doesn't eat with his
servants?" said "Lily" in a tone that deprecated the preposterous
proposition.

"They all eat together in the big kitchen," replied Martin.

"How awful!" gasped "Lily."

"My father does," replied Martin, a little colour rising in his cheek,
"and my mother, and my brothers. They all eat with the men; my sister,
too, except when she waits on table."

"Fine!" exclaimed Miss Brodie. "And why not? 'Lily,' I'm afraid you're
horribly snobbish."

"Thank the Lord," said "Lily" devoutly, "I live in this beloved
Scotland!"

"But, Mr. Martin, forgive my persistence, I understand there is cheaper
land in certain parts of Canada; in, say, ManitoBAW."

"Ah, yes, Sir, of course, lots of it; square miles of it!" cried Martin
with enthusiasm. "The very best out of doors, and cheap, but I fancy
there are some hardships in Manitoba."

"But I see by the public newspapers," continued Mr. Rae, "that there is
a very large movement in the way of emigration toward that country."

"Yes, there's a great boom on in Manitoba just now."

"Boom?" said "Lily." "And what exactly may that be in the vernacular?"

"I take it," said Mr. Rae, evidently determined not to allow the
conversation to get out of his hands, "you mean a great excitement
consequent upon the emigration and the natural rise in land values?"

"Yes, Sir," cried Martin, "you've hit it exactly."

"Then would there not be opportunity to secure a considerable amount of
land at a low figure in that country?"

"Most certainly! But it's fair to say that success there means work and
hardship and privation. Of course it is always so in a new country; it
was so in Ontario. Why, the new settlers in Manitoba don't know what
hardships mean in comparison with those that faced the early settlers in
Ontario. My father, when a little boy of ten years, went with his father
into the solid forest; you don't know what that means in this country,
and no one can who has not seen a solid mass of green reaching from the
ground a hundred feet high without a break in it except where the trail
enters. Into that solid forest in single file went my grandfather,
his two little boys, and one ox carrying a bag of flour, some pork and
stuff. By a mark on a tree they found the corner of their farm." Martin
paused.

"Do go on," said Miss Brodie. "Tell me the very first thing he did."

But Martin seemed to hesitate. "Well," he began slowly, "I've often
heard my father tell it. When