pon men of his
kind. It gets their backs up."

Agatha fancied that he did not like it, either, but she changed the
subject.

"There really was a row forward," she said. "What was the trouble
over? You were, no doubt, somewhere near the scene of it."

Wyllard laughed. "I sat upon the steerage ladder, and am afraid I
cheered the combatants on. It was really a glorious row. They
hammered each other with tin plates, and some of them tried to use
hoop-iron knives, which fortunately doubled up. They broke quite a few
of the benches, and wrecked the mess table, but so far as I noticed the
only one seriously hurt was a little chap who was quietly looking on."

"And you encouraged them?"

"I certainly did. It was a protest against dirt, disorder, and the
slothfulness that's a plague to the community. Isn't physical force
warranted when there's no other remedy?"

A grey-haired Canadian looked up. "Yes," he said, "I guess it is. The
first man who pulled his gun in British Columbia was hanged right away,
and they've scarcely had to make an example of another ever since,
though it's quite a while ago."

He paused, and smiled approvingly. "A mess of any kind worries us, and
we don't take long to straighten it out. Same feelings in the Germans
and Scandinavians. I'll say that for them, any way. Your friends
swept up the steerage?"

"They took the Slavs and Jews, and pitched them down the second hatch
on to the orlop deck. Things will go smoothly now our crowd are on
top."

"Your crowd?" said Agatha.

The Canadian nodded. "That's what he meant," he said. "There are two
kinds of folks you and the rest of them are dumping into Canada. One's
the kind that will get up and hustle, break land, and build new
homes--log at first, frame and stone afterwards. They go on from a
quarter-section and a team of oxen to the biggest farm they can handle,
and every fresh furrow they cut enriches all of us. The other kind
want to sit down in the dirt and take life easily, as they've always
done. The dirt worries everybody else, and we've no use for them. By
and bye our Legislature will have to wake up and stop them getting in."

He went on with his dinner after this, but his observations left Agatha
thoughtful. She was, for one thing, beginning to understand one side
of her companion's character. He, it seemed, stood for practical
efficiency. There was a driving force in him that made for progress
and order. It w