198 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



as he had once spent two months studying with a 

 veterinary surgeon I took it for granted he knew all 

 there was to know. He solemnly assured me she 

 was not going to have a calf, that she was as old as 

 the farm itself, and he most strongly advised me to 

 get rid of her. In the bitter end I traded with 

 Roddy McMahon for a four-year-old heifer which 

 drank its own milk. As her calf was supposed to be 

 coming shortly, I didn't find this out for a long 

 time, because as a matter of fact the calf failed to 

 arrive until nearly a year after, and just a month 

 before the hard cow, who had passed into the 

 possession of Danny McLeay, produced a heifer, 

 and another and another as the seasons passed by. 

 Five years later I wanted to buy her back, for she 

 gave the richest milk I have ever seen in Canada, 

 but he asked me forty-five dollars without the calf, 

 and I had only paid my predecessor forty-five 

 dollars for her including the calf. 



Just about that time my brother Lai arrived, 

 bringing with him a sheaf of oats in bloom and four 

 feet high, grown on the ten acres of his homestead 

 which he had broken during my residence the year 

 before. He came to borrow the mower and rake 

 for a few days, and it was arranged that my elder 

 brother should go to Lipton with the wagon at the 

 end of the fourth day from the departure of the 

 mower and rake, and bring them back. 



Remembering how the trails had bothered me 

 when I first knew the prairie, I volunteered to pilot 

 him on Nancy. My habit was dripping and dry 

 again long before we reached Lipton, but by the 

 time we had bidden Lai good-bye and turned on 

 the homestead route a July edition of the rains of 



