Lakeside was a pleasant little town of five or six thousand inhabitants and arather pretty one too as towns go in the Far West. It had churchaccommodations for ... » 

Lakeside was a pleasant little town of five or six thousand inhabitants and arather pretty one too as towns go in the Far West. It had churchaccommodations for thirtyfive thousand which is the way of the Far West andthe South where everybody is religious and where each of the Protestant sectsis represented and has a plant of its own. Rank was unknown in Lakesideunconfessed anyway everybody knew everybody and his dog and a sociablefriendliness was the prevailing atmosphere. Saladin Foster was bookkeeper inthe principal store and the only highsalaried man of his profession inLakeside. He was thirtyfive years old now he had served that store forfourteen years he had begun in his marriageweek at four hundred dollars ayear and had climbed steadily up a hundred dollars a year for four yearsfrom that time forth his wage had remained eight hundreda handsome figureindeed and everybody conceded that he was worth it. «