84 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



Miss Ellen Inkster, and the daughter of a brother 

 officer of the Hudson Bay Company. She was a 

 woman of great charm, in whose quiet courtesy 

 dignity and gentleness seemed always peculiarly one. 

 Isolated as were the greater number of the pioneer 

 families of the North- West, the many official and 

 distinguished persons who " stopped off " to visit 

 the historic and beautiful neighbourhood of Fort 

 Qu'Appelle, or passed through on their way to that 

 paradise of sportsmen known as " the Head of the 

 Lakes," seldom missed the opportunity to pay their 

 respects to Mr. and Mrs. Macdonald who, through 

 a period extending over forty years, have shown 

 much kindly hospitality to the English, and some 

 of the most attractive leaves in the " last of the 

 chief factors' " book of memory are associated with 

 British names of which we have good reason to be 

 proud. 



Of his several children two sons were prominent 

 in the movement of affairs in Canada — the elder, 

 John A. Macdonald, being Conservative member for 

 North Qu'Appelle in the Saskatchewan Chamber of 

 Legislature from 1908-1913; and another, Donald 

 H. Macdonald, well known in Western Canada as 

 being one of the biggest landowners and of particular 

 perspicacity and knowledge in financial affairs, has 

 also a place in the history of my farming experi- 

 ment. 



I think we returned the Millingtons' call last, 

 in spite of the fact that they had been the first 

 to seek us out, because they live two miles on the 

 far side of Fort Qu'Appelle and on the opposite shore 

 of the western lake, so that it was fully eight miles 

 to drive. It was a bitterly cold afternoon on which 



