274 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



was an excellent price at that time ; but through 

 the folly of counting my pigs before they were born, 

 I refused to part. Even had all gone well I had not 

 sufficient food for them, and the farmer should 

 never, or only at the outset, or in emergency, buy 

 food for her stock ; she must grow it. Had I sold 

 all for seventy-five dollars and spent half the money 

 on weaned pigs at two dollars fifty, and the other 

 half in my emergency on barley-chop for their 

 food, I should have made over cent, per cent, in the 

 deal at food price within six months ; but pigs 

 were the one corner of my proposition which had 

 always seemed to be there in time of urgent need 

 of food or money, and I foolishly staked all on the 

 chance of number, without even taking due con- 

 sideration for every point of the chance. As it was 

 I had bad luck with each of them, partly through 

 allowing them to stray round the straw piles and 

 make their own nest of welcome, and the end of it 

 was that the united families of the three numbered 

 but ten in survival, and never throve quite as well 

 as the nine which arrived in the snow. 



The weather being quite hopeless, Roddy Mc- 

 Mahon returned to the Fort, and did not come 

 back again until April 22. In the interval I had 

 the misfortune to lose Pax. I had to go into South 

 Qu'Appelle on business, and he begged so hard to 

 be allowed to come that I took him, only I didn't 

 like to take him into the hotel dining-room, so I 

 bought him some meat at the butcher's and left 

 him outside whilst I took my meal. Through the 

 dining-room window I caught a glimpse of him 

 walking up and down looking a little frightened and 

 forlorn, and from that hour he vanished. I went 



