slowly-growing speck on section Eleven, and a mile away we heard remarks t

n he drew up before our shack. "I could have walked much easi

fresh hay at our stable, moved down over the bank of the gully and

ally thing together. Yesterday they balked in the hay meadow; in the hay meadow, mind you, where, if at all, an ox should be in an amiable mood. I ar

ix them," Jack remarked

," Spoof protested. "'Fix' is to make fast, to rende

Canada, to 'fix' a balky ox means, when everything else fails, to p

't I think of that? I suppose because I'm a gre

p to the house. The girls were waiting in the shade at the eastern side of the shack; in their S

r me. "Real prairie roses, and no mistake," as he took their hands in his. "It's jolly decent to ask a stranger over. All this out-of-do

e was fumbling for words. "It's too grand; i

im a polar bear for Christmas, and he's quite looking forward to it. He writes to know if I find the native labor satisfactory, and can my man mix a decent whisky and soda. I must set his mind at

ou?" Marjorie queried, the convers

rested in another kind of extravagance. A Younger Son is a very successful form of extravagance, don't you think? What is it Kipling says-'By the bitter ro

some appropriate remark Spoof r

The Illustrated London News and The Graphic. There are some sketches by an artist showing

turned to agricultural topi

. No doubt it was a foolish notion of mine that a furrow should run either east and west or north and south, seeing that th

cro

hank Heaven, I'm not Scotch. No reflection on the Scotch," he added hurriedly, noting a warning flash in Mar

rden e

owers. They shoul

rs? Why s

They stand up through the snow, and the sunlight beating on their bright, yellow faces enables a settler to locate his shack when otherwise the

"Our friend Jake seems to be a good adv

n't make a bit of difference. In fact, gophers seem to be about all I'm raising this year-gophers and sunflowers. His wild duck trap was no success, either. Jake showed me how to make a trap for wild ducks, and told me to put

h the bones?" Jack inquired, with a face

No, he didn't

p. You see, the ducks cannot see the bones at night, and so they are guided by the scent of the tiger lilies, which always grow around

erhaps, to have averted it. Now she sprang in front of us like a mother bird at bay. If Jean, passive, was beaut

ned her withering glance particularly upon her brother, but I did not quite escape it. "They take advantage of

d belligerent indignation. She had revealed a new side of her nature that was wonderful, adorable; perhaps a bit dangerous. The poignancy of her beauty w

e all right. A ripping good joke, I call it. I must work that on the Governor when he co

you have promised him," said Jack, slyly. "You

was very close to tears. "You too, Frank!" she exclaimed, suddenly turn

let me out, I had n

bad as Jack, and you would have said the s

blow, but Spoof

ding; no afternoon tea. I must speak to my man about that. He's the same man as mi

good humor. They went inside, and when in a short while they brought out tea and sandwiches the storm had s

hich I have been divorced for more days than I care to number-that thing for which I would gladly give half of my kingdom, meaning the north-west quarter of section Two? No? Observe the blushes beneath my sunburned

e west, was burnishing with hues of burnt-orange and amber. Along its grassy shore on the northern side a score or more wild ducks were feeding, some of them tail-tilted in the air as they grubbe

ll me about this? I will have that land guide's giz

e youngsters; but there's a great day coming. But th

do you think there would be any great danger-

is in use we fly this banner on the bank of the gully, and we're as safe as Sunday. The girls usually have th

ndressed. "My word, and

odestly. "We lived beside a river at home, and she had

of us by pulling our worthy Frank out of the mill-pond one day, after the bubbles had begun to come." So

lcome me," said Spoof, as he revelled in the water. "You k

Jack admitted, spoutin

Englishman has every morning, and a bath

der the water while I count

nd peaceful calm which marks the summer evening an hour or two before sundown. The grass had taken on its peculiar evening shade of green; the sunlight was yellow and amber, the stillness so universal an

alized for the first time that Spoof was not a boy, as were Jack and I. There were lines in the cheeks and about the eyes which, magnified by the

; tales of art treasures and music and theatres all alight with life and beauty; tales of grave-stones marking the great of a nation with a history reaching back into the early obscurity of Western civilizatio

ries. It's a wonderful thing to lay corner-stones of empire. But it's a dangerous thing to have no past to steady you, to humble you, to in

d to mix with ours," said Jean. "We need something to l

erful qualities-but they are likely to need poise. That is something we are perhaps overstocked with at home. My blessed co

What other people would be so ready to adjust themselves

been all afternoon nursing Jean back into good humor, and I'm not to

ks could say a word or two about my musical voice if

ven't added a piano yet to our equipment. I suppose we shall have to buy a binder and

like to see you keep a piano

banjo tucked away somewhere in my belongings. Something I forgot to pa

Jean, and her voice was quit

to go home. We helped him bind up his broken reach and hitch the "bally bullocks" to the wagon and watched him disappear into the darknes

arted for the night. "I am glad w

my voice had no r