248 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



month to remind me that I was in the Bank's debt 

 for a sum considerably in excess of one thousand 

 dollars, plus a monthly increasing interest. I had 

 done very well indeed with my butter, eggs, and salt 

 pork, selling sometimes as much as eight pounds a 

 week of butter to the Hudson Bay Store in exchange 

 for provisions, and had also disposed of a great deal 

 of all sorts of food-produce to my neighbour in 

 trade for oats. My pigs were not in condition for 

 sale ; John McLeay brought his friend David 

 Chambers to look at the eldest family, but he offered 

 less by a dollar each than I asked, and the second 

 family were very late comers indeed ; but I should 

 probably have made the deal with Mr. Chambers 

 had I not been well supplied with wild oats for 

 feed. Pigs won't go outside if they can avoid it 

 in the winter, and they throve wonderfully well 

 on the oats in sheaf, also the straw kept them 

 warm and comfortably bedded. As the manure was 

 always burned there was no danger of the wild oats 

 regerminating over the land, and I knew the pigs 

 would render me a useful contribution towards 

 expenses in the spring. It did not occur to me 

 that there could be any difficulty about bank loans ; 

 money had seemed almost to walk towards one from 

 the bank counters at first, and eight per cent, has 

 such an attractive sound in the way of interest, 

 that I always considered that the Bank held the 

 weightier end of the obligation, and that they 

 certainly would not wish to lose so valuable a 

 customer. But the fact remained that the two 

 hundred and thirty pounds I was expecting from 

 England would be entirely absorbed by the land 

 payment and its interest, and that a few hundred 



