't anything else to do. And after I looked
around the valley a little and saw the Peshastin ditch and what it could
do, I got busy. I found work; did anything that turned up and saved like a
miser, until I was able to have the land cleared of sagebrush. It has mean
roots, you know, sprawling in all directions like the branches. Then I
saved to make connections with the ditch and to buy trees. I set the whole
twenty acres to apples--I always did like a good apple, and I had sized up
the few home orchards around Wenatchee--then I put in alfalfa for a
filler, and that eased things, and I settled down to office work, small
pay, lots of time to plan, and waited for my trees to grow. That was four
years ago, five since I struck the Wenatchee valley, and this season they
came into bearing. Now, at the end of this month, I am giving up my
position with the Milwaukee, cutting railroading for good, to go over and
superintend the harvesting. And say"--he stood erect, the inner glow
illumined his face--"I've had an offer for my crop; three hundred and
fifty dollars an acre for the fruit on the trees. Three hundred and fifty
dollars for a four-year-old orchard! Think of that! Seven thousand clear
for re-investment."

"How splendid!" she said, and in that instant her face seemed to catch and
reflect his enthusiasm. "To have waited, fought like that in the face of
defeat, and to have made good."

"And it's only the beginning," his voice caught a little; "an apple
orchard has bigger results every year after maturity. There's a man over
there on the Wenatchee who is going to make a thousand dollar profit on
each acre of his twelve-year orchard. You ought to see those trees, all
braced up with scaffolding, only fourteen acres of them, but every branch
loaded. But that orchard is an exception; they had to lift water from the
river with buckets and a wheel, and most of the pioneers put in grain.
Their eyes are just beginning to open. But think of Hesperides Vale in
another five years. And think what that High Line ditch means. Just
imagine it! Water, all you can use and running to waste; water spilling
over in this sage-brush desert. Doesn't it spell oasis? Think of it! Grass
and flowers and shade in place of this sunbaked sand and alkali."

"It sounds like a fairy tale," she said. "I can hardly believe it."

"I'll show you." He hurried around to the office door and came back
directly with a basket of fruit. "Here are a few samples from