SEEDING 151 



to see that the passage was clear, and drove away. 

 As I watched the first seeds fall to the earth I had 

 a great desire that I might sow Success. By suc- 

 cess I meant something swift and brilliant. It all 

 seemed straight sailing and absurdly easy, and I 

 never dreamed that there lay between me and 

 success years of arduous toil and seasons of bitter 

 disappointment. It seemed to me as I walked back 

 to the cottage that I had assisted at a ceremony 

 and the ceremony was an inspiration. I wanted to 

 do my level best, but I was perfectly sure the gods 

 could do nothing less than theirs in order to stand 

 by a woman-farmer. So I went in to prepare 

 supper and attend to my household tasks, and Roddy 

 McMahon went east and west with the seeder, and 

 neither of us, I am sure, gave another thought to 

 the fact that as the wheat-seed dropped from the 

 seeder to the seed-bed there passed in here and there 

 a wild oat. 



