"
"I would have been there too," Benton said. "But, as I told you, I was
out of reach of your wire, and by the time I got it, it was all over. I
couldn't have done any good, anyway. There's no use mourning. One way
and another we've all got to come to it some day."
Stella looked out over the placid, shimmering surface of Roaring Lake
for a minute. Her grief was dimming with time and distance, and she had
all her own young life before her. She found herself drifting from
painful memories of her father's sudden death to a consideration of
things present and personal. She found herself wondering critically if
this strange, rude land would work as many changes in her as were patent
in this bronzed and burly brother.
He had left home a slim, cocksure youngster, who had proved more than a
handful for his family before he was half through college, which
educational finishing process had come to an abrupt stop before it was
complete. He had been a problem that her father and mother had discussed
in guarded tones. Sending him West had been a hopeful experiment, and in
the West that abounding spirit which manifested itself in one continual
round of minor escapades appeared to have found a natural outlet. She
recalled that latterly their father had taken to speaking of Charlie in
accents of pride. He was developing the one ambition that Benton senior
could thoroughly understand and properly appreciate, the desire to get
on, to grasp opportunities, to achieve material success, to make money.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33