No sooner had he made up his mind to organize a family partnership concern than he set out to have the necessary forms of contract drafted and prepared.  A great many fair ones nominated themselves as candidates for election, but as he was living under Christian methods he could only accept one—­which was annoying—­no matter how eager he may have been to Mormonize himself.  They fluttered around him like moths about an electric arc, and they even deserted their former pre-emptions for the new float prospects.  In due course the successful candidate was introduced to the Legislature as a new member.

The nuptials over, they migrated in the fall with the swallows to California, on their honeymoon, and, after escaping the earthquake, returned to their happy and beautiful home.  There was a great eruption among the marriageable prospects of Ashcroft, because many of them had dropped a real bone into the water in snapping at the illusory shadow.

An indignation meeting was arranged at which it was resolved that the least prepossessing and most unlikely of the nominees had secured the winning majority.  But love is a very contrary commodity, and a defect may be a virtue in the eyes of a hero-worshipper; and “My Lady” was serenely happy in spite of her unpopularity with her rivals.  Hard Times Hance had sprouted from pauperdom and had bloomed into princedom, and his newly acquired partner placed the final mouldings and decorations to his life.

They gave frequent balls and banquets, and the most select society in the environs clamored for admittance.  To his wife the prince was a modern Aladdin.  She had but to wish and the wish was granted.  “Eaton’s” catalogue was her Bible, and it was her only food between meals; packages arrived daily with the regularity of the Vancouver Province.  She had a standing order there for hats, dresses and kimonas, to be rushed out the moment the fashions changed.  While before Hance had taken a pleasure in saving, he now had a mania for spending money; and their merry marriage bells continued to ring for a few sweet years without ceasing.

But gradually the spell wore off the self-made prince.  The little creek, the long trail, the deep woods, the dug-out, and the salt pork barrel loomed up occasionally before his mind’s eye.  In absent-minded dreams he would find himself wandering among the stock on the range at his old ranch; or he would be drinking water from the creek in the old-fashioned, natural way; or chasing a deer at the other end of the long trail.  His wife’s sweet voice would recall him to the immediate, and in her presence he would regret his meditations.  But it would be but temporary.  What profits a man to gain the world, if he lose his peace of mind?  “What!  I unhappy among all this kingly paraphernalia, and with a queen wife?” he would ask himself, going down into the basement to replenish the furnace.  With every shovelful of coal he would curse himself for his feebleness of mind.