112 DEEP FURROWS 



and to earn it he had walked three miles and a half 

 each morning after milking the cows at home, arriving 

 at the school soaking wet with dew from wading in the 

 long prairie grass. And even at that, the trustees had 

 wanted a " cheaper " teacher ! A woman, they thought, 

 might do it cheaper. 



The young schoolmaster objected so earnestly, how- 

 ever, that the argument was dropped. He needed this 

 money to assist in a plan for attending the Collegiate at 

 Portage la Prairie. He taught the school so well that 

 after studying Latin at Manitoba College in 1899, the 

 trustees were glad to get him back the following year 

 at a salary of f 35 per month. 



But milking cows at home night and morning and 

 teaching school in between was not an exciting life at 

 best for a young fellow ambitious to go farming. So 

 at last he acquired a quarter-section of Hudson Bay 

 Company land near Russell and took to " baching it " 

 in a little frame shack. 



In the fall some lumber was required for buildings 

 and it so happened that along came an old chap with a 

 proposition to put in a portable sawmill on a timber 

 limit up in the Riding Mountains nearby. The old 

 man meant business alright; he had the engine within 

 ten miles of its destination before he was overtaken and 

 the whole machine seized for debt. It looked as if the 

 thousands of logs which the residents of the district 

 had taken out for the expected mill had been piled up 

 to no purpose. Crerar, however, succeeded in making a 

 deal for the engine and, with a couple of partners, 

 began sawing up logs. The little sawmill proved so 

 useful that he ran it for four winters. When finally it 

 was burned down no attempt was made to rebuild. Its 

 owner was entering wider fields of activity. 



