A Prairie Courtship

est which rolls westward north of the Great Lakes toward the wide, bare levels of Manitoba, when Alison Leigh stood on the platform of a lurching car. A

r was, at least, gloriously fresh out there and she shrank from the vitiated atmosphere of the stove-heated car. She had learned during the past few years that it i

im and forbidding. Indeed, it was a singularly desolate landscape, with no touch of human life in it, and Alison shivered as she gazed at it with a somewhat heavy heart and weary eyes. Her head ached from want of sleep and several days of continuous jolting; she was physi

ather, dying suddenly, had left his affairs involved. This she knew now had been the fault of her aspiring mother, who had spent his by no means large income in an attempt to win a prominent position in second-rate smar

re apparently of no practical use to anybody. She could paint and could play the violin indifferently well, but she had not the gift of imparting to others even the little she knew. A graceful manner and a nicel

rthwith sought a remedy. In spite of her mother's protests, her sister's husband was induced to send her for a few months' training to a bu

pation, sinking on each occasion a little lower in the social scale. In the meanwhile her prosperous sister's manner became steadily chillier; her few influential friends appeared desirous of forgetting her; and at last she formed the desperate resolution of going out

She had now five dollars and a few cents in her little shabby purse. That, however, did not much trouble her, for she would reach Winnipeg on the morrow, and she supposed that she wo

's getting late, and I'm

he fresh night air. An aisle ran down the middle of the car, and already men and women and peevish children were retiring to rest. There was very little attempt at privacy, and a few wholly unabashed aliens were partially disrobing wherever they could find r

d her in broken English, to look for husbands among the prairie farmers. She was afterward to learn that such marriages not infrequently turned out well. Opposite them sat a young Englishman with a hollow face and chest, who could not st

greasy, ferret-eyed husband. Farther on a burly Englishman, who had evidently laid in alcoholic refreshment farther back down the line, was crooning a maudlin son

p!" he

in response, and a voice with

boot at

ht keep it; and I guess they're most used

h seemed to indicate that the speaker was fumblin

. Are you going to sl

earance he alluded to in vitriolic terms, to prevent him from singing when he desired; after which he resumed the maudlin ditty. Immediately there was a rustle of snapping leaves, as a volu

an to show you what c

p to it. The chains rattled, and it seemed that the light boards were bodily coming down when he felt with one hand behind the curtain, part of which he rent f

en I've done with him. Gimme time, and I'll settle the lot of you,

er, and a general fracas appeared imminent when the conductor strode into the car. The latter had very little in co

ded, "what's th

ted, and firmly intended to wipe it out in blood.

ur berth, and sleep

s pluck enough, and his blood was up, but he had also the innate, ingrained capacity for obedience to duly

ou off into the bush if you

ettled down upon the clattering car. The little incident had, however, an unpleasant effect on Alison, for this wa

rain to-morrow, Milly-and I suppose yo

d informed Alison, who had made her acquaintance on the steamer, that

waiting; I got a telegram at Montreal

thought of it rather jarred on her temperament, and it was, perhaps, not altogether astonishing that she had of late been brought into contact chiefly with the seamy side of the masculine character. St

id reflectively. "It

's the same-only a little handsomer in his last picture. Except for that

true, and her smile slowly faded. It must, she admitted, be something to know that through the four years, which had apparently been ones of constant stress and toil, the man's affection had never wavered, and that his every effort had been in

wasn't rich wh

cle died and left him three or four hundred pound

o?" exclaimed A

. The poor boy had trouble. His first crop was frozen, and his plow oxen died-I think I told you he has a little farm three or four days' ride back from the railroad." The gi

by right. It was only the last three years that had given her comprehension and sympathy, and in spite of the clearer insight she had gained during that time, it seemed strange to her that this girl with her homely prettiness and still more homely speech and manners should be capable of such unfaltering fidelity to the man she had sent to Canada, and stil

f the lameness of the speech,

of opinion was quite superfluous; and then with a tact w

lf. You told me you had somethin

begin at once as corresponden

no frien

western wheat-grower two or three years ago, and I'm not sure that she would be pleased

until an eloquent curate whose means were supposed to be ample happened to cast approving eyes on her, when pressure was judicially brought to bear. The girl had made a plucky fight, but the odds against her were overwhelmingly heavy, and the curate, it seemed, had not quite made up his mind. In any case, she was vanquished, and tactfully forced out of a guild which paid

er all, you may want one some day." She paused, and glanced at Alison critically. "O

an artistic taste and a natural grace of carriage which enabled her to wear almost anything so that it became her. In addition to this, she was, besides being attractive in face and feature, endued with a ce

she said in reference to Milly's last observation. "But it

d giggle. Then they closed the curtains they had hired, and lay down, to sleep if possible, on the very thin mattresses the railway company supplies to Colonist passengers for a considerat

rs have, as a rule, something to put up with if they desire to be clean, and Colonist travelers are not expected to be endued with any particular sense of delicacy or seemliness. As a matter of fact, a good ma

went streaming by, but for the most part there were only leafless willow copses about the gleaming strips of water which she afterward learned were sloos. In between, the white waste ran back, bleached by the

she was at length permitted to set on the stove the tin kettle which was the joint property of herself and her companion. Then they made tea, and after e

e bell. Alison, stepping down from the platform, noticed a man in a long fur coat and a wide soft hat running toward the car. Then there was a cry and a

n Leigh. I told her that if ever she want

ant, bronzed face, laugh

aid. "She ought to have one bridesmaid, anyway. Come alo

uched. The offer was frank and spontaneous, and she fancied that the man meant it. She explained, however,

intonation in the voices she heard, and even the dress of the citizens who scurried by her was different in details from that to which she had been accustomed. In the meanwhile Jim and Milly had disappeare

treet-car and was carried through the city until she alighted in front of a big hardware store. Being sent to an office at

he said. "Won't

the counter with a sud

that?" s

o. Creditors selling the stock up

t out, utterly cast down and desperate, into the steadily falling rain. She was alone in the

ed in buildings near the station where emigrants just arrived could live for a time, at least, free of charge, though the