ef, afterward sprinkling them with salt from a small paper
parcel. Having restored the top slice of bread he took a moon-shaped
bite out of one end of this glorified sandwich.

"I like onions," said he.

When we first sat down he had offered to share his luncheon with me but
I told him I had just been to dinner, and I observed that he had no
difficulty in taking care of every crumb in his "bucket." It was
wonderful to see.

Having finished his luncheon he went down to the brook and got a drink,
and then sat down comfortably with his back among the ferns of the
roadside, crossed his legs, and lit his pipe. There was a healthy and
wholesome flush in his face, and as he blew off the first cloud of smoke
he drew a sigh of complete comfort and looked around at me with a lordly
air such as few monarchs, no matter how well fed, could have bettered.
He had worked and sweat for what he got, and was now taking his ease in
his roadside inn. I wonder sometimes if anybody in the world experiences
keener joys than unwatched common people.

How we talked! From pugilists we proceeded to telephones, and from that
to wages, hours, and strikes, and from that we leaped easily to Alaska
and gold-mining, and touched in passing upon Theodore Roosevelt.

"I was just thinking," I said, "that you and I can enjoy some things
that were beyond the reach of the greatest kings of the world."

"How's that?" said he.

"Why, Napoleon never saw a telephone nor talked through one."

"That's so!" he laughed.

"And Caesar couldn't have dreamed that such a thing as you are doing now
was a possibility--nor George Washington, either."

"Say, that's so. I never thought o' that."

"Why," I said, "the world is only half as big as it was before you
fellows came along stringing your wires! I can get to town now from my
farm in two minutes, when it used to take me an hour."

I really believe I gave him more of his own business than ever he had
before, for he listened so intently that his pipe went out.

I found that Bill was from Ohio, and that he had been as far south as
Atlanta and as far west as Denver. He got his three dollars and a half a
day, rain or shine, and thought it wonderful pay; and besides, he was
seein' the country "free, gratis, fer nothing."

He got his coat out of the truck and took from the pocket a
many-coloured folder.

"Say, Mister, have you ever been to the Northwest?"

"No," said I.

"Well, it's a great country, and I'm