above the visitor as if he were
about to fall on and crush him.

"Bring youh damned Yankee railroad through my fields and pastchuhs, suh?
Foul the pure, God-given ai-ah of this peaceful Gyarden of Eden with
youh dust-flingin', smoke-pot locomotives? Not a rod, suh! not a foot
or an inch oveh the Dabney lands! Do I make it plain to you, suh?"

"But Major Dabney--one moment; this is purely a matter of business;
there is nothing personal about it. Our company is able and willing to
pay liberally for its right of way; and you must remember that the
coming of the railroad will treble and quadruple your land values. I am
only asking you to consider the matter in a business way, and to name
your own price."

Thus the smooth-spoken young locating engineer in brown duck, serving as
plowman for his company. But there be tough old roots in some soils,
roots stout enough to snap the colter of the commercializing plow,--as,
for example, in Paradise Valley, owned, in broken areas, principally by
an unreconciled Major Dabney.

"Not anotheh word, or by Heaven, suh, you'll make me lose my tempah! You
add insult to injury, suh, when you offeh me youh contemptible Yankee
gold. When I desiah to sell my birthright for youh beggahly mess of
pottage, I'll send a black boy in town to infawm you, suh!"

It is conceivable that the locating engineer of the Great Southwestern
Railway Company was younger than he looked; or, at all events, that his
experience hitherto had not brought him in contact with fire-eating
gentlemen of the old school. Else he would hardly have said what he did.

"Of course, it is optional with you, Major Dabney, whether you sell us
our right of way peaceably or compel us to acquire it by condemnation
proceedings in the courts. As for the rest--is it possible that you
don't know the war is over?"

With a roar like that of a maddened lion the Major bowed himself,
caught his man in a mighty wrestler's grip and flung him broadcast into
the coleus bed. The words that went with the fierce attack made Ardea
crouch and shiver and take refuge behind the great dog. Japheth
Pettigrass jumped down from his step-ladder and went to help the
engineer out of the flower bed. The Major had sworn himself to a stand,
but the fine old face was a terrifying mask of passion.

"The old firebrand!" the engineer was muttering under his breath when
Pettigrass reached him; but the foreman cut him short.

"You got mighty little sense, looks