310 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



and in that gleaming, silent day of rest, as I stood 

 in the heart of the field with the lovely thing 

 around me I was glad to think that because I came 

 to Canada that specially clean and beautiful field 

 of wheat was there ; ' and when every event and 

 circumstance of the harvest of 1907 has faded in 

 my memory I shall still see its glorious prophecy, 

 still watch the tall mass of living loveliness sway 

 towards me from every side, still be glad with the 

 sunbeams playing in and out among the delicate 

 green shades of the waving grain, still remember 

 how it seemed to thank one for having helped it 

 into its kingdom of clean, sweet life. 



But after that day there was so little sun, so 

 little progress. Nancy and I, with Felicity in tow, 

 made our way east and west through the wheat- 

 plains of Wideawake, Indian Head, and Spring- 

 brook, and the lovely environment of wheat-lands 

 that line the banks of the strange creek which runs 

 up through Springbrook from Fort Qu'Appelle. 

 Never had the promise of life been so glorious in 

 our special part of the prairie provinces. Walls of 

 green grain rose in surpassing fullness and beauty 

 on either side of everywhere, and although there 

 had been much rain there was but little wind and 

 tempest, and in consequence very little had lodged. 

 It seemed as though Providence couldn't fail it, 

 not so much because of fear of financial loss, or 

 even the care and labour that those miles and miles 

 of grain stood for, but because of hope and the best 

 kind of faith it was life itself, a phase of Providence 

 incarnate. 



It was just at this time that Ricky first showed 

 signs of that most evil of all disorders to which 



