210 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



I did a fair share between the preparation of meals, 

 but, heartily as I disliked the form of indoor labour, 

 it broke the monotony ; to my brother it must 

 have been almost unbearably irksome. I stooked on 

 the left wing of the field, and after supper I worked 

 by moonlight to endeavour to keep up with my fair 

 share, and in the cool reviving air of evening the 

 entire character of the work changed as though 

 some monotonous measure of duty had suddenly 

 softened to a soothing chant. The desire to growl 

 ceased to pursue me. All one's irritating angles 

 and corners seemed to round off in some soft and 

 silent process of the early night. But the stooking 

 of that eighty-acre field of stubble crop, and the 

 sight of a wide and totally unexpected area of wild 

 oats, brought my brother's dismal experience of a 

 prairie farm to its final summing-up. 



" If we had plenty of capital and could buy a 

 decent place with a decent house, and a decent barn, 

 and a decent bathroom like the Griggs', and could 

 afford to get out trained English labourers to work 

 it properly as we do in England, there might be 

 something in it," he said, " but as it is, Lai is quite 

 right, it is a convict's life. I am afraid you have 

 taken on something you will never see out. And I 

 am very sorry for you," he added with due solemnity. 

 " I determined to see you through the harvest, and 

 I am afraid it will be far below your expectation 

 owing to these wild oats." 



" You must allow that the feed oats are splendid, 

 and the hay is good, and at least I have learned to 

 live economically and to do without things," I said 

 in the energy of self-defence. " And if I don't see 

 it out, at least it shall never see me out. Next year 



