siness qualities. Jake had a follow-up peculiarly his own, and that afternoon he came steaming into our pres

te speech. "I got a fistful o' luck fer you. Chap down at the stables-trouble o' some kind or other-wants

orses and no cow, or oxen and a cow, and the vote at the moment stands unanimous for milk to our porri

s. It's agin human nature. I've seen profanity on some o' the ox trails o' this country so thick it lay jus' like a fog on the prairie. You could jus'

answer. "You don't happen to have a hard-up friend who wo

chap who was talkin' o' sellin' his oxen t'other day. As sleek a yoke as ever switched a tail in fly-time; gentle, an' stron

ed. "Have you a cow o

tove. It's all right, Jake; we don't mind your little graft so long as you play the game half fairly, and see that

ces in preventing other people from cheating us a great deal. The arrangement, I believe, worked out to our advantage. Jake undoubtedly bought our supplies for les

rate with hens and another with a young pig, while over all roosted, if I may use the term, the two girls. The cow we tied behind, while Jack and I walked as a sort of flank guard on either side of the oxen. These two phlegmatic creatures rejoiced

the lack of speed, of which his highly recommended oxen gave evidence.

't move at all; he jus' humps up an' prays. When Buck an' Bright come to tha

rush of color, and the sunsets indescribable. It was an unfolding experience, like the opening of some spring flowers; at times I caught a half wistful, wondering, yearning look in Jean's eyes quite different from anything I had known before. I saw no such glimpse in the eyes of Marjorie, or of Jack; but there it was in

life of the open. The smell of spring flowers was in our nostrils; the whip of spring winds about our cheeks; the myriad murmurings of the little lives of spring crept up through the silences. When

ence. They treated the whole experience as a high adventure, and after cramped hours on the top of "the ark" they would race like

un is an impetuous lover, and their cheeks and lips showed the mark of his caresses. He was a rival who did not pique my jeal

nt of their burrows and sent their shrill whistle defiantly forth, save when a well-aimed clod from Jack or me brought the note to an end in a sudden sharp crescendo, accompanied by a flicker of a jaunty tail as the owner took refuge underground. In a moment, if we watched, we would see his sharp eyes levelled on us through the grass at the mouth of his burrow, or perhaps he

with their scarlet tunics and trim gold ribboned riding trousers and clanking spurs have turned more heads than Jean's before and since. It seems the girls were walking along a business street when they saw a young policeman coming at a short distance, and they happened to stop to admire something in a window while he approached. He also stopped to admire, and Marjorie said somethin

king with him," M

er pretty face colouring. "You st

was. I had nothing to do at home, but I knew I would be

e! How c

would call on her af

ow, and he said he hoped he would be patrolling there. He's going to be sent out from barrac

ningly, and there was a little sting in

, Marjorie," I said, in t

" she retorted.

was true that there was no engagement between us, unless the word of a man of six and a woman of four can be taken as binding, but I looked on Jean as mine, nevertheless, and I

walk, on my side of the wagon. We trudged along for some distance in sil

at me," she

I can't imagine, I was, a

," she went on. "Marjorie wa

d. "But you shouldn't hav

hy

r. You didn't eve

in this country, you don't have to know

said, sarcastica

"See, I can beat you to that

lmost a match for me. She reached the little mound first, and as she turned she swerved a little from her course, and I happened

d a sense of being very much of a brute. .

close to the bank of the gully on Fourteen. For an hour or more we had been straining our eyes for a glimpse of the promised land, but as it looked exactly the same as all the other land for miles around we coul

r first sees his name on an office signboard. But the greatest is when he first looks upon land he can call his own. True, this land was not yet ours, but it was pledged to us if we carried out our part of a very

either spoke. "Well, what do you t

s as good as any. But I don't see how you are going

you say

s splashing pastels of bronze and copper against a background

girls here, and Frank may do as he likes, but I'm going to cross the gully and sleep to-ni

s around here are just about high enough

s yet," said Jack, knowing

be disturbed. Neither coaxing, nor proddings, nor pullin

he brow of the gully and pitched it on the spot where we had planned that my shack should be. We also unloaded part of our equipment so that we could make use of it in the housekeeping operations. It was with great zest that we carried our cookstove t

ently Marjorie was flip-flapping pancakes on the "spider" with the art of a mature housew

hink she would have been able to supply you," I v

h I consider a cow as necessary a par

ay and a night to be lived over many a time in memory. For the first time in our lives we were drinking of the wells of pos

awling slowly up from the east when a sharp, whistling rustle

exclaimed. "It was a

ndulging in a very sorry

et? What

a wild duck, darting into the darkness at a couple of

luded a cheap shot-gun among the articles considere

warranted confidence in my marksmanship and

p the gun and filling my pocket with cartridg

rear. Down the steep edge of the gully we worked, and then along by the marge of the brown snow-water which rippled happily over beds of bendin

winds in winter and prairie fires in spring and fall. The air was full of the sweet scent of bursting willow buds and balm-o'-Gilead, and as we

ver told me of thi

ne who keeps the best to the last. "We did not s

poplar and balm, and we had to make progress as best we co

t its first pinion of light sweeping down from the north-east and splashing burnt-orange and ochre across the slightly ruffled surface of the pond. We stood for a time as mortals transfix

ine of light. I drew my gun to my shoulder, and even as I did so their murmured grumblings, sibilant almost as the lisp of water on a gravelly shore, came to our ears, and they began t

; you mustn't!" Jean

e aim, to justify the high opinion already referred to, but at Jean's sudden interference I pressed the trigger, or, as I always cl

t him?" shouted Marjorie an

didn't even try to get him. I just wan

those poor creatures, the very first night we were here! How beautiful they were, and how-how

no wild duck-ducklet I mean-for

what is it?-three or four cents each," Ma

true to his promise, gathered up his blankets, waded the cold stream, and s