326 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



beyond the horizon a full hour, there was just a 

 pink glow in the west as I walked home behind my 

 team across the seed-bed of 1908, and again I 

 consoled myself with the old illusion that the gods 

 would set everything right which was wrong with 

 that seed-bed because they knew so exactly how 

 things had been. But it is only the half-gods who 

 spare in the making. 



No words can make clear the intense anxiety that 

 gripped the heart of the people of the prairie 

 provinces in that first week of September 1907. 

 It was true that the year was preceded by two years 

 of perfect weather and of the most bountiful crops 

 on record. But this had but increased the general 

 desire to extend possession. Thousands of acres 

 had been bought on the system of extended pay- 

 ment at from six to eight per cent, interest, imple- 

 ments had been bought to work it, and increased 

 horse power. But in 1907 the September moon 

 arose on a green and unripe crop ; only a miracle 

 of the weather could save the situation, but the 

 general hope was that the spring having been so 

 late in coming, frost also might keep off a week or 

 so. 



On Sunday evening, September 5, I called at the 

 house of my neighbour Richard Ryan, and there I 

 found several people who know every phase and 

 symptom of the fates that wait on harvest. Mr. 

 William Nicoll was there, and he owned several 

 sections of wheat that year ; among them was a 

 thousand acres which he had raised in partnership 

 with Mr. Ryan's eldest son. 



" Shall you start, or wait ? ' 3 I inquired of 

 him. 



