"How much do you plan seeding this season?"
"All of both places anyhow."
"Ah, young man, I tell you, you are a worker! Such young men as you will be the making of this country. And you'll be rich in time."
"Oh, no," cried Baptiste disdainfully.
"If I were young and strong like you, I would be doing the same."
"You expect to go away when you have completed your proof...."
"Well, I don't know," whereupon A.M. Barr cast a furtive glance in his direction. Baptiste pretended not to see it.
"What'll you do with your horses?" Another furtive glance.
"Well, I might advertise a sale," he said boldly. He cast a dark look in Baptiste's direction, which the other pretended not to see—but did see nevertheless. "Why, what could he know," was in Barr's mind. "Nothing," he answered his own question. A moment later he was the same Barr; the officious Englishman when he drove down the road a few minutes later, and none the wiser therefor.
March the twenty-second came and went, and Augustus offered proof on his homestead, and passed, Baptiste assisting him as witness.