SHADOW & SCYTHE BENEATH SWORD 309 



seems worth while to risk twenty dollars there," I 

 said. " Did you notice how thin the wheat is 

 compared even with the other breaking ? I'm not 

 sure that there isn't even alkali at the far end." 



" Your summer-fallow crop is the finest I ever 

 buried head and shoulders in, and shoiild yield forty 

 bushels to the acre if I ever saw it in this country. 

 But it isn't headed out yet. The grain on the east 

 fence is in full head. You'll not be sorry, I guess, 

 you broke up that land." 



" Is your wheat in head yet ? " inquired my 

 neighbour. 



" Only here and there," I answered. " But the 

 barley looks almost ready for the reaper." 



" Take care of it then, it's about the only crop 

 you'll get this year." 



" Oh, do be quiet ! " I answered. " You invite 

 disaster with your eternal prophecies of bad luck." 



" It's^ July 23," he answered, " and sunshine 

 — nowhere ! Wheat sl.ould be in head by July 12. 

 I reckon we are a gooa three weeks behind, with 

 the indispensable condition of sunshine dead against 



us." 



" The sun will blaze for us presently," I pro- 

 phesied, " and we shall have the most bountiful 

 harvest on record." 



" It will need to blaze soon or it will be an un- 

 recorded harvest." 



On Sunday, July 28, the sun shone in amazing 

 brilHancy. I walked through the pasture into the 

 twenty-five acres beyond to find the wheat in full 

 head and in its most delicate and exquisite stage of 

 flower. It was absolute in its beauty, so alive, so 

 strong, so glorious — just a living, breathing blessing ; 



