me we traveled together you were not so accommodating. We
had a little dispute at Elktail one night in the snow."

"General Jackson!" exclaimed the conductor. "But you didn't travel with
that name on your ticket then. Say, it was all a mistake and in the way of
business. You won't bear malice?"

He vanished without awaiting an answer, and I leaned back on the cushions
chuckling softly, after which, fishing out my pipe, I sank into a soothing
reverie. There was no doubt that this kind of traveling had its
advantages, and it appeared equally certain that I had earned a few days'
luxurious holiday, while, as the blue wreaths curled up, the towering
pines outside the windows changed into the gaunt chimneys of smoky
Lancashire. Then they dwindled to wind-dwarfed birches, and I was lashing
the frantic broncos as they raced the hail for the shelter of a bluff,
until once more it seemed to be autumn and a breadth of yellow wheat stood
high above the prairie, while the rhythmic beat of wheels changed to the
rattle of the elevators lifting in the golden grain. Here, however, roused
by a scream of the whistle as the long train swept by a little station, I
found that the pipe lay among feathery ashes on my knee, and an hour had
passed, while I knew that under the touch of sleep my thoughts had turned
mechanically into the old channel.

It was toward noon when I left the cars at a station looking down upon a
broad reach of sunlit river which wound past maples, willows, and a few
clearings through a deep valley. Martin Lorimer and Alice met me on the
platform, and his greeting was hearty.

"We have watched every train since we last saw you," he said. "Alice,
though she won't own it, has been anxious, too. Never spent such an
interesting time as I did up yonder, and we're going to make it pleasant
for you here. Of course, you'll stay with us a week or two?"

The old man's face fell as I answered that time was pressing, and I must
return the following day, while for some reason Alice turned her face
aside, but she laughed pleasantly.

"Your uncle has been talking of nothing else the last two days," she said.
"I am glad I did not leave him with those wild men in the rejoicing city.
Some of them, however, seemed very nice. Meanwhile, I think lunch is
waiting for us."

We reached the pretty chalet hotel, which was hardly completed then,
though it is a famous resort now, and it was a new experience, after
faring hardly on doughy fla