134 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



have her back at the same price — I hope as though 

 I meant it. 



" Please don't think of anything of the kind," he 

 protested. " We are off next week to Medicine 

 Hat. I am quite content with the deal, since I 

 know she will be well cared for and quite at home in 

 a day or two." 



But Nancy was inconsolable for many a day. She 

 has the prettiest way of making herself understood, 

 and all the time "one waited by her stall she didn't 

 eat, but turned her head and made pathetic little 

 whinnies of inquiry for her master. She is not 

 demonstrative, and my ever-increasing affection 

 throve without any marked return of devotion for 

 many a day. Indeed, I think it was not until a 

 year after, when Felicity, her first foal, came into 

 the world and we shared the delight of her care, 

 that Nancy acknowledged me as her true owner, but 

 now her " welcome home " is worth the ten days' 

 journey. 



Two days after my brother, having done every- 

 thing possible to save me inconvenience during his 

 absence, went off with Jim and Kit, the big team, 

 on his forty-mile journey north to meet the 

 architect of the stopping-house ; and I spent the 

 only lonely night of many a night alone at the farm. 



