accessories of rod, gun, and horses. But Leonard, the eldest, and Webb, the
second in years, were true children of the soil, in the better sense of the
term. Their country home had been so replete with interest from earliest
memory that they had taken root there like the trees which their father had
planted. Leonard was a practical farmer, content, in a measure, to follow
the traditions of the elders. Webb, on the other hand, was disposed to look
past the outward aspects of Nature to her hidden moods and motives, and to
take all possible advantage of his discoveries. The farm was to him a
laboratory, and, with something of the spirit of the old alchemists, he
read, studied, and brooded over the problem of producing the largest
results at the least cost. He was by no means deficient in imagination, or
even in appreciation of the beautiful side of nature, when his thoughts
were directed to this phase of the outer world; but his imagination had
become materialistic, and led only to an eager quest after the obscure laws
of cause and effect, which might enable him to accomplish what to his
plodding neighbors would seem almost miraculous. He understood that the
forces with which he was dealing were wellnigh infinite; and it was his
delight to study them, to combine them, and make them his servants. It was
his theory that the energy in nature was like a vast motive power, over
which man could throw the belt of his skill and knowledge, and so produce
results commensurate with the force of which he availed himself. There was,
therefore, an unfailing zest in his work, and the majority of his labors
had the character of experiments, which, nevertheless, were so guided by
experience that they were rarely futile or unremunerative. On themes that
accorded with his tastes and pursuits he would often talk earnestly and
well, but his silence and preoccupation at other times proved that it is
not best to be dominated by one idea, even though it be a large one.