teacher's certificate, and then it was easy enough."

"And did you put yourself through college?" inquired Mr. Rae, both
interest and admiration in his voice, for now they were on ground
familiar in his own experience.

"Why, yes, mostly. Father helped, I suspect more than he ought to, but
he was anxious for me to get through."

"Rob," cried Miss Brodie suddenly, "let's go! What do you say? We'll get
a big bit of that land in the West, and won't it be splendid to build up
our own estate and all that?"

Rob glanced from her into his mother's face. "I'd like it fine, Mamma,"
he said in a low voice, slipping his hand into hers.

"But what about me, Rob?" said his mother, smiling tenderly down into
the eager face.

"Oh, I'd come back for you, Mamma."

"Hold on there, youngster," said his elder brother, "there are others
that might have something to say about that. But I say, Martin,"
continued Dunn, "we hear a lot about the big ranches further West."

"Yes, in Alberta, but I confess I don't know much about them. The
railways are just building and people are beginning to go in. But
ranching needs capital, too. It must be a great life! They practically
live in the saddle. It's a glorious country!"

"On the whole, then," said Mr. Rae, as if summing up the discussion, "a
young man has better opportunities of making his fortune, so to speak,
in the far West rather than in, say, Ontario."

"I didn't speak of fortune, Mr. Rae,--fortune is a chance thing, more or
less,--but what I say is this, that any young man not afraid of work,
of any kind of work, and willing to stay with his job, can make a living
and get a home in any part of Canada, with a bigger chance of fortune in
the West."

"All I say, Mr. Rae, is this," said Miss Brodie emphatically, "that I
only wish I were a man with just such a chance as young Cameron!"

"Ah, my dear young lady, if all the young men were possessed of your
spirit, it would matter little where they went, for they would achieve
distinct success." As he spoke Mr. Rae's smile burst forth in all its
effulgent glory.

"Dear Mr. Rae, how very clever of you to discover that!" replied Miss
Brodie, smiling sweetly into Mr. Rae's radiant face. "And how very sweet
of you--ah, I be