Lorimer of the Northwest

EST

of his wheat had been sold in Winnipeg, Raymond Lyle was celebrating a bounteous harvest. Round about it, drawn up in ranks, stood vehicles-or rigs, as we call them-of every kind, for it seemed as if the

half-tamed horses which jib at every hill, it is easy to realize the advantages of an efficient team, and any of those we saw in the Lone Hollow stables would have saved us many dollars eac

kind of you to come, and I hope you will enjoy yourselves," he said. "We

bearded barley, antelope heads peeped out beside the great horns of caribou which the owner of Lone Hollow had shot in the muskegs of the north. Rifles and bright double-bitted axes of much the same pattern as those with which our forbears hewed through Norman mail caught the light of the polished brass lamps and flashed upon the wainscot, while even an odd cross-cut saw had been skillfully impressed into the scheme of ornamentation. But there was nothing pinchbeck or tawdry about them. Whirled high by sinewy hands

ittle stronger in limb, they were the same men one finds dwelling in many an English home. Standing beside a great open hearth, on which to aid the stove a huge pile of birch logs crackled joyously, the representative of an alien race drew a cunning bow across the strings of a dingy violin. He sprang from Gallic stock, a descendant of the old coureurs who for two centuries wandered in search of furs across the wilderness, even as far as the northern bar

a different world from the one in which we had been living, and I wondered whether any of those dainty daughters of Carrington would deign to dance with me. They might have been transplanted like Engl

g liberties with it masterfully; now it's like the cypress singing in the big coulée. Of course, it wasn't learned in one generation, but why does a waltz of tha

peech, and it was Harry who most often put my though

gton-is there any one else to l

of the ruddy gold one sees among the stems of ripening grain, while wheat ears nestled between her neck and shoulder, and rustled like barley rippling to the breeze, as with the music embo

unt, but you have not had a dance, and most of the others have. Come, and I'll find you partners. Ah, if you are no

dly made way for me. It was a kindly thought, but Raymond Lyle, who was a confirmed bachelor living under his self-willed sister's wing, had evidently guessed my interest and 70 remembered the incident of the jibbing team. It was a square dance, and Harry with a laughing damsel formed my vis-à-vis, but having eyes only for my partner

ack to you, and out here there is so much more than dancing for a man to do. Yes, you may put down another,

n old friend. Harry was chatting merrily with his late partner, who seemed amused at him, and this was not surprising, for Harry's honest heart was somewhat strangely united with a silver tongue, and all women took kindly t

f the soil, earthy, and a princess of the prairie is far beyond our sphere

seen the whole of 71 your noble self in a glass for two years? Neither have I. And it hasn't dawned upon you that you came out in the transitio

Fairmead a whole one of some four inches diameter which cost two bits, tin-backed, at the store, and I remember saying

d man in the room. Solid and slow from shoulders to ankles; head-shall we say that of a gladiator, or

glad to stand a strong man among those who had other advantages behind

! I saw him standing before the bi

to assure her that this wa

as clear that taking season by season his bank account increased but little, while he mentioned that several of his neighbors lost a certain sum yearly. There are two ways of farming in the West, and it see

ed to maintain a demand for good horses and the product of clever workmen's skill; they supported the storekeepers of the wooden towns; and the poorer settlers could always earn a few dollars by working for them. So it dawned upon me that it is well for the nation that some are content t

n drifted around to the

daughter. There are two things Carrington is proud of, one is this settlement, and the other his heiress. He's not exactly an attractive personage, but there are whispers that some painful incident

and when the ringing prelude to an English ballad filled the room more than his partner felt that he could call up a response to his own spirit from the soul of the instrument. The lad beside him also sang well, perhaps because he was young and sentiment was strong within him, but sturdy labor under the open heaven seems

music flowed with them like the ripple of a glancing water; so a deeper silence settled upon all, and I was back in England where a sparkling beck leaped out from the furze of Lingdale and sped in flashing shallows under the yellow fern,

and from the lips of others they might have seemed presumptuous or out of place, but Grace Carrington delivered them as though they were a 74 message which must be hearkened to, and there was an expectant hush when the first line, "A sower went forth sowi

oaning of the wind, he said simply, "Thank you, Miss Carrin

things are not to be undertaken casually, but she-well, I felt they had to listen

listened with interest while I told her of our experiences in the Dominion. The background of somber sprays enhanced her fair beauty, and her dress, which, though there was azure about it, was of much the same

perfectly, and we feel that, perhaps in dreams, we have seen it all before. Why it is so, I cannot tell, but once in fancy I saw you with a dress exactly like the on

philosopher, besides a fine musician, and I quite believe you. I have had such experiences-but I think the

in trouble, and I was concerned in it. This I think was on the prairie, but there were tal

lation troubled her, and was si

missed his vocation. We will talk no more of it. You once

she checked me with a gesture, though I fancied that she did not seem so di

here until to-morrow noon, and I want you to ride over and tell my father. He might grow uneasy about me-and for some reason I feel uneasy about him, while, as he has been ailing lately, I should not like for him to venture across the prairie. It seems 76

n fifty miles through a blizzard to do her bidding. It was for this reason that I made my excuses to our host quietly, and Harry laughed as he said: "I'll ride over with the others for you when the dance is finished

c in that region, the snow-fall is capricious and generally much lighter than that further east, though it can come down in earnest now and then. Thus, swept by the wind, the grass was bare on the levels, or nearly so, and there was no passage for steel