Hawtrey's Deputy

dimly white, with the sledge trail cutting athwart it, a smear of blue-grey, in the foreground. It was-for Lander's lay behind them with the snow among the stubble belts t

s no sound but the crunch beneath the runners, and the beat of hoof

heat-grower. He had also bought the team-the fastest he could obtain-and when the warmth came back to them Hawtrey and the girl became conscious of the exhilaration of the swift and easy motion. The sleigh was light and narrow, and Hawtrey, who drew the thick driving robe higher about his companion, did not immediately draw the mittened hand he had used back again. The girl did

feet which forced her, if she was to sit comfortably, rather clos

e? I can't get my feet

le. "I'm afraid I can't unless I get

e was rather more colour in the girl's face than the stinging nig

some kind, isn

pecial seed wheat Lorton sent to Winnipeg for. Ormond brought th

t's most a league round by

Have you any great objections to ano

he moonlight was on her face,

mitted, "I h

arning from anything, which was, however, not the case. It was, in fact, his trouble that he seldom thought about what he did until he was com

extra three miles, but you were asking what land I me

ly candidly. "They we

ificant, but Hawtre

ought to tackle the new qua

't you do it? Last fall you thr

didn't seem to be many dollars l

Jasper sowed on less backsetting, and they're buying new teams and ploughs. Ca

evening after evening beside the stove, and the company of the somnolent Sproatly was not much more cheerful. Now and then his pleasure-loving nature had revolted from the barrenness of his lot when he drove home from an odd visit to a neighbour, s

th a good grip. Everybody allows that," she said. "The troub

e you have hit it, Sally. That's v

l with quiet insiste

he prairie. Her greatest accomplishments consisted of some skill in bakery and the handling of half-broken teams; but she had once or twice given

ver I'm the grasping owner of the biggest fa

among the birches in a shallow ravine. Hawtrey pulled the horses up when they reached the bott

h the bags into his granary," he said. "If I hump them up the

bags of grain between store and waggon, but his mittened hands were numbed, and his joints were stiff with frost just then, and Sally noticed that he floundered rather wildly. In another moment or two, however, he vanished into the gloom among

is probably as much a question of experience as of temperament, and, as it happened, she had, like other women in that country, seen men struck down by half-trained horses, crushed by collapsing strawpiles, and once or twice gashed by a mower bla

the side of the declivity, until she stopped, with another gasp, when she reached a spot where a ray of moonlight came filtering down. A limp figure in an old s

she cried

f-dazed manner. "Fell down," he said. "Think I felt

ho could help her within two leagues of the spot, and it was evident that she could not leave him there to freeze. Then she noticed that the trees grew rather farther apart just there, and rising swiftly she ran back to bring the team. The ascent was steep,

urn them her

rrified by the snapping of the undergrowth, were almost unmanageable; but at last they were facing the descent aga

egory, but I have got t

Still, with the most strenuous effort she had ever made she moved him a yard or so, and then staggering fell with her side against the sleigh. She felt faint with the pain of it

and he cried out once when his

stooping swiftly she kissed his grey face. Then she settled herself in the driving seat with only a blanket coat to shelter her from the stinging frost, and the horses went cautiously down the slope. She did not

g cheeks like a lash of wires. Then all power of feeling went out of her hands, her arms grew stiff and heavy, and she was glad that the trail led smoo

less hands clenched upon the reins, saw nothing but the blue-grey riband of trail that steadily unrolled itself before her. At length, however, a blurred mass, which she knew to be a birch bluff, grew out of the white waste, and presently a cluster of darker smudges sh

eighton!

"Take the near horse's head, an

tter?" the man

," said Sally. "J

life, but that night he sprang towards the horses at a commanding wave of the girl's hand. He started

the team. "Keep his right leg as straight as you c

task, which the snow made a little easier, was finished, and the

ve over to Watson's, and bring him along. You can tell him your

the thick driving robe beneath him, and though the colour was creeping back into his face, his eyes were shut, and he was apparently quite insensible of her presence. For the first time she was conscious of a distressful faintness, which, as she had come suddenly out of the stinging fr

ple of chairs, and there were still smears of dust upon the uncovered floor. The birch-log walls had been rudely panelled with match-boarding half-way up, which was a somewhat unusual luxury, but the half-seasoned boards had rent with the heat, and exuded streaks of resin to which the grime and dust had clung. A pail, which apparently conta

at Hawtrey had opened his eyes, she made a cup of coff

bly. "Where's Sproatl

Sproatly's gone for Watson, and he'll soon fix you

o see what he would do if she went away. She had half risen, when he stretched a hand out and felt for her dress, and she sank down again

men who live as the prairie farmers do, usually recover from such injuries as had befallen him more or less readily. It would also not be very long before assistance arrived, for it was understood that the man she had sent Sproatly for had almost gone through a medical course in

usy with Hawtrey for some time. Then they got him to bed, and

pulling him round," he said. "The one point that's worrying me is the looking after him

can," said Sproa

would be criminal to leave

s light," she said. Then she turned to Sproatly. "You can wash up those dishes on the table, a

tly. 'You can wash up tho

d, she went out and drove a