74 FRUIT RANCHING. 



able) it was as if Pandemonium had broken loose. 

 All the inhabitants in the vicinity came out to witness 

 the spectacle. On the verandah of our house were 

 Maggie and Olive and Mrs. Lawrie, all in fits of 

 laughter. The wife of the superintendent of the West 

 Kootenay Power Plant, who lived immediately 

 opposite, was doubled up with amusement. Calaby 

 hung on to the cord like grim death while he practised 

 his method of enforcing progress by twisting the pig's 

 tail. I clung like a limpet to one ear, and tugged 

 and hauled with all my might. Leslie, expert in the 

 dragging of calves, put all his strength on to the rope 

 which Calaby was holding, while a fourth man 

 pushed behind. 



Shortly before I bought the second ranch I learned 

 that a neighbour was willing to sell some eight 

 acres of clover. As the price he asked for it was 

 quite reasonable, and I had found the cost of hay 

 excessively high, I agreed, after some hesitation, to 

 buy. The hay would prove extremely useful. My 

 hesitation arose out of the question. How shall we 

 get it home? In the first place, I had no waggon. In 

 the next place, even if I had possessed a waggon, 

 it would have been impossible to use it until after 

 we had constructed a road a mile and a half 

 through the woods. But the seller and another 

 neighbour, a born Canadian, removed my hesitation 

 by assuring me that we should experience no dif- 

 ficulty in " hauling " the hay home on a sleigh after 

 the snow fell in winter. When it came to the point, 

 we discovered yet another way, and contrived to get 

 it brought home in the summer. We packed it on 

 our horses' backs. To each side of a pack-saddle 



