PRAIRIE LIFE. 



Prairie life has many a hardship, many a shortcoming, 

 and none too many recreations — indeed, I heard a cow-hand 

 aver with solemn philosophy, as he held out his tin plate for a 

 third helping from the cook's frying-pan, "A square meal is my 

 only recreation in this country." The intensity of work, the 

 struggle not to be "left" — to do a great deal with very little help 

 and at least possible cost — these allow the regular worker who 

 has chosen the prairie for his sphere of toil very scant leisure 

 beyond his daily occupations, and certainly limit his capacity 

 for extracting pleasure entirely to his vocations. It would be 

 wrong to assert that only a loiterer can afford to be apprecia- 

 tive of the beauties of nature ; but it is safe to assume that a 

 man over-busy, pre-occupied, somewhat fatigued, perhaps sadly 

 unsettled, derives less delight from their contemplation than he 



