V 

 THRESHING 



" HAVE you made any arrangements about thresh- 

 ing ? " inquired our neighbour. " Because if you 

 have not, Guy Mazey will take on your job and 

 mine as soon as he has finished his own. It's only a 

 small outfit, but he is a reliable chap and will thresh 

 our crops as carefully as his own. Russell Haynes 

 wants him to go there, but if you agree he will 

 come straight through to us after he has threshed 

 himself out, and then go on to Haynes and finish. 

 I don't think you will do better. There aren't 

 many outfits round this year." 



I closed at once with this offer, and, with one's 

 usual way of waving away the detail of responsibility, 

 I considered the threshing arrangement made, and 

 that I need think nothing more of it until the engine 

 and gang came in at the gate. But there is a certain 

 etiquette to be observed in the ceremony of thresh- 

 ing in Canada. Some eight days later I got belated 

 on my way home from South Qu'Appelle and lost 

 my way utterly and completely in the neighbour- 

 hood of home, until Charles Edward literally fell 

 up against Guy Mazey's fence, and, guided by the 

 barking of many dogs and a bright light, I came 

 step by step to the comfortable cheer of Mrs. 

 Mazey's kitchen. In the process of conversation 



47 



