266 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



stove, and skirts and temper thawed out together, 

 wrath seemed so unutterably silly. So that when 

 the thaw brought shining pools and none bothered 

 any longer to fight for first drink, it was an extra- 

 ordinary relief. But although after a blizzard I 

 have had to dig through twelve feet of snow to get 

 to the place where I must dig twelve feet down for 

 the well, I really never dare grumble, because 

 whilst many other wells give out from drought, or 

 frost, my good spring gurgles in through all seasons, 

 and at least I have been spared the ache of sending a 

 thirsty beast away without its full measure of water. 



By the end of March the weather became loaded 

 with the intense anxiety attached to the coming of 

 the seeding month. All wheat should be in its 

 seed-bed by May i. Oats may be sown as late as 

 May 20, and the very last seeding day of the species 

 of barley warranted to mature and ripen in sixty 

 days is June 15 ; but much can be done towards 

 wheat seeding in the matter of perfect preparation, 

 and I did all I could to reduce worry by work, the 

 object being that Roddy McMahon should not be 

 kept waiting one moment for cleaned and pickled 

 seed. Seeding, harvest, and threshing times are his 

 strongest points, and I always found him a rock of 

 defence in these very critical periods of the short 

 farming season on the prairie. 



The end of March had its days of promise, or I 

 should not have agreed with him to return as early 

 as April 8, except that it is the very best time 

 possible to clear off big stone which has been got 

 out but not taken off the seed-bed. The following 

 notes in my diary close the season, and should have 

 closed the natural period of winter, but the year 



