which way to turn, he is apt to think, if he is in a condition to think
at all, that there is some justice in the description.

But there was no sign of the stern side of nature as Jim Rattray made
his way westward. The sun shone on the wide, rolling plains, the fresh
green of the pasture lands, and the young wheat; the blue sky covered
all with a dome of heaven's own blue, and Jim's heart rejoiced within
him.

A strapping young fellow was Jim, not long out from the Old Country--the
sort of young fellow whose bright eyes and fresh open face do one good
to look at. North-country farming in England was the life to which he
had looked forward; vigorous sports and hard work in the keen air of the
Cumberland fells had knit his frame and hardened his muscles; and his
parents, as they noticed with pride their boy's sturdy limbs, and
listened in wonder to the bits of learning he brought home from school,
had looked forward half-unconsciously to the days when he in his turn
would be master of the farm which Rattrays had held for generations.

Bad days, however, had come for English farmers; the Cumbrian farm had
to be given up, and Jim's father never recovered from the shock of
having to leave it. Within a few years Jim was an orphan, alone in the
world.

[Sidenote: The Great New World]

There was nothing to keep him in England; why should he not try his
fortune in the great new world beyond the seas, which was crying out for
stout hearts and hands to develop its treasures? He was young and
strong: Canada was a land of great possibilities. There was room and a
chance for all there. His life was before him--what might he not
achieve!

"What do you propose doing?" asked a fellow-voyager as they landed.

"I really don't quite know," replied Jim. "As soon as possible I must
get employment on a farm, I suppose, but I hardly know how to set about
it."

"There won't be much difficulty about that. All you have to do is to let
it be known at the bureau that you want farm work, and you'll find
plenty of farmers willing to take you--and glad to get you," he added,
as his eyes roved over Jim's stalwart figure. "But have you thought of
the police?"

"The police? No--what have I done?"

His friend laughed.

"I mean the North-West Mounted Police. Why don't you try to join it? If
they'll take you, you'll take to the life like a duck to water. You
could join, if you liked, for a short term of years; you would roam
about over hundr