CHAPTER XIX 



THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE DISCOVERED 



The winter had ended and the May days had come, when Mr. 

 Joseph Keeler next met the professor under the old familiar 

 conditions in the library after a stroll through the grounds 

 now odorous from flowering shrubs. Mr. Keeler was looking out 

 upon the world again with a pardonable contentment. The 

 last two or more years' events had brought out in him qualities, 

 which, before dormant, were now making him view life from a 

 broader and more generous standpoint, and causing the fine 

 type of business man to move amongst his fellows with a benig- 

 nant countenance, which gave to his naturally dignified bearing 

 a grace which influenced pleasantly all with whom he came in 

 contact. 



From time to time he had chatted shortly with the professor 

 about his rural ventures, and tonight he was rehearsing the 

 latest from the Farm. He told of the splendid energy which 

 John had developed, and of the comprehensive views he was 

 obtaining of the pressing needs of rural districts in Ontario and of 

 the ways through which a new prosperity might be brought to 

 them. He told of John's investigations into the methods de- 

 veloped in Europe, whereby governments had created agri- 

 cultural credits, through which associations could obtain 

 funds at low rates of interest, necessary for new undertakings or 

 extending old ones. 



"What do you think, professor, of the soundness of such a 

 policy for Canada?" said Mr. Keeler, "Is there any reason why 

 the capital of governments, properly secured, should not be 

 loaned to such agricultural associations?" 



The professor replied : 



"Certainly not, but on the contrary there is every reason 

 based on practice, why such loans should be made in the same 

 way as railway grants, bonuses to steel works, and shipping com- 

 panies, since, even more than these, they will become at once 



