Then, as she saw, the wheat country was nearly done; a great change was in progress; her curiosity sprang to meet it.

Droves of horses and cattle began to appear at rare intervals on the vast expanse.

No white, tree-sheltered farms here, like the farms in Manitoba; but scattered at long distances, near the railway or on the horizon, the first primitive dwellings of the new settlers--the rude "shack" of the first year--beginnings of villages--sketches of towns.
"I have always thought the Etruscan problem the most fascinating in the whole world," cried Delaine, with pleasant enthusiasm.

"When you consider all its bearings, linguistic and historical--" "Oh! _do_ you see," exclaimed Elizabeth, pointing--"_do_ you see all those lines and posts, far out to the horizon?
Do you know that all these lonely farms are connected with each other and the railway by _telephones_?
Mr.Anderson told me so; that some farmers actually make their fences into telephone lines, and that from that little hut over there you can speak to Montreal when you please?
And just before I left London I was staying in a big country house, thirty miles from Hyde Park Corner, and you couldn't telephone to London except by driving five miles to the nearest town!" "I wonder why that should strike you so much--the telephones, I mean ?" Delaine's tone was stiff.

He had thrown himself back in his chair with folded arms, and a slight look of patience.