The Imperialist

and red and green vessels in the window and his soda-water fountain inside; was on the ground floor; the passage leading upstairs se

which stuck out at an angle; the tobacconist with a nobly featured squaw in chocolate effigy who

dle, and defied you to take your mind off the ugliness of municipal institutions. On the other days it was a scene of activity. Farmers' wagons, with the shafts turned in were ranged round three sides of it; on a big day they would form into parallel lanes and cut the square into sections as well. The produce of all Fox County filled the wagons, varying agreeably as the year went round. Bags of potatoes leaned against the sidewalk, apples brimmed in bushel measures, ducks dropped their twisted necks over the cart wheels; the town hall, in this play of colour, stood redeemed. The produce was mostly left to the women to sell. On the fourth side of the square loads of hay and cordwood demanded the master mind, but small matters of fruit, vegetables, and poultry submitted to feminine judgement. The men "unhitched," and went away on their own business; it was the wives you accosted, as they sat in the middle, with their knees

rp features; Elgin market square, indeed, was the biography of Fox County and, in little, the history of the whole Province. The heart of it was there, the enduring heart of the new country already old in acquiescence. It was the deep root of the race in the land, twisted and unlovely, but holding the promise of all. Something like that Lorne Murchison felt about it as he stood for a moment in the passage I have mentioned and looked across the road. The spectacle never failed to cheer him; he was uniformly in gayer spirits, better satisfied with life and more consciously equal to what he had to do, on days when the square was full than on days when it was empty. This morning he had an elation of his own; it touched everything with more vivid reality. The familiar picture stirred a joy in him in tune with his private happiness; its undernote came to him with a pang as keen. The sense of kinship surged in his heart; these were his people, this his lot as well as theirs. For the first time he saw it in detachment. Till now he had regarded it with the friendly eye

imself from a group, smiling broadly at the

bviously in clothes which he did not put on every day, but the seriousness of this was

Elmore!

s abou

say! Back

business, and the old folks are backin' him; so I don't see but I've

ince you went West. Well, what sort of a country hav

ticed. An' it's a lonesome life. Now I AM back I don't know but little old Ontario's good enough for me. 'N I hear you've taken up the law, Lorne. Y'always had a partiality for it, d'y' r

s but never amazed that marks the man likely to expand his horizons. Meanwhile he was on capital terms with his little world, which seemed to take pleasure in hailing him by his Christian name; even morose Jim Webster, who had failed three times in groceries, said "Morning, Lorne" with a look of toleration. He moved alertly; the poise of his head was sanguine; the sun shone on him; the timidest soul came nearer to him. He and Elmore Crow, who walked beside him, had gone through the lower forms of the Elgin Collegiate Institute together, that really "public" kind of school which has so much to do with reassorting the classes of a new country. The Collegiate Institute took in raw material and turned out teachers, more teachers than anything. The teachers taught, chiefly in rural districts where they could save money, and with the money they saved changed themselves into doctors, Fellows of the University, mining engineers. The Collegiate Institute was a potential melting-pot: you went in as your simp

o is it? Pa's subject to that too; gets an attack most spri

d Warner never appeared

keep Warner

ader and doesn't pretend to be. And it's too late to transfer the case; nobo

Lorne? I'd be scared green. Y'don't TALK ner

and everything else that was boyish out of it. "It's bigger business than I could have expected for another five years. I'm s

mong the carts. If you had been "to the Collegiate," rel

s companion

of a hurry. I'll just go along with you far's the post-office." He kept his glance carefully from

ome along, Elmore;

e longer

his companion. "And as we're passing, you m

t expect

upied by Mrs Crow, followed, with plain reluctance, by her son. She was a frail-looking old woman, with a knitted shawl pinned

enty-five-dollar'n a half. That's a Yankee dime, an' you kin march straight back with it. They don't pass but for nine cents, as you're old enough to know. Keep twenty-five cen

of introduction. As he performed it he drew one foot back and bowed himself, which seemed obscurely to facilitate it. The suspic

the Collegiate," Elmore explained, "but he ain't an

served, "are folks I l

unabashed. "And so you've got my fr

clothes and his big ideas, we're lookin' to make him some use." Mrs Cro

Murchison goin' to run the Ormiston case; his old man's down sick, an' I gue

, all I've got to say is it's a mighty young dependence. Coming on next week, ain't it? You won't be much older by then. Yes'm," she tur

barb high. Mrs Crow's drop of acid combined with his saving sense of the humour of it to adjust all his courage and hi