Ye had jobs a number o' times drivin' eight an' ten
on jerkline, freightin' tanbark from Longport. Ye're a good jerkline
skinner, Hiram--no better in the country--but ye won't stick no more'n
a month or two outa each year.

"But I'm makin' allowances fer ye--I always have--I'm th' only one that
ever has. I been watchin' an' waitin' fer ye to right yerself an' get
at sumpin; but this mornin', down to th' store, it come over me that
ye'll never do it in Bear Valley.

"Consequently, Hiram," Uncle Sebastian resumed, "ye've gotta move."

Hiram glanced at him with wide-opened eyes. "Move! Where to?"

"Out into th' world, Hiram, to strike yer gait. Ye gotta hit th' hard
places an' git experience. Ye gotta taste olives to see if ye c'n
stummick 'em. Ye'll get an awful batterin'-up, I reckon, but ye'll
likely learn if they's anything in ye. At first ye'll probably go to
th' bad an' get a heap worse ern ye was in Bear Valley. That's neither
here ner there. Th' point is, if they's a gait in ye ye'll eventually
strike it. If not--well, then, what's th' difference? I'm goin' to
pay up fer ye down to th' store an' give ye enough to land ye in
Frisco. Then th' good Lord an' what He put into that head o' yers must
look after ye. I'm gonta foreclose on ye, Hiram."

Hiram was not looking at Uncle Sebastian, but the old man saw his
slight start and the red creep down his columnar neck as the last
sentence came out. One great toe protruded from the upper of one of
Hiram's shoes. Uncle Sebastian saw it twitching.

"You're foreclosin' on me?" The words came slowly and with a hollow
gulp.

Uncle Sebastian's lips went straight and hard. "Unless ye'll deed th'
place to me, Hiram."

Another pause, while the low wind whined in the treetops and Ripley
Creek went gurgling and sucking through the latticed trunks in the pile
of drift.

"What did you tell me when I gave the mortgage, Uncle Sebastian?"

The reproach in Hiram's voice did not move the arbiter. "I know what I
told ye, Hiram. I told ye, ye needn't worry--that I wouldn't
foreclose--that I wasn't speculatin' when I lent th' money on th'
place. Jest th' same, Hiram, I'm foreclosin' on ye."

Uncle Sebastian eyed the young man keenly. The first shock past, Hiram
seemed now to be turning the matter over with just deliberation.

"I reckon I know what you're up to, Uncle Sebastian," he said at last.
"We've talked the matter over too many times for me to miscon