ss the gap a snowslide has made,
it's obvious if you have done the job or not. This has some drawbacks,
because if you don't make good, you often get fired."

"But that was not what drove you on. You must have had a better motive
for making good."

Festing felt embarrassed. The girl was obviously not indulging a
sentimental vein. She felt what she frankly hinted at, and although he
generally avoided imaginative talk, her remarks did not sound cheap or
ridiculous.

"Well," he said, "the fear of getting fired is a pretty strong incentive
to do one's best, but I suppose when one gets up against big things
there is something else. After all, one hates to be beaten."

Helen's eyes sparkled and she gave him a sympathetic nod. "The hate of
being beaten distinguishes man from the ape and puts him on the side of
the angels."

Then Miss Jardine came in, somewhat to the relief of Festing, who
felt he could not keep up long on Helen's plane. Besides, he was not
altogether sure he understood her last remark.

"I heard," said Miss Jardine. "Helen's sometimes improving, but perhaps
she was right just now. The ape is cunning but acquiescent and accepts
things as they are. Man protests, and fights to make them better. At
least, he ought to, though one can't say he always does."

Festing did not reply and she sat down and resumed: "But I suppose you
haven't many shirkers in Canada?"

"I imagine we have as many wastrels as there are anywhere else, but as
a rule one doesn't find them in the woods and on the plains. When they
leave the cities they're apt to starve."

"You're a grim lot. Work or starve is a stern choice, particularly if
one has never done either. It looks as if you hadn't much use for purely
ornamental people. But what about the half-taught women who don't know
how to work? What do you do with them?"

"They're not numerous. Then one can always learn, and I imagine every
woman can cook and manage a house."

"You're taking much for granted, though yours seems to be the
conventional view. But how did you learn railroad building, for
example?"

"By unloading ties and shoveling ballast on the track. The trouble was
that I began too late."

"What did you do before that?"

"Sometimes I worked in sawmills and sometimes packed--that means
carrying things--for survey parties, and went prospecting."

"In the wilds? It sounds interesting. Won't you tell us about it?"

Festing complied; awkwardly at first, and then w