142 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



a lot in house and stable. Besides all this he could 

 milk and hitch up, and he was just an English boy 

 and I knew him. 



The work went fairly well at the start, and I 

 played my part well three times a day according to 

 the sound and practical advice of Dick McGusty, 

 but I could not help noticing that the stables did 

 not seem quite so neat and tidy as at the Milling- 

 tons, and the particular and most necessary labour 

 of shifting the winter manure from the stable and 

 its environment distinctly hung fire. My new 

 chore-boy too was occasionally a little melancholy, 

 although he cheered up over the business of fetching 

 three loads of hay which I was permitted to purchase 

 from Guy Mazey as a great favour at five dollars a 

 load ; and when my brother returned for a few days 

 at the end of the month his spirits reached top note. 

 Then came his great and glorious day, which I 

 signed with so scarlet a mark of appreciation that I 

 fear it marked the beginning of the end. 



I had purchased from Mr. Mayne's sale a set of 

 bob-sleighs, a second wagon, and another bedstead 

 for the stopping-house, and Heriot Hylton-Cave 

 was deputed to fetch them from Balcarres, a dis- 

 tance of eighteen miles. I had arranged that he 

 should bring back something for the Millingtons in 

 the wagon and leave it at the Clyst in passing. 

 Horses and man breakfasted well, and started on the 

 journey, but at midday down came a heavy fall of 

 snow, and even my brother and I, who had set out 

 for the Fort in the teeth of the north-west wind, 

 turned back half-way with the remark that for some 

 journeys life was really too short. 



The snow was still falling when we retired at the 



