of hanging back. I came forward here and waived the whole thing, establishing myself in their tent quite as if I had merely come to make a visit, and thereby making a demand upon his hospitality, which the old fellow couldn't ignore; but all the while I kept my eye upon him, and before I came away I managed to get a word with him in private, when I told him that it was all very well to talk about dying, but that a sickness neglected very often turned into chronic ill health, with death only at the end of long years of pain and uselessness, and by these representations got him to let me examine and prescribe for him. I don't think it is anything very serious now, but it might easily become so, and I warned him that he was in no condition for hard work, and I think I convinced him of it. Some men—and he's one of them—can be frightened a great deal sooner by the suggestion of prolonged sickness than death. I told him if he didn't want to be an incubus upon somebody's hands he had better face the fact that he would have to take some care of himself; and I found that had its effect. Two of the men rode part of the way back with me; and if you could have heard the anxiety they expressed about that rough old fellow, and the gratitude they showered upon me for having persuaded him to give over hard work for a time and agree to rest and take care of himself, you'd have thought he was their sweetheart. They acknowledged that one cause of their agreeing so quickly to stay all night, last night, was because the others would not be able to go to work without them, and 'Unc' would be forced, therefore, to rest."
"What sort of work, papa?" said Stella. "What do they do?"
"Why, you'd be amused," said Dr. Gray, smiling. "They have bought an enormous tract of land and stocked it superbly. It reminded me of 'the cattle upon a thousand hills.' Well, they have got a lot of buildings to put up, of course, and they are living in tents for the present. They are going to build all the cattle-sheds and farm-buildings first, and, last of all, a house. They are hauling their own lumber from a distance of thirty miles, and, if you'll believe me, those swells get up at four every morning and start off with their teams and never knock off work until sun-down. It's funny to look at their hands. Unc.—as they call him—could never have had very delicate ones, and his show no scratches; but the other fellows were laughing at theirs, all scarred and cut, with handling the logs, but so white and delicate. They're confident, however, that before the hauling is done they will match Unc.'s own, which seems to be the goal of their ambition.
"He says he told them," Dr. Gray went on, "that they were not fit for hard work, and that men couldn't go straight from an endless succession of balls, and dinners, and club card-parties, and dancing at-
