of a place they mentioned
that they might be on the market for say a couple of thousand acres.

"Think I can fix you up all right," said the proprietor; "and there's
one sure thing, you can't put your money anywhere where it's safer or
'll grow faster. Why--"

At that moment a man in a pepper-and-salt suit went by the door.

"'Scuse me a minute," said the dealer, rushing to the door and
sending a shrill whistle down the street. The man in the
pepper-and-salt turned, and the dealer beckoned him into the little
office.

"You know that five-thousand-acre block you bought last week," he
said in a low voice, but loud enough to be heard by the Harrises.
"Bought it at six dollars, didn't you? Well, I can give you seven
to-day, for a quick sale."

"Couldn't think of it, my dear fellow," protested the lucky buyer. "I
simply couldn't think of it."

"Couldn't think of making five thousand dollars in a week? It don't
look too bad to a working man like me."

"But it's nowhere near the value of the land. Why, they're selling
stuff in Illinois today that ain't to be compared with it at a
hundred and fifty dollars an acre. It's only a question of time until
this is as much. You've got better land here, and better climate, and
you're a thousand miles nearer the Pacific Ocean, that's going to
carry the commerce of the future. Seven dollars? It's an insult to
Canada to mention such a price."

"Well, say," continued the real estate man, in a still more
confidential tone, "I was allowing myself a little margin on the
deal, even at seven dollars. But I had a man in here a few minutes
ago that'll buy that block at eight-fifty. I'll pay you eight dollars
net to put it through."

"Sorry, but he'll have to get down deeper than that if he wants it.
Tell him I might consider ten dollars, but mind, I ain't making any
promise." And the man in the pepper-and-salt suit continued his
course down the street, just the same as if he were not making five
thousand dollars a week.

"Big capitalist from New York, that fellow," explained the dealer.
"Simply coining money up here, and always salting it into more land."

The incident left a deep impression on the Harrises. They did not
know, of course, that the man in the pepper-and-salt suit always went
by the door when likely-looking strangers were in, and that he always
refused a profit of ten thousand dollars as a matter of little
consequence--except for its influence on the unsuspecting party