Moreover, a change was coming to him; he felt that he had reached the trail fork and now must choose his path.
He was thirty years of age and a railroad builder, though he hardly thought he had much talent for his profession.

Hard work and stubborn perseverance had carried him on up to the present, but it looked as if he could not go much farther.

It was eight years since he began by joining a shovel gang, and he felt the lack of scientific training.

He might continue to fill subordinate posts, but the men who came to the front had been taught by famous engineers and held certificates.
Yet Festing was ambitious and had abilities that sprang rather from character than technical knowledge, and now wondered whether he should leave the railroad and join the breakers of virgin soil.

He knew something about prairie farming and believed that success was largely a matter of temperament.