"If I shake any stick at them, it will be a stick of candy, for fear of
scaring them away," said Annabel, with a laugh.

Brimstead said to Samson: "Say, I'll tell ye, you're back in a cove. You
must get out into the current."

"And give the young folks a chance to play checkers together," said
Samson.

"Say, I'll tell ye," said Brimstead. "This country is mostly miles. They
can be your worst enemy unless you get on the right side of 'em. Above
all, don't let 'em get too thick between you an' your market. When you
know about where it is, keep the miles behind ye. Great markets will be
springin' up in the North. You'll see a big city growin' on the southern
shore of Lake Michigan before long. I think there will be better markets
to the north than there are to the south of us."

"By jingo!" Samson exclaimed. "Your brain is about as busy as a beehive
on a bright summer day."

"Say, don't you mention that to a livin' soul," said Brimstead. "My brain
began to chase the rainbow when I was a boy. It drove me out o' Vermont
into the trail to the West and landed me in Flea Valley. Now I'm in a
country where no man's dreams are goin' to be big enough to keep up with
the facts. We're right under the end o' the rainbow and there's a pot o'
gold for each of us."

"The railroad will be a help in our fight with the miles," said Samson.

"All right. You get the miles behind ye and let the land do the waiting.
It won't hurt the land any, but you'd be spoilt if you had to wait twenty
years."

The Peasleys arrived and the men and women spent a delightful hour
traveling without weariness over the long trail to beloved scenes and the
days of their youth. Every day's end thousands were going east on that
trail, each to find his pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow of memory.

Before they went to bed that night Brimstead paid his debt to Samson,
with interest, and very confidentially.

At daylight in the morning the team was at the door ready to set out for
the land of plenty. As Samson and Harry were making their farewells,
Annabel asked the latter:

"May I whisper something in your ear?"

"I was afraid you wouldn't," he said.

He bent his head to her and she kissed his cheek and ran away into the
house.

"That means come again," she called from the door, with a laugh.

"I guess I'll have to--to get even," he answered.

"That's a pretty likely girl," said Samson, as they were driving away.

"She's as handsome as a p