"Beautiful," he said, with enthusiasm. "Valley as

level as this floor, with just a little swell on, like the sea,
and rich as cream. Just enough brakes to shelter the

cattle in winter. Black loamy soil for six feet, and then
clay. Holds water. A dozen nice little houses on it,

with windmills and gardens. People pretty poor, I
guess -- too far from market -- but comfortable. Never

saw so many kids in my life."
"They raise flocks?" inquired the Commissioner.

"Ho, ho! I mean two-legged kids," lauched the
surveyor; "two-legged, and bare-legged, and tow-headed."

"Children! oh, children!" mused the Commissioner,
as though a new view had opened to him; "they raise

children!
"It's a lonesome country, Commissioner," said the

surveyor. "Can you blame 'em?"
"I suppose," continued the Commissioner, slowly, as

one carefully pursues deductions from a new, stupendous
theory, "not all of them are tow-headed. It would not

be unreasonable, Mr. Ashe, I conjecture, to believe that
a portion of them have brown, or even black, hair."

"Brown and black, sure," said Ashe; "also red."
"No doubt," said the Commissioner. "Well, I thank

you for your courtesy in informing me, Mr. Ashe. I will
not detain you any longer from your duties."

Later, in the afternoon, came Hamlin and Avery, big,
handsome, genial, sauntering men, clothed in white duck

and low-cut shoes. They permeated the whole office
with an aura of debonair prosperity. They passed among

the clerks and left a wake of abbreviated given names and
fat brown cigars.

These were the aristocracy of the land-sharks, who
went in for big things. Full of serene confidence in them-

selves, there was no corporation, no syndicate, no rail-
road company or attorney general too big for them to

tackle. The peculiar smoke of their rare, fat brown cigars
was to be perceived in the sanctum of every department

of state, in every committee-room of the Legislature, in
every bank parlour and every private caucus-room in

the state Capital. Always pleasant, never in a hurry, in
seeming to possess unlimitedleisure, people wondered

when they gave their attention to the many audacious
enterprises in which they were knnown to be engaged.

By and by the two dropped carelessly into the Com-
missioner's room and reclined lazily in the big, leather-

upholstered arm-chairs. They drawled a good-natured
complaint of the weather, and Hamlin told the Com-

missioner an excellent story he had amassed that morn-
ing from the Secretary of State.

But the Commissioner knew why they were there. He
had half promised to render a decision that day upon

their location.
The chief clerk now brought in a batch of duplicate

certificates for the Commissioner to sign. As he traced
his sprawling signature, "Hollis Summerfield, Comr.

Genl. Land Office," on each one, the chief clerk stood,
deftly removing them and applying the blotter.

"I notice," said the chief clerk, "you've been going
through that Salado County location. Kampfer is mak-

ing a new map of Salado, and I believe is platting in that
section of the county now."

"I will see it," said the Comissioner. A few moments
later he went to the draughtsmen's room.

As he entered he saw five or six of the draughtsmen
grouped about Kampfer's desk, gargling away at each

other in pectoral German, and gazing at something there-
upon. At the Commissioner's approach they scattered

to their several places. Kampfer, a wizened little Ger-
man, with long, frizzled ringlets and a watery eye, began

to stammer forth some sort of an apology, the Commis-
sioner thought, for the congregation of his fellows about

his desk.
"Never mind,' said the Commissioner, "I wish to

see the map you are making"; and, passing around the
old German, seated himself upon the high draughtsman's

stool. Kampfer continued to break English in trving to
explain.

"Herr Gommissioner, I assure you blenty sat I haf
not it bremeditated -- sat it wass -- sat it itself make.

Look you! from se field notes wass it blatted -- blease
to observe se calls: South, 10 degrees west 050 varas;

south, 10 degrees east 300 varas; south, 100; south, 9
west, 200; south, 40 degrees west 400 -- and so on.

Herr Gommissioner, nefer would I have -- "
The Commissioner raised one white hand, silently,

Kampfer dropped his pipe and fled.
With a hand at each side of his face, and his elbows

resting upon the desk, the Commissioner sat staring at
the map which was spread and fastened there -- staring

at the sweet and living profile of little Georgia drawn
thereupon -- at her face, pensive, delicate, and infantile,

outlined in a perfect likeness.
When his mind at length came to inquire into the rea-

son of it, he saw that it must have been, as Kampfer had
said, unpremeditated. The old draughtsman had been

platting in the Elias Denny survey, and Georgia's likeness,
striking though it was, was formed by nothing more than

the meanders of Chiquito River. Indeed, Kampfer's
blotter, whereon his preliminary work was done, showed

the laborious tracings of the calls and the countless
pricks of the compasses. Then, over his faint pencilling,

Kampfer had drawn in India ink with a full, firm pen the
similitude of Chiquito River, and forth had blossomed

mysteriously the dainty, patheticprofile of the child.
The Commissioner sat for half an hour with his face

in his hands, gazing downward, and none dared approach
him. Then he arose and walked out. In the business

office he paused long enough to ask that the Denny file
be brought to his desk.

He found Hamlin and Avery still reclining in their
chairs, apparently oblivious of business. They were

lazily discussing summer opera, it being, their habit --
perhaps their pride also -- to appear supernaturally

indifferent whenever they stood with large interests
imperilled. And they stood to win more on this stake

than most people knew. They possessed inside infor-
mation to the effect that a new railroad would, within a

year, split this very Chiquito River valley and send land
values ballooning all along its route. A dollar under

thirty thousand profit on this location, if it should hold
good, would be a loss to their expectations. So, while

they chatted lightly and waited for the Commissioner
to open the subject, there was a quick, sidelong sparkle

in their eyes, evincing a desire to read their title clear
to those fair acres on the Chiquito.

A clerk brought in the file. The Commissioner seated
himself and wrote upon it in red ink. Then he rose to