MEN OF THE TREES 



fixed again, I made another effort to mount and reached 

 the saddle, but this time he reared high in the air and 

 I only just had time to slip one side and allow him to 

 come backwards and fall clear of me. As soon as he got 

 to his feet, I caught the horn and threw myself into 

 the saddle, this time managing to retain my seat in 

 spite of a display of bucking fit for any competition. 

 He then went oflf at a gallop, so giving him the rein, I 

 concentrated on keeping my seat and rode him that 

 same Saturday afternoon a distance of twenty-five 

 miles, when I put up with a friendly farmer for the 

 night. The following day, I rode him home and from 

 then on never had any more trouble with him, and he 

 proved to be the best horse I've ever ridden. 



It was in the lumber camps, near Prince Albert, when 

 working as a lumberjack and swinging the axe that it 

 tore my heart to see the colossal waste of trees, and it 

 was then that I decided to qualify myself for forestry 

 work. I was one of the first hundred students at Sas- 

 katchewan University at Saskatoon in Canada, and in 

 19 1 3 after three and a half years in the Northwest I 

 sold my ponies, buggy and sleighs, returned to Winni- 

 peg and travelled down to Chicago on the Big Potato 

 Train. This was my first time of entering the States. 



Here I was delighted to renew my childhood friend- 

 ship with my old nurse and governess, who had preceded 

 me to Canada, where she had won the gold medal in 

 training for hospital nursing, and afterwards migrated 

 to Chicago, where she was nursing for one of the lead- 



^54 



