rted Hayes. "You know you fall asleep
before he gets rightly started."

"I aye listen better with ma eyes shut."

"Yes, and snore better, too, Mac," said Hayes. "But I don't blame you.
Most of them go to sleep anyway. That's the kind of preacher he is."

"What sort of a chap is he? I mean what sort of man?"

"Well, for one thing, he's always buttin' in," volunteered a
square-built military looking man standing near. "If he'd stick to
his gospel it wouldn't be so bad, but he's always pokin' his nose into
everything."

"But he's no that bad," said Innes again, "and as for buttin' in,
McFettridge, and preachin' the gospel, I doubt the country is a good
deal the better for the buttin' in that him and his likes have done this
past year. And besides, the bairns all like him."

"Well, that's not a bad sign, Mr. Innes," said Sandy Bayne, "and I'm not
sure that I don't like him myself. But I guess he butts in, all right."

"Oh, ay! he butts in," agreed Innes, "but I'm no so sure that that's no
a part of his job, too."

CHAPTER III

A QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE

The Dunbars lived in a cottage on a back street, which had the
distinction of being the only home on the street which possessed the
adornment of a garden. A unique garden it was, too. Indeed, with the
single exception of Judge Hepburn's garden, which was quite an elaborate
affair, and which was said to have cost the Judge a "pile of money,"
there was none to compare with it in the village of Wapiti.

Any garden on that bare, wind-swept prairie meant toil and infinite
pains, but a garden like that of the Dunbars represented in addition
something of genius. In conception, in design, and in execution the
Dunbars' garden was something apart. Visitors were taken 'round to the
back street to get a glimpse of the Dunbars' cottage and garden.

The garden was in two sections. That at the back of the cottage,
sheltered by a high, close board fence covered with Virginia creeper,
was given over to vegetables, and it was quite marvellous how, under
Richard Dunbar's care, a quarter of an acre of ground could grow such
enormous quantities of vegetables of all kinds. Next to the vegetable
garden came the plot for small fruits--strawberries, raspberries,
currants, of rare varieties.

The front garden was devoted to flowers. Here were to be found the old
fashioned flowers dear to our grandmothers, and more particularly the
old fashioned flowers native to English and Scott