212 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



called upon to perform the united service of sponge, 

 loofah, and occasionally of soap and water for the 

 man on the land, I might have been a little more 

 sympathetic about his having to use the towels I 

 washed. As it was, he sat on the edge of the 

 veranda with a face like a boot and washed out his 

 own towels in Hudson's soap, used strictly according 

 to the directions on the wrapper ; and I heartily 

 wished that it had been the fate of a great many 

 more men to wash towels all their lives. But I 

 admired him immensely in many ways and envied 

 his order and method, as I did every one who came 

 to the farm armed with these fine weapons. The 

 truth is that, like Nancy, and, according to Browning, 

 even the good Lord, both of us were badly in need 

 of a little praise. When he had gone I looked about 

 me, and in view of the many stooks in the wheat- 

 field which bore the wild oat crest, I knew the 

 result of the year must be a financial failure, so I 

 tossed my hope and faith to the next. I saw that 

 the ten and four acre arms of the big field were 

 clean and free from wild oats, and I determined 

 to use them for oats in the following year, so 

 that I might reserve every acre of the land of 

 the new seed-bed for wheat. Roddy McMahon 

 agreed. 



" It would be a good act all right," he said. " I 

 guess we must try and get in a threshing outfit good 

 and early, so that you can get threshed out, and we 

 can plough up that much easy this fall. There ain't 

 nothing doing between now and threshing, so I 

 guess I'll quit. You can do the chores all right and 

 don't need to be paying a man. Alan Redcliffe 

 he'll be threshing out John McLeay and Danny and 



