VI 



WHEAT SALES— THE FALL OF THE 

 LEAF— LE BRET 



My brother and I had come to an arrangement by 

 which he worked for me at the rate of twenty dollars 

 a month, and over the business of hauling the grain 

 he was far and away the best man at the game that 

 ever fell to my lot. He got up at daylight, cooked 

 his own breakfast, and we usually heard the wheels 

 of the wagon as the sun rose up from the horizon. 

 He made the fourteen miles of distance to South 

 Qu'Appelle, which at that time was my nearest 

 wheat town, in about three and a half hours, took from 

 one to two hours' rest, getting home at about three 

 thirty, in time to load up for the next day. At first 

 we tried the big teams on one day and the middle- 

 weight the next, but Jess, the mare, was distinctly 

 on the light side for hauling, although Dick took it 

 as gamely as he took everything else in his splendid 

 life. The trails too at that early hour in the morn- 

 ing were soundly starched by autumn frost, which 

 made the going easy, although on one occasion the 

 wagon got into a rut, and Hilaria and I had to rush to 

 the rescue in very little more than our night attire, as 

 she had felt that my brother's shout for aid couldn't 

 possibly signify anything less than a broken leg. 

 The first load went out on October 20. It graded 



58 



