orced lightness.

"I'll go and feed the chickens," she said. "I--I ought to be capable
of doing that."

Buck smiled as he prepared to go and see to the hogs.

"Guess you won't have trouble--if you know what to give 'em," he said.

Nor was he quite sure if the girl were angry or smiling as she hurried
out of the barn.

CHAPTER XVI

GOLD AND ALLOY

The seedling of success planted in rank soil generally develops a
wild, pernicious growth which, until the summer of its life has
passed, is untameable and pollutes all that with which it comes into
contact. The husbandman may pluck at its roots, but the seed is flung
broadcast, and he finds himself wringing his hands helplessly in the
wilderness.

So it was on the banks of Yellow Creek. The seedling was already
flinging its tendrils and fastening tightly upon the life of the
little camp. The change had come within three weeks of the moment when
the Padre had gazed upon that first wonderful find of gold. So rapid
was its development that it was almost staggering to the man who stood
by watching the result of the news he had first carried to the camp.

The Padre wandered the hills with trap and gun. Nothing could win him
from the pursuit which was his. But his eyes were wide open to those
things which had somehow become the care of his leisure. Many of his
evenings were spent in the camp, and there he saw and heard the things
which, in his working moments, gave him food for a disquietude of
thought.

He knew that the luck that had come to the camp was no ordinary luck.
His first find had suggested something phenomenal, but it was nothing
to the reality. A wealth almost incalculable had been yielded by a
prodigal Nature. Every claim into which he, with the assistance of the
men of the camp, had divided the find, measured carefully and balloted
for, was rich beyond all dreams. Two or three were richer than the
others, but this was the luck of the ballot, and the natural envy
inspired thereby was of a comparatively harmless character.

At first the thought of these things was one of a pleasant
satisfaction. These men had waited, and suffered, and starved for
their chance, and he was glad their chance had come. How many had
waited, and suffered and starved, as they had done, and done all those
things in vain? Yes, it was a pleasant thought, and it gave him zest
and hope in his own life.

The first days passed in a perfect whirlwind of joy. Where before had
s