288 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



he said. " You have all you can do to get through 

 the ploughing and cultivation of the big field v^ith 

 your limited horse power. I should put him right 

 into that. Begin on my corner w^here the wild oats 

 are thickest, and then if you haven't time to plough 

 the whole field twice over, you can get through 

 the worst part of it. I have a plough here I can 

 lend you until I need it myself, and if you will 

 bring the chap over to-morrow morning I'll start 

 him on." 



On the morrow Adam and I crossed the field with 

 Jim, Kit, and Tommy, and took the first lesson in 

 ploughing. At the time I hadn't the smallest idea 

 of tooling any of the implements but the harrows, 

 which I found perfectly simple to deal with, and 

 for a good walker, pleasant exercise made interesting 

 through the presence of horses. But I waited to see 

 Adam take his lesson that morning and digested it. 

 My neighbour cut the leading furrow, turned and 

 brought back the horses ; put us into line with the 

 next, and went on his way leaving us to worry it 

 out. Of course I knew the " Gee " to the right, 

 and " Haw " to the left rule of the road, and the 

 mechanism of the levers, but it seemed to me that 

 the fundamental rule of the furrow in process was 

 to keep Kitty always safely in the furrow, more 

 especially as she had a distinct inclination to recon- 

 noitre to the right or left. I turned a few furrows, 

 and at the end of the time Kitty knew the meaning 

 of the command " Furrow, Kitty," and obeyed it. 



At Adam's turn he slipped out badly more than 

 once, the sod of course remaining uncut, and 

 unturned in consequence. 



" How careless you are, Adam," I exclaimed. 



