"THAT MAN PARTRIDGE!" 65 



an anxiety which led the visitor to keep the wall at his 

 back like a man expecting general excitement to break 

 loose at any moment ! 



On reaching Broadview the prospects for the new 

 school looked bright, so the hopeful pedagogue sent 

 back word to the sod house to this effect. 



" And don't you fellows forget to send my linen," he 

 wrote jokingly. " Make the trunk heavy, too. I don't 

 know how long it will have to represent my credit !" 



When the trunk arrived it was so heavy that it took 

 two men to carry it into the hotel. When in the secrecy 

 of his own room E. A. Partridge ventured to look inside 

 he found his few books, a pair of " jumper " socks and 

 a lot of stones ! Also there was an old duster with a 

 piece of paper pinned to it, advising : " Here's your 

 linen!" 



The Broadview school did not last long for the reason 

 that the second North-West Rebellion broke out that 

 year and the teacher joined the Yorkton Rangers. Fifty 

 cents a day and grub was an alluring prospect ; many a 

 poor homesteader would have joined the ranks on active 

 service for the grub alone, especially when the time of 

 his absence was being allowed by the Government to 

 apply on the term set for homestead duties before he 

 could come into full possession of his land. Many 

 farmers earned money, also, teaming supplies from the 

 railway north to Battleford and Prince Albert. 



In common with his fellow grain growers, the five 

 years that followed were years of continuous struggle 

 for E> A. Partridge. The railway came and the country 

 commenced to settle quickly. The days of prairie fires 

 that ran amuck gave way to thriving crops; but at 

 thirty and forty cents per bushel the thriving of those 

 who sowed them was another matter. 

 5 



