Stephen
Strong had always been with him. He recalled the time he had been
caught stealing the oats. How frightened and sullen he had been! And
how gently the old man had talked to him and pointed out the sin of
which he had been guilty!

He had never stolen again, but in other respects he had not mended his
ways much. Behind old Stephen's back he laughed at him and his
"preaching." But Stephen Strong had never lost faith in him. He had
always asserted mildly that "Ben would come out all right by and by."
Ben Butler remembered this too, as he sat on the fence.

He had "always liked old Stephen," he told himself. He was sorry he
had fallen on such evil times.

"Preaching and praying don't seem to have brought him out clear after
all," he said with a chuckle that quickly died away. Somehow, even in
his worst days, Ben Butler had never felt easy when he mocked old
Stephen. "Three thousand dollars! I could do it but I reckon I'd be a
blamed fool. I ain't a-going to do it. Three thousand ain't picked up
every day, even in the Kootenay--'specially by chaps like me."

He patted his pocket knowingly. Fifteen years previously he had gone
to the Kootenay district with visions of making a fortune that were
quickly dispelled by reality. He had squandered his wages as soon as
paid, and it was only of late years that he had "pulled up a bit," as
he expressed it, and saved his three thousand dollars.

He had brought the money home with him, having some vague notion of
buying a farm and "settling down to do the respectable." But he had
already given up the idea. This country was too blamed quiet for him,
he said. He would go back to the Kootenay, and he knew what he would
do with his money. Jake Perkins and Wade Brown, two "pals" of his,
were running a flourishing grocery and saloon combined. They would be
glad of another partner with some cash. It would suit him to a T.

"I'll clear out tomorrow," he mused as he walked back. "As long as I
stay here old Stephen will haunt me, sure as fate. Wonder what he was
praying for tonight. He always used to say the Lord would provide, but
He don't appear to have done it. Well, I ain't His deputy."

The next afternoon Ben Butler went over to Greenvale and called at
Stephen Strong's. He found only the old man at home. Old Stephen did
not recognize him at first, but made him heartily welcome when he did.

"Ben, I do declare! Ben Butler! How are you? How are you? Sit down,
Ben--here, take th