The serried ranks of wheat pressed closely round the straggling sheds and barns and hid the lower windows.

But the sheds were fitted with the latest agricultural machinery; a telegraphic wire connected the nearest town with an office in the wing of one of the buildings, where Dr.West sat, and in the midst of the wilderness severely checked his accounts with nature.
Whether this strict economy of domestic outlay arose from an ostentatious contempt of country life and the luxurious habits of the former landholders, or whether it was a purely business principle of Dr.West, did not appear.

Those who knew him best declared that it was both.

Certain it was that unqualified commercial success crowned and dignified his method.

A few survivors of the old native families came to see his strange machinery, that did the work of so many idle men and horses.