3i6 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



sufficiently agile to make the passing of the creek 

 without mishap. 



My tea was quite a success, and no doubt I 

 must have arrived home with an air of triumph, or 

 at least unusual enjoyment, since Patrick O'Hara 

 made use of the occasion to impress on me that a 

 holiday did every one a power of good and it was 

 " aisy to see it's yerself that's the better already." 

 Later I heard that the South Qu'Appelle fair was 

 to fall on a day in the following week, and Fort 

 Qu'Appelle fair a week after ; and although Thomas 

 and Si Booth and the first division of the Mazeys 

 and all the neighbours were going, Pat himself was 

 not even dreaming of a wish to go. 



Every one went to South Qu'Appelle, and he 

 gave me its history in all the glory of fact and 

 fiction, adorned with many expressions of thankful- 

 ness to exalted representatives of supreme wisdom 

 who had decreed that Patrick O'Hara should have 

 a natural preference for duty, in the form of the 

 plough, on those special days on which the other 

 ninety-nine chased special pleasures. We had 

 reached the last section of the ploughing at the near 

 end of the big field, but it ran into several acres, 

 and when it was finished there were still the 

 brilliant acres which Adam had turned, with wild 

 oats of all lengths and sorts and sizes rushing into 

 more life unless the means of annihilation could 

 catch up in time. On every possible occasion I 

 encouraged horses and cows to feed from the 

 volunteer crop on the principle that every little 

 helps ; but a field of tame oats and my cherished 

 seed-garden were close at hand, so I never dared to 

 turn all the beasts on to it, although that has since 



