HARVEST OF MY FIRST SEEDING 227 



plough is not easy for a new hand. I'll offer him 

 a dollar a day and his dinner. Then if I like him, 

 I'll offer him to stay whilst I am away." 



Jack Douglas eagerly accepted the job, and my first 

 four loads of cleanest grain scored No. I Northern 

 and fetched seventy-seven cents per bushel, but 

 was sharply docked in weight for wild oats. At the 

 end of the second day Roddy McMahon asked 

 me to let him off the hauling job, and gave such 

 excellent reasons for the request that I couldn't 

 refuse. The four loads settled the threshing 

 expenses and the balance of the wages due to my 

 helper. I owed no money to the trading people, 

 only a very tall note to the Union Bank which 

 included all such payments, with the exception 

 of the hardware store bill, which at that time 

 included binder twine as well as general repairs. 

 My land payment was not due until January i, 

 1907, and I had long foreseen it would have to come 

 out from England. Full of thought and anxiety 

 for the coming season, which I felt sure must 

 bring down the scale of event to the credit of my 

 side, I refused to worry about dollars, and just 

 in time, since Jack Douglas returned from South 

 Qu'Appelle that night with the news that the 

 price of wheat had fallen locally, owing to a hopeless 

 blockade at the elevator, and the next day he 

 ploughed the garden as a preliminary canter, before 

 attacking the important work of the four and ten- 

 acre arms of the big field. 



No sooner had my new man attacked the plough 

 than I understood the wisdom of Roddy McMahon's 

 advice to pay only fifteen dollars a month. Jack 

 Douglas got well on to his work, and stuck to it 



