"Wall, then, Alec, I'm a-goin' down, as fast as them hounds'll take me. I'm anxious to hear some word."
"But ye won't strike the trail noo, mon, in its bad condeetion? Stay here till things settle doon a bit."
Seating himself upon a stool Pete began to whittle at a small plug of tobacco, and then deliberately filled an old blackened pipe before replying.
"Sit down, Alec," he demanded at length. "Thar's somethin' on me mind I want to tell ye. Ye've been a good friend to me, man, an' I kin never fergit it. We've trod the trails together fer years, but I'm a-thinkin' we'll do it no more."
"Tut, tut, mon, what's come owre ye? Haven't we fine prospects in sight anent the summer?"
"Ay, ay, Alec, it's true what ye say. But haven't we allus had fine prospects in sight? Tell me that. An' what have we got? I'll tell ye what we've got. We've got old age pilin' a-top of us; we've got stiff jints, an' rheumatiz a-plenty; an' we've got a cabin apiece. That's what we've got, Alec, a-trailin' after this devil gold. We're gittin' old, man, an' the things we should have we haven't got, I tell ye that plain."
"Why, Pete, I thought ye liked the life, sae grand an' free, wi' the great works o' Nature all around ye. Didn't ye often say ye could never live in harness, but wanted the wild always fer yer hame?"
"Sure, man, I know I said it, but I've been a-thinkin' different of late. Out in yon new region I've had strange thoughts, an' they overcome me. Thinks I to meself, I'm an old man without a home, an' no one to care for me whether I come or go. What's the use of me a-rustlin' fer a home-stake when there's never a one to share it with me? The wild life may be fine to read about in stories an' sich like, an' the young chaps may like it, but I want a home now; I want some one to care fer, an' to care fer me. What good is all the gold in the warld, Alec, when ye haven't a wife or kiddies to brighten yer cabin?"
"Ye're owre late thinkin' aboot sic things," said Alec rather dryly, puffing away at his pipe.
"I know it, man, I know it. But hearken. I've a son an' a daughter now in me old age, an' though they're neither kith nor kin of mine, they're very close to me, an' I love 'em. They've been good to me, an' I want to be near 'em. They're now at Klassan, so that's why I'm a-goin' thar."