all already--to get down to the steady grind year in and year out, at
some business that might ultimately bring us to an armchair job. So we
go along with our noses to the ground snuffing for a convenient hole
to crawl into.

"Oh, well!" he exploded, "who the devil wants to be tied up body and
soul to some corporation all his life, for the sake of making a little
money that somebody else is going to go to the dogs over after you
have gone?"

CHAPTER V

The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Far enough up the hill to view the blossoming orchards all over the
Valley and the distant blue of the lake between the hills, Langford
stopped at a large, two-storied dwelling house set in expansive
grounds and almost hidden among shade trees.

He walked right in, and Phil followed him.

A matronly woman, of portly dimensions, met them in the hallway.

"Mrs. Clunie," cried Langford, "I've caught you a new, live lodger
fresh off the train to-day. He will just fit the spare room over the
way from mine."

Mrs. Clunie looked her prospective tenant over critically.

"Mrs. Clunie,--Mr. Ralston," continued Langford.

Phil bowed, and Mrs. Clunie nodded in a strictly non-committal way.

"His father is Lord Athelhurst-Ralston of Ecclefechan, Mrs. Clunie. He
has come out here for his health."

"Mr. Langford,--that'll do," said the landlady severely. "There
was no' a Ralston in the whole o' Ecclefechan let alone a Lord
What-ye-call-him Ralston, when I left twenty years syne, and I
ha'e my doots if there's one there noo. Don't be makin' a fool o'
the young man.

"Where do ye come frae, laddie?"

"I come from Campbeltown, Mrs. Clunie."

"What?--Campbeltown on the Mull o' Kintyre,--then you must ha'e left
there before you were shortened," she returned quickly.

"Campbeltown, Ontario!" corrected Phil.

"Oh,--ahee!--You're sober, respectable, law-abiding, and attentive to
your work?"

"I hope so."

"As upright as Mr. Langford?"

"Oh, yes!" laughed Phil, remembering Langford's autobiography as he
had heard it a short time ago.

"I hope so," she returned pointedly, repeating Phil's own words.

"And he can say the Shorter Catechism and repeat the Psalms of David
by heart," put in Langford sonorously.

"Mr. Langford,--that'll do. Scotsmen shouldna be flippant ower such
serious subjects," the goodly Mrs. Clunie chided.

"Come up stairs and I'll show ye your room."

She showed Phil into a comfortable little place, fixed a