OF FUEL AND FEAR 243 



prairie ; on the contrary solitude here seems always 

 healing and soothing to the mind, just as the 

 reviving air of evening seems to refresh the toil- 

 worn body after the very hottest and most arduous 

 day spent under the sun. 



I found my stable-chores strenuous, but in fair 

 weather not severe. I wore felt boots, and thick 

 woollen mitts covered with leather pull-overs, but a 

 thick coat was not necessary, and was usually 

 discarded after ten minutes of stable-cleaning 

 had set one physically aglow. A thousand bushels 

 of grain had been threshed within two hundred 

 yards of the stable. When the wind was down 

 bucking straw across to the stable for bedding was 

 pleasant exercise, when wind was up it was purga- 

 torial penance, and when a blizzard raged it was 

 impossible. 



At first I continued to rise with the sun in spite 

 of its late winter hours, and lit the kitchen fire, 

 and warmed up before feeding the stock ; but as 

 I had five horses and six head of cattle, besides the 

 pigs, to serve with breakfast, I usually found my 

 wood-fire rather low on my return, so when the 

 need for economy in the matter of fuel became 

 obvious, I abandoned the practice as a luxury, and 

 lit the fire on my return from the stables. 



After I had taken my own breakfast I returned 

 to the stable, and as neither of the cows was in 

 milking form, I watered all who required water, 

 and they went on their way for the day. When 

 a storm was before us they usually remained very 

 near home, and looked with threatening envy over 

 the stack-yard fence, which had been put up by 

 my predecessor and had started to show the strain 



