"Well," he reasoned, "in my opinion, the white man's greatest superiority over all other peoples is his capacity for making useful things--even if they're only ugly sawmills or grimy locomotives. Philosophy never fed any one or lightened anybody's toil; commerce is a convenience, but the man who makes a big profit out of it is only levying a heavy toll on somebody else. It seems to me that all our actual benefits come from the constructor." "Have you been building sawmills?" Millicent asked mischievously. He laughed with open good-humor. "Oh, no; that's why I'm free to talk. I happened to find a lode with some gold in it, and gold is only a handy means of exchanging things. I'll own that I was probably doing more useful work when I stood up to my waist in ice-water, fitting sharp stones into a pulp-mill dam." "Perhaps you're right," Millicent agreed, "but it sounds severe. What of the people who never do anything directly useful at all?" "There are a few who, by just going up and down in it, keep the world sweet and clean. Some of the rest could very well be spared." "Then you believe that everybody must practically justify his existence?" "If he fails to do so with us, his existence generally ceases. The wilderness where I found the gold is full of the bones of the unfit." Millicent spread out some drawings. Most were in color, in some cases several of the same object, done with patient care, and she was strangely pleased when she saw the quick appreciation in his eyes. "An otter; it's alive," he remarked. "You've shown it working through a shallow, looking much less like an animal than a fish--that's right." "I made half a dozen sketches, and I'm not satisfied yet." "Thorough," he commented. "You get there, if you have to hammer the heart out of whatever you're up against." "It's my brother's book," she answered. "I'm finishing it for him. He did other things--most of them useful, indirectly. I've only this--and I'd like my part to be good." He nodded sympathetically, looking troubled. "I can understand," he said. "I had a partner--I owe him more than I could ever have repaid, and he left a troublesome piece of work to me. It will have to be put through. But let me see some more; they're great." She showed him a red jay; a tiny gold-crest perched on a thorn branch; a kingfisher gleaming with turquoise hues, poised ready for a dive upon a froth-lapped stone. He was no cultured critic, but he knew the ways of the wild creatures and saw that she had talent, for her representations of them were instinct with life. They were interrupted by a scratching at the door and when she opened it a white setter hobbled awkwardly in and curled itself at her feet. "He's rather a big dog for the house, but I can't keep him away from me," she explained. "As you see, he has lost a foot, in a trap, and he was marked for destruction when I asked for him. Sometimes I think he knows that I saved his life."