Hustleton, Parts III-V [pp. 504-515]

HUSTLETON.
As she was on her way back to the old
home, she thought of what a fine thing it
is to have money, and wondered that she
had endured the hard life on the ranch so
long. It was simply "vegetating," she
concluded, and her mind turned, with
fresh gratification, to planning the furnishing of the house in town, and dreams
of social triumphs for Kate.
"I have no fault to find with Arthur
Weyman," she said in discussing these
prospective triumphs with her husband,
"except that he should have been a
woman. The world has no use for these
goody-goody men. Of course, he's a
gentleman, and all that, but he's just fit
to be a teacher, or a missionary, or something of that sort, and the very last person I should want to select for Kate. Except for that, though, I must say I like
him very much, for a truer Christian
never lived. That's just the troublehe's too much of a Christian for his own
good. He never will be worth anything,
and if he ever had money left him, he
would lend or give it all away, or let
somebody swindle him out of it; he has
so much faith in humanity."
The good woman was much worried because Kate was late in returning from the
ride on the mountain. And it may be
imagined that she groaned in spirit when
Kate had related, with a blending of tears
and laughter, an incident of a narrow
escape from a land-slide, and the reckless
bravery that Arthur had displayed in his
haste to rescue her, or render possible
aid. The mother understood human nature well enough to realize that his conduct must have increased the interest
with which Kate regarded him, and she
spoke her mind freely on the subject.
"Yes, yes," replied the good man absently, and then he added,abruptly changing the subject. "Do you see what has
been going on while you were away?"
And he pointed to the thousands of little
white stakes that had been driven by the
surveyor's party during the day. Each
bit of painted wood, he explained, marked
a lot with a width of twenty-five feet, and
a hundred feet in depth. Then at each
street corner there was a sign-board, with
the names of the intersecting street and
the avenue.
"It's strange that we did not realize
before what a splendid chance we had
here to make a new town. But there's
a fearful lot of work to be done in this
sort of business, and I wonder how General Hustler finds time to attend to all the
things he has told me about."
"It's a shame the way that barley has
been trampled down," remarked Mrs.
Chesley regretfully, as she gazed upon
the green slopes that had promised to
yield the best crop they had known since
the soil had first felt the touch of the
plow.
"Barley is nothing to us in times like
these," her husband said with indifference. " A good corner lot will soon be
worth more than all we would clear on
the crop. But it makes me ache to think
of the work it was to put that barley in.
No more farming for me."
V.
ON THE morning of the following Sunday, while the soft music of the church
bells was floating over hill and valley,
General Hustler drove out from the city
in company with a civil engineer. Their
object was to investigate the possibilities
of water development in the cafon, as a
source of supply for the new town.
At times during the winter season,
after a heavy rain, the creek carried a
strong flow of water. In the summer
time the stream disappeared, though by
digging in its bed of sand and bowiders a
flow of water could always be detected.
The ranch had a riparian right, by rea
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