230 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



the wind which had blown bleak and chill in the 

 face of a brilliant sun, fell softly and abruptly 

 almost as though it had turned back in sudden fear ; 

 a sombre veil dropped between earth and the golden 

 sun, the little snow-birds started to chant their 

 haunting note of requiem, delicate snowflakes fell 

 here and there, heralds of the thin white sheet 

 of the first snowstorm which came sweeping out 

 of the north. When snow is coming to the prairie, 

 there precedes it that strange and indefinable 

 melancholy hush that is felt at sea when the fog 

 swoops down. The winter pall drops softly with 

 tenderness and with beauty upon the face of the 

 great mother, yet sadly, and with relentless 

 intention to divide. The end of the working 

 year is come, so very soon the kindly generous, 

 consoling earth that is still at hand, awake to the 

 touch of her children, will be far away in stone-like 

 sleep. Dicky's bright bay coat, and whinny of 

 triumph and greeting to the other horses, as we 

 sighted them bringing home their load, were the 

 only cheerful notes to break the complete and 

 saddest silence. It was in removing my glove to 

 fasten the barbed wire that I discovered the loss 

 of a cherished treasure in a strange familiar stone 

 which had dropped from its place in a marquise 

 ring that I had worn from my schooldays. On a 

 background of soft green stone, sensitive to all 

 change in the weather, had been carved with perfect 

 art the slender, exquisite form and delicate head of 

 a woman. Somehow time and association had 

 given her a place in the consolation which is so 

 often hurled as a threat from the pulpit, that " God 

 sees all." Anything would have seemed eventful 



