The Spenders | Page 5

he had, in his years of solitude,
formed the habit of considering, in a leisurely and hospitable manner,
even the reverse sides of propositions that are commonly accepted by
men without question.
"The money _can't_ prevent me from doin' what I jest want
to--certain--but, maybe, _don't_ it? If I didn't have it I'd fur sure be
back in the hills and happy, and so would Evalina, that ain't had hardly

what you could call a good day since we made the strike."
On this line of reasoning it took Peter Bines no long time to conclude
that he ought now to enjoy as a luxury what he had once been
constrained to as a necessity.
"Even when I was poor and had to hit the trail I jest loved them hills, so
why ain't it crafty to pike back to 'em now when I don't have to?"
His triumphant finale was:
"When you come to think about it, a rich man ain't really got any more
excuse fur bein' mis'able than a poor man has!"
Back to the big hills that called him had he gone; away from the cities
where people lived "too close together and too far apart;" back to the
green, rough earth where the air was free and quick and a man could
see a hundred miles, and the people lived far enough apart to be
neighbourly.
There content had blessed him again; content not slothful but inciting; a
content that embraced his own beloved West, fashioning first in fancy
and then by deed, its own proud future. He had never ceased to plan
and stimulate its growth. He not only became one with its manifold
interests, but proudly dedicated the young Daniel to its further making.
He became an ardent and bigoted Westerner, with a scorn for the East
so profound that no Easterner's scorn for the West hath ever by any
chance equalled it.
Prospecting with the simple outfit of old became his relaxation, his
sport, and, as he aged, his hobby. It was said that he had exalted
prospecting to the dignity of an art, and no longer hunted gold as a
pot-hunter. He was even reputed to have valuable deposits "covered,"
and certain it is that after Creede made his rich find on Mammoth
Mountain in 1890, Peter Bines met him in Denver and gave him
particulars about the vein which as yet Creede had divulged to no one.
Questioned later concerning this, Peter Bines evaded answering directly,
but suggested that a man who already had plenty of money might have

done wisely to cover up the find and be still about it; that Nat Creede
himself proved as much by going crazy over his wealth and blowing
out his brains.
To a tamely prosperous Easterner who, some years after his return to
the West, made the conventional remark, "And isn't it amazing that you
were happy through those hard years of toil when you were so poor?"
Peter Bines had replied, to his questioner's hopeless bewilderment: "No.
But it is surprisin' that I kept happy after I got rich--after I got what I
wanted.
"I reckon you'll find," he added, by way of explaining, "that the
proportion of happy rich to unhappy rich is a mighty sight smaller than
the proportion of happy poor to the unhappy poor. I'm one of the
former minority, all right,--but, by cripes! it's because I know how to be
rich and still enjoy all the little comforts of poverty!"
CHAPTER III.
Billy Brue Finds His Man
Each spring the old man grew restive and raw like an unbroken colt.
And when the distant mountain peaks began to swim in their summer
haze, and the little rushing rivers sang to him, pleading that he come
once more to follow them up, he became uncontrollable. Every year at
this time he alleged, with a show of irritation, that his health was being
sapped by the pernicious indulgence of sleeping on a bed inside a house.
He alleged, further, that stocks and bonds were but shadows of wealth,
that the old mines might any day become exhausted, and that security
for the future lay only in having one member of the family, at least,
looking up new pay-rock against the ever possible time of adversity.
"They ain't got to makin' calendars yet with the rainy day marked on
'em," he would say. "A'most any one of them innocent lookin' Mondays
or Tuesdays or Wednesdays is liable to be it when you get right up on
to it. I'll have to start my old bones out again, I see that. Things are
beginnin' to green up a'ready." When he did go it was always
understood to be positively for not more than two weeks. A list of his

reasons for extending the