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)} % The Green Seal By CHARLES EDMONDS WALK Author of "The Silver Bhule," "The Paternoster Ruby," "The Time Lock," etc. CHAPTER IV. That stirring Monday, I can not re- frain from repeating, had a demoral- izing effect upon me and my alTairs. When excitement breaks in upon one's accustomed habits of life one is speed- not many days elapsed until, instead of dictating the bulk of my corre- 1 sponednce, I fell into the habit of i merely indicating by a word or two j the general tenor of a letter, leaving } to her the performance of composing | it in appropriate language; as for the ' ily keeyed up to anticipate yet more i '^ '" »PPr"prmtc- .»..»«««=, »=^ux ,. excitement; one is upon a qui vive of , P'-^P^'ation of minor plead.ngs-de- expectancy like a boy with a box of "'"'•'••-;'•«' motions, and the hke-I had strange f.r^-works; and when nothing > ""'^ t°.<^«'lh«'- attejitiort to the of- „io„ .,„„.. .„! ->^o..Jo ♦!.->..-, f„ii,.„,» „ I fice docket. Her work was a model of else unusual ensues there follows a let-down, a nervous relaxation, that leaves one uneasy and restless. And ao it was with me. I don't know what I expected.' In the state exactness, conciseness, clarity, and neatness. As she entered and closed the door behind her, I studied her intently in of mind I had been worked up to, no- the light of my fresh idea. In a mo- thing much short of death and de- struction could have produced any- thing except a sense of anti-climax, My dreams were disturbed by the ter rible figure of a miniatory Steve Wil ment I realized that my impolite scru- tiny was disconcerting her. "Come in," I said. "Sit down, please. I did not call you for a dicta- tion; if you don't mind there's some- lets brandishing pistols and, in a fero- thing I want to speak about." cious manner, demanding the dia- She sank wonderingly into her ae- mond or my life and derisively tak- , customed place on the opposite side ing both. I scarcely would have ' of my desk, facing me, while all at been surprised if, at any moment, he ' once I discovered that I didn't know' ^ had irrupted into the quiet of my of- ! just how to begin what I wanted to ' fices in some such violent fashion as 'â-  say. At last, however â€" I that of my dreams, or with Heaven | "Pardon me. Miss Fox," I essayed, i alone knows what other dire intent. | "if I bring up a subject painful to you: I That I should have been in the least ' I have an excellent reason for doing , regardful of Steve Willets is, of so." | course, ridiculous; I knew it at the She was quick to anticipate that the time. Had it not been for Miss Fox burden of our talk was to touch upon I would not have given the scoundrel some phase of her unfortunate his- a second thought. It was no more tory, and her expressive face instantly than a coincidence that he happened to grew troubled and anxious, be at large right at a time when some j She asked apprehensively: "Have| perverse chance made me the dia- you heard anything?" mond's custodian. What could he pos- 1 "Don't worry," I admonished, try-' sibly know about the diamond? No- ing to be cheerful. "I was just sitting' thing whatever. Miss Fox, poor girl, here thinking, not particularly of any- j afforded a wholly inadequate cause thing concerning you, but of last ' for me to be adding him to my vari- Monday's events in general, when a' ous imaginary sources of apprehen- question suddenly popped into my j iion; and, as if to make fun of my mind, one that perhaps you may an- fears, things settled back into their swer. I all at once realized that your normal humdrum condition and I was story left much to be filled in, and I not disturbed â€" that is to say, not for wondered â€" Have I your permission to ' » time. be personal?" I broke off to ask. | Willets seemed successfully to have Her curiosity wa.s aroused, but she ' eluded all pursuit. Days went by; did not reply at once. She sat fori the newspapers bristled with sensa- some time thoughtfully putting one' tional accounts of the man-hunt, but of her pencils through a series of ' reading between the lines, it was easy glow somersaults upon the unopened | to make out that the officers were notebook in her lap, and I was once completely at sea. That he had more impressed by her steadiness and i drawned in the bay; that he had slip- self-control. In a moment her fact! ped aboard some outgoing vessel bound clouded and she met my regard with ' for the Orient; that he had made his a disturbed look. ! way southward t» .Mexico or north- "Of course," she said, quietly, "you ward to Alaska, like sugested them- may a.sk me anything you like; 1 selves as ffording promising avenues know you would not do so out of idle of escape. Each in turn was persever- curiosity. What is it you want to ingly followed up, but fruitlessly, know?" I Though one by one his four compan- ; "Well," I pursued "I must confess | ions were gathered in from widely that curiosity has a good deal to do different points, no trace at all was with it; but I am curious only be- 1 found of the fugitive whom the law cause I am interested in your welfare.! was most eager to recapture. In going over in mind our last Mon- , With the apprehending of his com- , day's conversation, I recalled that you I panions it transpired that the (luintet ' implied ignorance on your part of had separted immediately upon win- â-  much of your family's history; in ning the shore of Contra Costa county, ' point of fact, you said your aunt re- •omewhere near Sobrante, each going fused to talk "about it â€" about your I n different way. This plan had been ; parents. Just how, ther., did you i adopted, it appeared, not only to baf- \ come to know that Steve Willets is fie pursuit, but also because Willets would have none of his associates. He left them and went on his way alone. The arch-criminal, however, had vanished as utterly as if the waters of the bay had in very truth closed over his head for good and all. your father?" She flushed and her lips tightened, and I knew that I had called up a painful memory. She replied without i pause, however. "Do you know Mr. Meyer Hardwick, of the Kenton-Hardwick Company?" As for the diamond, it remained she asked, and when I nodded affirma risen up to darken your life!' She was BO distressed that she wouldn't try to talk about it. Anyhow, what was there to say ? We were simply two women over whose lives a dafk shadow had fallen and we were help- less to lift it." The hand holding the pencil was raised to the desk and I saw that it trembled. I was hanging upon her narrative with eager intentness; but I did not want to harass her by en- couraging her to talk upon a subject so grievous, and told her so. "You might as well know every- thing," she returned listlessly. "It is all strange and horrible, but I have become so used to contemplating the sickening truth that I can do so now with a measure of hardness â€" almost indifferently." "No, no! I remonstrated, "don't say that! You've come to view the matter philosophically, perhaps, as a sensible person should accept any condition that can not be avoided; but, hard â€" you? No, no Miss Fox; I should hate to believe that." In my excitement I sprang up and commenced pacing the floor. MiSa Fox spoke in a bitter tone. "But, Mr. Ferris, what have I done to deserve .such a misfortune? â€" to be weighted down â€" crushed â€" under such a load? Surely I am not so wicked that I have earned a punish- ment like this! It is horrible â€" cruel â€" unendurable!" There was not the slightest use try- ing to deceive her with empty phrases and I knew it. Yet she needed some- thing to stimulate her out of her pre- sent black, embittered mood, so I belted beside her chair and spoke with some sternness. "Look here. Miss Fox. I don't know very many women, but I have at least some knowledge of the world and'jts ways. And one of its ways is, that in one fashion or another all of us have to suffer; it is the tempering, the trying-out process; the ordeal every human being has to go through to prove either his worth or his unfitness. Sometimes we lose our fortitude; but those of us that are worth a pinch of salt recover it again and we face Old Lady Fate bravely â€" snap our fingers under her nose. "I need not resort to platitudes or banalities to comfort you, because you know in your heart that as long as you yourself entertain only proper ideals and try to follow them, that as long as you stick to what is right, ex- ternals don't matter a darn. That's the truth, anyway, whether you know it or not." "But everybody is not as charitable as you, Mr. Ferris," she said with feeling. "People can't, or won't, overlook the stain on my name. Such things are infihitely harder for a wo- man to bear. At best so few ways are open to her;lshe has to be so care- ful not to invita; criticism, always to move circumspectly, that for her wage-earning is Indeed a struggle. But under normal conditions I would not raise a wori in complaint; I could â€" I would â€" be happy, or at least, content. \ "Think, though, >f what I have to face! Even if I could forget the mor- al stigma in the less worthy concern of fighting for a living, nevertheless I have to cam a living some way. And how, in Heaven's name, with every door closed against me â€" " j "Stop," I said. "You know we've settled that, don't you?" "Yes," she returned with suppress- ed vehemence, "I suppose so. Every added kindness of yours makes me feel the more keenly that I am selfish and disregarding; that I am impos- ing-" Once more I cut in. (To be continued.) k%^«'«^%^«k%'*^»«^%'«<*» upon my person all of Monday night 1 wretched period of mental distress. Bright and early Tuesday morning I might have been seen impatiently counting the minutes until the banks opened, and thereupon consigning it to my safe-deposit box with eagerness that must have seemed to an onlooker tively, proceeded: "When he discharg- ed me something like four months ago, he told me that because my fa- ther was a convict serving a life sen- tence, his company could not keep me any longer." "Good gracious!" I interjected. "No hint of anything of the kind had any been about, like spurning a I had ever come to me before. At first thing accursed. Not until then did I â-  I thought Mr. Hardwick must be draw a breath of relief. drunk or crazy; but my mind was The gem, for all its resplendency ] quickly disabused of that idea. I »nd inestimable value might have ; didn't know what to think. I had a been the very personification of mys-lgood position; I knew I had been giv- tery which deepened and intensified ing satisfaction; I knew his first in- when the passing days brought me no ! definite reasons really were not the Intelligence respecting it. This to me, I true ones for getting rid of me. Na- kt the time, was the most marvellous, turally I insisted on knowing what his tspect of the entire episode. | real reason was, and at last he was What extreme of emergency had obliged to tell me. driven the unknown sender to make { "He declared the information had 10 mad a disposition of an object of; come to him from a source so rf..able such incalculable value? Ann then,' that he could not doubt it, and while to neglect it; to remain silent, to say he sympathized with me personally, if the least, were of a nature to make the knowledge became generally my lot an exceedingly unhappy one. ' known that I was Steve â€" was a con- I took no one into my confidence. ! vict's daughter, it would be harmful I was afraid to, to put it candidly. I , to his company." shrank from the very thought of any- "Inhuman ass!" I growled, body discovering that I even had | "Well, as soon as I overcame my knowledge of the thing, for I knew stupefaction I laughed at the absurd- not what fresh dire complications I ity of the thing. Next I grew angry might be plunged into. | when I realized he was dead in earn- Yet puzzled cogitation over the est and not to be moved by anything diamond did not occupy my mind to I might say or do; but the dismissal the exclusion of all things else. Per-' was final, and Mr. Hardwick was not haps because the circumstances fell disposed to waste much time over so closely together, and because me." everything connected with both was! "It is incredible," I marvelled, "that BO unu.sual, the divulgence of Miss a man of Hardwick's standing and ac- Fox's astounding secret was more or cepted common sense could be guilty less mingled with it. And one day, as of a thing like that." I sat alone, a clear, luminous idea at | And do you know, she could find it last penetrated the haze of my futile in her heart to put forward an ex- brooding, and on the spur of the mo-, tenuationi That Uncomfortable Feeling. Helter â€" Do you think severe re- ligious training really prevents a person from wrongdoing? Skelterâ€" Well, it doesn't exactly prevent it, but it certainly detracts from the pleasure one gets from sin- ning. ment I pressed the buzzer twice â€" the signal thjit B^jyiccs were required. button I "It was the firm's good name, I sup- Miss Fox's pose," she exclaimed, "that he was fi,ji>.va TT».c ,>«.iu..v;... jealous of ; reputable business houses She appeared promptly, carrying her, can not afford to take chances. But notebook and a battery of pencils. | that <ioe8n't soften the awful injus- It was remarkable the ease with ticc of the act to me," whish sh? had slipped into h?r new[ "Flfm's good name â€" rubbish!" I position, becoming at once, as it were, â-  again interrupted. "Hardwick's an a part of my office fixtures â€" but, no, unfeeling idiot! Am I to understand I can not with accuracy say that. Ra- j that his brutality is the first inkling ther, into the midst of a dullness that you ever had of your parentage?" was at times depressing even to| "No-o-o," came the slow rej^iy: Stub's blithe nature she had brought "but it was the first inkling I ever had fight and sunshine and cheer. Her| that anybody else knew about it. It coming had been more like a bright, was the first time I ever had it â- pirit returning to and reent«nng brought home to me what being Steve Ita mortal shell after a temporary ab- Willets's daughter meant. gence. "I went straight to Aunt Lois with At anj»rate, within a day or two, the newsâ€" you know, it amounted to It was as if she had been with me a1- that because the subject was taboo ways; and I was beginning to realize that, regardless of the mystery sur- rounding her life, and its possible in- fluence over her, I had in truth ac- quired an extraordinarily competent aid. The degree of my confidence in her may be gauged by the fact that between us, even. The effect upon her was so startling that for a while I forgot my own trouble in solicitude for her. She looked like a woman Buddenlv stricken. "Suddenly she burst out; 'God help you, child, that this thing sh .:,''! '-iive Blame the Elephant. Customer (annoyed) â€" "I wish to return this paper cutter. It is not ivory, as represented." Clerk â€" "Not ivory, madam? I can't understand that, unless the ele- phant had false teeth." About four million steel pens are consumed daily in the world. French Commander At the Dardanelles ^..,. -^ ^;,l Wif-jg GEMERAL BmIlOUD. was Uie (jciiomi be<>oml in cHimmand <if the Krem^h Kximilttloiiary .-Vriny Kent to tlie l>artUtnell<>-i under (imi. <loumail. On tliat ofTI<?er lielnif wounded lie â- vo(?«eded to the comniandL Wltliln threo montha, tlirtM: FVenoJi offUKtrx have liehi the commantl a.H mlleain"' t<> Sir Ian Hamilton, i'lie two rorim^r werr (Jen, d'Aiuade and Ueil. Uournud. On the Farm * Common Sense in the Hog Lot. The question of which breed of swine to select for the economic pro- duction of pork is perhaps of less im- portance to-day than in the past. The leading swine-breeders have begun to recognize the fact that they must shape their favorite breeds to meet market demands. As a natural re- sult, the type of all the leading breeds now canforms to a fixed standard that meets the demands of the packing- houses. The hog that best meets the demand of the present time is a well- muscled hog, that will supply a fair amount of lard, and fat meat well marbled vcith lean, and be ready for market at any desired age, P'ractical pig-oviTiers, and feeders of market hogs look for good quality, depth, length and width of form, and uniformity of type, regardless of the breed, color and characteristic mark- ings. However, it Is essential that we select our breeding animals from some well established breed, for pro- miscuous mating of swine of various types has a tendency to destroy the types of all breeds employed in the crosses and to throw away the result of years of systematic selecting and mating and perpetuate a certain fixed type in the breed. This point has been 1 illustrated by mating a half Poland China and half Chester White sow with a pure-bred Berkshire boar. The' pigs resulting from the cross were | red, spotted, speckled, and striped, j showing that the cross was lost, and! with it the improvements in color and j markings. The result was the return! of the offspring by the principle of I heredity to the original scrub type. | All of our swine, particularly the' improved breeds, which are but a! modified form of the original, will not j pi-oduce themselves perfectly unless guided by the hand of man. Whatever breed is selected, should be kept pure, ! and only the best used for breeding. I The man who makes a specialty of producing pork, should grasp every! opportunity to improve his breeding stock, the same as the man who is' breeding registered swine. I Uniformity of type Ik an important { thing in the successful management of breeding-hogs, especially near mar- ket time, for a uniform bunch of hogs ' will bring more money on any market than a mixed lot. A pure-bred loti of hogs are much more apt to mature j together and please discriminating! buyers. i In selecting a breed we should give particular attention to its adaptability ' to the environments under which it is ] to be placed. Some are good rustlers, some are more quiet and better adapt- ' ed to small feed lots. j The breeds that have proved best I suited to our climate and conditions in the hands of farmers and feeders are the safest breeds to invest in. We all have our preferences, our likes and dislikes, our favorite color markings and our hobbies, but from the view- point of dollars and cents there is no best breed. All breeds possess many good qualities, and some less desir- able ones, and the man who makes a failure with one breed can hardly hope to succeed with another. Judi- cious care will bring success with any breed. All practical hog-growers agree that crossing the breeds is a danger- ous practice, and that the best re- sults are attained by sticking to one breed. Still, some men still cling to the idea that it is possible to incor-' porate all the good qualities of the different breeds into a cross-bred ani- mal. It is a disastrous belief if put into practice. There may be certain instances when crossing will give good results, as in the production of pig pork. The man who is experimenting with the various breeds and crosses, in search of something better than has yet been found, may have a mission, but such line of investigation is not practical for the man who must de- 1 pend upon the return from his swine- feeding for his farm profits. He is on safer ground if he confines his taste and skill to improving one well established breed and leaves the ex- perimenting to the man of leisure and means. Oats make a fine ration for hogs but as a rule they are too expensive. Fed to sows just after farrowing, oats cannot be surpassed for keeping them in good condition. A feeding floor will save itself in feed and manure in a single year, provided it is made of waste material around the farm. A cement feeding floor is a joy to any lover of swine. It is rather ex- pensive to commence with, but its durability makes it a paying invest- ment in the long run. Brick makes a fairly good feeding floor, but to be ef- fective requires a deep foundation of broken stone, sand and cinders, and this is expensive. A field of rye sown in the early fall will help out the grain supply won- derfully in the late spring. It is a prevalent notion that hogs cannot thrive except they have a mud hole in which to wallow. Nonsense! Pigs thrive better on clean pasture, clean floors and clean water than they do in dirty surroundings. In the summer time the hog seeks the mud hole in order to cool himself and to rid himself of the flies, not because he naturally likes mud better than clean water. Many people imagine that if they give the pigs plenty of skimmed milk they do not need water. Milk changes A Delightful Garden Freshnes s characterizes the Flavor of -I Qu2Jlty Unchallenged for Twenty-three Years, to solid food almost the moment it enters the pig's stomach and is, there- fore, not a substitute for water. It costs nothing to soak hard grain in warm water, and when fed to pigs its digestibility is increased. There are scores of theories about watering animals, but our experience is that the best judge of the matter is the animal itself. If it can always reach water when it needs it, it will take care of its own wants. A STOREHOUSE OF WORK. Tremendous Labors of Sir James Mur- ray on New English Dictionary. Sir James A. H. Murray may be said to have reared his own monument in that prodigious achievement of the lexicographer's art, the New English Dictionary, the last volume of which was almost ready to go to the press when he died. A task of vaster scope in all the long history of the cult of words was surely never undertaken, says The Boston Herald. Here was a richly endowed scholar who gave 38 years of his life to the search for spellings, meanings, derivations and pronunciations that ran back to the beginnings of English literature. He had his volunteer assistants in every Anglo-Saxon country â€" several thou- sands of them â€" and 5,000 authors of all periods were consulted to supply him with material. At the time his work had to be left for completion to others the stock of quotations accu- mulated numbered 6,000,000, all writ- ten on slips of paper that turned the scale at six tons. And out of this in- dustry and this scholarship comes a dictionary of about 300,000 words. How much of it will fit into every- day use? A good many of the 800,- 000 are long obsolete; even of those still in good standing how many do we really need? Shakespeare cap- tured his world audience with about 15,000, and Milton wrote himself into fame with 8,000. It is estimated that the average literary man of to-day uses 4,000, and the "man in the street" not over 2,000. The English country yokels of "slow, bovine gaze" whom George Eliot describes have probably 300 to their credit; the pea- sants in certain sections of continen- tal Europe are known to live the bu- colic life on a vocabulary of about 100 words by actual count. Ar.d yet the people who will nibble thus sparingly at Sir James Murray's great encyclopedia of our language are the very people who dictate dic- tionaries and supersede them by usage even while they are in the mak- ing. It is they who have rendered possible this priceless record of our Anglo-Saxon tongue; it is they, too, who in the years to come will call for fresh surveys of our everliving and everchanglng speech. We shall need a New English Dictionary long be- fore Americans have begun to spell phonetically and dub themselves "Usonians." The word "brat," now a term of contempt, was once an ordinary ex- pression for a small child. FROM SUNSET COAST WHAT THE WESTERN PEOPLE ARE DOING. Progress of the Great West Told In a Few Pointed Paragraphs. Penticton apricot season ran to 7,000 crates shipped. Prospects are good for a fair honey crop in British Columbia. A big run of red fish is looked for on the Kaslo streams this season. Lumbermen at Cranbrook decided to put up the price a dollar a thousand. Over a thousand enemy aliens are interned in six camps in British Col- umbia. The high-water attendance at the public schools of Vancouver in June was 4,819. South Vancouver wants only mar- ried residents employed on its new sewer work. ITie canning factory at Brilliant put up two tons of fruit daily at its topmost time. North Vancouver civic ferry for the first six months of this year showed a deficit of over $8,000, The casaba, a cross between the watermelon and muskmelon, Ims be- come popular in Vancouver. Kamloops has rejected volunteers for war service wearing badges to show they offered their services. New Westminster decided it could not afford to send its fire chief to the Ottawa convention this year. For striking an interned alien a military g^uard at Fernie was fined $10 and dismissed from the ranks. After cutting Vancouver civic esti- mates over $250,000, a new cut must be made if the tax rate is kept at 22 mills. Prohibition is looming larger in the mind of British Columbia now that sister provinces have legalized liquor reform. New Westminster bakers were sur- prised to be summoned for selling loaves of bread less than a pound In weight. Premier McBride sent Col. Theodore Roosevelt a souvenir view book of British Columbia to recall his recent, visit. Otto Becker sold his coffee factory in New Westminster and was getting out of the country when caught as ai spy and interned. Some of the interned aliens at Brandon, Man., are now at a camp in, Revelstoke Park, where views are said to be delightful. New Westminster Council, after much trouble, got a local engineering plant ready for munition orders for, the war and never secured one. A man who refused his name, afteif doing two years for theft at New Westminster, got $500 cash back from the police; it was on him at the ar- rest. The current of the River Amazon is felt 150 miles out at sea. is the Sugar for Jams and Jellies. When you pay for good fruit, and spend a lot of time over It, you naturally want to be sur* that your jellies and preserves will turn out just right. You can be, ii yoa use ^fSSS^ Sugar, Absolutely pure, and always the same, REDPATH Sugar has for sixty years proved most dependable for preserving, canning and jelly-making. It Is just as easy to get the best â€" and well worth while. So tell your grocer 11 must be REDPATH Sugar, in one of the packages originated for REDPATHâ€" 2 and 5 lb. Sealed Caiiont. 10, 20, 50 and 100 lb. Cb»tb Bag*. *'Let S^sX 142 Sweeten It" CANADA SUGAR REFINING CO.. UMITEO. MONTREAU r^'^m aolbt-l /