ening. Indeed, it was a most creditable
structure. It was a large, roomy, two-story building, the downstairs of
which was given up to a room to be devoted to public uses. The upstairs
Shock planned to contain four bed-rooms.

"What do you want of four bed-rooms, Mr. Prospector?" said Ike, as they
were laying out the space. "You can't sleep in more'n three of 'em at a
time."

"No, but you can sleep in one, Ike, and some of the boys in another,
and I want one myself."

"Oh!" said Ike, much pleased. "Going to run a kind of stoppin' place,
are you?"

"Yes; I hope my friends will stop with me often."

"Guess you won't have much trouble with that side of it," said Ike.
"And this here room," he continued, "will do first rate for a kind of
lumber-room, provisions, and harness, and such like, I guess?"

"No," said Shock. "This room will be the finest room in the house. See:
it will look away out toward the south and west, over the lake, and up
to the mountains. The inside of the room won't be hard to beat, but the
outside cannot be equalled in all the world, and I tell you what, Ike,
it cannot be too good, for this room is for my mother." There was a
reverent, tender tone in Shock's voice that touched Ike.

"Is she really goin' to come out here?" he asked.

"I hope so," said Shock. "Next spring."

"I say," said Ike, "won't she find it lonely?"

"I don't think so," said Shock, with a curious smile. "You know, my
mother is rather peculiar. For twenty-five years, without missing a
single night, she came into my room to kiss me before I went to sleep,
and she's just that foolish that if I'm anywhere around I don't think
she'll be lonely." And then Shock proceeded to give Ike a picture of
his mother, and all her devotion to him through the long years of his
life. The rough but tender-hearted cowboy was more touched than he
cared to show.

"Say," he said, when Shock had finished, "how did you ever come to
leave her? I couldn't 'a' done it, nohow."

"She sent me," said Shock simply. "There's One she loves better than
me." And Ike understood without more explanation.

For the furnishing of the house, and for the equipment of the library
and club-rooms, Shock had appealed to his friends in the East through
Brown, to whom he gave a full description of the building and the
purposes for which it had been erected. The response was so hearty and
so generous that, when the loads of house-furnishings, books,
magazines, and pape