Margaret Bolton smiled at this new-fangled philosophy.  “Thee will find that love, Ruth, is a thing thee won’t reason about, when it comes, nor make any bargains about.  Thee wrote that Philip Sterling was at Fallkill.”

“Yes, and Henry Brierly, a friend of his; a very amusing young fellow and not so serious-minded as Philip, but a bit of a fop maybe.”

“And thee preferred the fop to the serious-minded?”

“I didn’t prefer anybody; but Henry Brierly was good company, which Philip wasn’t always.”

“Did thee know thee father had been in correspondence with Philip?”

Ruth looked up surprised and with a plain question in her eyes.

“Oh, it’s not about thee.”

“What then?” and if there was any shade of disappointment in her tone, probably Ruth herself did not know it.

“It’s about some land up in the country.  That man Bigler has got father into another speculation.”

“That odious man!  Why will father have anything to do with him?  Is it that railroad?”

“Yes.  Father advanced money and took land as security, and whatever has gone with the money and the bonds, he has on his hands a large tract of wild land.”

“And what has Philip to do with that?”

“It has good timber, if it could ever be got out, and father says that there must be coal in it; it’s in a coal region.  He wants Philip to survey it, and examine it for indications of coal.”

“It’s another of father’s fortunes, I suppose,” said Ruth.  “He has put away so many fortunes for us that I’m afraid we never shall find them.”

Ruth was interested in it nevertheless, and perhaps mainly because Philip was to be connected with the enterprise.  Mr. Bigler came to dinner with her father next day, and talked a great deal about Mr. Bolton’s magnificent tract of land, extolled the sagacity that led him to secure such a property, and led the talk along to another railroad which would open a northern communication to this very land.

“Pennybacker says it’s full of coal, he’s no doubt of it, and a railroad to strike the Erie would make it a fortune.”

“Suppose you take the land and work the thing up, Mr. Bigler; you may have the tract for three dollars an acre.”

“You’d throw it away, then,” replied Mr. Bigler, “and I’m not the man to take advantage of a friend.  But if you’ll put a mortgage on it for the northern road, I wouldn’t mind taking an interest, if Pennybacker is willing; but Pennybacker, you know, don’t go much on land, he sticks to the legislature.”  And Mr. Bigler laughed.

When Mr. Bigler had gone, Ruth asked her father about Philip’s connection with the land scheme.

“There’s nothing definite,” said Mr. Bolton.  “Philip is showing aptitude for his profession.  I hear the best reports of him in New York, though those sharpers don’t ’intend to do anything but use him.  I’ve written and offered him employment in surveying and examining the land.  We want to know what it is.  And if there is anything in it that his enterprise can dig out, he shall have an interest.  I should be glad to give the young fellow a lift.”