“Amen,� exclaimed Ralph Cutter. “I believe that the Lord made this earth for the enjoyment of all his people, not to have its blessings monopolized by a favored few. Government ownership of land must come, I believe, although you and I will probably not live to see it.�
A little later Miss Boardman and Ford Hulbert drove up. “I don’t know what you will think of Lena,� said the gentleman. “She seems to be getting ambitious, wants me to buy of you one of the peaks of Twin Mountain for a summer residence. I am afraid you will not care to sell.�
“It seems likely,� said Wycliff, “that we shall go west to look after our mining property, leaving everything here in your care. I hope we may be able to return occasionally. If we ever build on Twin Mountain, I think one peak will be ample for our use, will it not?� he asked, addressing his wife.
“I hope we may be able to spend some time here each summer,� Mrs. Wycliff replied. “If we ever do build on Twin Mountain it will be very pleasant to have you there for neighbors.�
When they had gone Uncle Jerry Barnaby came to give an account of his stewardship of Twin Mountain Farm. He seemed to be hardly the same person as the woe-begone, long-faced man they had once known.
“How is your daughter?� asked Mrs. Wycliff.
“You never saw such a change in anyone,� said Uncle Jerry. “Pet is hardly the same woman that she was when she left Papyrus.�
“What has done it? Our mountain air?�
“I don’t wish to run down our mountain air; the fact is, I’ve seen the time when you couldn’t run it down with an express train. But givin’ the mountain air all the credit that belongs to it, still it’s those letters from Oregon that have saved Pet. It’s the old, old story,—‘’Tis love that makes the world go ’round.’
“When that first letter came to Pet, from ’way up in the great Northwest, it made a little spot of color on Pet’s cheeks just about as big as the first bit of color that shows in a rosebud, and that spot, or that pair of spots, have been growin’ bigger ever since till now the roses are pretty much full-blown.�