That was sufficient for Mrs. Frisingham, who had rather more than a suspicion that Stirling already had in his mind somebody who had not been bred in the city. An unknown man who built new railroad bridges in the wilderness, or a bush rancher, it seemed most probable.
“Well,” she said, “I might perhaps warn you that the right choice is a rather serious matter, and that, after all, it’s wiser to consider the opinions—call them prejudices if you like—of your own order.”
“When my daughter chooses,” said the contractor, smiling, “she’ll choose wisely, and I’m going to be satisfied. I’ve had the pleasure of reassuring another lady on that point already. As to the other matter, the opinions of people of the station to which I now belong don’t count for much with me. For quite a long while they were dead against my getting here at all; but I did work that this country wanted done, and I’m where I am. You don’t expect me to alter my views out of deference to them?”
He broke off for a moment, and nodded to her pleasantly as he went on again.
“We’re old friends, Susan, and I guess you mean to be kind; but I’ve been warned before, and it didn’t affect me much,” he said. “If Ida wants to go back with you she may, but we’ll leave it at that.”
He turned away, and, strolling into his own room, he took out the card model of the excavator bucket which Weston had altered, and examined it critically.
“Yes,” he said, “it will do its work. I guess that’s characteristic of the man.”
THE JUMPERS
Saunders, the storekeeper, lay outside the little tent, with the pungent pine-wood smoke drifting past him and his feet toward the fire, while dusk crept up the range and a wonderful stillness settled down upon the lonely valley. His hands were badly blistered, and he was aching in every limb, while some of his knuckles had the flesh torn off them, for Devine had brought a heavy hammer down on them several times that day instead of on the drill. For all that, he lay beside the fire in the drowsy state of physical content which is not infrequently experienced by those who have just enjoyed an ample meal after a long day of strenuous labor in the open air. However, as Saunders had reasons for believing that the result of the latter would in due time prove to be eminently satisfactory, the sensation was in his case perhaps a little more pronounced than usual.