NANCY 121 



brother-in-law who was leaving the neighbourhood. 

 The next day Mr. Edwardes came over and persuaded 

 me to go back with him and see the horses. 



The loss of the mare, the unaccustomed weight of 

 money worries, had blinded my judgment and 

 unnerved me altogether, or I couldn't have missed 

 the splendid chance I had of completing my list 

 of implements, and securing one or two of Mr. 

 Mayne's valuable Clydesdales at the astonishingly 

 low prices for which he offered them. After 

 sixteen years of hard pioneer work his careful 

 judgment and splendid patience had supplied him 

 with a perfect plant for working a three hundred 

 and twenty acre farm, but in the process the farm 

 had become mortgaged to the extent of a big 

 interest ; also that part of the valley seemed peculiarly 

 susceptible to the attack of early frost, and the 

 present industrial population of the cities had not 

 then arrived to cause the demand for meat and 

 dairy produce which places the commercial farmer 

 in a very much more independent position than the 

 pioneer farmer who had to count on wheat alone 

 to produce money. So Mr. Mayne had resolved to 

 sell his farm, and to use the balance that remained 

 to purchase a livery-barn in a city about three 

 hundred and fifty miles farther west. The sale 

 of the horses for cash was urgent. He offered me 

 a four-year-old grey Clydesdale expecting to foal 

 within the month for a hundred and fifty dollars 

 cash. She was not nearly as tall as the big team, 

 but bigger than Dick, and I made that the excuse 

 for refusing the offer ; but I did not feel sure that 

 the bank would allow me to increase my overdraft 

 so far, and I knew that I could buy on the usual 



