"Marry Bert Tressider!" exclaimed Trailey with a slight show of interest.
"Yes, Bert Tressider. That's news for you, I'll be bound. He's an educated fool, of course; but, when I look back at what you were when I married you, it seems to me she might go farther and fare worse."
Trailey scratched his wrist. "God bless my soul! How long has all this been going on?"
Martha Trailey turned away from her husband with a gesture of disgust. Such blindness was inconceivable to her.
"Why, it's been going on ever since we left Saskatoon. Look! there they are, over yonder; giggling and cuddling, you may depend. Said they were going to pick a place to build a bungalow."
Mrs. Trailey was silent for a little while. She gazed pensively after the youthful lovers, who meandered about the prairie some distance off. At length she continued philosophically: "Life's a very funny thing, I'm thinking. Look at those two—only known each other three weeks and as happy as two dead birds; yet here we've been together getting on for thirty years and squabbling all the time—and all because you won't control your ungovernable temper."
"Mr. Tressider's a good match for Esther, isn't he, my dear?" observed Trailey meekly. "I know I've often watched them and thought how nice they looked together. And he's a gentleman."
"Oh, he's a gentleman, right enough; but it's no more than Esther deserves. She's a very good girl, and it's been a pleasure to train her. I know I've done my best for her, and you can't say I haven't. Don't you dare hint such a thing; do you hear?"
"I never thought of doing so, my dear."
"Well, don't, that's all. The worry of being out here in this wilderness is enough, without you always interfering and messing things up. But let's go back to the camp and think about it all, before you make me say something I might be sorry for. And I'd advise you to speak to Mr. Tressider; it's your place."
Sam was standing on the brink of a deep gorge, which cut clear across his land. A tiny rivulet ran along the bottom. A hawk banked and dived close to the vivid green grass away down below. It was a quarter of a mile across to the opposite edge of the ravine, which was a good hundred yards deep. This, then, accounted for the couple of wavy lines they had seen on Barr's large-scale map in his cabin on theLake Manitoba.
Sam gazed into the coulee. "I don't know any think abaht land," he mused, "but this 'ere bit looks funny ter me." He was just a shade disappointed. His eyes roamed keenly all about, noticing the amazing amount of elbow-room there was everywhere. "Any'ow," he summed up to himself, "it's 'eaps better 'n Bermondsey." He wandered back to the wagon.
Presently Esther and Bert, both intensely happy, struggled hand in hand up the slope of the ravine, the former carrying a big bouquet of Saskatoon blossoms and wild pea flowers. They hadn't decided where to build. There were too many sites.
Mrs. Trailey continued looking round. Her expression was enigmatic. "Let's be getting back to the camp," she said succinctly. William Trailey's head drooped on his breast.
Bert's eyes already reflected the region's sweeping distances. "Land's satisfactory, eh, Sam?" he commented. "Everything's all bona fide and serene now, don't you think?" He was in high spirits.
Sam said "'e didn't think very much of that deep gultch over there, nor of its blinkin' bony fidos neither, but the land 'ud do quite nicely fer 'im."
Esther seemed incapable of expressing herself. Bert was still holding her hand. Then they tumbled aboard again, and, following their own tracks in the grass, retraced their course to Headquarters Camp.
Before retiring to bed, Bert wrote to his mother.
"BRITANNIA, N.W.T."30th May, 1903.
Dear Mother:
"At last we are arrived. We've been to see our land to-day—a fine stretch. Sam is still with me. He is a splendid little chap, but a little cynical with living in London so much.
"We joined fortunes with another party at Saskatoon, the Traileys. They are very respectable people. The old gentleman was an insurance superintendent or something back in England, but he is very charming. They have a daughter, mother; the sweetest, the most divine creature imaginable. Don't be surprised when I tell you that we are thinking of getting married in a few weeks' time; and I am writing this partly with the idea of asking you to send me two rings. If you get them to fit your own finger, I think that will be about the correct size. Please choose a dress ring with plenty of diamonds in it; you should be able to buy a splendid one for seventy-five pounds or so. The wedding ring doesn't matter so much. Do not delay things any longer than you can help, mother, because, strictly speaking, you are holding up our marriage.
"I enclose an old photograph of Esther (your future daughter-in-law's name, by the way), but it is not a good one of her. She is an angel, and no picture could do her justice. More next time. Love to dad, and the girls.
"Your very affectionate son,"BERTIE.
"P.S. I have promised Esther that when we are settled, and the farm is beginning to pay, I shall bring her to England for a holiday—which will most likely be some time next year."