THE FROZEN HARVEST OF 1907 337 



and I thankfully used every grain of it for seed in 

 1908. 



Before the threshers arrived my excellent English- 

 man had departed to a lucrative but temporary 

 post at Chicago, but the bogey of the frozen crop 

 frightened these useful people and valuable 

 settlers off farming on the prairie, and the co-opera- 

 tive system and more temperate climate of New 

 Zealand had all the attraction of the " distant 

 drum." Before the younger brother left they had 

 absolutely decided to move on to New Zealand in 

 the spring. 



Again that year the Redcliffe outfit threshed for 

 me and my neighbours, and for once I presided over 

 my threshing with enjoyment and peace since at 

 leisure from my household chores. Mrs. Wilton 

 was an excellent housekeeper, and marvellously 

 quick. My party of eighteen was fed thoroughly 

 well three times a day, and in the afternoon she found 

 time to take the children out to watch the engine. 

 Every one had a word of praise for her, and they were 

 acknowledged throughout the neighbourhood as 

 " real good people all right," although he never 

 shared her gift of speed, nor she his grace of tact. 



No threshing outfit would work on the usual 

 terms that year, although I think had they done so 

 it would have come out all right for the owner of 

 the outfit, as it is in the weight far more than in 

 bulk that frost sets its seal of damage in the gathered 

 grain. Mr. Redcliffe's terms that year were forty 

 dollars a day, and I think I had to find five stook 

 teams. The threshing of the crop took two days 

 and cost eighty dollars. 



During June Mr. Oliver and Adam had hauled 



Y 



