Winston of the Prairie

y land which runs north from the American frontier to Athabasca. There was no blink of starlight in the murky sky, and out of the great waste of grass came a stinging wind that moaned about the

glow from the windows of the wooden hotel. He knew that the rest of the outlying farmers and ranchers who had ridden in for their letters were sitting snug about the stove, but it

s. It grew steadily louder, a blinking ray of brightness flickered across the frame houses, and presently dark figures were silhouetted against the light on the hotel veranda as a lurching wagon drew up beneath it. Two d

low Bluff, and didn't think we'd get through the ford. Ice an inch thick, any way, and Charley talke

is impatience by his very impassiveness while a sallow-faced woman tossed the letters out upon the counter. At

l there ar

er men were waiting for his place, and he went out and crossed the street to the hotel where there was light to rea

d. "Now I was figuring i

aughed, for the hotel-keeper's daughter was

said. "I haven't Lance's goo

ce and surveyed the man. There was nothing in his appearance that would have aroused a stranger's interest, or attracted more th

den by the bronze-tinted mustache, and the eyes alone were noticeable. They were gray, and there was a steadiness in them which was almost unusual even in that country where men look into long distances. For the rest, h

I figure he brought it with him from the old country. Still, one might take you for him if you stood wi

ng two harvests in succession," he said. "You see there's no

. The times are bad," she said. "Well, you re

w a trifle grimmer as he read, "In the present condition of the money market your request that we should carry you over is unreas

nging desperately to the last shred of hope he tore open the second envelope. The letter it held was from a friend he had made in a We

loaded up with wheat nobody will buy, and couldn't

eary years, holding on doggedly though defeat appeared inevitable, and now when it had come he bore it impassively, for the struggle which, though he was scarcely twenty-six, had

"Get it off and sit down right there. The boys ar

passed most of the day in the bitter frost, eating very li

as taking the t

follows enforced abstinence from food, but he remembered what he wanted the half-dollar in his poc

ou fixed me up when I stopped at your ranch, you don't f

k his head. "You're very good, but it's a long ride

that was habitual with him, and when he went ou

n," she said. "Now that man's hungry, and I'd have fixed

ecause there's grit in him, and he's never had a show," he said. "S

flush in her face which had not been there b

d, however, already covered thirty miles that day, and started homewards at a steady trot without the playful kicking they usually indulged in. Here and there a man sprang clear of the rutted road, but Winston did not notice him or return his greeting. He was abstractedly watching the ru

m his anxieties. Now he knew the worst, he could bear it as he had borne the loss of two harvests, and the disaster which followed in the wake of the blizzard that killed off his stock; but it seemed unfair that he should endure cold and

inst what has to be, and I've got

ehind him and the creaking wagon swung out into the blackness of the prairie. It ran back league beyond league across three broad provinces, and the wind that came up out of the great emptiness emphasized its solitude. A man from the cities would have heard nothing but the creaking of the wagon and the drumming fall of hoofs, but Winston heard the grasses patter as they swayed beneath the bitter blasts stiff with frost, and the moan of swinging boughs in a far-off willow bluff. It was these things that guided

years ago, pictures of sheltered England, half-forgotten music, the voices of friends who no longer remembered him, and the smiles in a girl's bright eyes. Then he settled himself more

ed of waiting, and Winston sent back her letters in return for a silver-printed card. That was six years ago, and now none of the dollars he had brought into the cou

lack against the night ahead of him. As usual in that country, the willows and birches crawled up the sides and just showed their heads above the sinuous crest of a river hollow. It was very dark when the wagon lurched in among them, and it cost the man an effort to discern the winding trail wh

inston flung himself bodily backwards with tense muscles and the reins slipping a trifle in his hands, knowing that though he bore against them with all his strength the team were leaving the trail. Then the wagon jolted against a tree, one horse stumbled, picked up its stride, and went on at a headlong gallop. The man felt the wind r

and he lighted the lantern with. When that was done he flung himself down from the wagon dreading what he would find. The flickering radiance showed him that the pole had snapped, and while one bronco still stood trembling on its feet the other lay inert amidst a

ut a long-bladed knife. Then he knelt, and setting down the lantern, felt for the place to strike. When he found it his courage almost deserted him, and meeting the eyes that seemed to loo

can do for y

ips tightly as his hand grew warm. The thing was horrible to him, but the life he led had ta

em, and mounting without stirrups rode towards the bridge. The horse went quietly enough now, and the man allowed it to choose its way. He was going home to find shelter from the