The Winning of Barbara Worth

ront of the hotel. Helping himself to a chair and moving a little away from the general company, he sat enjoy

tly have demanded that the flood of sunlight that fell in such blinding glory upon the new world before him should shine as through the smoke-grimed city atmosphere of New York. One was no more impossible than the other. Jefferson Worth he compared with the college and university friends of his father--with Mr. Greenfield and the New York-br

ite hotels in his home cities and smiled to think what would happen if some of these roughly clad individuals were to appear there among the guests. He did not know yet that some of these roughly clad individuals were

atiently along, springing side-wise, with arched neck and pointed ears, at every object that could possibly be made into something frightful by his playful fancy! What a sensation she would create at home! By Jove! but she

He shrugged his shoulders as he fancied her crude attempts at conversation, her uncouth language and raw expressions. The girl turned her horse toward the h

ught out the beautiful lines of her figure, she turned her back upon the pawing, restless animal with as little concern as though sh

Two cowboys in high-heeled boots and "chaps" paused in passing. "That new hawss

h of her perfect teeth. "Oh, he'll do,

ery man in sight including the engineer, who had note

f Indians farther down the street when that voice close

ickly, risin

ank this morning. Texas Joe and Pat told me about your being here and I could scarcely wait to see you. I'm afra

phere of the woods or the air of meadows and fields. But by all his conventional gods, this was the unconventional limit! that this girl, the daughter of a banker, should openly seek out a total

m delighted, Miss Worth. May I

e arcade, don't you think? But you may bring another chair." Dumbly he obeye

it to see you. It makes it all seem so real, you know--your coming all the way out here from New York. I have dreamed so

rrect to say "indeed" as he said it, part

ich was somewhat disconcerting. She was so unconscious of the stre

e said slowly. "Father says this is your first visit to the We

ting," he murmured. Thi

except on business, so there is no one but me to look after y

s a civil engineer belonged wholly to those who bought them for their own profit. Barbara's innocent words aroused him. What the deuce did she mean by "our

"But I don't ri

with a little more warmth. "To tell the tru

esomeness. Wouldn't you like to go for a r

o this. Fully alert now he answered heartily: "I should be de

lo Garcia. I'll send him for another horse." S

hand, his dark eyes shining with pride at the recognition.

h a low bow the Mex

but awakening suddenly to the meaning of the a

Barbara in Span

m for a horse and s

take only a

n't ride,

m in blank amazement. "I don't think I

d manner touched his sense of humor. "I'm very so

e explained what she wanted to the Mexican in his native

w chuckle of amusement the engineer took his place at her left. He was beginning really to enjoy the situation. Shying and plunging the team demanded all of Barbara's attention but she managed

agon road runs closest to the railroad track, a passing switch engine proved too much for the excited team. In a moment the frightened animals were running toward the Mesa at full speed. With a

as annoyed. "I--I'm afraid they ar

She shot a quick glance over her left shoulder. Her companion was lean

on the reins above her cramped fingers. She relinquished her hold and shrank back out of the way with a sigh of relief and--yes, a

e engineer's strength, "I believe you cou

ion was st

ll me you could dr

he start and he had not been insensible of the meaning of her glances at the beginn

couldn't _ride_," s

u people in this country ride." Then he laughed again.

torted, sharply. "And hereafter I

hout warning. No sane man could be insensible of the grandeur of that scene. The man, whose eyes had looked only upon eastern landscapes that bore in every square foot of their limited range the evidence of man's presence, was silent-- awe-stricken before the mighty expanse of desert that lay

hanging. It is never the same, but always the s

to the scene i

?" she asked, after a

ou mean to say that that is The King's B

e laughed uneasily.

d. "But is there anyo

ng to make it so that thousands and thousands can live there --you and the

not realize," he

ur little old truck patches to give them intelligent attention. You think this King's Basin is big? Why, the Seer says that if every foot of that land was under cultivation it wouldn't be a posy bed beside what there is to do in the West. I suppose you must have done some great things in your

her personality sweep over him as he felt the breeze from off the desert. He was held as though by some magic spell--not by the lure of her splendid womanhood

situation by holding out the reins

you can

know. I suppose," she added, "that you think me bold and mannish and coarse and everything else that a girl ought not to be,

of this: somewhere back of every really great work that has ev

nd drove to the barn herself. A few minutes later he s

r. The man from New York admitted somewhat proudly, Barbara thought--as if the very confession somehow established the superiority of the East--that he was shockingly ignorant of

articular amusement. I have never taken it up at home,

you think city blocks and squares we think miles; and where you think miles we think hundreds of miles. Two legs are not enough in t

viewing the incidents and conversations of the ride; forced to wonder at some new and unexpected revelation of the mind and character of this western girl who was so interested in the reclamati

t he might tell her--quite without ostentation--of the proud history and s

ations and comments, until he was quite sure that she was properly impressed. Then she

he echoed

ry man here has a chance no matter what his past has been. You see, we don't care what a man has been or what his fathers were; we accept him for what he is and value him for what he can do. So all you need to d

tand our point of view. Everything is so new and

. Holmes, you are the only new thing in th

ws the river and she pointed to an Indian who

er with him?" as

u can easily trace the lines of their canals, in which they brought water from the river and carried it through a tunnel in the mountains to irrigate their land, just as you modern engineers are planning to do. The Seer and I rode over there once and h

has to do with social standards

number of years that they have occupied a certain section of the country, then that Ind

t they were and what they accomplished. We have a

r in the Mayflower. They _were_ grand--those brave old pioneers. I am proud of them too for what

wealth and culture that we have now. The country was a

ial standing will be determined by his relation to _us_ and people will be proud of what _we_ are doing? After all, Mr. Holmes, the only difference between the East and the West seems to be that you _have_ ancestors and that we are _going to be_ ancestors. You look back to what has bee

rth, that the ideal American, whom we are always hearing about but never meet, must be a

astern nor Western in the way yo

we of the East could g

all that your forefa

ould the We

fore answering slowly: "I think you wi

had stirred him strongly, though he tried to hide this under cover of a cynical tone. He said triumphantly: "Bu

u see what I mean? Ancestors are to be counted a

sonality, the challenging lure of her young womanhood--that and more. What was it back of those steady eyes that called t

nor any hint of a sneer on his face, as Willard

those things. Nobody talks that way nowadays. I s

ered lightly: "That puts me a long

way ahead,"

es and here and there a Chinese cook, were assembled. Toward the last from every part of the great West country came the surveyors and engineers--sunburned, khaki-clad men most of them, toughened by their out-of-doors life, overflowing with health and good spirits. They hailed one another joyously and greete

esert with interest, discovering to his surprise that most of them were eastern born and bred, with technical training in the schools with which he w

was never failing. Her friends protested that they never saw her now at their little social affairs, for she was always off somewhere

straightforward way with Barbara and her father, of the work that was so dear to the heart of the girl. And because it was his work and in the nature of a report t

time, at the engineer's presence, the surveyor's painful diffide

assed surveyor. Everything was in readiness for the coming of the Chief, who would ar

brother," called Barbara, as the tall

hes," came

Spanish, Miss Worth," he said, when the girl came back to the p

o me its colors are all soft and warm like the colors of the Desert. I never thought of it befo

I don't think I quite see the connectio

and desert-trained. He has the same patient stillness, th

t unconquerable; that it will be

ut this country that will always remain as it is now. Abe Lee is like th

s very clever, Miss Worth, but after all men are men where

w there must be many western men in the eas

"Will you ever bid me good night in

rned that language," she sa

all try to learn

" came the earnest ans

appeal. As he went down the street he knew that she did not refer to th

for sleep and she sat for a long time by the open window, l

t like some strange animal on exhibition and had repaid their interest with all the indifference she could command. Occasionally also she had been introduced to eastern business men, whom she chanced upon talking with her father in the

n the education of the eastern engineer the

er the habits and customs of the life and thought of the world to which he belonged--buried so deeply that the man himself scarcely realized

t strength of his nation-building ancestors. She wanted him--as she put it to herself--to wake up. Would he? Would he learn

esert--were going now back into that land of death to save that land itself from itself. And--she whispered it softly