er place to shoot a bear! How did you manage it?"

"He managed it. He come under the tree where I was at."

"Oh, I see."

"And that's all there is to _that_ yarn, ma'am. I got a man today that I
can put on that work of levelin' off for you in the morning, if you want
me to."

"I think we'll let it stand a day or two," she told him. "I'll let you
know when to take it up again. I've got so much to think about right now
that I just stand turning round and round."

"Yes, you do feel that way in a new place, sometimes," Smith allowed.
"Well, I guess I'll have to be goin' on down to the store. Business is
pickin' up so fast I'll have to keep open all the time, not only
evenin's like I have been doin'."

"I'm glad to hear it," said she.

"Yes; I'll have to hire a clerk, because I've got to 'tend to my outside
work. I've been paintin' a sign to go over the front, and I tell you
that name don't look so bad when it's in print, neither."

"It isn't a name to be ashamed of, I'm sure," she cheered. "It's just as
good as any other name, as far as I can see."

"Phogenphole has got a good many shanks to it when you come to write it,
though," reflected Smith. "It looks a lot better printed out. I think
I'll git me one of these here typewritin'-machines. But say! Stop in and
take a look at that sign the first time you're passin'; will you?"

Agnes assured him that she would. Smith upended his board as if to go.

"That feller, Boyle, he's gone," said he, nodding as if to confirm his
own statement. "I saw him ride off up the river an hour or so ago."

"Yes; I believe he went to Meander also."

"He's a bad egg," Smith continued, "and he comes out of a basket of bad
eggs. His old man, he's doin' more to keep this state down than anything
you can name. He's got millions--and when I say millions, ma'am, I
_mean_ millions--of acres of government land fenced and set off to his
own use, and school lands, and other lands belongin' to you and me and
the high-minded citizens of this country, and he don't pay a cent for
the use of 'em, neither. Taxes? That man don't know what taxes is."

"Why do the people permit him to do it?"

"People! Huh! He's got rings in their noses, that's why. What he don't
own he's got cowed. I tell you, I know of a town with three or four
thousand people in it, and a schoolhouse as big as one of them
old-country castles up on a hill, that ranchers has to go forty miles
around to git to. Can't put a road thr