"How can I tell, Daddy?" asked the girl. "There's only one way to learn. I'll forget my scruples, you get me a pair of rubber boots, then we'll drive to the tamarack swamp and experiment." "We'll do it!" cried Mr. Winton. "The very first half day I can spare, we'll do it. And you Douglas, you will want to come with us, of course." "Why, 'of course,'" laughed Leslie. "Because he started the expedition with his golden slippers. When it come to putting my girl, and incidentally my whole family, in competition with an Indian squaw on a question of art, naturally, her father and one of her best friends would want to be present." "But maybe 'Minnie' went alone, and what chance would her work have with you two for judges?" asked Leslie. "We needn't be the judges," said Douglas Bruce quietly. "We can put this basket in the basement in a cool, damp place, where it will keep perfectly for a week. When you make your basket we can find the squaw and bring her down with us. Lowry could display the results side by side. He could call up whomever you consider the most artistic man and woman in the city and get their decision. You'd be willing to abide by that, wouldn't you?" "Surely, but it wouldn't be fair to the squaw," explained Leslie. "I'd have had the benefit of her art to begin on." "It would," said Mr. Winton. "Does not every artist living, painter, sculptor, writer, what you will, have the benefit of all art that has gone before?" "You agree?" Leslie turned to Douglas. "Your father's argument is a truism." "But I will know that I am on trial. She didn't. Is it fair to her?" persisted Leslie. "For begging the question, commend me to a woman," said Mr. Winton. "The point we began at, was not what you could do in a contest with her. She went to the swamp and brought from it some flower baskets. It is perfectly fair to her to suppose that they are her best art. Now what we are proposing to test is whether the finest product of our civilization, as embodied in you, can go to the same swamp, and from the same location surpass her work. Do I make myself clear?" "Perfectly clear, Daddy, and it would be fair," conceded Leslie. "But it is an offence punishable with a heavy fine to peel a birch tree; while I wouldn't do it, if it were not." "Got her to respect the law anyway," said Mr. Winton to Douglas. "The proposition, Leslie, was not that you do the same thing, but that from the same source you outdo her. You needn't use birch bark if it involves your law-abiding soul." "Then it's all settled. You must hurry and take me before the lovely plants have flowered," said Leslie. "I'll go day after to-morrow," promised Mr. Winton. "In order to make our plan work, it is necessary that I keep these orchids until that time," said Leslie.