OF FUEL AND FEAR 239 



very inexperienced, and still rebelling against the 

 newly acquired knowledge that in everyday shoulder- 

 to-shoulder life men take so much kindness and 

 consideration from women for granted but calculate 

 the value of every scrap of their own service ; and 

 then, in their veneration for the world's opinion, 

 demand that woman shall also fill in the blank 

 space, or erase the blot on the record which every 

 man is still under the illusion he keeps with the 

 wellnigh exhausted tradition of chivalry. 



I have always felt sore about the matter, at the 

 time because he was my fellow countryman and he 

 hadn't been out long, and because in behaving as 

 a schoolboy about the half-holiday he had forced 

 me into the unattractive role of schoolmarm, 

 which I played with ease ; and also because, although 

 reason and justice were on my side in the wages 

 argument, I wished with all my heart I had said 

 no word, but paid with a tight lip ; but later on, 

 most of all because in the second year of his stay in 

 Canada, where in time he did excellent work for 

 one of the best farmers and straightest men in my 

 neighbourhood, and in spite of occasional moods, 

 won the respect and goodwill of his comrades, he 

 died from the kick of a horse. 



When I parted from my hired man I had every 

 intention of engaging another to fill his place, and 

 of carrying out my intention to spend the winter 

 in England. But after a further snowfall the 

 weather cleared. I fed the stock at 7 a.m. and found 

 the mornings amazingly brilliant and inspiring. 

 One day, as I crossed from the oat granary to the 

 stable with breakfast, two prairie wolves sprang up 

 and galloped away from the door of the hen-roost. 



