204 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



can tell you it is not easy to learn on Roddy's 

 implements. And you do things yourself in exactly 

 the same way. I take the trouble to get up at dawn, 

 or go out after work, so that there may be birds at 

 least for the table. And instead of taking the trouble 

 to pick them you skin them. Yesterday I shot a 

 couple of canvas-backs that might have almost 

 resigned one to life on the prairie, and you skinned 

 them and tossed them into a stew. A positive sin ! 

 I shot a snipe this afternoon and I picked it for your 

 supper. If you eat it yourself, you may understand 

 the difference." 



I wondered if my brother would fall back on 

 alternatives or if he would continue to pick the 

 feathers off small birds if he had to prepare food for 

 the three meals for three men day by day, week in 

 week out, not to mention washing up ; but I wasn't 

 altogether indignant. 



After all he was married, and so many wives make 

 of the dining-table an altar of propitiation that it 

 isn't to be wondered at that quite a number of 

 husbands and others seek their best moments of life 

 in the hour and at the place of meat-offering. 

 Besides, although I never felt quite so inferior as 

 in glancing at my reflection in his correct mind, I 

 managed to score sometimes ; seldom in the satis- 

 factory form of word, it is true, since life among 

 *' the lords of creation " was teaching me the force 

 of discretion, but occasionally in deed. 



The memory of one Sunday morning sends a glow 

 of victory through me to this day. It was over the 

 water question. The water question in nineteen 

 cases out of twenty is a little difficult on the prairie. 

 Broken in on a homestead where I lived through 



