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MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TIST CHART

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^ /APPLIED IIVHGE Inc

^^ 1653 Eost Main Stmt

B'JS Rochester, N«» York 14609 USA

•-as (716) 482 - OJOO - Phone

^B (716) 28B - 3989 - Fox

JANET OF
KOOTENAY

EVAH McKOWAN

.u-^

I .'-■.<^» iiilCi T •• .*n

'WT^^TS

JANET OF KOOT ENAY

EVAH McKOWAN

r^'10^A •}%.^'

'£/r. f9m^BUJ^4

JANET OF KOOTENAY

LIFE, LOVE, AND LAUGHTER
IN AN ARCADY OF THE WEST

EVAH McKOWAN

McClelland & stewart
publishers : : toronto

J -:

i^fi^i

;-■ t 'r H'

8bOZ3?

Printed in the United States of America

JANET OF KOOTENAY

Kootenay Valley, March the first.
JJear Nan :

Veni. Vidi. Purchaci.

My cherished dream is realised: I own a fruit
tarm. Not that you, whose rolling prairie wheat

would be indmed to call the place that I have
bought a farm at all. A beautiful bit of forest
primeval would be more nearly your description
ot It and, not havmg my robust imagination, you
would never be able to visualise, as I do, the most

I loved British Columbia the minute I had
crossed the divide. Crowning the summit, the
peaks of Crow's Nest Mountain and the Three
Sis ers were lit with the dawn rays of a sun
^haUvould not be visible to me for another Z

As the train windows revealed an unfoldin-
panorama o '^Mountains high with lakes close b^
and mighty forest trees," I knew why I had gotten

'^il

'•': 'T'^te;

JANET OF KOOTENAY

80 restless on the ranch. I had been starved— just
starved for scenery.

McGregor was awaiting me at the train. Two
rather nice looking hotels were in sight and I in-
quired of him which would be my better choice.
He at once advanced a number of reasons why I
would not care to stop at either of them, and said
that it was the invariable custom for a young
woman to seek a private home.

Without more ado, he led me home to his wife,
who was all ready for me. She furnished some
objections to the hotels that he had missed, and
added :

"Besides, my dear, they charge such outrageous
prices. Three dollars a day! You'll like it so
much better here and I can do it for two fifty a
day as well as not."

You might mention that to Mrs. Gilpin at the
Fort. She has been trying to get up the courage
to put her rates up to one twenty-five a day for
two years. However, I was thankful afterward
to have been put on my guard by the opening
number.

Having nothing to do that afternoon, a state
quite common with liim, I should imagine, Mc-
Gregor offered to drive me round to see his
"prospects." He got out and dusted up the
grandiloquent air that he had used wuen British
Columbia Farm lands were sold by the pound,
with no price too high to ask.

JANET OF KOOTENAY 9

He drove me first to a place with about forty
acres of well grown trees. The place pleased me
mightily as an orchard, but no one could possibly
have evolved a home out of the big bare house
that was set baldly on the crest of a hill, and
McGregor seemed disinclined to knock off three
thousand or so-he said the hou.e had cost that—
so that I could burn it down and build a home.

What I want," I told him, -is a small and
artistic house with vines and trees about."

I produced his advertisement with the picture
of the small log house buried in vines, with rows
of trees stretching into the dim distance.

"Oh, that," he said. ''That place is not for
sale."

"But the picture is here, and under it the words,
'farms for sale.' "

"Um, yes. Doubtless you could buy it if you
had money enough. Forty or fifty thousand, say.
But that picture is there merely to show what can
be done with British Columbia soil. Under-
stand?"

"But the advertisement doesn't say that "

He Ignored this triviality.

"IVe the selling of some mighty fine places,"
he said, -and if you'll just give me an idea of how
much cash you got along "

I ^rew wary at this and interrupted him :

' * There i« only one word in your prospectus that
18 responsible for my coming here, and that is this,

s?"' ;_»

JANET OF KOOTENAY

'bargains.' If you will show me first anything
you have that you would put under that heading,
I can decide at once and will likely be able to
get back on to-morrow's train."

He sat up and pulled himself together. The
prospect of losing a long wanted buyer and a well
paying boarder at one fell swoop seemed to stir
his latent conmion sense.

"Wo looked at farms with young orchards and
at farms with full bearing treos ; some which had
splendid water and some none. But always it
seemed that, no matter how many the attractions,
there would be something to bar them from being
eligible. Usually it was the house.

''Why/' I asked him, "have they all cut down
and destroyed enough logs to make an artistic
home, in keeping with the surroundings, and then
put up a frame house and pamted it an atrocious
colour? And why have they not left trees for
shade and protection?"

Before he had discovered a suitable reason for
all this we had turned a corner, and there, before
my very eyes, was the house of my dreams. Built
of logs it was, with a roof of shakes, and half
hidden in a group of poplars that was a miniature
park.

"Drive in," I commanded. "This is my
home. I don't care what it costs."

"It's not for sale, Miss. Not at any price."

"Of course not," I said, despondently, " any one

JANET OF KOOTEXAY u

with sense enough to build a place like that would
have sense enough to keep it."

It was my disappointment in this matter that
prepared me to consider his next idea

"Tell you what," he said, -what you want is
w-ild land. I've an eighty at the foot of Goat
Mountain that would jue^. suit you. It has trees
of every sort and you could leave them standing
where and how you like when you clear the lana.
It has P good mountain stream too. Between you
and mo, it's no good buying a place without good
water,

' ' But, ' ' I demurred, ♦ ' that all takes time, break-
mg wild land and growing orchard."

"Oh yes, some. But when it's done it's your
home; not one built by any one. And :ou can
clear up pretty fast-if you have the cash."

"Is It a bargain?" I asked. -And how about
taxes on this sort of thing?"

This last was added to remind him that he was
paying taxes on a great deal of property, and that
It would be very nice to have this off his hands
before the June payments fell due : not to mention
having this money to pay them with. Wasn 't that
subtle I I believe that I would make an a^^ent
myself. °

We inspected the eighty. Trees there were, as
he said— m plenty. I wondered if it ever could
be cleared. He explained that land that is fertUe
enough to grow mammoth trees, giant ferns and

JANET OF KOOTENAY

i I

I 1

brakes and a wild luxuriance of all undergrowth,
is just as willing, when placed in harness, to grow
superb fruit trees, raspberry canes and tomato
vines.

**How much?" I asked when we oamo again to
the place where his horse waited.

He lit his pipe for time to think.

"The time was, not so very long ago, when I
wouldn't have taken two hundred an acre for this
piece."

"Good-ni/z/iH" I said, climbing into the buggy.

"Hold on! Peter Gordon, on tho next place
here offered me one hundred an acre over a year
ago '

I sat down hard and tucked the robe about me.

"Make me an offer, then," ho said.

Not for nothing had I been making every man
on the train talk fruit farm. Most of the train-
men owned a bit of land themselves and their in-
formation had helped me a great deal.

"The back twenty is nothing but hillside pas-
ture. That's worth twenty -five an acre."

"Forty."

"No. Twenty-five. That males five hundred.
For the remaining sixty I will pay fifty an acre.
That makes three thousand. Thirty-five hundred
altogether. Take it or leave it."

"Seventy-five straight is rock bottom," he re^
monstrated.

"Thirty-five hund.od: cash."

JANET OF KOOTENAY 13

vallJy!' '' ''"'* "^ *"'"'" ^'''' °^ ^^^'^ ^'^ in the

"Cash," I said.

'•That four or five acres over by Gordon's fence
that was cleared by a squatter once is worth a
couple of hundred to any one."

"Thirty-five hundred."

iJJr "'■•' ""^y " •"'"■""'o from a shipping aid-

"Cash." I noted that even- time I 8,ii,l thi.
word, his .yes would brigll-n TnvoZfaH^

tl,rf,"' " "'.''' ""y "'«■'• A cool thousand for
the stream; twenty-five hundred for thehmd "

»!,„ "'""«/"'-'" ^oh length and depth that I
though he must have fallen asleep Onee 1 ,
glanced around carefully vo see if there were any
signs of relenting in my face. I saw to "rat
th.re were none. So, finally, with a wren<^ tha

wori <Ch.'' "^' ' *"" ^"-> l-y 'he magio of the

''When can you pay itf " he asked.
mo,-ning."" "" """^ '*" ^' ""= '■""'^ "P^" i" tue

It will be useless for me to try to desorihs t„
70U, as I would Uke to, my place or its sTround!

JANET OF KOOTENAY

» ;

i 1

ings. Those four years on the prairie must have
dried up the fount of my exchimatory raptures,
although I remember that you always managed to
retain yours, and to use thcin often for sunsets,
dawns and oilier times of exciti>mont.

However, devoid of colouring, here is its geo-
graphical situation, as Miss Botts used to say.

It is one of a row of small farms, each of eighty
acres or so, and, all but mine, all or partially
cleared, that are backed up, like a row of parked
automobiles, against the foot of Ooat Mountain.
Thuse face, looking south, on the new National
Automobile Highway between Halifax and Van-
couver.

It is only an afternoon's ride to Ralph Connor's
Black liock; and the graveyard where the men,
who died of typhoid in the construction camp, are
buried, is only over a hill or two.

The great Kootenay flats, the reclamation of
which we have heard talked of so often, are only
three or four miles away, and the whole valley is
like a huge bowl, the edges of which are serried
ranks of blue hills, crowned with snow.

The land itself could be divided into four square
lilocks of twenty acres, each one back of the other.
Th ^ front has a small knoll, on the top of which
T!iy house will stand. The sccord twenty is rather
low and should make ideal celery ground, with its
moist black earth. The third block, sloping up-
ward again, was 'mrely made for peach orchard

JANET OP KOOTENAY 15

and kindred crops, and the back, as I said, ig
niorely hillside pasture.

And there are neighbors, Nan; neighbors aJI
about Standing on my little knoll, I can count
eight houses within the radius of a mile. You may
indeed be able, from the top of your windmill, to
declare yourself monarch of all you survey, but it
will bo of men. c(.mr<,rt to mcswhenevoningfalls.to
see the twinkling lights of co-monarchs all about.

The place immediately opposite mine is owned
by a Mrs. and Mr. Good. That is the way Mc-
Gregor said it. I said that I hoped I would like
her. She looked a motherly soul from a distance
—wore a sunbonnet and all that. He said he
hoped that she would like me.

My neighbour on the left, as I look south, is a
Captam teuton, a returned soldier, away now

T^i^'^l?' ^"^ *''^ "'^^-^ '' t^^ Peter Gordon
that McGregor mentioned. Both are bachelors.

I am sure of the possibilities of at least one
neignbour-Goat Mountain. I am in love with it
already and shall lose no time in getting to be on
mtimate terms with its trees and fiowers, its little
ravines and glades, even, I hope, its top.

And now I must post this and find out thj quick-
est way to get my land cleared and ready for ac-
tion. It seems a crime to mutilate it.

Your erstwhile discontented, but now animated
and happy

Janet Kirk.

i !

t i. !

My dear Nan:

This is being written beneath my own vine and
fig tree, or, to be more explicit, beneath my own
cedar tree. The man who is to build my house
has put a floor and part wall to my tent, also a
window and door. So we are quite comfortable,
Bingo and I. He contributes to my sense of se-
curity by sleeping on the mat inside the tent door.
I have bought only a few absolute necessities for
use till you send my things along.

Mrs. McGregor's regret at losing me was touch-
ing. I will not include Bingo in this as she thor-
oughly hated him. She said she had quite ex-
pected me to stay at least a month and had gone
to considerable expense in the matter. What the
expense had been she did not mention. Had I
remained, I could have easily suggested more to
her — a lamp for instance, for my room that would
make a light.

She even offered to make it two dollars a day
to help me out. I did not mention that it was the
two fifty a day that had really helped me out.

I have selected the spot for my house. They
will begin excavating the minute the frost is out
of the ground— probably in a few days, if these
sunny southern breezes continue. When a warm,

•i

JANET OF KOOTENAY 17

soft wind such as this blows over the Three Bar,
it is a Chinook. Here, it is natural, early March
weather, quite to be taken for granted.

The contractor has his tool shed up and, before
commencing the house, is going to get the build-
mgs ready for my venture into the realms of
poultry. He will build four combination brooder
and colony houses, the four to be set in a square
for brooding and heated with burners from one
gasoline tank. Later they will be set in a row
and used as colony houses.

I have ordered one thousand baby chicks from
Spokane, White Wyandottes. Will not these
droves of snow-white fowl be artistic, roving
through the orchards of *'Arcady."

Yes, that is what I have named my place. Do
you not think it a fitting one for the embodiment
of my dreams of a pastoral life?

And oh, the plans I make for Arcady, here in
the evenings by my student's lamp, with Bingo
asleep at my feet— except when he gets up,
boredly, to go for my wool ball that has rolled
into an obscure corner— plans for my orchard, my
garden, my house, my chickens, a dairy herd per-
haps

Speaking of plans, the only fixed one that I had
before coming here was that my little home must
be of logs- yes, certainly of logs, with vines all
about. You cannot have forgotten all I had to
say about that. Well, it turns out that a log

JANET OF KOOTENAY

house, decently made, is an expensive affair, and
that very special knowledge and skill is required
in its making.

At least, such is the opinion of Mr. James, the
only contractor in the valley. He refused, point-
blank, to be bothered with one. However, he
drove me to see a quaint little place he had just
completed, sided up and down and topped with a
roof of shakes.

Could I have my house covered all over with
the shakes?" I asked him.
**You could if you could get the shakes. "
"How does one get shakes?"
Most people hereabouts have made their own.
Cut them from blocks oi cedar with a long knife
struck with a hammer."
"Then, if that is all, I will have them."
Have you ever seen shakes. Nan? They are
huge cedar shingles that weather, in time, to every
beautiful shade of brown. I have decided to make
my own, enough for the whole house.

To begin this I shall need my team, for the
cedar blocks must be hauled from the river bot-
tom. So, will you send along Molly and Dexter.
I shall get the men busy on their stable at once.

Also there was a plow, harrow, cultivator and
wheelbarrow— I have almost forgotten what all.
Send me the old mower. The farmers here put up
the wild hay that grows on the river flats for
winter feed, and of course I must be in the swim.

m^x^!^:

JANET OF KOOTENAY if

You may send an ext a plow, now that you are
going into tractors, and I think that, with my bit
of furniture, should almost fill the car.

Send the big blue davenport and charge it to
your next payment. It never fitted your room
anyhow; I shall build mind around it. I hope all
this will not trouble you too much. Just remem-
ber that there is a Christmas turkey in it, also
strawberries, tomatoes and such things all down
through the years.

I have seen the manager of the Canyon Mills
about buymg my timber. He was glad to get it
and will put men at cutting it this week. I im-
pressed on him the necessity of haste. The tim-
~)cr IS to be exchanged for lumber for the house
and barn, which seems like money from home.
Very much love, also thanks from

Jaket.

!i^ic"l|

Arcady, March 15th.
Dear Nan :

Here arrives another Sunday Budget. You
may expect one each week, posted Monday morn-
ings. I shall be too busy to write week days, if
all I gather of market garden work is true.

To-day has been most exciting. Have met two
of my neighbours. I begun the day by washing
my hair— not a minute before it needed it. Then
I was busy making Bingo miserable for company
by scrubbing him when a knock came at thj tent
door.

**Why, my neighbour," I exclaimed. "Won't
you come in?"

But Mrs. Good, her eyes accusing, was staring
in stupefaction at my costume.

"Yes, Nan, I am doing what I had threatened-
dressing for my work. Overalls I don't like, so
I simply wear my riding breeches and leggings
and a leather-trimmed khaki blouse.

Personally, I think it both sensible and becom-
ing, but my visitor seemed to be simply bereft of
breath by the brazenness of it all.

"Then, is there something I can do for you?"
I asked.

Then she found her voice.

JANET OF KOOTENAY 21

;*I was going to ask you to go in to church
with me."

Her frigid tone said plainly that no female who
shamelessly answered her door without a skirt
would get an invitation of any kind from her.

''But," she went on, ''as I see you're busy,
1 II merely say good-morning."

Down through the trees she marched, her back
radiatmg self-righteousness. She gave vent to
her outraged propriety and to her especial brand
of Christianity by hitting her patient old horse
smartly with the whip.

Well, it had to come, I suppose. I intend to do
a man's work on my farm; I intend to dress so
that I can do it and I cannot see how I can be
hidden, camouflaged or smoke-screened from the
gaze of sensitive-souled neighbours all the time.
Only this. Nan: put not your trust in sunbon-
nets. They may conceal any kind of a face. One
by one our young illusions vanish.

Then, with my hair still blowing, I went to the
spring for water. The "spring" is really a sand-
bottomed well, scooped out where the stream drops
over a log, right on the border between Captain
Fenton's place and mine. The poplars and balm
of gilead will soon be adding their fragrance to
that of the woodsy moss about the spring. With
only a little effort of my imagination I get the
odor of violets and mayfloweis.
Just as I dipped in my pail, a lazy English voice

- n :

JANET OF KOOTENAY

I almost let the thing float

so startled me that
down the stream.

"I say, are my eyes playing tricks with me?"
it said.

I looked all about but could see no one.

**I wonder about my cars?" I mused.

Then the owner of the voice made himself vis-
ible. A cane hung on his arm and he was putting
in his pocket a book that he had been reading
iu the warm sun as he sat on a log.

"Your ears are excellent, it would seem. Miss
"Wood-nymph."

** 'Miss Kirk' would be more accurate, not to
say suitable," I said.

"And my name is Fenton. I am your neigh-
bour."

"I know," I said. "I didn't know you were
back, but I know all about you. Mrs. McGregor
told me about my neighbours."

"All of us?"

' ^o, you and Peter. She left me unprepared
for Mrs. Good."

"But you are prepared for Peter and me?"

"Oh, yes. Peter is afraid of women. Afraid
some siren will ensnare him sometime.'

"Ha! And Fenton?"

"Oh, he was a reservist and rushed home at the
beginning of the war. He won a D.S.O. at the
Marne."

"He doesn't sound to be so profoundly inter-

JANET OF KOOTENAY

esting as th« other. But he is interested. He ad-
mires your pluck in tackling a farm alone, also
your good sense in the costume you wear.
All my neighbours do not."

Goods?'''"''^ "^'^^ amusement in the direction of

"More than likely not. But then, the road of
progress is always blocked with well-meaning peo-
ple, valiantly trying to uphold old traditions."

Just l.ero the Captain's mount, a big and shiny
black bast With a smartly cropped mane, came
to the stream for water. He was duly presented

tti'hr ^^"^^""'-r ^-^--"^ tlfe introdu'
tion, he srifted inquiringly about the pockets of

his master's worn but well-fitting tweeds.

No sugar lumps, Midnight. Highlv unpatri-
otic these days. Ask the lady if she would ifke to
ride you sometimes."

''She would, indeed," the ladv replied.

lie inquired if I had met Peter. I said I had
not, and asked him to even matters up by tellinc.
he man that I was a man-hater of the most viru!
lent type.

I' Young woman," he inquired sternly, -are vou
asking a British officer to tell a lie?"
' ' ITmm -m, we-ell ' '

^br?A' ^^? .^?"*'' ^" ^^^^^t. And doubtless
.he statement will be more than welcome, allaving
apprehensions and all that." '

Before we parted he offered to hplp me at any

it%

■■rom

JANET OF KOOTENAY

I i

points where the intricacies of gardening proved
to be too much for me.

I noticed that, as he led Midni;?ht back to his
stable, he used his cane and was quite lame, almost
as though he might wear an artificial limb. I
wonder.

Arcady has fairly hummed with activity during
the last week. The bushmen have felled several
of the trees. It is fascinating to see the tall green
monarchs sway a moment then come crashing to
the earth. Especially so to Bingo. I have to
hold him every time or his fine calculations would
place him in the exact spot where the trunk falls
heaviest. The fragrance stirred up by the falling
spruce and f r is so evergreeny and Christmasy.

Mr. James has the barn well along. He is rush-
ing things as it is easier to get the needed men
before they must commence work on their own
land. Am hoping that Dexter and Molly will ar-
rive in a day or so.

The only other thing that I can think of is the
purchase of a cow and calf. Remembering the
one we bought in Fort Weyne, I was determined
that this cow, whatever she cost, should have no
faults.

With this in mind, I went to Worth's— I bought
her of a very eloquent Mr. Worth — and escorted
the boy who was sent to bring her home. She
came willingly on being called. That was unlike
our Minerva. She stood quietly while being

JANET OF KOOTENAY 26

« although I walked about her constantly
and allowed Bingo to do so too. This had always
dnven Minerva into fits. Then I milked a while
and she is easy to milk. Mr. Worth showed me
that she had filled a twelve quart pail to the brim
I marvelled a bit that a pail that I have that is
exact y the same size only holds .ight quarts, but
that discrepancy of course was not Betsy's
So I bought her; seventy dollars.
Can one get a Jersey cow, a good milker, with
all those virtues and a calf for seventy dollars?
1 really seem to have.

The calf has been named William. This will
indicate to you that it will not grow up to join the
dairy herd that I sometimes dream of. However
William may pasture about here till he grows up
trom untimely veal into patriotic beef.

Your friend,
and also that of the food controller,

Janet K.

£^^ 'fi^.

iSSR

W i\:

Arcady, March the twenty-second.
Dearest Nan :

Your letter came last nij?ht, otherwise these
budgets had been suspended.

I note that my accounts of my new surround-
ings have not moved you to the slightest envy;
that you still think it the height of human bliss
to ride out and out in the crisp morning air across
the level prairie to meet the sunrise. Fancy one's
riding to meet a sun thr.t comes up in the prosaic
way that it does about Fort Weynel You should
see the sunrise here in the mountains !

Sometimes when, in half-awake forgetfulness of
where I am, I glance from my window to ste
whether the prairie dawn has decided to be blue-
gray-pink or yellow-gold, my breath is almost
taken by the sight of the hills and clouds all
sifted through with wonder colours. The hilltops
looking my way are frowning purple ; the facets to
the south-east, smiling gold.

My own personal sunbeams are, at this moment,
stealthily climbing up behind the Canyon lull.
Then, all of a sudden, they arc over on the top of
Goat Mountain, crowTiing it with opal and dispel-
ling its white-cloud night-cap. This done, they
move joyfully down to spend the day with me.

JANET OF KOOTENAY 27

"We unloaded the car Wednesday. MoUj and
Dexter were glad to touch terra firma and seomod
pleased to see me. Bingo was so delighted to
1)0 with them again that he wanted to sleep in the
stahlo to-night. Everything came through in
ship-shape. The furniture reposes in the hayloft
for the present.

A tcamless neighbour is using Molly and Dex.
tor to bring \\\) cedar blocks for himself and nic.
I find that it is a good idea for a woman to o\vii
horses and madiiuory as she can often trade their
use for work that she cannot do. The amount of
trading that is done in a community where noigli-
bours are plentiful and money scarce is amazing.
An old man near here, whose name and nation-
ality is Saundy MacPhaill, came and offered to
milk and care for Betsy for a quart of milk, niglit
and morning. I concealed my elation as best I
could while making the bargain.

The excavating of my cellar is finished. They
did not find a single stone. To-morrow they com-
mence the cement walls. The floor will be of
cement too. It requires the very best to winter
the fruits and vegetables properly, but the sprlii'-
high prices make the effort and expense worlii
while.

Trees have been falling continuously. The
knoll seems rather naked with them all lying low.
I tied a white string about the trunks of those I
wished left standing for shade and protection.

mm..

-.-.■{M.^-,

^ ^^mx-

JANIOT OF KOOTENAY

In front of llio house-to-bo arc four big cedars.
Thoy niako a very ornamontal tree, and grow
doiiHoly bushy if the tip is cut to prevent their
growing liigher.

I cliinbGd and cut the first one myself but found
it a pretty shaky and breath-taking job so I per-
suaded Cliow, a Chinaman I have engaged for the
summer, to climb the second. lie pronounced that
as "enough for one day" with much finality.
Even my offer of an extra dollar did not move
him.

A youth cutting logs near at hand, seeing the
dollar, came and earned it — and ho said he had
earned it — by beheading number three. No fresh
material being at hand, number four still brazenly
flaunts its graceful tip skyward.

The first valiant knight that manifests a desire
to win my maidenly favour by performing some
feat of gallantry ^vill be set at that stunt. Oddly
enough, a woman farmer of twenty-eight, who has
been a teacher, a reporter and a homesteader — all
three states very hard on the coy-maiden-with-
drooping-eyes attitude — is not usuar^ peaterod
with sighing swains dying to do her favours.

When it comes to inspiring deeds of manly
valour, the kind of girl who will stand all night in
a lino in front of the pre-emption office in below-
zero weather, as you and I did, is not "in it" with
a curly-headed, bright-complexioned young woman
whose sole asset is tangley eyelashes.

JANKT OF KOOTENAY

soarco tlio valouMocrs, I shall always liavo
Arca.Iy_at tho wost of the house I have left a
Ztf:'V "'«t »..o„,od to await a h,™ o to

do«^ ?• ,f 'r'.r "'" ™" "'''« 'h" I'""' '1»" goes
do«„ to Iho l.ttlo si ,i„a ,,i|i „,,„ ^ 8°^^

o younK ,„,ph,rs, even though the men^assufe mo
«mt It shouIJ bo cleared and dug for celery the"
Celery „„ ,„^.,, ^i,,^ ^f „_.^ « there may be
tmt ,t must not interfere with my trees. ^ '

popht I w 11 r' "']" "?"'"' ^'"'^ ''^y°"<J tho
poplars 1 will have a tenn s court. Thi«« m,iM,

agamst the heaps of advice that s ems to ^onr to

makmg ,t unproductive forever seems to most of
the men to be tho height of folly.

Some of the women have told me how niuch I
shall appreciate the shade of my trees on the hot
summer days, and say how nice it must be to bo
able to take as much soil as I like for a rose gar-
den, but a number of the men seem to doubt my
ituess to own such precious land at all

However I bought this place so as' to havo a
spot where I can do emctl!, «.. / like, and it sTms
.omehow to heighten tho pleasure of doing "„
when some one else does not like it.

Then, right at my front fence, are two riant
poplars, just the distance of a roadwl; a^art
that are to stand as sentinels for Arcady In or-
der to have these at the gate, the drive will Lve

.. ti^

im^^imm

JANET OF KOOTENAY

U
p

to bo curved and cross the stream, but that allows
for a rustic bridge, and so on.

I have gotten to be quite expert at making
shakes. I got up to two thousand this last week.
Captain Fenton helped mo one afternoon. I made
tea over the spirit lamp on a cedar block and it
was really more like a picnic.

On another afternoon, when he saw me starting
out to walk to town, he insisted that I ride Yi'id-
nlght. What a ride it was — almost like sailing in
its smoothness. Midnight canters even more
easily than your Norv^ell — distance has lent me
daring — and how I did hate to bring the beauty
in and turn him over to his owner. I was cor-
dially invited to use him at any time, and accepted
with keen delight. But

When the Captain had led Midnight off I felt
so much at peace with all the world that I de-
cided to make advances to Mrs. Good while still
under the benign influences of the ride. I really
wanted her to like me and I wanted to like her.

In deference to her prejudices I wore a skirt,
and, forgetting that I made the best bread in our
cooking class, I went over and asked her advice
about the subject. Only the other day I had road
that the surest way to a woman's esteem is to ask
her advice.

But in this case it did not work a bit I see that
it will take more than bread and occasional skirts
to conciliate her.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

«he said she had seen me on the Oan^in'^
horse ; that she hoped I would not get teSlnt
but a was hardly delicate. wa« it? f^l'^tg
g.rl, that was, an unmarried girl, to use a maa's^
an^unmarr.ed man'a-property L thou^irw^o

ment'^f ;:""';' 'f '"'™"^<' '» "^ «' *»<> -"-
, '\i! '° ■ -k why -u r son liad not enlisted

and as fli.ngs el'om go irom bad to better i It
away as soon a. ;,.^jst^.ie *'"'

'icniy I felt perverse enough to try my original
scheme on n,m. I asked his advice a^ourgatcf
chimneys, nursery stock and many oC thfn^'
Here the experiment was more successful much
I real y must write to that magazine and putThem
■.ght ,n the matter. Mr. Good followed me rX
to the road and I let hiin advise me f 0^11 f tee

h^rthfgetitr "^ ''' •-- --

toSLJeruSrvrLTafLtTyfud^^^

v^S wTe'"""" f ''"• ^"^ I "aUs^that a
very bad beginnmg has been made.

X Sffiile as I recall that Mr. Good is goin- to
speak to "Charity" about having me ov "'for

S" will T" '""" "'t'- "■ ^«"»^ "''>» ' ' cht
comes '^"''^'"^ '"" "^^'^ t^'at time

Do you get the name? Charity Good! Some-

T?:v

^«?it'

JANET OF KOOTENAY

what the same anomaly as t^v^ of the coloured
girl I knew called Lily Snowd ..
Enclosed is a ground plan of Arcady

From your own

Jan.

Arcady, March 29.
Dear ol Nan :

Two thousand shakes this week; again with
some assistance, although I explained that it
was sure to be indelicate from the point of view
across the road.

Have given a man the job of putting a wire
fence around Arcady. That is, across the front
and back. Then, I believe that it is up to me to
pa-r half of the cost of Peter's and Captain Fen-
ton's line fence also.

Oh yes, indeed; I remember perfectly that I had
said that I would never have a wire fence on any
place of mine. But I have discovered that wire is
quite the cheapest and most practical fencing, so
am having it— with the mitigating circumstances
of rustic posts and top rails. Just inside, a
Carraganda hedge will be planted, all across the
front. Car'-" landa grows rapidly and rankly
here. The will soon be covered.

While the ^.ice man and I were laying the line,
we noticed that we were followed by a small boy
who seemed to be animated with a lively interest
in all our doings. More than once before had I
seen this same small boy observing the prog-
ress of Arcady from the road, or from nearby
tree-tops.

Zi^

TiStiiMT

■Imi ..t'i^'.,.' A-V^l

JANET OF KOOTENAY

"What is your name, son?" I asked.

*' Nicholas Albert Worth."

"My word! Who calls you that?"

** Mother, sometimes. When I don't come first
time. Kest o' the time I'm Nicky. You niaking-
a fence?"

"Yes."

**Goin' to dig postholes soon?"

"Yes."

"Ca-n I have the lend of the fish-worms!"

"Certainly. But you can't fish till May."

* ' Oh well, I 'U have 'em ready. Whyn 't you cut
the tip off that other cedar?"

"Nicholas Worth, is it true that you can ask
more questions than any other person in the val-
ley? I've heard so."

Nicholas grinned. * * Yes, I guess sc. Who told
you? A little bird?"

Here, Nicholas reading aright my intention of
leaving the fence man and him to their own de-
vices, dug his toe into the soft spring earth and
said, almost desperately :

"My mother won't ever let me go onto any
one's place without being invited."
"Do you want to come with me?"
"You bet."

TrottingT^y my side, he endeavoured to get the
thing straight for home consumption.
^ * * You did invite me, didn 't you I I was standing
right by that tree and you asked me in."

*'?

■

III

SS3

^Tirv

i^^f'.Aikh

im-

r 'i

^;^J

j^Af .

JANET OF KOOTENAY

"Ves, Idid."

her yoTl'r^ "^ "^'^'^^ P^^^^^' ^^ ^^u tell
I'l liaven't a phone yet, Nicky."

"Yes."

"With a big box on the waggon?"

"les." ' *

Was that so no one could see what was in iti
Mother thought it must be." ^ m ui

"You don't take your curiosity off the winrl
do ,„u, Nictyj No, it wasn't lo no It loSl^

'* Was it to keep the dust out?"
I saw no dust."

"Was it to keep the 7riud ou*?"
"No."

. f''}'y ^^""^Sht for several minutes, then irazin-
judicia ]y at the top of Goat Mountain,-!' ^ ^
n 1 knew what was in the inside of that box
Ijouldn't ev.r tell a single soul. Cross my

''Do you realhj want to know, Nicky?"

sp'Zt;"'' ""^ '"" »' ''^"y '*i'*^'« from

''Was it f How many?"

JANET OF KOOTENAY

**A whole thousand."

♦*Gee! They'll all die."

"Oh, I do hope not, Nicky. Why do you say
so?"

** 'Cause mother's did. And Mrs. Perry's,
pretty near all. Mother says you can't raise
chickens 'cept by settin' hens. Whyn't you ask
my mother?"

"I didn't think of it, Nicky. But I think mine
will live. 'You see, I paid thirty-five cents each
for two- week-old chicks instead of twenty-five for
two-day-olds."

"Thirty-five cents each for a whole thousand!
Gee, that's a lot. Almost a hundred dollars, I
guess. Will you make any 'money?"

"Not if they all die."

' ' P 'raps they won 't all. Maybe just some. Any
dead j^et?"

"No."

"Er any sick?"

"A few felt a bit dumpy when we put them in
the brooders, but I think they'll be all right. Do
you want to see them ? ' '

* * You bet. Then can I see your horses and pet
your dog?"

"You can ask questions about them another day.
Just a peep at my chickens now, then a cooky and
off you go. ' '

He was almost as enthusiastic as I about the
moving masses of fluffy yellow white bedls. We

JANET OF KOOTENAY

inspected the thermometers in the four brooders
and I let him watch me give them their rations of
dry mash and skim milk. They are fed every
four hours, in small amounts so that they will
not overeat.

When Nicky was finally in possession of his
cooky, he still seemed loth to leave. Something
■was on his mind.

"I crossed my h'^art, didn't If " he said at last.

"Bless your heart, I don't care whom you tell
about my chicks."

He waited for no more, but hurried on flying
feet to the merciful task of allaying home curi-
osity.

Thursday, Captain Fenton came and asked me
to come to see his greenhouses. He has two quite
big ones ; goes after it very scientifically.

I didn't know what to say.

"Mrs. Grundy has gone to town and won't be
back till eight o'clock," he said, "if you are think-
ing of her. ' '

So I went. Nan, if you could only have seen
his spring bulbs I Tulips, nax'cissi, hyacinths and
daffodils — a pastel colour-riot! The fragrance
still hangs in my clothes.

He ships a huge crate of these every day. Also
he has thousands on thousands of tomato plants,
cabbage, cauliflower, head-lettuce and corn ready
for the first transplanting. This must be a tre-
mendous job and I would have loved to offer to

JANET OF KOOTENAY

help as nothing appeals to me like fussing with
young growing things, but . Having encoun-
tered already the eyes of curiosity (Mrs. Worth),
suspicion (Peter), and censure (Mrs. Good) I
thought it best to mind my step. '

The Captain told me that Sauudy usually helps
him, had cared for it during his absence at the
war and again when he was away recruiting. Just
then Saundy arrived, as angels do when spoken of,
and our host made tea in his den at one end of the
greenhouses. This den is typical of the cultivated
tastes of its owner. There were a few sketches,
exquisite portrayals of lights and shades; many
worn and interesting books and a lamp and some
bits of oriental pottery that looked as though they
might be almost priceless. Together with these
were bear skins and goat heads, relics of his more
recent life in Canada. If one could only make
him talk about himself!

However, Saundy talked lots. I liked the old
Scotchman immensely. It was a very jolly party
—and tea! Tlie Captain can certainly make tea.
It was some Oolong blend, of a fragrance that
beggars description.

When Saundy had gone, my neighbour got me

an exquisite pot of hyacinths, a book on hotbed

culture together with a timetable for the planting

of the various crops, and walked home with me.

The conversation touching once on Peter I

^f^ms^m^is^vm^mms^m

.■I--,

('h

JANET OF KOOTENAY 39

asked if he had been told that our neighbourly
regard was mutual. It seems he had.

"But I am afraid that he still remains to be
convinced."

''What did he say, exactly," I asked.
•'He said, 'time will tell, time will tell* "
"I shall SCO that it does then," I said. "Did
ho tell you to beware?"

Caught suddenly, ho only laughed.

"I shall lavo co allay his fears on that score
too, then."

"No, I did that. Told him that matrimonial de-
sis-ns on tlie part of young women is one of the
tilings a remnant soldier is exempt from How-
ever," ho went on, -there is one thing that is
not barred him, and he needs them more than ever
That IS friends. I am so glad to have found a
good one in you. I'll come to-morrow and show
Chow about the hotbeds."

Later, in the niglit, his words "matrimonial de-
signs on the part of young women" came back to
me and drove away sleep. Had he acquired the
same idea that Peter was credited with— that I
was on the rane' with the idea of securing a home-
maker from somewhere in the neighbourhood?

I alternated between fits of fury at his telling
me that there was no use in having designs on a
remnant soldier-although he had not really said
that, and certainty that he was too well-bred to
harbour such a thought.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

At times r thought of getting up and writing
to Lester Owon that he might send along that sdi-
taire, that he says is all ready to mail when a
fruit farm falls through, but a latent decency re-
mmded me that an engagement ring should have
perquisites other than those of removing suspi-
cions of my motives.

However, I decided that in future I would bo
well on the safe side. After a careful study of
the hotbed instructions, I had Chow understand-
ingly busy at them, when, fairly early the next
morning, Captain Fenton came over.
I* Eh, what?" he said in some surprise.
•♦The book you so kindly loaned me is very
lucid, 80 I find I needn't trouble you at all "
"Ah!"

Have you ever noticed that that one small word
can contain whole paragra,^hs at times? And
somehow, ni , r he had gone I didn't feel the sati -
faction I had expected to at all.

Soon after noon he saw mo getting water and
came to the spring, a determination in his face
that there was no escaping.

** There was some reason for your manner this
morning," he said quietly. -Don't you think I
have a right to ask what it was?"

Sidestepping seemed to be out of the question
so I faced him.

'♦You think exactly as Peter does."

For a long moment he looked at mo in absolute

JANET OF KOOTENW

stupofaotion, then when he had g. asped my mean-
ing he walked across the log bridge and came
close to mo in a manner that positively bordered
on ferocity.

' ' You— provoking— little ' '

What I was I shull never find out, for at this
moment my faithful Bingo attempted to forestall
any bodily harm to me by slipping round and
nipping my supposed antagonist in the heel— his
lame heel. You remember how he always flew at
you the moment you seemed to be getting the
best of a wrestling match or scrap.

"Even if you don't beat that infernal beast,
which I think you should do," he said in some
heat, "you might at least look sorry."

"But how can I? You must remember that
Bingo is my sole defender. If you treat me with
a proper respect, you and he will be friends. Be-
sides,— I thought you wore an artificial limb— I'm
glad to know that you do not."

"I'm Borry not to share your joy in either
case."

''Not T"

* ' Not, ' ' he interrupted me. ' * My knee will never
bend again. So I can never again pick my straw-
berries, scrub ray floors or say my prayers. A
wooden leg nowadays can do all sorts of tricks.
But never mind that. About this other. Where
under heaven did you get such a notion? What
have I said — or done?"

xm(t:m:tJ^

JANKT OF KOOTENAY

Vou-

»f

Really, my reasons, when summoned before
those disconcerting eyes seemed extraordinarily
banal. As I remained silent, he went on.

"Why, I've thought of you as some modem
goddess of youth, health and courage. It can't
be that I have given any reason for your thinking
me a bounder like that."

"But," I objected, "Peter is not considered a
bounder; merely a man of perspicacity."

"Never mind Peter. If you will not tell me
what I have done, then perhaps you will tell me
what I can do."

"You can forgive me, if you will. I'm thor-
oughly ashamed. And I would like very much to
be your friend."

lie took my proffered hand in both his, and
Bingo jumped about to show that his absolution
had been granted.

In a day or two you will receive a pot each of
daffodils, tulips and hyacinths; Captain Fcnton's
own idea. Next year I intend to liave a green-
house, but one cannot do everything first year,
liut 1 have three hotbeds. One for flowers; the
others for lettuce, cross, radishes an.l onions for
table use. My garden stock I shall buy from my
neighbour's greenhouse this year.

Bingo sends gilt-edged regards

Janet Kiek.

^''■:h^

•c^-y

Arcady, April 5th.
Dear Nan :

My lo^s are Rono. Tlioro seemed to be piles of
them everywhere and 1 tliou^lit it would take
weeks to move them, but they sent a bij,' tractor;
three days it came, two trips a day, four loads a
trip, and all were j^one.

I kept a biff pile of the small logs, on the back
forty, ami in the winter shall have a machine como
and cut them into wood. It is the thinjjj to do here.

A gans? commenced clearin;;: Thursday. I gave
a man the contract of clearing and plowing tlio
front forty,— to be finished by the first of May. lie
gets forty dollars an acre. They are slashing the
underbrush and piling for burning. Then there
are stumps to be blasted. It will probably be
lively about here for a while.

This morning I had the pleasure of another visit
from Nicky. He came at nine o'clock, just as I
was at breakfast.

"You asked me back, didn't youf" he asked
almost before I had the door open.

"I'm glad to see you, Nicky."

"Mother says I can stay while she gets ready
for church, if I don't get into a single bit of dirt.
I'm a bother round home when I get dressed up.
What you doing?"

JANET OF KOOTENAY

"How did you know that I wouldn't be getting
ready for church too?"

" 'Cause you don't go."

"To church?"

"Naw. And I wish I was a lady fanner so I
could do as Hike."

"But I do go to church. '*

"Here?"

"Perhaps not here yet. I've only been here a
few weeks and the mud makes walking hard. I
haven't a horse like your mother for driving in
to church."

"Did you go where you were before?"

"Yes. We went to the schoolhouse on Tuesday
evenings, and sometimes some of the neighbours
drove us to town in their cars on Sunday even-
*ngs."

**Did you have neighbours that was bachelors
there?"

* * There were some. Why ? ' '

"Then why did you move here?"

"You didn't think it was because the neighbours
were bachelors, Nicky?"

"Um-hum. Sure. Or else you'd have bought
a cleared place somewhere."

So, that is what they think ; for assuredly that
small boy had not been the originator of that idea.
But that information was extra — not at all what
Nicky had really come to tell me.

After we had fed the chickens, he led me with

JANET OF KOOTENAY

great secrecy to the "sumpin* '* that he wanted
to show me. "We skirted round the cleared place
in deference to Nicky's Sunday boots, and not till
we were close by Peter's fence did he pause.

** There," he said. "Did you know you had
them?"

After a search among the tangle of neglected
grass I discovered that what I "had" was four
quite long rows of strawberiy plants. It looked
as though they had strayed through the fence
from Peters big patch, but Nicky explained that
they had been planted by the man who had built
the shack.

I think that my delight at finding them must
have satisfied even Nicky. I expect the plants
are old and will need coddling, but fancy my hav-
ing fruit of my very own this year!

Here an unmistakable whistle summoned Nicky,
so he hustled off, leaving me with sufficient mate-
rial for a Sunday morning's contemplation.

A nurseryman called about trees yesterday.
Mr. Good had sent him. He made a plan of my
land, with the distances apart and all that, for
planting, also with the best spots for each variety
marked. He had the most gorgeous pictures of
fruit which he says cannot nearly do justice to
what will grow in Arcady.

I gave him an order which includes, beside
every variety of apple, peaches, pears, grapes,
cherries, plums, raspberries, currants, and straw-

JANET OF KOOTENAY

berries, also some Virginia creeper and Dutch-
man's Pipe vines.

Ornamental trees I do not need. He compli-
mented me on my sense in keeping such a good
selection.

I saw Captain Fenton at the well to-day. He
says he gets frighfully thirsty some days, waiting
to get his water till he sees me getting mine.

We talked of Albermarle— that is the name of
his place— and Arcady. I noticed a slight frown
of worry in his eyes as I waxed eloquent over my
plans for my place. Several times I have caught
the expression and wondered, so this time I asked
outright.

**Why should I look worried over your ex-
ploits?" he countered.

"That is what I am asking you."

''Then," he said, after studying my face un-
certainly for a moment, ''I'll tell you. I've been
wondering if you realised how much all this is
costing you."

"Let's see," I said; "about forty a day fo:
clearing. Twenty or more a day for building;
two twenty-five a day for the Chinaman; some-
thing like two to feed those greedy chickens, and
a few more for horses, cow. Bingo, incidentals and
myself. And I spent two hundred fifty on trees
to-day."

"Oh well, then. As long as you know. I
thought— you know it mounts up horribly— that

JANET OF KOOTENAY 47

you might think this the same as a prairie propo-
sition. And I've wondered— if you get in a tight
hole— I've a bit I am not using— would you
think " ^

"You are very good," I said, ''but, thanks to a
timely railroad in Saskatchewan, and four good
crops there, I am on easy street- that is, if this
does not keep up too long. But I am not urging
other girls to try it as I had intended doing. How
would a girl with small capital, as I had when I
went to the prairie, do here? There are other
women farmers round here; how do they do it?"

"Let's see. Mrs. Crofts, the widow, used her
husband's life insurance. Two ex-teachers over
on Elm Creek insured their own lives and bor-
rowed on that. Miss Ladds and M: s DeForest
are business women of some kind and only spend
the summer here. Some have not confided their
schemes in me but doubtless they have them. I
think most women buy a cleared place and make
payments, but at any rate, few of them storm at
it in the way that you do. Forty acres cleared the
first year is breaking the record."

Bo you listen to that. Nan I Instead of making
a failure of fruit farming as you and Lester so
glibly prophesied, I am breaking the record in
the first lap.

I am glad to know that my making shakes im-
pressed you all properly. They went a little

JANET OF KOOTENAY

slower this week for I am off on another tangent.
This time it is a stone gateway.

Those two regal cottonwoods— their shape is
much like Ontario elms— seem to demand stone
gateposts to uphold their dignity. So I, mo my-
self, am going to make these gateposts. On the
back twenty there is plenty of stone, a nice Hat
shale that builds beautifully.

I acquired a mixing box and some cement from
the men who are building the cellar.

^ Saundy, who at times is a prospector, lent me
his drilling irons and showed me how to drill holes
in the big rock on the back corner.

Reluctantly the stumping men let me have a
stick of dynamite— giant, they call it— and a piece
of fuse from the supply they have on hand for
stumping.

I knew as I proceeded about the business, that
every man on the place was covertly watching me,
so I summoned all the nonchalance at my com-
mand as I laid the fuses and prepared to light
them. Every man, I felt sure, expected me to
end by calling on his superior masculine aid— and
how I would love to have done so— but I felt that
it was up to me to demonstrate my theories of
feminine independence, then and there.

It was with many an inward quake that I struck
the match that was to touch the fuses off, and how
I did want to run when their sputtering began I I
began the descent at a normal and manlike gait

JANET OF KOOTENAY

49
that grow easier with distance, and all would havo

ZirVr' 'Y "■ '"'^^^ ^'" "^^"'-"^ ^«rk from
W T J '7 ',' '""'' i"vosti,^.,tin;,^ the burning
fuse I flow back and, when he would not follo^
me ended by piclnn^r liini up and tearing do^vn
that slope carryin^r n vory indi,rnant and stru--
glins dog. I had lost all my iionchalanco but"l
Btill had my dog.

Bang I Bang! Bang! All throo charges an-

ZT\''y/l """ «■'"' I -»^ »f thai U
demonstrated that I could lay a fuse properly
besides wh,ch I had „o fancy for having S

to trLT't "^ ^"'^ ""« "^ I P™''ed about
banged. ^^ " ^""^ "' dynamite had not

Tlio stone was broken beautifully. Chow got
down two loads, and I began the posts yestlrry
afternoon working till it was dark. It is roany
very simple The stones are just placed where
they look n.«> and the chink., are filled with eo
ment. I used Mr. James' spirit level and square
to keep the sides plumb. I cannot begin t2 teU
yon how proud I am of myself

The gate itself is to be a very wonderful affair
made of young tamarac poles. The idea is all my
own and Mr. James has expressed unqualified d"!
approval of it,-expressed it ve.7 volubly afl the
time ho was making the frame. Now that the

Its a s y '' ' r i" "■ " '^ ^^ ^^^^ '' «*

AU-C-A-D-Y made from the tamaraa I am

JANET OF KOOTENAY

i> '

anxious to have the posts done and get at it En-
closed is a picture of what my gateway is expected
to look like when finished.

I intend to make rustic rails for the driveway
bridge, also seats in the rose garden and under the
poplars by the tennis court, after the same man-
ner.

More people than Mr. James disapprove of my
apparent frivolity. Last night, just as I was be-
ginning this letter to you, two neighbours wer*
strolling over the place in a frank tour of inspec-
tion. Tent walls are slight detriment to the won-
derful acoustics of evening air, so I heard their
conversation distinctly.

**Wall," one said, **she must be either a mil-
lionaire or — or just foolish. Stone gateposts!
And a curved lane, when it might have been
straight ! Besides, did you ever hear the beat of
taking so much good land as she has marked out
here for that game of lawn tennis T That sort of
thing might be all right on a rocky hillside where
the land is no good for anything else ; but here I
Why, my wife made forty dollars out o' Spanish
onions on a patch no bigger than this !"

"Still," the other said, ''they tell me over to
Brown and Bartons that she pays cash for every-
thing. I asked them particular. Didn't seem as
though she would, what with them clothes. Spot
cash it is, for everything."

"Wall, maybe she can, maybe she can. But

w> s

■I i

JANET OF KOOTENAT 51

I know T oonldn't if I ran my farm like a fancy
park. That's what I told Jemima, just the other
day when she wants to fill in that little front yard
with just flowers. She says, 'That Kirk girl is
right; there's things in the woi^d besides money.*
And I says, 'Maybe there is, but they don't pay
very well, 'I says."

My cellar is all finished. It smells so new and
clean and stoney ! I go down and just walk round
and round and round in it. The frame of the
house is all ready to put up.

Write me a big letter and tell me if as much
has happened on the whole prairie in the last week
«8 I have told you of in this fruit farm budget.

Your old pal,

Jan.

",!l

A ready, April 12th.
Deab Nait :

Was much amused at your description of your-
self in overalls driving your new tractor plow,
and your regret that no handsome captain was
there to cot pliment you on your appearance and
pluck. I told him of your new venture and he
said, "We must certainly hand it to Canadian
girls. They lead the world."

So I should think that the mental picture of
yourself, driving your tractor plow at the head
of a procession composed of all the girls of the
world, should satisfy even you.

Joking aside, it has done you no end of good
to have the man of the house, as you called me, get
out and leave you *'on your own." Had I been
there this spring you would have gone ufrH on
making delicious lemon pies and snowy bibouits,
and it would have been Jan, not Nan, on the
tractor plow.

Mentioning your lemon pies has made me long
for one of your Sunday suppers right to-night.
Usually I am so interested in the outside-the-
house affairs that I hate to settle down to fussing
with the cooking.

One day last week it rained, the warmest, soft-

JANET OF KOOTENAY 53

est April shower. I covered my gateposts and
put in a day at mending and cooking. At the end
of it I felt so domestic that I hated to start out
again, but it does not happen that way often.

The frame of my house is up and I can tell what
size each room will be. I have a living-room and
two bedrooms in the front, and a kitchen, pantry
and bath at tlie back. When I have company, the
living-room will be the dining-room; when alone,
I shall have a cosy corner in the kitchen.

The contractor advises me to have the house
Beaver-boarded so that they may hurry. As in
the case of Royalty, a suggestion from him must
be treated in the nature of a command. Anyhow,
as the only plasterer the valley boasted has gone
to France, there is nothing elso for it. He says
that they can have the inside finished in two or
three weeks so that I can move in; then the shakes
can be put on afterward.

They started to blast on Friday and expect to
be a week. We hauled the cliickens in their
brooders over to the other side of a small hill in
Captain Fenton's orchard, ar tht ..aocKs are very
hard on them. It is rather a nuisi^nce to go over
there to feed them, but Chow has be ',ome very ex-
pert. Four have died and he bur.es them so
mournfully. He says they got * ' too muchee eat. ' »

The noise of the blasting was terrific, and pieces
of stumps flew hundreds of yards. I asked C.F.
at the well if it all took him back to the Mame.

.TANIOT OF KOOTMNAY

W',

IIo did not am ^rcr n word but I saw hia oyoa.
Snw in that iiioim>nt that lu« loiiKs doap<»rjitoly tck
Ko back into that cauldron; to a^ain "weigh in"
aa ho cjills it. No vvondor tho liritish anny is 'ml
vinciblo, in spito of coh)SHal blundiTS behind tho
linoa!

Thia niorninp, tho aprinff air waa ao tr^mpfing
that I decided to wall< the three rniU's ii; to church.
I h;ul not iu«iuired which of tho four churchoH be-
longed to whom, ao I aoK'ctod tho ouo that looked
tho leaat hkely to conlaiti Mtk CJood.

Tile speaker waa a ainall num with rather a look
4)f hunger atamped on hia featuroa. Not tho usual
iinnger— I expect lie lias ;• garden— but a long-
ing for encouragement, aympatliy, a broader out-
look and auccess.

Amongst his announcements ho eddied a meet-
ing of the board to discusa business matters of
importance. I heard it whispered that Mio busi-
ness on hand was the raising of his overdue aahuy
so that ho might atteiui tho coming conf'-ence;
that, if thoy could i)ay it all, ho was very xious
to take hia wife along for a much needed .ange.

As he made this aiinouncemeut he coloured to
the roots of his hair. It was plain that it seemed
to him like asking for open charity, llis text was
sometliing from Job and his words had to do with
patience with our snr oundings. 1 disagreed with
him heartily There is far, far too much patience
with existin. conditions.

JANET OF KOOTKNAY

Hero in thifl tiny town aro four ohurohos, eaoh
holding? n fi«ittore«! few, cHch hI raining to moot
mounting ohli^^nlioriH, Hlraiiiin^' to nuiko tliroo or
four WollarH n(» ilial it may <lo \hv. vv«,rk of one.
As wo fjuuc out, 1 could K<'.! by l\u> few that tlio
othor churcJi .stcpH n'vcal(.<l, jliai tli.-ir couditiou
was nnu'h flui Karnc Isn't if, all f.,(» silly?

Soon al'tcr noon Saiin<ly oanic an*l askod run to
walk Uf) tli(! Mioiiiitaiu .side. I had prornisod hira
to go n.s Hoon as the <ti-ouii(l had dried sunicJontiy.
With Houic Huqjrino ho pronounced my hro^^'ans as
"decent things to cliuib in," and said what a
ploasuro it would bo not to iiavc to ho rcscuiug
torn Hkirt.s.

Wo (iliuihod up and away to wliere the (.rchards
and river flatH .seemed like a map below uh, and
the rushing Goat River Canyon a white ribbon
among the groon In-es and rockw.

Th(( sight of th(! four artistic elinroh spires
brought back my moniing's meditations. I
sounded Saundy on the su}).iec.t. To my amaze-
ment, he, ouco a rubid Scotch Presbyterian, thinks
even as we in the matter.

"Ah!" ho exchiimed, *M)ut it wonhl bo a grand
thing in this new country. One big church; the
centre of the musical, the social, the Rod Cross,
the Physical Training, the educational and the
moral and spiritual life of the place."

"But why," \ asked, "has it not been done that

iil-

JANET OF KOOTENAY

way? Is it hat they would not all work to-
gether!"

''Nonsens' ! Why, they do it that way now.
The Methodius on't get up a big chicken supper
for Methodists a one. They expect the Presby-
terians, An< !:;!:. Baptists and Catholics, with
a few M r» oij. hrown in, for good measure.
The same - mv ' ; le all at the Presbyterian lawn
social. Th- C'i:-,r h of England bazaar sells to
every one ol Oitu,, .r the;e'd no' be one at all, and
all kinds biP- <!''knia a'<{ :. agh when the Boman
Catholics } ,ij , i .

"Don't yot sot. f- ' ly to say they wouldn't
work togethr •. T , . • doing it. Only, now they
divide the money and the results."

"Do you suppose," I asked, "that there is any
one big enouKh, in the whole world, to put the idea
across!"

"Just around this hill," he said, "on the south
slope, I think the crocuses will be out. And by
going home by that hollow we can get the first
buttercups."

The crocuses were there. The bank was a drift
of delicate, bluish mauve. I filled my hat with
the fairy mountain flowers. On the way down,
via the buttercups, I had my first glimpse of our
arch enemy, the gopher.

Saundy told me that the constant peppering
that I had heard this morning was men after the
first of the pests with their twenty-twos.

JANET OF KOOTENAY 57

"But on SnmlayT" I askcfl.

"Sure on Sunday, then. Why no'T One rests
his horses tlint day so has a good chance; and
if it's not a roligrious duty to pet red of pests like
that, then I don't know one. You'll b at it your-
self before very lou'jc."

I have bought two turkey hens and settings and
have given them a corner in the bam. Some ono
told me that it takes brains to raise young turkeys
but I am not trusting, even in thorn, too mucli. I
have the Government Circular Number Four on
the matter as well.

Before concluding, let me say that I have seen
Peter. Yesterday I was down in my strawberry
patch— pardon my pride— and I noticed from
there that Peter had seen me and for some reason
was strolling down toward the fence. I lot him
get quite close before I appeared to see him, and
when I did, I picked up my hoe and went straight
home, wishing that I might have stayed to see the
effect. Curiosity must have overcome his native
caution, since he has changed his tactics from
constant flight into investigation.

He looks just as I thought he would and just as
you think ho does, so I need not describe him-
Here is a plan of my house, and much lovo

from

Jajt.

Arcady, April 17th.

Look here, Nannette Willoughby Gale.

What is this I read of in the Fort Weyne Bulle-
tin about your being nominated by the Liberals to
contest M. P. Devereaux in the coming elections?
News like that about, and you can fill a wholo
letter with the silly antics of a collie pup and th#
sillier notion that Lester Owen is lonely! I had
heaps of interesting things to tell you, about Peter
and Captain Fenton, but you can just wait for
them until you have told me all this, word for
word and step by step.

The blasting of slumps has all been finished and
I breathe again. They are gathering the stumps
into mammoth piles for burning, after which there
will be the ploughing to do.

Mrs. Good untied her apron string for long
enough to send Johnny, that's her son, over to
ask if I would please not blast or bum when the
wind blew in her direction as it made her very
ill.

I piously restrained a wicked impulse to keep
him for about an hour, make him tea and have him
promise to come again. Listead, I politely asked
him to tell his mother that we would certainly
not cause her any avoidable inconvenience. Com-

JANET OF KOOTENAY 59

pared with what I might have done, I think she
got a verj good answer, bnt, alas, I seem doomed
never to please her.

When Johnny left, Chow watched him down
through the trees, then :

"Hell," he said.

Sometimes his pronunciation of English ia per-
fect.

"Chow!" I said sharply. '*Men in this coun-
try do not say that to ladies."

"Solly you lady," he said; then re Johnny,
**Ally men round here come tell you same; what
you do then?"

I forget what I said to that.

About two that afternoon a northeast wind blew
down the canyon right past Arcady onto Goods',
and before I saw what he was at, that Chinaman
had lit fire to every m\e on the place. The piles
were green and little inclined to bum, but the
smoke!

"And would you helieve it?" she said to the
Captain, *'she sent that heathen out to li^t the
fires the very minute the wind changed."

She delicately took her knitting and sat in the
Captain's den all afternoon.

"Why ever did you do that?" I aAed Chow
in despair.
"She no like you. I no like her."
"But, Chow I That only makes it worse."
Seeing an inclination to lecture on my part he

I ii:

i i"

JANET OF KOOTENAT

shuffled off, and I am sure I canght the words *'fix
hor, fix her yet," as he went. Captain Fenton's
Chinaman dislikes her heartily too. lie has been
grumpy over since because obliged to make hor
tea while there yesterday afternoon. She drank
the tea but said she never ate after an Oriental.
Chow told me this, and asked, "Wliat for she go
church all time? She get no good." I was un-
able to answer this.

I have finished the gate posts, all but the tops.
Saundy is going to chip an urn from solid stone
for the top of each. I shall plant nasturtiums in
them in the summer rnd kanickinick in the winter.
Quite Newj)ortian, eh?

Had I told you that, elated with my success with
the gateposts, I sent to The Craftsman for designs
and specifications for building a fireplace? I
thought the stone would make up into one quite
suitable for my living-room. The directions,
when they came, were really quite decipherable
and I have a good beginning made.

First, I put a four-foot-deep base of cement.
The frost never goes below that depth here. Of
course, that cement base has a number of big
pieces of rock in it, rock being considerably
cheaper than cement. I am two feet above the
ground now at it, and hated to take Sunday off.

Chow tends the chickens religiously and gets
the stones down for me. He is almost as excited
about the fireplace as I am. We should finish it

JANET OF KOOTENAY

this next week. I have hired a man to finish the
shakes so as to get on. The chimney will be made
by the simple expedient of setting up a stovepipe
and bnilding round it.

^ Nicky has been to call again, his excuse this
time being a present of a cute, yellow kitten, of
which Bingo is inordinately jealous. He asks
thousands of questions about the fireplace and I
learn from him that there is small chance that a
fireplace built by a girl will "burn."

Sometimes these doubts that are wirelessing
about in the air get my number — or key or what-
ever it is — and I wonder too. However, I am fol-
lowing the directions and measurements to the nth
of an inch, so, if the cement will hold the atones
together, I can't see why it shouldn't "bum."

Here is a surprise for you; Molly has a colt.
I was on the point of putting the little stranger
out of the yard when Molly objected and showed
possession. This small beginning— colt and calf
— fills me with the ambition of owning a stock
farm. It is easy to pasture stock on the Kootenay
flats in the summers, and the winters, being short,
are inexpensive.

Once in a while an animal strays, but an Indian
can usually be induced to bring it in for four or
five dollars, sometimes so promptly as to cause
suspicion.

Yes, I really must have more stock, both horses
and 'attle.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

■•!i:

> I

!i!

' • i

llavo knitted two pairs of socka this niontli.
Evcninga nro not sponi giddily in A rawly.

Tboro is a small forestry draft quartorod bcrc.
Captain F(»n(on l)rouj:!:lil two oflicors to call oiio
afternoon. I soi*vod tea on a lumber y)il(^ and llu'V
both asked me to go to a <lanoo that tlio soldiers
are to give in about a mouth.

A danot), Nan! Do you suppose that if such a
thing really happens, 1 shall know how to act?

Yours, with confident hopes of real news soon,

Jaxtbt Kikk.

! !

T^ T,, Amuly, 7\pril24th.

Dear Nan;

WonlH fail mo wl.on I try to toll you how disap-
po.nto. 1 am ,n you. J lore I wa.s, expecting hum-
ble apolcgics for your nogligonce in not informing
mo of your political a8piiations-«nd to bo told
that thoHo political aspirationH are mm est/

If, as you say, a committee composed of all the
elements of the district asked you to represent
them, I simply cannot imagine why you didn't ac-
cept. Of course, I know that you have not my
keen enthusiasm for the feminist cause, but I
thought you would be sure to take on so certain a
thmgasthat.

Devorcaux will bo helpless now that his wife is
ffone. She wrote all his speeches last election.
Will you ever forget the time she had to prompt
him twice ! Go in and win. Nan, and make us alL
proud of you. Can you not see that it is your
chance, yes, and your duty, to place yourself
where you can get after the speculators who are
preventing neighbours from coming near youf
1 do wish I were there for a little while'

My fireplace is finished. I topped off the chim-
ney by lantern light last night. Can you picturo
me, silhouetted high in a circle of light, frantically

JANET OF KOOTENAT

■II "

ill

in-

i! !

' 1

iil

I i

trying to finish my week's program in time to aing
the National Anthem before the arrival of the
Sabbath t

"When the chimney was completed, Captain Fen-
ton swept the debris off the living-room floor into
the fireplace and we lit a fire.

It did not smoke.

There was a blazing fire in a minnte : ERioh a fire
that the sparks went out and up among the stars.
I hoped that every neighbour saw them.

It was lucky that all was well, for had it not
been, I believe I was tired enough to have gone
into hysterics then and there, with Saundy, Cap-
tain Fenton and Chow sitting about on nail kegs.
Each of these, in his own way, has wonderful
command of himself, and each has the idea that I
have. Voilal

To make a celebration of the first fire, I brought
grape-juice and pound cake from the tent.

Chow wouldn't eat with us, although, after the
interest he had taken in my masonry and the help
he had been, I would have been glad to have had
him do so. He gratefully took his portion and
trotted down to the squatter's shack, where he
lives, looking very lonesome.

I longed to have Aunt Abigail see him. She is
scandalised almost to breathlessness over this
venture of mine : scandalised that I live all alone
in an unknown (to her) wilderness: scandalised
that my farm is near those of single men, and

i SI

III II iWiifti IIIM^ III I II I liiHi III II H >e^-^

JANET OF KOOTENAY 66

doubly, trebly scandalised that a heathen Chinee
lives right on the same place.

Aunt Abigail has a favourite nephew— so fa-
vourite that, as far as I know, he has never once
been cut out of her uill-who, by virtue of some
puU that aunt once had with the Foreign Secre-
taiy, IS an under, under secretary in the Legation
at Peking.

Ill answer to her tirade against Chow I told her
that I hoped that Andrew served as faithfully
and lived as decently among the Chinese as Chow
does m Canada. For this piece of insolence I
was again "cut out," although I hardly see how
1 had had time to '*cut in" since my last offence

Although it was almost eleven o'clock, the
smoke of the fireplace brought other callers. A
Mr. and Mrs. Perry, who live beyond Peter, came
m on their way from town. Mrs. Perry is a
darling. When I tell you that she thinks the
thmgs that I have done are perfectly wonderful
you will see why I appreciate her so highlv In
return, I admired her three adorable, roly-poly
brown-eyed kiddies; so with that for a basis we
should be great friends.

When they left, Bob, as she calls him, was in
possession of my fireplace plans, and they are go-
ing to have one before next winter. To-morrow
she is going to send me down a loaf of her special
browr bread.

I mention this incident in particular because of

f :

66 JANET OF KOOTENAY

your remark that you would rather have no neigh-
bours at all that some that I have found. Elim-
inating one or two, whom I intend to civilise a
bit as opportunity affords, I have found the few
I have already met to be a very fair average, and,
according to Saundy, some fairer ones await just
around the corner.

When I told you that my house was to have a
bathroom, the accent was all on the "room" part
of it, but my dream of some day having running
water is to come true very soon.

Captain Fcnton took levelings of the stream
from the back of his place and finds that, if a
flume were run along for about two hundred yards
to the place where the well is, there v/ould be fall
enough to drive a hydraulic ram or water motor.
We are ordering one between us and I shall have
Arcady's share of the water pumped into a tank
in my attic. On Albemarle there will be a big
tank for the purpose of irrigating.

Some one told me that the Mr. Worth from
whom I bought Betsy put in his own bath fixtures
and plumbing from instructions in a book. Having
seen this Mr. Worth, I know that if he can plumb
from a book, I can too. The plumber that once
was here is fighting Germans side by side with the
plasterer and stonemason, so I will carry on in
his place too.

I hav^ ordered a book on the subject, c ting
two dollars. You shall hear how I succeed. Also,

JANET OF KOOTENAY

by the way of buniinp my bridges behind me, I
have ordered a galvanised tank for the attic.

Mr. Good came to Captain Fenton to ask if
they might lay pipes from the motor to their place.
They have been having: an awful time getting
water. They dig woUs but, after a few months,
each one goes "dead" and they have to dig an-
other. The dollar and a half a month he offered
to pay will pay for the motor after a time— quite
a time to be sure— but then there is no expense
after it is once installed. The mountain water
does the work.

How would you like to have some ice-cold, crys-
tal-clear mountain water piped along to the Three
Bar Ranch?

The men are ploughing the land. It is a pretty
rough job the first time. Dexter and Molly are
earning the four dollars a day that I get for
their use. Then all the small roots must be gath-
ered and burned, after which it will be plouglied
the other way on, and left to the tender mercies of
Chow and me.

The piles of green stumps burn slowly; the
smoke is profuse and it seems to be a popular
season for northeast breezes.

As Chow had only a few days before harrowing
;!i)d then settling to steady gardening, I got him
to work on the tennis court this last week. He
got it levelled and spread the cinders but it was
so soft that I saw that 1 must have it rolled with

JANET OF K00TP:NAY

!»'

a heavy roller. The hravy roller was the next
problem. I bonght a piece of zinc and made it
into a circular pipe sixteen inches in diameter and
tliirty inches in lenj,'th. This was filled with cti-
raent, with a stick throui^h the middle to fasten
the handles to. Chow i)ulle(l this hack and forth
for hours, finally fixing it bo that Dexter pulled it
one way on a hmg rope.

Captain Fenton helped with the nets and tapes,
and when he had finished we had a game. Nicky,
who is seldom absent now when anything of im-
portance goes on, was the audience.

**Well," ho said, when wo had finished a set,
"I would of thought you could of beat him."

I induced the child to cliange the subject as
quickly as possible but I could not blame him too
much for I had had the same idea. You know, I
rather fancy my game, and, in this instance, I
hadn't at all intended to play my hardest with
an opponent who would be unable to hurrj' about
the court.

Well. He had no need to hurry. He made me a
present of two games in the set to let me keep my
self-respect, but gone is all my conceit. I said
nothing of having won a Provincial championship,
but wonder now how I ever managed to do it.

I intend to have tea and tennis every Saturday
afternoon when I become acquainted with more
of the "faus"; and in this way do my bit toward

JANET OF KOOTEXAY 69

encouragnJJg a community spirit among tlio neigh-
bours here.

\VLon Mr. McGregor asked mo, that first day,
what size place I wanted, I said that it must bo
at least largo enough to hold a tennis court and an
asparagus bod. My twin fancies lie right next
each other. Now tliat Cliow has the court rolled
down ho ia digging up tho asparagus bed. li is
dug to thft depth of eighteen inches with fertilizer
well worked in. If Chow is expert at anything it
is in getting soil into a perfect condition. Some-
times I think ho is slow but he says, '*If I go
elow, plants will hurry." However, there is little
hurry about asparagus plants ; they take their own
good time and my imp".tience to have tips to cut
avails me nothing — or would not, if it were not
for the kindness of my neighbours.

Captain Fenton is setting in grape vines at one
end of his patch and so is donating eight eight-
year-old roots.

I set these in in a very scientific manner, per
book, and while I was trying to imagine that I
eaw them gaily sprouting, I noticed that my neigh-
bour, Peter Gordon, was trundling a wheel-barrow
down the road. You may imagine my amazement
when he turned in at the gate of Arcady.

I spent the interval until he got round to the
patch in summoning sufficient severity with whidi
to meet one who had so misread my noble moti , cS.
Please do not sniff. We, who are growing perish-

t =i

JANET OF KOOTENAY

ii^ '

able eatablos so that tho Allies' demand for wheat
and beef may bo filled, are as proud of our "bit"
as aro you of yours.

Peter's pleasant smilo partially dissolved my
severity,

**Qood morning, Miss Kirk," he began. "I won-
der if you will allow mo to contribute to the new
asparagus bod. I have hoard that you aro anxious
to have tips for cutting, and, as I want the ground
for something else, I hope that you will find these
acceptable."

Peter's pleasant speech entirely dissolved my
severity.

lie had brought several big roots and com-
mandeered my spado and set them in for me, tell-
ing me how they should be treated for the first
year or so. Before leaving, he asked if there was
anything else he could do for me, but I answered
that, as the only thing I could think of was only
fit for a very young or very foolish man, I would
not mention it-

AVhen he had gone and I was giving just a few
lingering pats to the soil. Captain Fenton's shadow
fell across my work. I told him of Peter's gener-
osity. He volunteered to this information tho
wholly adequate "Ah!"

"Mr. Gordon," I defended at once, "is merely a
good-hearted neighbour like your own self."

At his quizzical smile my colour rose. There is
a most decided disadvantage in arguing against

J A. VET OF KOOTENAY 71

Ihomcanhigs that may bo condensed in the word

The next afternoon I Bpont in town, buying
seeds for Arcndy, cveryll,i«g from clove; to arti
choke. After that I p„id two or three belated

Fa „"„"', ""'"■".''t'"""" ^"""'' »''"•" »'" "•>=l"»k-
\Z T T'^ } '"" ''"'* ^"'h 'he fact that
Arcady somehow ooked diffM.ut, but it was not

down to he reason. The t,p top was gone from
my fourth codar.
I thanked Chow for lu\< pleasant surpnso
Not mo - he said in a i„.. tha, dlscL-dned any
more of such foohshne.. o.i ais i.art. -Mr. Gor-
don, I guess."

"Who tohl Mr. Gordon I wanted it offl"
''Dono, Mr. Saundy,anayhe. They both Scosh."
J.ater w hen Saundy came to milk 1 asked him
who had told Peter about tlie tree. He, too, was
vague. '

"I soe the chink over to Peter's sometimes, and
there is a small boy that finds out a lot of things
one way or another. ' '

I >va8 still puzzling over the matter when Cap-
am Fenton called from the well to ask who had
lam his enemy low.

"Your enemy?" I asked.

"The tip of that tree. It has mocked me as
an incompetent, night and day: has rubbed it in
that 1 am unablo to do even so small a favour

i It

JANET OF KOOTENAY

as that for a neighbour. "Who was th» victor?"

*'It seems to have been Petor."

* ' Peter : The infernal scoundrel ! "

''The wliatV

**The infernal scoundrel. To steal a march on
a cripple like that."

Two pleasant facts stand oat from this inci-
dent : whatever the motives or promptings in the
matter were, the long-wantcd-off tree-top is off,
and also, for once, Captain Fenton neglected to
say "Ah!"

My fruit trees arrived this week. We put them
in a trench till the land is ready. There seem
to be millions of them. Getting them planted
promises to be a prodigious job. I have engaged
Saundy to help. It seems that the trees must be
planted certain distances apart and correct to
a hair's breadth, so that, no matter from what
angle one looks at an ( • 'ard, tho trees are
straight lines into the distance.

Saundy is official tree planter for the whole dis-
trict. The few exceptions to this rule are all
crooked, to hear him.

Nicky has arrived and is gathering shingles and
chips, so I know he wants a little fire in the fire-
place — ^just to watch it dance, he says. He has
a decided eye for beauty although it would be
hard to say where he gets it. Their little flower
plot is entirely his doings, and his face, as he
pores over my flower seed books, is a study. He

S'.i ! '-

JANET OF KOOTENAY 73

is doing •rrands for me so as to earn money to
buy some wonderful things for his little plot Ho
thinks it great that I don't agree with most folks
that things to make money ^\ith are better than
flowers.

He brought his mother to call one day. His cer-
tainty that we would naturally take to each other
was touching: we did it to please him. She is a
pleasant little woman, but unimaginative. She
had never even heard of a house without a dining
room b-^fore.

Re the fireplace, she said:

"Some folks think you so clever, but I dunno.
Any woman oould do it if she hadn't a man to ham-
per her.**

Do yoTi suppose she thinks that, or was she
consoling me?

As ever,

Your Ja2^.

ttmm

ii< I

|i I: )

[■ '

I! I

r "1.

•ll"

Arcady, May the first.
Deab Nan:

Your last letter received and contents noted.
As there is no allusion to the political situation,
I am mad at you again.

It has rained all week ; not temperamental April
showers, but steady, steady downpour. The pop-
lars and paper birches about the spring and up the
creek are a beautiful young green. Also, alas,
the fruit trees in the trenches show signs of want-
ing to burst their green. They should be planted
immediately ; but they can't. The ground cannot
bo ploughed in the rain. The man asked for an-
other week on his contract, in return for which
he vrill assist Saundy with the planting.

The "Captain and Peter" roots in the aspara-
gus bed take kindly to their new home. The rain
has started them growing and I cut quite a lot
of tips yesterday. There was a pound and a half.
Multiplying that space by the size of the whole
patch and reckoning at twenty cents a pound — I
won't trouble your brain with the arithmetic of
it— I find that I should have four to five dollars
a cutting when the plants have reached maturity.

If the sun shines warmly and there are frequent
rains — a combination by no means certain — there

JANET OF KOOTENAY

should be a cutting every other day till strawberry
time. In that case, I will be able to exist past
this trying season in future years, even if the price
of chicken food is the same, per weight, as rubies
and diamonds.

You have heard of counting chickens before they
were hatched. Did you know that it is sometimes
done with turkeys as well? My two settings, that
were to have blossomed into such magnificent
Christmas dinners, did not hatch. Saundy says
the blasting killed them, of course, and was sur-
prised that I didn't know that it would.

My grief is divided between this matter and the
fact that the mountain rats have been stealing my
dear wee baby chicks.

When the brooders were built, I had them set
about a foot off the ground to prevent skunks and
such things from taking shelter beneath them, and
I had the corners bound with tin at the bottom to
keep out the kinds of rats that I knew.

As I become acquainted with the mountain rat,
I find that none of these things discommode him
in the very least. He has no desire to take shelter
beneath the house, and his mode of entry is to
find, or make, an opening under the '-oof.

When, after many h 3sh starts, I finally got my
brood counted I found that there were only nine
hundred thirty-seven. Allowing for the four that
died of their own accord, that leaves fifty-nine
that have been taken by rats. Isn't it sickening!

JANET OF KOOTENAY

<!i|i

It does indeed take brains to raise things: brains
and eternal vigilance.

To these we are adding firearms , traps and
poison, and Bingo caught one all by himself.
They are big, almost the size of a blac^ squirrel,
and have a huge, bushy tail that thumps, thumps
all the time.

I have shot three although I mnoh prefer the
other means of capture. Their depredations are
all. made at night, which makes it necessary to sit
in the brooder in the dark till one comes along.
I cannot even take Bingo for protection, as he
would scare them off.

When they appear, an electric flash or other
light will hypnotise them into waiting for one to
shoot them. My first victim obligingly gave me
three trials. I held my flash between my knees
and in my excitement the first shot went wild.
The animal waited. His tail thumped on. With
the next shot, I saw his tail drop. And still he
waited. Next time I made a bull's-eye.

By this time I had company.

Captain Fenton, at the sound of the first shot,
hurried to Arcady in wonder. Peter, on hearing
two shots — the usual distress signal in the hills —
started post haste; and at the third, Mr. Good,
having no idea what three shots might mean, came,
finishing dressing as he ran.

It was the unanimous opinion of this meeting
that in a chicken house, looking for rats, waa no

JANET OF KOOTENAY

place for a girl in the middle of the night. While
I agreed heartily with them, I tried to point out
that the rats were responsible for the hours that
they may be captured in, not I. All three were
very eloquent as to the officacy of traps, and I
was marched back to the house for that night.

It was hours before I got to sleep, and, before
dropping oflP, I decided that the chickens should, or
would, rest late after their excitement; that I
would sleep instead of rising early to feed them.

It was not so to be. At exactly ten past six
Nicky was pounding persistently on the door of
the tent— doing it with his thoughtful mother's
full and ardent permission.

They had heard dim shots from somewhere in
the night, and later had seen men, about a dozen
Nicky guessed, with lights, walking round on my
farm.

I have been endeavouring, surreptitiously, to
inculcate into Nicky's inquiring nature some re-
spect for other people's perronal affairs. That
the training had taken root was evident, but it was
in imminent danger of being swamped by his
colossal curiosity. Bad taste, in Nicky's mind,
had more to do with castor oil and things of that
sort than with asking questions. Finally, after
much thought, he hit on an excellent way to put
it.

'My mother would have a fit if men walked

(('

JANET OF KOOTENAY

»■ I

IM'I

if ; W'

Vl'i.i

around our place in the night," he said. "Did
you know there were men here?"

"Yes, I knew it."

"Did you J Did you know who they wast"

"Yes."

"Who— why ?"

"You see, Nicky, wo were just having a moun-
tain rat party."

"What's that?"

"Nicky, how would you like to earn fifty cents,
maybe more?"

"Geel How?"

"I'll give you fifty cents for every mountain rat
you can ca^ch on my place. You can put traps
an\^vhere you like. Do you want to?"

He was gone in a flash as I had supposed he
w^ould be. I took off my bathrobe and finished my,
beauty sleep.

By noon Nicky had four traps set on the ledge
under the roofs of the brooders. By night Mr.
Worth had discovered the fact and the traps were
all back in their place about the Worth fowl house.

Mr. Worth cannot understand why Nicky is so
much more anxious to do things for me than for
them, and wonders how any one could ever cope
with his notions.

*'It would take a great deal of imagination," I
said.

He looked at me doubtfully, to see if I could
be serious, then left. That imagination had any-

JANET OF KOOTENAY

thing to do with bringing up a boy was too foolish
an idea to consider.

Nicky was soon back with the gleeful tidings
that Captain Fenton had offered to rent liim two
traps, the rental to be five per cent of the gross
receipts, or, as Nicky put it— "five cents for every
rat I ketch."

Nicky has tried nobly not to show that he thinks
I am knocking trade when I shoot one that was
surely just going to get caught.

I asked Captain Fenton how he intended spend-
ing his five cents each time. He said that was
immaterial. That the main point was that Nicky
should not begin his industrial career with the
something-for-nothing idea.

Owing to the fact that it has rained all week
and no outside work could be done, I have been
at work on my living-room. I use the word
"work" advisedly, but the results exceed even my
wildest expectations. The room is really a dream
and I would give anything if you could see how
well that grey and blue striped Chesterfield melts
into its surroundings. You remember what a mis-
fit it was in your sunny tan room. It was only
that it was in the wrong environment. I can sym-
pathise with it for I was toi).

But to get back to our muttons.

I tinted the walls a delicate shade of grey, and
enamelled the woodwork and the strips that hold
the beaverboard in grey about two tones deeper.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

I have never liked the strips stained a dark oolour
as it makes a room look so strippy.

I sent a small sample of the tapestry on the
, davenport to The Bay, and got a very successfnl
' blue and grey rug to match. The fireplaoo stones
just naturally slide in with the scheme.

But here is my coup d'etat. I enamelled the
frames of all my sketches grey like the woodwork,
and pt inted the mats with silver paint. I wonder
if you can imagine the result. Some of the water-
colours are particularly good. They seem like
bursts of sunlight on a misty morning. It seemed
rather a shame to see the gold leaf going under,
but they are really prettier this way, and so har-
monious as well.

For the sake of having a positive touch in all
this vagueness, I enamelled my willow reading
lamp, the reading table and the willow chairs with
black Japan; also a Chinese basket that Chow
donated for the fireplace wood. As I said, I wish
that you might see it all.

"We moved in as soon as the paint on the living-
room was dry.

The bedrooms and kitchen remain to be deco-
rated in the next rainy spell, which is pretty sure
to be in haying time.

My treasures were scarcely in their places when
I had ray first visitors in my new homo.

The Essingtons have called.

These Essingtons are practically the only peopl*

JANET OF KOOTENAY 81

out this way that Saundy admires—barring pres-
ent company, of course— and he has wondered if
they would be moved to take me up.

"They're no' snobbish, you understand," he
says, "but they don't waste their time."

But now they have been here, en bunch, and his
mind is at rest.

Having had, from him, a line on all of them, I
enjoyed their visit that much more. I already
knew that Mrs. Essington is a **graund woman,"
a bit '*ower particular" but of sterling worth
when one gets to know her; that each of the five
daughters superintends some special branch of the
farm work; that Eleanor, the eldest, is nicknamed
'•bees" by the others, being the family apiarist—
and a very successful one at that; that Maude is
the housekeeper and cook— she is also the family
beauty, making a combination rather unusual ; that
Cynthia is the stock and poultry member; that
Norine handles the fruit, besides teaching music to
a large class in the winter, and that Betty, the
youngest, has an irrepressible habit of tf lling the
truth at most un-psycliological moments. She and
the mother are the gardeners.

Their r's are the very broadest and they are all
so interesting that I wanted to listen to them all
at one time. While there is very little choice, I
think that Betty chatters the most. She began
with:

'•Oh, Mother. Don't you just love Miss Kirk 'a

[ ;i i

■i M

JANET OF KOOTENAY

!!■: ■ rH.'i

rigf You will not let us wear overalls but you
certainly can't (cawn't, she said it) object to
breeks on the score of looks. We just must all
have some. Men's work can only be done properly
in men's clothes. Anyhow, girls in England "

Here the conversation became general. They
were on a subject near to their hearts. Girls in
England, it soems, do everytliing. A cousin of
theirs who had had a change of car for every cos-
tume has turned them all in and is doing army
stable work. A friend who had been so timid as
to faint at the sight of a mouse is running a rivet-
ter, a most difficult thing to do, high up in the air
in a ship yi rd.

You on your tractor plough, my dear Nan, aro
not at tho head of the line of feminine wonders at
all, but somewhere away down the ranks.

Their war enthusiasm can be pardoned when one
considers that they have sent the father and two
sons from the family, and that every relative they
have in England is taking part in tho conflict — the
men on the firing line and the women at various
war occupations behind the lines.

Cynthia came out of her contemplation of my
sketches to inquire about that one I did of the rond
to Fort W'^yne.

"But it isn't like that, really?" she asked.

"Exactly."

"Do you mean to say that there are tunes when

JANET OF KOOTENAY

there is absolutely nothinjf to be seen but the sky-
line and one prairie chicken?"

"Tlie prairie chicken wasn't there at all," I
said. ''It often isn't. I put it in out of gener-
osity. For the rest, it is a faithful portrayal.
And one might sit in a milliou dilTerent spots on
the prairie and paint exactly the saino thing."

"Then it is no wonder that no one wants to live
there."

*'0h, but many do. They rave ^out the wide,
wind-swept vastness of it all ; about the room to
breathe and the sense of personal freedom they
feel there; about the roseate dawns across the
greening wheat fields, or the flaming sunsets
across the yellowing wheat fields, or just about
the wheat fields."

"They really do? Well, I assure you I
shouldn't. I don't wonder you were glad to get
awa: "

"ilow did you know I lived there?"

"Claymore told us that" (Claymore is Cap-
tain Fenton). **We inquired about you, as we
were so much interested in the delightful place
you are making. ' '

"You know," chimed in Betty, "our call to-
day was really on the tennis court, and we are all
60 pleased to have found a dream of a room and
so congenial a person added unto us."

''Betty!"

It was a scandalised chorus.

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JANET OF KOOTENAY

tii

"It's the truth," Betty went on; "and oh, how
this family does hate that ! You'll find, however,
Miss Kirk, that they will not leave this place until
they have been invited over to play."

"I cannot tell you," I answered, "how pleased
I shall be to have all or any of you come to play,
any time you can."

"Thanks so much. There then, I've fixed that,
as I told them I should." (Chorus of *' Betty!")
"I've wanted so much to tear up our currant
patch and put a court there, but my stony-hearted
mother would not hear of it."

"But this is not the only court here?" I asked.

"Practically. Out this way at least. In town,
the Y.M.C.A. did have a good one but mother
didn't know the Y. or the M. or the C or the A.
so she would not let us go. Our place touches
yours at the back east comer. We'll put a stile
at the fence and use the short cut down. And
now. Mother dear, don't you think I have re-
strained my curiosity about Peter long enough?
How on earth. Miss Kirk, did you subdue him so
quickly? I've quizzed Clay, but one doesn't get
a word out of him."

' * Betty 1 Don 't be impossible ! ' '

"With practice, the family has come to say this
in perfect unison, but I noticed that their faces
did not depict any great aversion to hearing what
I had to say about Peter.

"Is Peter subdued?" I asked.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

"He topped your cedar for you, did he not?"
"Yes, but I've really only spoken to him once."
"Quick work. All the valley is on the qui vive
to know how you do it. Get Maude to tell you
about the time she went for plums. ' '

"We will, rather, talk of something interest-
ing," was Maude's rejoinder.

"Then I'll tell you myself," Botty went on.
"We wanted some Damson plums for jam and
there was none to be had but what Peter— yes,
mother dear, I do mean Mr. Gordon— had. So
Mother asked us to go for them. We had heard
that he had objected strenuously to the fancied
advances of one or two young women, and none
of us were very keen about going. We finally
settled it by drawing lots and Maude lost.

"That is all, except that we heard afterward
that he had said, when some one jokingly asked if
it was to be an P^ssington next, that, at least, they
paid him the compliment of sending the pretty
one. That was a year ago but Maude can go into
a rage about it even yet."

Before leaving they invited me over for Sunday
dinner; the first invitation I have had here,— ex-
cept Mr. Good's.

They are going to leave their racquets and balls
here so that they may run down for a game at
any time.

It never rains but it pours. Last night I had
another caller— another girl. I hadn't realised

• I

JANET OF KOOTENAY

how lonesome I was getting for you, or some girl
to talk to, till all these came. The last one was
Miss Att wood— first name. Rose— who teaches in
the little school half a mile from here. She came
with the strange request that I allow her to board
with me.

"But," I said, *'l couldn't take a boarder.
Why, I not only have meatless days— some of
them are almost eatless. To-day, for instance, I
had an eggnog of three raw eggs in milk— cream,
I might say— for breakfast. Then, I had nothing
more till five o'clock, when I had a tin of beans,
soda crackers, peanuts and tea. How would you
like to live like that?" I asked conclusively.

'*0h, my goodness," she said, "you need me
more than I need you. I am an elegant cook.
Really. If you will just let me into a big apron
after school I will soon have you ten pounds
heavier."

"Heaven forbid I"

"But you will take me on, won't youT"
"Why are you leaving Worth's?" I asked, true
to my canny self in a bargain.

"They don't want Glossy; that's my pony.
You have lots of pasture so if I pay you thirty a
month would you take us in? You may ride her
whenever I am not doing so. I will buy her oats.
Do say you will."
So she is coming to-morrow.
I wonder.

til

-- ^fct:

JANET OF KOOTENAY 87

A girl companion; a horse to ride in perfect
thirty dollars a month!

Why am I always suspicious of what should be
a good bargain? "uxu ue

Rose would, I think, be only a year or so
younger than I, but she has retained everv cu o

L"ne ? ; 'TT ^^'1' ^ ^'-^^^ ^«"^ «^^ «h-l
mine, if, indeed, I ever had any.

.J!!l\f'''''T 'A""^' ^^"^ ^^^"^^ f«^ «ie to
sit on the porch while writing you. Saundy saw

me trom his cabm and strolled over

"What's this I hear about Miss *Attwood com-
mg to stay with you?" he asked.

'' Trust you to smell it in the air, Saundy. Yes
mL^" What do you think o'f the a^^raS.'

''Personally, I will find it most convenient."
'And why so?"

''Well, it's coming on summer now. I must set

Z r^ "f f '^'^ "^^^^ ^^^' '^'^ I go up to
the lookout station on the momitain wtn fire

season comes so I would not be able to stay on
my job so well." ^

''You mean the cow? I can't expect Miss
Attwood ^ -uilk Betsy."
"No, I uon't mean the cow."

/''^^''''l^^^^y-don^t be* a stick. What do
you mean?"

JANET OF KOOTENAY

'Just that it will be convenient for mo that you
two girls can chaperone each other."

He smoked in silence to let this sink in ; which
it did, albeit slowly. Slowly it came to me that
every time that Captain Fenton had been in my
company for more than fifteon minutes, Saundy
had strolled round and had stayed there too.

I felt a momentary resentment. Xot for my-
self; I am not sensitive as to what people think
of actions that I know to be right.
Saundy seemed to read my mind.
"It's not that, Miss Janet. I, too, know an
honourable gentleman when I meet him. But
there are times when a young man thinks too
little and an auld woman a great deal too much.
So I thought that it might help everything to
come right in the end if I stayed round a bit."

"You are a friend wo. .h having," J said ; "but,
Saundy, tell me this: Why doesn't the wonderful
bigness of all this get into people's natures more?
Eight in the shadow of these gigantic hills, with
the roar of that mighty canyon over there always
in their ears, with the generosity of nature all
about and the bigness of the work thoy are doing,
how can they go about with their vision narrowed
down to whore ihey question the acts and motives
of every other human being? "

"I don't know that, girl, but I've wondered
about it oft, especially when I'm up yonder on
the hill. You must come away up with me some

JANET OF KOOTENAY 89

days. You would get visions up there too. That
is the only kind of person I ever take up to my
station.'*

So I am going some day, up to the mountain
top to meditate. In the meantime, I am expecting
flome political news by return mail.

Hopefully yours,

Janet Kjkk,

I-

Arcadr, May the eighth.
Dear Nan:

There ^va8 no letter from you in yosterday's
mail but I got one from Lester Owen. I was
greatly perturbed by his mention of having seen
M.P. Devereaux go to the Three Bar Eanch twico
last week.

What is in the air, Nan?

Is that old fox trying to buy or persuade you
from entering the contest against himf Stick to
your guns, Nan, and don't listen to him. A man
who employs crookedness in his campaign is not
apt to reform suddenly on being elected.

Of course, Ihis is all mere conjecture, but, be-
tween Lester's news and the fear expressed in the
Bulletin that you would not stand, I feel decidedly
non'ous. I do want you to uphold the standard
of the Feminist Cause. I will be there when the
House is opened, cheering your every word, even
if I have to leave Arcady to the mercy of the
gophers and mountain rats.

My boarder has been here almost a week. She
is quite as handy as she had promised to be, get-
ting her own breakfast, and helping with the night
dinner. She takes her noon lunch to school, and
usually rides Glossy back and fortli. While she

JANET OF KOOTENAY 91

wW^'t T ^\??"'^ '^ '^^^^"^ «^^'^"^ ^ i«k« just

S T M r^^'^i T' ""'• ^"^^ «f "°i«"' wasn't

itT— I thmk wo shall pull very well

Ono monim^, as she was putting up her lunch,
t^aptam Fonton rode by on .Ari.lniglit. The Cap-
tain ricles magnificently, arul the horse is no small
part of the picture. Ti.oy make a pair that one
would watch till out of si-ht.

"Oh Janet," said Rose, gathering up her
books, -how about it? Is it to be 'hands otf the
Captain' for me?"

''TF7m^^"Iasked.

"I mean, is Captain Fenton your special pro-
serve?" ^

"He is not. I am in this place to run a farm,
and not to hunt a husband. Captain Fenton or
any her man is free as air as far as I am con-
cerned, since you have put your case so plainly "

.She was going out the door as I said this and
leaned back to laugh with a mischievous air that
she has carefully preserved.

" 'Methinks the lady doth protest too much ' "
she quoted and was gone.

I am afraid I was tempted, in the next few
minutes, to get out her trunk, hitch Glossy to it
and start her off at a gallop. However, just here
my eye fell on that excellent text that I illumi-
nated and framed for myself once— * Be a Sport,
Janet," and my sense of humour was again in its
zone.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

All week tho men have plougbed and burned.
The breezes being mainly southwestern, the smoko
has blown back onto Essingtons a great deal.
They retaliate by coming over for tennis every
fine afternoon. For some reason, they are not
crazy about Rose, an., passed without notice her
hint at her dialiko of eating Sunday night dinner
alone. I am going there to-night, you know.

My chickens are growing beautifully and tho
down is being rt-place<I by tiny feathers. T still
have nine hundred thirty-seven, jmd wo seom to
have rid ourselves of rats. ) shall bo glad to
begin to sell the chicks £ -d reduce the ranks.

The other morulng, as I stood by tho stovo
poaching an e^rg^ my kitchen door was opened and
some one walked to my side. Rose was some-
where about and I thought it her till, at tho pro-
longed silence, I looked up. There, if you please
stood an Indian. They call them Siwash here-
abouts. This was not the usual blanketed kind
that I know, but one in a store guit, Strathcona
hat and celluloid collar. No one had told him that
the chief raison d'etre of a celluloid collar is its
*'washability."
I c^ollected my senses with all possible speed.
''Klahowya, tillicum, I greeted.
This bit of Chinook so pleased him that ho took
off hi? hat and smiled broadly. His hair, if you
please, w^as worn college cut. The local barber
draws no race line in his artistry.

JANET OF KOOTENAT

1*3

"You sell colt?" ho inquired
*'^o. I want him."

"You trade colt two plgsV*

"No, iiKioed."

"Huh. You buy two i.gs?"

"IJow bl.i,'?"

"Two months."

"How much?"

"One cult."

n^asn't ho subtle! I n.suro.l him that I Im.l
-Ijm, to either son or trade. A^e^l • '
ni> toa. lor a while ho ran.le up his mind.

i soli you two pigs," ho said.
"How much?"

"Seven dollars one, ton dollars two "

Aeod ess to say I did not noglocr a bar^-ain of

lour. Saundy 5,ajd I got a good bargain
In tho afternoon, tho Indian was back a-iin hi.

"Why these?" I inquired.
"You seo rod one?"
"Yes."

See bS'rc';^ "" ""^ ^"" ">^ ^'-° <^»"«-

"Yes."

"I trade him you for :)ne colt."

* * No indeedy, y cu will not. "

He pondered for some time, then-

JANET OF KOOTKyAY

"I sell red one for five dollars. Trade black
ono for colt"

((

Xo.

I went into the bouse and wrote a check for
thirty dollars.

"This for the two," I told him.

Ho studied it with the deliberation of a Morgan;
or is a Morgan deliberate?

"I \'ant colt."

•'Not for sale. I want him myself."

So ho took the money and departed, and, will
you believe it, he was back again that very evening
with a young Hereford bull, an Indian pony that
was so old and decrepit that I wondered that he
had ever gotten it there, and a long string of
fish, willing to trade them all for MoPy's cunning
celt.

I bought the fish and the bull, causing the ut-
most hilarity among the five Kssingtons who clus-
tered about. I told Lo not to come back with
any more offers ay I would not sell or tra< the
colt. I was afraid that he would g';t to be a
habit.

The poor creature did look disappointed. He
had set his heart on having the colt. It might
have been interesting to see what all he would
have brought as offerings. I think I could have
had had almost anything but I simply could not
bear the thought of having the colt become an
Indian's horse. Not but what thov use their

— . ^ >flf

JANET OF KOOTENAY Uj

Lorscs well. People who live near tho roserva-

As to the animals I bou-l.t from him, it docs
not sound so queer when I tHI you t. ,t I have
rento.1 a quarter section belon^in;? to tho Arrow
nunes on Arrow Creek, and am seriously ^.oinir '■
for stock. ^ ^ ^ '

The last purchase I mado from Lo-he is a
very good specimen-is to bo the head of the hord
as for obvious reasons, a woman is to go in
for stock, It IS best for h.r to own her own males.
This IS not a delicacy of Mrs. Good's but com-
mon sense of Saundy's. If you know how little
the older generation of Scotch appreciate modern
parlour modesty, you will know how groatlv I
Wreciate Saundy. I immediately appointed him
1 rofessor of Eu^'enics in Arcady.

He hasn't a nodon of what a eugenic is, I ar
.sure, but he caught the drift of the idea and ac
copted the commission.

Yesterday he drove my stock, all but Betsy,
back to the Arrow, and will go every week to leave
salt count noses, take anything, new I can get and

Zl *^''^^/,7^>'"^'"^ i« ^'^»- There are water and
grass of the very finest there, a shed for shelter
and a good fence all round, so I think they should
be all right, even if they do have to look after
themselves.

So now I own two titles,-market gardener-to

-^ .^

JANET OF KOOTENAT

be changed, as soon as possible to fruit farmer—
and stock raiser. Years when strawberries are
killed in the blossom, or the rain washes the pollen
from the orchard bloom, or a drought dries up the
corn and cucumbers, or a wet season rots the
tomatoes, then, surely, beef and pork will be a
good price, or horses at a premium.
Later :

Just got back from dinner at Essingtons'. I
wore that blue serge that I bought on Fifth
Avenue, against your true warning that I was
being highway robbed, and took a little trouble
with my hair. They said I looked like a different
person, which surely must have been a compli-
ment, either going or coming.

Captain Fenton was there. It seems that he
dines there every Sunday. He took his place at
the head of the table quite as a matter of course.
Two lieutenants of the Forestry Draft were there
too. ^ Altogether they were a very jolly party.

It is my ambition that, some day, I may be able
to preside at a table with the ease and grace with
which Mrs. Essington does. She keeps the con-
versation where it interests every one, watches
the progress of the meal carefully and seems to
have plenty of time to spare.

After dinner the two soldiers got out cigarettes
and one offered his to the Captain who was hunt-
ing everywhere for his pipe, upsetting Betty's ac-
count books and s^ ed catalogs in the process.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

*' Never mind your old pipe," Betty ordered
gathenng up after him. ^'It was I ^^ho S
np last Sunday ni^^ht, so the chances are against
your ever finding it. Take a cigarette and^don '
make a disturbance."

"But I've cut them out."

"You have? Why-ee?"

"Promised Edith to."

Jiff *^«^^^«Pt«in said this with a perfectly
grave face, the remark was greeted with a shout
of dension, at the end of which Cynthia said:
.oH^fr ! '^ '^.^"' *^^*' ^^^^' I ^^«"ld have

he"' "^''"''^ '' ^''^ ^^^^ '"^ '''^ ^ day
At the end of the evening, Captain Fenton

wanced back with me in the dusk. He used som^

h^hJ ^ i"" T^""^ ^^' *^^^ lieutenants,
both of whom stood ready to escort me, to stay
where they were. ^

The Essington place fronts on the Canyon Eoad

tain 'Z^r '"'' t' T'' ""^^^^ ^^'' P««t Cap-
tarn Fenton 's orchards. Along this road the

moist roar of the Goat River canyon comes up a

draw qmte distinctly. To this was added Sie

rLTf %^P^^^^ «f t^^ «Pnng frogs by the
roadside. What a fragrance and peace there is
about a country road on a Sunday evening in
springtime! ^

Out of a soundful silence my companion spoke,
lou behaved beautifully."

JANET OF KOOTElsAY

'* Behaved! How do you mean?"
''You remained silent while they disparaged,
unintentionally of course, Canadian institutions
that you hold most dear. I could see that you
had a number of things you might have said."
"I mean to say them yet, as auspicious occa-
sions arise."

Good. We English need to learn that our cus-
toms are merely different— not better. And

other things— clothes, for instance "

Clothes ! " I interrupted. * ' From what I have
heard, this neighbourhood would hardlv want to
consider me a standard in that matter."

"That frock might have come from the Eue da
la Paix."

"Good for you! It did. But I really don't in-
tend to quarrel with the Essingtons over any
matter. I am too glad to have found them. I
love the free-masonry among you all. I love to
be called by my first name the way they do."

' ' You do ! " he exclaimed ; ' ' I Ve often wondered.
I dislike being called 'Captain' all the time, when
I am only a plain farmer. Would you call me
Claymore, as the others do?"

"Well, I can try. But it will be hard, for yoi^
are a bit dignified, you know."

"Thank you, Janet."

Sometimes, as I sit by the fire, I am thrilled by
the way he said those three words. Then again,
I wonder who this horrid cigarette smoking Edith

JANET OF KOOTENAY 99

lieutenants. I believe that I shall cultivate them
^^She is a Lady Edith, for the HolHns one spoke

numS'r ^'^^ !^ consolation of a title and in-
numerable cigarettes, she needn't mind if her
cayaher amuses himself in the wilds of Canadl
with any girl that is handy. ^

^ Still. He has tones that are wonderfully sin-

Yours, etc.,

Janet.

•oBtacs^ .m^^' joa'ten,- »m ■^a

Arcady, May fifteenth.
My dear Nan:

Surprise is a feeble word with which to describe
my emotions when I read your letter. I was
amazed, astounded, thunderstruck. Probaljly
your other friends are also, for even Lester Owen,
your nearest neighbour, had no idea that Mon-
tague was getting rid of his opponent in that
manner.

So you think that being the wife of a public
man is as near the limelight as you will ever care
to get. Most women und more men will applaud
those sentiments heartily.

The congratulations you demanded are all sent
along to M. P.— his initials are fateful, aren't
they? If you haven't told him that I called him
a fox— w]iat did I say, anyhow?— you may change
it to lion, and convey to him my heartiest felicita-
tions.

As for you, I hope you will be the veiy happiest
ever. And I believe you will. Getting up meals
to feed the hungry friends of a prominent man
will be a real joy to you. If— ahem— you want
any assistance at writing speeches, lot me know.

It is hard to think of you in the other political
camp. We shall look to hear of great things being

100

JANET OF KOOTENAY lOl

done bj M. P. Devereaux, for he will have dose
means of knomng of all the iniqnity in liis ranks,
and, of course, once knowing of it, will remove it
at once.

I refrain from saddening this time of congratu-
lations by moralising upon how the Woman's
Cause 18 hindered by desertions from the ranks

My trees are ahnost all planted. Saundy, the
stimipmg man and Chow worked at them all week
I have put m the small things myself. It was my
first experience with planting. Some one toM me
It would be hard work, but it really only amounts
to mud-pie days grown up a bit.

The only part that troubled mo in the least was
getting the lines straight and the measurements
exact. After that, digging the holes, dipping the
roots m a bucket ox soft .mud that one carries
along, setting them in and covering them quicklv
is all child's play.

Over in the orchard, the men were using the
stoneboat to go through the same process, on a
larger scale, with the trees.

How I love the work! The soil, with its rich,
earthy odour, the warm May sunshine, and the
fragrance of Bahn of Gilead from over by the
stream are mixed into a spring tonic such as I had
never even imagined. And what a lot more
pleasure I shall get from my sturdy rhubarb
roots; from the strawberry plants and raspberry
oanes; the currant and gooseberry bushes, from

102 JANET OF KOOTENAY

having set them where they are with my very own
hands.

The grapes are between the house and the road
We shall build rustic arbours for them to climb
on as they grow to require them. The rest of the
small fruit is between the house and barn, quite
close to a packing shed that will be built. You
would find especially interesting the corner that is
lil'ed with horse-radish roots. Another has all
the perennial herbs,— mint, sage, thyme and sum-
mer-savoury.

All the farmers here and hereabouts are busy
spraying their orchards. One day, Mr. Good,
with a barrel hand pump and one accomplice, sent
over with the gentle south wind, waves of such
sulphur-and-other-odorous gas that I had to va-
cate my front line positions. Mrs. Good may well
feel scored off for the smoke and dynamite of
Arcady.

_ On another afternoon Dexter, Molly and I as-
sisted the Essingtons to go over their orchard.
We used Captain Fenton's Duplex sprayer, taking
tho work in shifts, two and two about. None of
them are any fonder of the odour than I am.

From over farther, on one or two of the big
orchards, we can hear the chug-chug of gasolene
power sprayers.

Saundy gave mine a good application of Bor-
deaux mixture while they were still in the trench,
so as to save the trouble of tramping about the'

JANET OF KOOTENAY 103

orchard. If they require an aphis spray hiter, it
will bo of Avhale oil soap or black leaf. Another
season of fragrance!

The authorities here are very par-ticulai in the
matter of insect posts, fungus diseases, scab and
so forth. If a barrel of apples comes in from an-
other province with so much as one little scah or
worm, it IS considered as suitable material for a
bonfire.

I have laid a stone flagging down the walk to
the creek. Xow tliat the poplars are in fullleaf
they interlace above this walk and keep it always
shady. Besides the stones of the walk I have set
roots of English violets and iris, donated by the
Essingtons out of gratitude for mv assistance at
the spraying. I expect that the fragrance of these
m future years will compensate me a hundred-
fold for any distaste I felt for the work I did.

The wild clematis are in full bloom. Just back
of the bam a vine has clambered up on a big fir,
and its graceful tendrils, on which are suspended
delicate clouds of purple, are wonderful against
the green. I have moved in three wild vines to
my kite-en porch. Thoy take kindly to domes-
ticity and are out with the first tulips and narcissi.
Saundy is going to help me to move in some of
the syringa and spirea that grow here in riotous
profusion all through the woods.

To know that I am at last in a climate where

104 JANET OF KOOTENAY

anything and everything that one can have a fancy
for wiU grow fiMs mo with utter content.

Did I tell you that I iiave wa^od extravagant
and have ordered rhododendrons to border my
drive? Won't that be gorgeous along with my
8tono gates! I thought of ordering them when I
sent for the Caragana but was not nro they would
weather the winter here. Since then, however
1 have seen some on one or two places so I know
they will acclimatise.

The Caragana for the hedge has arrived. I
must get it in first thing this week.

Peter calLd last evening to see whether I would
sell my colt. He has a mate for it r.nd wants the
team to grow up together. I promised to con-
sider 1 and let him know The more other people
want that colt, the more I seem to want him my!

fris^ thai I have had to wire him into the back
forty with Betsy, where he cannot trample on my
garden. Molly joins him when she is not busy
here, or busy with Dexter, helping out a neighbour
who does not own a team.

^ The day I went for clematis vines, I was scram-
chng over rocks where the mountain slope begins
when a crackle in the brush caught my attention.
A young, white-tail deer was watching some object
with keen attention. After a minute's wait it

JANET OF KOOTENAY luo

moved a few inquiring steps forward. Something
else had moved too, and there, not fifty feet from
the door, was Molly's colt, ears up and curious.

How I wanted my camera i I could have gotten
the two in easily. They stood in this way for so
long that at last, to start someUiing, I whistled
In a flash both had wheeled and were bounding
m opposite directions, the deer clearing the rocks
and logs that obstructed its way up the mountain
side with almost unbelievable leaps and bounds
the colt making almost as good time Molly-ward.

It was then that I christened him *'Mowit:.a,"
the Indian name for deer.

To return to Peter: I thought it only the proper
<>aper to thank him for his valorous vanquishing
of my cedar top. To my surprise he looked quite
embarrassed, and, rather reluctantly, explained
that, while he had climbed the tree with the in-
tention of beheading it, when he had taken hold
of the top it had simply toppled over in his hand.
It had been shot through with several bullets at
a point about two feet from the top.

"The holes wore in a neat row," he said, '*and
another shot a few inches up would have brought

it dOA\Tl."

"But who V

"The bullets came from Fenton's direction.
How it must have amused him to see me ud
there." ^

106 JANET OF KOOTKNAY

''He didn't SCO you,»' I was able to console him.
xle asked mo who had done it."
"I am glad to know that," he said as ho rose to
go. "I'll come again when you have decided
about the colt."

"I can phone you," I told him, thinking it best
not to leave the impression that I was delaving
decision to bring him br.ck.

The Essingtons have plans in progress for a
very wonderful picnic on Empire Day. They
have had them before at the same place, making
It a sort of annual affair. We are to go on horse-
back, via ihe Kootenay flats, to the Reclamation
l;^arm— no, I don't know what a Reclamation
Farm is, but the information will be forthcoming
later. We are to take our lunch for two meals
and spend the day fishing and exploring. I be-
lieve there is usually a ball game where the girls
cover themselves with glory. I am quite excited
over the prospect.

I have ordered a Minton cup and saucer for
your engagi^ment present, this not being a season-
able time for a gardener to embroider the usual
towels.

Mrs. Montague Pearson Devereaux, eh I
I hope she intends to begin right She has
given up a glorious future so that a man may pos-
sess both it and her. For tL^t I think she should
be treated with extra-spocial consideration;
should receive a wedding present that bespeaks

•»■ ..;-=

JANET OF KOOTENAY 107

unheard-of generosity— say the fastest oar afloat,
or a new stono house.

For those little hints no extra charge is made.
Do send me mor(> particulars.

Your loving

Janet Kibk.

Aroady, Maj the twonty-eeoond.
DiAR Nan:

Shall I ever, over get straight lines ont of my
head agauiT It began with planting the hedge.
Saundy and Captain Fcnton both thought I should
engage a man to do this, because, unless it was
put m a straight line, it would always bo un-
sighUy. They urged that, at least, I put Chow
* helping me. This, when I had gotten the idea
tiiut I could do anything on the place as \.ell as
any man. Of course, after that there was nothing
for me to do but plant that hedge and plant it
st^-aight.

Cynthia Essington helped me an afternoon or
so, which relieved the tedium somewhat. In the
end I had enough plants left for her to put a
sparse row round her turkey yard so she was very
glad to have "stuck along," as she put it.

The airagana plants are very small as vet ana
do verv little toward covering the wire fencing.
The bri-ht idea came to me that if I planted giant
sunflowi rs just inside the hedge, they would serve
the purpose for this year and would also save
dollars in chicken feed.

Accordingly I commissioned Nicky to go to
town for these sunflower seed.. I asked him to

108

'm-'pj-wj^./'m ■•'^s^.m-^^'^.

JANET OP KOOTENAY I0i>

jet a pound. Did you over bpp a ponnl of «nn-
flowor socdfl, NanT Did you know that it takoi
a goneroufl sized hnj? to hold thorn t

Chow'8 eyes stuck out like a frog't when bo
saw thera.

'•AVliat for you got so many?" Lo enquirod.

"To put insiiK; my fence."

For tho fi!8t time I heard Chow laugh. I had
not thought he i)oasi.«s(.d such a thing as a sense
of humour. And I am not sure hut that I pre-
ferred him thai way.

"You no need hira half," ho said, when ho could
explain himself.

Well. I planted them all— except ahout a cup-
ful that I gave to Nicky. These gladdened his
heart as well as preventing mo from having a sun-
flo./er seed collapse. I planted them across the
front. I planted thorn down each line fence. I
planted them across tho back. Straight linos all
tho while, you must remember. I hope never to
see a straight lino or a sunflower seed agai-i as
long as I live. The chicken house is -urrounded
with linos of them, where they will bo useful jr
shade for tho chickens when hot weaiher arrives.
Perhaps you may imagine with what joy I
turned from all this straight-lining to the laying
out of my rose garden. This plot is tho space that
IS bounded by the drive, the stream and the stone
flagged walk. It is of quite generous size— the
•wasteful creature !— and will be bounded— some

'1tFf 'xi'

^^iw^^mt^w^r'-.

110 JANET OF KOOTENAY

day— with Hlacs, sjr'mga and spirea. These are
all m their places. There will be— some day soon
—a si-all pergola over which my Lady Gav pink
ramblers may disport themselves, and under it a
rustic seat where one may sit to refresh one's
soul with the Arcadian odours that will abound
in this spot; with the music of birds and stream
all about. There will be a rustic gateway into this
garden, arched for the convenience of crimson
ramblers. There will be a small grass plot in the
centre round which spring bulbs will nestle, and
back of these, Canterbury bells and hollvhocks,
foxglove and daisies, peonies and bleeding heart,
—and roses !— Jacqueminots, tea roses of every
colour, the Dean Hole and Madame Eavary, be-
side a group of my favourite moss roses. All of
these are hardy and will bloom, not only in June,
but practically all season.

Do you wonder that it disturbs me to have to
turn from this work to decide whether Chow is to
put potatoes or beets first and where? Nicky,
who has helped the rose garden along during
every minute that his mother would spare him
says : '

Tell him to go on. That don 't matter. ' '
But Chow says:—" That do any time. You
come see what / do."

And I go, for Chow is an autocrat, and an auto-
crat with right on his side has never, so far as I
know, been unseated.

JANET OP KOOTENAY

111

I go, and ponder on the weighty matter of
whether I will have six lands put down with clover,
or only four. A land, my dear Nan of the wheat
fields, IS tho space between two rows of trees
running north and south. And it seems that a
crop of clover every so often is a necessity to the
sod. Many have to put clover before they can
get anything to grow, but Saundy thinks mine
is rich enough soil not to require that. Captain
Fenton says I should have at least ten lands of
clover.

''Ten!" I exclaim; **why, I wouldn't have any
garden left !'»

"Heaps of it. Why, girl, you're trying to kUl
yourself."

I cannot put his tone into the letter but it was
worth even the sunflowers.

Mr. Perry came down one afternoon with his
potato planter and lo! like magic the potatoes
were planted. I bought my seed potatoes from
him already dipped in formaldehyde. Potatoes
are very little further bother here for there are
no potato bugs in British Columbia. Think of
that the next time you are tempted to rub it in
about the mountain rats.

In return for Mr. Perry's kindness I was able
to offer him the use of Dexter to replace a horse
of his that has gone quite lame. That is, we be-
gun by loaning Dexter; later we had to recall him
and send Molly, who was much too skittish and

-^•.>?ij.:

'%.

112 JANET OF KOOTENAY

imaginative for work on the seed drill here at
home.

Chow has planted one land with carrots and
beets, one with turnips and mangolds and one with
corn, with pumpkins and squash among the rows.
And every time he thinks of it, he harrows the
soil that the early corn, celery and tomatoes will
be planted in. The small garden stuff, peas,
beans, chard, peppers, Brussels sprouts and all
that will go in in another week.

The grape vines are not big enough to require
all the space allotted to them, so I put citron
among them. I did intend putting the cucumber
vines ridit next these for .;: onvenience in watering
with the hose but Nicky intervened in time.

"Didn't you know better 'n that, really?" he
asked in wonder.
"I don't yet."

"Gee! Why, everybody knows that bees mix
cucumber and citron blossoms if they're close to-
gether. The cues wouldn't be cues,' nor the cit-
rons wouldn't be citrons."
"What would they be, Nicky?"
With dancing eyes he sized me up to see if I
showed signs of being a real sport.

"You could just try them this once; then we'd
know. Will you?"

"How much lid your father make out of his
cucumber patcii last year?"
' * Seventy-five dollars. It 's in a book at home. * '

.-.^^i-

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h

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U

e
1

JANET OF KOOTENAY
Then don't you think

113

. - -> knowledge would be

too expensive?"

Before Nicky loft I saw him thoughtfully pick
up a few seeds that I had dropped. One or two
wore cucumbers, one or two wore citron and I
know by tho care with which they were stowed in
his pocket that the question will bo docidod some-
where on the Worth farm this summer.

Plans for the picnic progress apace.
_ Beside the general arrangements that are be-
ing completed by the Essingtons, Rose has .ome
^^ide hne plans of her own. Her hand is on the
table now, the cards face up. Li aid of her
scheme that Captain Fenton be her especial at-
tendant on that day she told him that she wished
to see if Glossy couldn't beat Midnight on the ride
there.

She also asked me to suggest to the Essingtons
mat it would be much cozier to take the lunch in
baskets for two, each girl to provide one fc- iier-
self and escort. She even went so far as to tell
hun that -they" were adopting the plan and
asked him what he would like in their basket. He
asked her to consult with me about it, by which I
imagined that he had sent a S. 0. S. call
• yj^^^'^t Rose's request, I mentioned the sub-
ject to the Essingtons, they thought the idea too

^i^w^^nr

till:

JANET OF KOOTENAY

silly for words, just as I had thought they would.
We shall lunch ''en party."

Kose also sounded C. F. as to my working cos-
tume.

"Do you care for girls who wear masculine
clothes?" she asked him, supposing herself out-
side my hearing.

''That depends a bit on the girl, too."

"Oh, of course. But do you approve of the
idea in general?"

"Can't say. But I've approved of it in r>ar-
ticular once or twice."

The matter was settled. A wire order for a
riding habit of the same colour as mine was sent
to Spokane at once, and, in the meantime, she is
busy making a tailored waist for it, copying mine
exactly. This trivial incident has happened be-
fore. For one thing, she has changed her style
of hairdressing to that which I affect.

I am not sure whether I resent this because oi
the ten dollars I paid that Frenchman to tell me
how to build my hair to suit "ze contour of ze
countenance of madame, ' ' or whether it is because
the style becomes her better than it does me.

Be that as it may, I fully realise that I did
not half appreciate your originality.

You cannot imagine how much better I feel when
I have grumbled to you of my small troubles. So
much so, usually, that I wish I hadn't done it.

The water motor was installed last week. It

JANET OF KOOTENAY

ii;

does its work efficiently but looks unsightly and
commercial in our romantic well-bov^cr. Another
of the jobs awaiting a slack season is the building
of a rustic well house to cover it. Rose is enthusi-
astic over this and means to help "every minute."

The plumbing instructions arrived and I have
taken the plunge and ordered the necessary pipes,
fixtures, taps, wrenches and a gasolene torch.
Even if I cannot manage it will bo all right as I
have been the nicest ever to Mr. "Worth lately.

You should see the way the things in the hotbod
grow these days. We can hardly keep ahead of
tlicm. Also the asparagus. There is enough for
a meal every other day. I am so thankful that
Kose likes these as well as I. I try to make the
money that I get from the creamery for Betsy's
cream buy the groceries. If Betsy can, with the
aid of the garden, feed herself and me, then she
was a very good buy.

I hear that Mrs. Good resents my neighbourly
friendship with Peter much more than she does
that with C. F. It seems it was a sister of hers
that gave Peter the terrible idea of every woman
as endowed with faculties of relentless pursuit.

I told Peter, one day, that we were to have tea
and tennis on Saturday afternoons, and asked him
to come. He denied either drinking tea or play-
ing tennis, so I was amazed when, yesterday after-
noon, just as we were settling to our tea and oat-
meal cookies, I saw him coming across lots.

.^.J^

IIG

JANET OF KOOTENAY

I^'1!:

Betty saw him at the t;ame instant.

"Oh, girls," she exclaimed slangily, "look
who's here! Janet is certainly getting: him civil-
ised when he will walk right into the enemy in this
fashion. We should really do our bit. Come on,
let's beat it. That's the way Janet began."

Eleanor objected. Asked them not to be -,illy.

* ' Very well then, Eleanor. I was only thinking
of your comfort. It will be so much easier to
come along with the crowd than to stay behind
and explain that we are paying for plums."

"But what of Janet," she objected. "It's not
fair to ask her to explain such a thing."

"I sha'n't," I said, "I hate to lose you, but it
may do good."

Peter was quite frank in remarking on their
hasty leave.

"Yes," I said innocently; "for some reason
they did leave suddenly."

I gave 'lim tea and consolation, facilitated by
Rose, who took C. F. to see whether a stone could
have gotten into Glossy 's foot.
^ You shall hear whether the picnic is a success.
You did not say how you and M. P. are going to
celebrate the holiday. Neither did you tell me
what your ring is like, nor whether you have
written any speeches as yet.

But anyhow,
Love

From Janet K.

:^$i:.^Jaiu»iMSWT£^!^^

.^k' *j,^a!&^,'^'s^tsf9s^nsmss^BBPsSBiimm

Arcady, May the twenty-ninth.
Dearest Friend:

The orchards, Nan. The orchards!

Across for miles they are like drifts of white
and pink, and all the air is heavy with their
fragrance.

Last week, here and there one saw a cherry or
crab (iressed in white— heralds of the solid regi-
ments that were to follow.

Every place along this road, excepting mine, is
a seasoned orchard, so mine is rather a break in
the fragrant blanket of white. How wonderful
when mine has grown up like the others ; when I
can stroll about, beneath my trees, with the soft
June breezes raining petals on my head.

A few of my cherry trees had little pink buds,
but at Saundy's advise I snipped them off, though
sadly indeed.

At my home in Ontario, there was a huge cherry
tree by the woodshed that was almost' snowed
under with bloom each year, but it did not seem
one half so wonderful as the straight little trees
with their one brave little cluster of buds.

I never before understood why Mother loved
this tree so. It was the first thing they planted
on the place, when they moved there, bride and

117

"^s^rnjstsssT

M^y^

118

JANET OF KOOTENAY

groom, and, after Father was gone, it was the
cherry tree that brought his memory back the
clearest.

My strawberries, at least, have bloomed pro-
fusely. They seem grateful for the digging and
fertili'-ing we have been doing lately. Saundy
saw to it that all the blossoms were picked from
my new plants. I hadn't intended mentioning
them, for I do so want to see what kind of fruit
they intend giving me, but he just picked them
off without arguing about the matter at all.

I know you want to hear about the picnic. I
meant to write you that night when everything
was fresh ii^. my mind and seemed worth telling
about, but I spent the time, instead, in alcohol-
rubbing and dosing Rose— but I am ahead of my
tale.

For the ride to the picnic, I ordered a mount
from the livery bam, asking for the best chey had.
The best proved to be none too good. When the
Captain saw the big, rangy beast standing by the
porch, he came over.

** Going to put on a cow-girl exhibition?" he
asked.

* ' Why ? " I enquired, startled.

"I notice you have ordered John Collins. He
is used chiefly for this purpose. "

"Oh, heavens! I merely ordered a horse.
Asked for the best they had."

"You must have caught them with only one left,

JANET OF KOOTENAY 119

then. Only then could they describe this one in
that way. You will ride Midnight. I am a bit
more acquainted with the moods and fancies of
this beast."

Rose was much put out at this.

^'But I wanted to have that race," she objected.

"To run your pony against Midnight, you
mean?"

"Yes. I am sure she can win too. You
promised to try it."

"Trj- it out with Miss Kirk, instead. John and
I will bo somewhere in the rear guard."

After which, strangely enough, the desire to
win against Midnight was held admirably in check,
and Glossy was allowed to fall back with the
slower horseb. Once she got a nasty bite from the
amiable John Collins, who, aware that the tricks
he had in stock for inexperienced riders would
not "go," had to give vent to his disposition in
some manner.

The official chaperones for the day were neigh-
bours who live next Goods and opposite Captain
Fenton— people that both he and the Essingtons
knew in England— a Mr. and IMrs. Wilmont Mor-
timor-Dcane. I had not met them before.

Both these might have ridden straight out of
Park Row. There may be points of absurdity
about Mortimer-Deane's farming; his riding out-
fit is flawless. Mrs. M. D. was the only woman who
rode side-saddle. Iler habit, top-hat, gloves and

^-0 JANET 0x1 KOOTENAY

all wore from the very best London shops. With
these she wore her inevitable feather ruff She
Bees the humorous side of every situation, which.
Cynthia says, is a faculty she very much needs in
their present situation.
The ride across the wide, level flats was rather

toTr"; f f u 7^ ^ ''""^^^ ^^' "^«r i" time
to turn and watch the others come up. The R-^o-

lamation Farm is reached from there by means
of a ferry, which is an affair that :3 wound across
by hand. As is usual with such public ferries, the
thmg was swaying gently 'neath the interlacing
cottonwoods at the other side of the Kootenay
The canoe that was there for the convenience
of those wishing to cross to bring it over was a
tipsy-looking bark affair that showed that the
ferry was used chiefly by Indians.

In the discussion as to who should cross for it

It was noticeable that while many of the men said

do let me go," none of them got in and went.

J wore was plenty of river current to make one

think a bit.

^ Finally Betty hit on the excellent idea of draw-
ing Jots for tlio honour-among the men, that is.
The favour fell to Captain Fenton. Without a
word he swung himself to Midnight's back and
would have plunged him headlong into the river
to swim for it had not Mortimer-Deane caught the
bndle m time.

"Not for you, Fenton. I nursed you through

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WO^HWi^WM^M^'i^^t^lB^i^^*

JANET OP KOOTENAY 121

trench rheumatism oLce, but I've no time to do it
again. Who caiiie next, Betty T "

Captain Fenton said nothing, but, as Midnight
gladly backed from the river's edge, I saw that his
face was grim.

"It seems to me," Mrs. Mortiraer-Doane said,
examining the canoe, "that the man to take this
out should be chosen on his swimming record."

Then the soldiers, who had joined us on the way,
made a show of intending to take off their coats
and swim in competition for her favour, and to
decid? who should paddle for the ferry.

How the matter would have been decided it is
hard to say, but at this moment two Indians drove
up ard tied their team. With a scornful glance
over our party they slid the canoe out, took their
places and swung off. Paddling only a little, they
let the stream carry them down, then came back
up in the quiet water under the trees on the other
side.

"Well!" the twinkling-eyed Irish sergeant ex-
claimed. "Who would have knew that it was as
easy as that?"

Just as we were embarking, the remainder of
the party, who had been asked to moot us at the
ferry, came up. These last were two Miss
Miltons, known as the "Goose Girls" from a
goose farm that they run, and a civil engineer,
short, bald and full of information.

The two girls I took to naturally, as they are

122

JANET OF KOOTENAY

from Ontario — graduates of MacDonald in Onelph
— and thoy know a lot of people that I know, not
to mention having piuyed the same games, hated
the same school inspector and had the same young
ambition— namely, to get out West. I find that,
however much one may admire the English, the
Irish, the Scotch or the Americans, one never feels
at homo with them to the same degree that one
does with Canadians from one's own Province.

The engineer with them I took to artificially,
for I saw that the history and mystery of the great
undertaking that we were there to explore was as
an open book to him.

Grateful for an audience, he showed me over
the island, which is practically what the farm is,
and explained that the high oanks of the river
had been dikes, many years ago, built by the
Government to demonstrate that the spring floods
of the Kootenay — floods that rise almost over-
night, when the snows of the mountair«.. t'«. t bor-
der the river for a hundred miles back to its
source melt with the first summer sun — ^might be
controlled, and that the fertile soil of the vast
areas of the river's flats might be used for agri-
culture, instead of lying under water for two
months and idle the remainder of the time, as they
had done — and do still.

He took Betty and me through the big bam,
cobwebby and musty from years of disuse. Every
known variety of farm implement was there,

JANET OP KOOTENAY 123

ruited and coated with the same white river sedi-
ment that, on the outer walls, reacshed a height of
eight or nine feet— the }iigh water mark of the
tragic flood of '92 that ended the experiment.

The house, a pretentious affair, apparently built
for some agricultural pet of the Government, had
its windows boarded with care. It seemed to have
been left, blind and deserted, when its inmates-
knowing that the Kootenay would soon tumble
and swirl in over its dikes— had made their es-
cape.

The matrimony vines over the porch had run
wild, along with the orchard and the small fruit
garden.

"How futile it all makes us poor mortals feelt"
Betty sighed.

"Not at all; not at all." Our escort straightened
himself to his full height. "You ladies should see
the Roosevelt Dam, down our way. And the Ari-
zona Desert, now that it has boen taken in hand.

Why, compared to this problem " He waved

his hand towards the surrounding scenery and
left his sentence to finish itself.

"Why," exclaimed Betty, her eyes wide with a
semblance of wonder, "you must be the very man
the valley has awaited all these years I "

"All it needs is a big enough man. We've con-
quered the Panama, you know."

"You have a theory as to the solution of all

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124

JANET OF KOOTENAY

this, of course?" Betty said, demure to dangerous-
ness.

"Why, that's all simple enough. One has only
to understand the causes, and then to remove
them. What is it that obstructs these spring floods
from escaping in the river's regular channels?
There the point lies, ladies. Remove this obstruc-
tion: remove it-

"But," Betty argued, "the obstruction in this
case appears to be the lay of the land. The Koote-
nay lake, into which this river empties a few miles
farther dowm, is held in place by mountains that
do not appear to be removable."

"The lake has an outlet. Deepen this. We did
it on the Panama."

"And run the lake to some place where it isn't
in the least bit welcome. Have you ever been
at this outlet?"

"Well, no, I haven't. It is possible that no
American engineer has looked the problem over.
Americans, you know "

"I think my sister is calling me," Betty said
in haste.

"You came with the Milton girls?" I said, try-
ing to keep my voice merely interested, not sur-
prised. "Are you a relative of theirs?"

"Not at all. But I had a letter of introduction
to them when I came here from a friend of n ne—
a moving picture manager who once put their
■goose-raising methods on the screen."

I I

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JANET OF KOOTENAY 125

"Indeed! Do you mind if we hunt them up?
I am more than interested in their undertaking.
Much more," I added to myself.

We ate our lunch under a'^i^narled and unpruned
crab tree, its blossoT - just budding. The soft
murmur of the ^\ .■;,,t siftM through the cotton-
woods and willow^ on the ri/er's edge.

My memories o. f}. ■ ^.nnch centre a great deal
about a tweed-clad figure, lying full length, elbow
restmg on the clover; about quizzical eyc] that
sought mme for an amused instant whenever the
combination of declamations of American ingenu-
ity, on the one hand, and British immobility of
countenance, on the pnH of the Essingtons and
Mortimer-Deanes, on the other hand, became too
irresistible; eyes that, in seeking mine each time,
seemed to say ''only we two see the humour of
this."

The rest of the time, merely the consciousness
of his presence, the innate strength of the man,
his indifferent silence when he might easily have
settled an argument with authoritative informa-
tion ; all of these I found compelling, and disturb-
ing.

And I remember that the sky was its bluest,
the hills clear-cut in the May sunshine and all
the earth one's friend.

Both the Irish sergeant and I had brought our
poles, creels and waders, so we escaped the
dishes by promising enough fish for the crowd

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126

JANET OF KOOT^NAY

for supper. The river was cold but I decided
that I would be the last to come out. Besides,
there had been wagers made as to who would reel
in the greatest number.

The afternoon's programme was under discus-
sion when Betty came down the bank to rinse the
dish towels.

"Delmar goin' to take you round to show you
the latest Reclamation idea?" the sergeant asked.

"You jolly well know he's not. Enough's
enough. I did try to make Maude go. She asked
him."

"Wliy not have him ride to the Mission with
the rest of you?"

*'Eve Milton and I had that all fixed. He was
to have ridden John Collins. But Clay wouldn't
stand for it. So it is up to some one to stay
behind and listen to him."

When it became patent that the fish really in-
tended to bite, Eleanor, Miss Milton and Cap-
tain Fenton took their cameras to a bend in the
river to await a chance to catch us while reeling
in, all agreeing that only then does an angler lose
the look of conscious posing.

It was here that Rose, taking advantage of
their wait, secured an imitation pole, and, in spite
of warnings, walked out on a fallen tree over a
deep spot, well in the foreground of the camera's
view. In her anxiety to secure a good position

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JANET OF KOOTENAY 127

8he ventured an inch too far. The tree swayed
with her wei ,'ht. ^

She toppled once or twice, recovered, then lost
tC^ Z T^^'^'^'- ^^''' ^«« ^ ««ream, a
before"^ ^''''° ''''"'"^ "^^^ ^''™^ «^ ««

I cannot remember who it was that ran out on
the tree to be ready to puU her to safety. The
Irish sergeant threw away an almost priceless pole
and stood, his arms ready, thinking the stream
would carry her straight to him.
It was Captain Fenton who first divined that

?! Ti! ^^^"f?^^ «^ a branch and unable to
rise. Throwing his camera up the bank, he took
a long sure dive in her direction. He too was
a long tmie in rising, but at last he emerged and
handed Eose to waiting hands, still caught in a
branch which he had had to break from the tree.
I think It mus+ ' ,ve been a picture that hung
in my room as :■ I that was responsible for
a fancy I have ...ays had that the rescue of
a maiden from drowning must be a very romantic
and Zt\"'^^' This picture, of Ophelia, dead
and clothed m wonderful draperies, being lifted
from the water by handsome Danish gallants
would foster such an hallucination

However, we were so frantically glad to have
Rose alive that we forgave her that, instead of
being hauntmgly alluring, she was a very cold,
sputtermg and hysterical girl. There was nothing

m^WS^^^MM

128

JANET OF KOOTENAY

^mi

I i

to do for them but to build a roaring ftre and
dry them. No one had extra skirts or petticoats
to contribute. We wrap'ied Rose in saddle
blankets till she began to steam.

For a moment I was alone with the Captain.

**That was wonderful, Claymore," I said. **I
shuader to think what we would be doing now but
for you."

* ' Thanks, Janet, ' ' he said, his face alight. * ' Not
for ';he compliment but for the name. It's your
first time, you know. I had given you up."

The afternoon's programme was resumed at
last. Gaily the Irish sergeant piloted me back
into those ice-cold waters, the others departed on
their ride to the Indian Mission and Rose and
Captain Fenton were left, cosily drying by the
fire.

They dried their best for three hours but Rose
was still damp in spots when the return ride was
besrun. Although wrapped in saddle-blankets till
she looked exactly like a squaw, she was all but
frozen when we reached home.

As quickly as possible, I got her between hot
blankets on the Davenport before a roaring fire.
It worried me terribly that she did not warm up
even though I gave her boiling hot beef tea and
rubbed her feet and hands.

At ten o'clock, the Captain called on the phone
to enquire about my hospital. When I told him,
I conld hardly keep my teeth from chattering my-

JAN3T OF KOOTENAY 129

self. He came over with a dose that smelled
to high heaven, which he called a whiskey sling.
He said he was going home to take one for him-
self, as he had not been able to get warm, either.
I was sorry when he had gone that I had not
asked for one for myself, but I had imagined that
I would soon get to bed.

The whiskey sling did what I had not been able
to do— it warmed Rose up. Also it loosed her
tongue. She insisted that I stay up with her as
she could not sleep— and did not want to, anyhow.
She chattered hysterically till after two o'clock;
all about Captain Fenton.

**0h, Janet. Isn't he just too wonderful?
Think of the things he's done; the places he's
been; in the Gorman Embassy; in the army in
India— a Captain. Why, he knows half the no-
bility of England, and of lots of other countries.
And to think "

"Has Captain Fenton been bragging?" I asked
drily.

I knew, of course, that he had not, but it net-
tled me that she had gotten information from
him that I had not. I believe that Rose saw this,
for she elaborated.

"He told me about his mother. She must be
the sweetest thing. I hope to meet her some day.
And about the snakes and the treacherous natives
in India; and about how he would rather farm
than live in a city in wealth and splendour. Of

tTX^^^WM:

130

JANET OF KOOTENAY

if- ■'■

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course he wasn't bragging. I got most of this
between the lines. I know that he must have met
all sorts of wonderful girls, and to think '*

**He has," I interrupted; "particularly one
Lady Edith, who decides such important things
as what he should smoke for him."

"I'm sure he never saved her life," she said
with a combination of smug coraplacency and
worldly wisdom that her nurse found most ex-
asperating.

Then sho was off again ; telling me that I could
have no idea of how interesting he waS when
away from the others ; no idea of his insight into
hmnan nature; no idea of how strong his arms
had seemed as he had lifted her from the wa-
ter

Here the clock struck two and I rose abruptly.

"He may be all very well and ail that," I said,
"but he's not a tin god, nor a sufficient reason
for an all night's rhapsody. Get some sleep if
you can. I'm going to, anyhow."

Instead of the answer I was expecting to this,
a look of satisfaction stole over her face, and,
without further words, she settled for the night.

I wonder if it can* be that I am jealous.

You have often heard me boast that I was bom
without that faculty. In fact, you have seen it
proved in that I never minded that Lester Owen
would have preferred you to me at the very slight-
est encouragement. And, as you know, I remained

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^f'^:.^.4^'i"'^:f '--.-..

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JANET OF KOOTENAY

131
calm in the face of your capturing one of the
matrimonial prizes of the West.

But here it is, disturbing my equanimity to hear
Rose's silly prattle about her rescue, and to think
of the presence, in far-away England, of an Edith
or two that I cannot find out anything about.
^o, 1 have no particulars of her as yet

The day of the picnic, Mrs. Mortimer-Deane
and 1 got quite chummy over the frying of the
hsh for supper, and she told me that she had
known Clay since childhood.
J Then you have known Edith," I hazarded, as
unconcernedly as possible.
''Rather. We were room-mates at school."
Aot very illuminating, but all I got, there.
One day when Eleanor Essington was speaking
of England and Captain Fenton's home, I risked
an enquiry as to the Lady Edith
'' She isn 't Lady Edith. She 's Lady Harboro ' '
Losing my presence of mind, I quickly changed
the conversation to subjects on which I might dis-
play less ignorance.

Peter, I find to my amazement, is much ag-
grieved that he was not included in the picnic
crowd. ^

;'I thought that you and I were friends," he
saici.

' 'And indeed we are. But it was the Essingtons
mat managed the excursion."
"WTiat objection can they have to me?"

ri";a^.. •■ -•*

T345<*J?^

132 JANET OF KOOTENAY

After a moment's hesitation I told him what
they had heard.

"It takes a nice girl some little time to forget
that sort of thing," I said.

Peter looked genuinely uncomfortable. I really
believe his reform is near at hand.
This seems to be all

from Jan. this time.

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Arcady, June the fifth.
My Dear Nak :

Has it ever occnrrod to you to meditate on tlio
fact that diiTerent weeks, composed of the same
number of days ^nd hours, can vary so in lenj?tht
I have been transphmtiiig- in tlie garden for one
week; it seems like at least a month. AVc have
set out the early corn, cabbage and cauliflower.

I wonder if I will ever get to bo expert enough
to keep up with Chow in planting. lie goes so
quickly that I cannot keep anywhere near him,
even when he is religiously putting the cutworm
poison of bran and Farit, green about the roots,
and I am slighting it, hoping that a cutworm will
not find that especial plant, or deciding that, if
my time is worth anything, I can replace a few
plants and still be ahead.

Next week, the tomatoes and cucumbers go in,
and after that txio celery. Cutworms seem to
have an especial fancy for tomatoes and cucum-
bers. In seasons when the pc.^t is abundant they
get a number of plants in spite of the poison.
Other years they are scarcely noticeable and it la
not worth while to trouble with preventatives.
The trouble is, that foresight cannot be used, and
after-knowledge is too late.

133

134

JANET OF KOOTENAI

A genuine, bona-fido prophet in these parts
oould rako in fees like a corporation lawyer. For
who would not pay well to have the summer ao-
curately foretold? Some 6uch advico as this, for
instance:

No cutworms this year; savo timo and poison.
Alberta and Washington potatoes a bumper crop;
use land for tomatoes, which will bring top prices.
Very little rainfall to be expected ; get water on
gardens early. Picklers and celery in special de-
mand. Tork will repay for food given better
than chickens. "Watch for woolly aphis on trees
and cabbage aphis in gardens. Store onions and
cabbage for coming high prices in the spring.

But I suppose that a man who could give out
prophecies of that nature n'ould be commandeered
by kin,«rs ;• d things in Europe. As though ^heir
business was more important than ours!

I have at last discovered the flaw in Betsy. She
is an offender of the worst type in the cow crimi-
nal code— a fence-breaker. Up to now, there has
been nothing better than our own pasture here-
abouts, so she was content to stay there, but early
this last week she decided to scout about a bit.
She opened the gate of the pasture, walked down
and, after working about the lock of the big gate
with her horns, got it open, too. Eose saw her
but thought it all right.

Instead of going into Goods', as I would nat-
urally have expected her to do, she went on a little

■'is" ■M^:.Mi-. i:: 4^

■»;»■ '•\>.

JANET OF KOOTENAV 135

farther and opened Iho ir„rtiincr-Deanc rata »!,»,
apparent case. Once insulo, „l,e cropTdC .W

Thnr^ r * ^ ^'"^^« 8P<'ar was left

ion hi ir/'T,""™ '■" ''"^T"- ^'""-» Pe":
house in the VnlLl- """""' *? "''^^ ^""n-

' 'a"M,:"™ r.r'" """'^'"^ i' ri^',t oven

no fault of Toura 1 ,1,1? J t^^ certainly
again." -^ «'"'» simply have to plant

and T™ 'TT'^ '"^ *'""' •""! he boon furions

t.. ho. , I ,„ paVX^alr^tdt":

ages IIo chuckled at the idea.

-rH f Tf ''"''' ^^ ^" >'^^ ^^'-^n mo that asks
-^rty to take anything. He ig r^rond nc t •;
von knn«r „v, 7 X 1 .^ proud as Lucifer,

u=^:i7rr:;;a rercv nu-- ^-^

at a Mortimor-Deane has e^r tnerr:

thiMrefore, of course, he won't do it.

Jnst the same, "he wont on, " I 'm sorrv about
It. It will mean considerable los« ,,,,1 j

ness knows, they need all they in 'mak ' out
tie garden. They get a little sometimes from thl

^-Jd: 7;i

136

JANET OF KOOTENAY

aunt wlio controls the Mortiincr-Dcano estates as
loii^ as slio lives. This aunt seems to have re-
versed tho order and is j^rowiti;,' younger instead
of older. In tho meantime, farming in Canada
doesn't seem to bo their forte."

**"\Vill it 1)0 of any use for him to plant a^ain?"

"Very little. Late corn will not help a great
deal. You see, their place and Goods' is sand
loam. This brinj^s tho garden crops earlier than
wo can possibly get them on our soil, so they
got the early orders and the prices are always
high then. Later, when our stulT is just coming
in force, tho heat will bo dr>ing his plants up.
So, it is early or nothing for tiiem, you see."

"Then, what in the world can I do?"

"I would suggest that you go to Mrs. Morty,"
lie said. "Two women always have more sense
than any other combination in matters of that
kind."

So I did that.

At the gate an inspiration camo to me.

"Mrs. Mortimcr-Deane," I said, "Betsy has
sent me to say how sorry she is for her depreda-
tions, and to ask if a quart of milk each day, and
cream on Sundays, will recompense you for her
destructlveness."

"Can Betsy really mean that?" she asked.

"Indeed, yes, she means it."

"Then tell her she is pardoned and that the
Mortimer-Deanes are her friends."

■P^Ff-

JANET OF KOOTENAY 137

She told mo very frankly of how hard they
found it to got alonj?; of how tij^htly the mint hold
the purso strings and of iiow well she took caro
of herself.

All of this frankness was quite un-Canadian, as
was also the species of bravery she showed— for
it really was bravery. A Canadian girl, in the
same situation, I was thinking, would stir about
and do something to aid the family linances. She
?'«'emed to divine my thoughts.

"Of course," she said, "I can't do a thing,
fven if there were anything I could do. Slie'd
find out about it somehow and say that Wihnont
couldn't support a wife, so, therefore shouldn't
have one. Like as not shcM take me from him.
She is that kind, if you know what I moan.

"She sent money pretty regularly till war
broke out, but since then has felt t(>rri])ly dis-
graced that ho is not in Franco witli t!io army.
She believes nothing of what she hears of his
frantic bombardment of the recruiting ofnce hero
every new moon. Said slie never heard of his
bad heart on the i)olo fields."

"But, why," I asked, "does he not let her go
hang— any Canadian man would, for that— and
strike out for himself/"

"Goodness, my dear! You don't know what
you are saying. That would bo like a man, swim-
ming to a life buoy and hardly able to make it,
turning and swimming for mid-ocean, instead.

138

t 1

JANET OF KOOTENAY

I'!

You see, he has been born, bronght np and edu-
cated with no other idea than that some day he
will run that estate. Roughing it in Canada was
Aunt's idea after all this was- finished. She hap-
pened to read a book of Haney's. Had it been
a book on discovering North Poles, we would
probably be up there now. Sht doesn't know
that these things cannot be done without prepara-
tion and help.

** Sometimes I see your point of view and long
to cut loose and tell her to go straight to, but
Wilmont would never see it that way. He's in a
rut of centuries. Here he is for tea at last. ' '

And that is a fittirig description of this won-
derfully charming man. He is in a rut of cen-
turies — and he will be there for tea at last.

As a suitable conclusion of this little incident,
Betsy was dehornea by Saundy, and is a less
handsome but better behaved cow.

I asked ]\Ir. Worth why he had neglected to
mention this trait of Betsy's when he was giving
her a character. He said he just forgot it for
the moment, but I am certain that he never, for
a moment, forgot the damages he had had to pay
to two or three neighbours for little calls made
by Betsy. He was jolly glad to get seventy dol-
lars for a hundred-dollar cow with a two-hundred-
dollar fault.

As Eose did not want Glossy this afternoon, I
saddled her and went for a canter. I took the

JANET OF KOOTENAY 139

lower Canyon road and came out on the fork that
leads to the Kootenay River, expecting to have a
gallop across the flats. Instead, I came back the
way I had gone. The flats are mider water— a
huge, far-reaching lake. It seems incredible that
only last week we rode across the bottom of ull
that expanse. The tree tops of the cottonwoods
that border the river are visible marking the
course that it usually takes, but the willows that
grow m clusters over the flats are all under. I
have made a sketch to show you how the hay fields
of the Kootenay valley look in June.

When I returned, Rose and Captain Fenton had
been walkmg. She wore her frilliest dress— has
done ever since the day of the picnic, when the
captain told her that the riding habits worn by
all of u& did not suit her type.
^ Personally, I thought her trim and rather cute
m the rig but it would be of no use to teU her so
now. No. When one has such a thing as a type it
is a great mistake not to give it free rein.

I led Glossy up to the porch just as they sat
down. I noticed that he was grave and rather
tired-looking.

"Have you walked Claymore to death?'* I
asked, starting Glossy down to the brook for a
drink.

Rose only smiled coyly and, when I looked at
him, he said :

Jjr-.S I'.Sf

140

JANET OF KOOTENAY

If i.

"Not at all. I'm far from dead, Miss Kirk."
Miss Kirki

I went on into the house, half stunned, or per-
haps half frozen would be more accurate. And
why? Something had happened most recently
for when I had consulted him about recompensing
the Mortimer-Deanes he had called me Janet two
or three times, and in a way that makes me love
the name.

Since then I have gone through a dinner at the
Essingtons '. In the general conversation no one
but me noticed that Captain Fenton was unusually
pre-occupied and silent. He was still so when he
walked home with me — simply, I was sure, be-
cause he had done so on other evenings and it
might attract attention if he did not.

Finally I recalled a method that had once set
things right.

"Captain Fenton," I said, quaking inwardly,
"there is some reason for your manner this eve-
ning, and this afternoon. Do you not think I have
a right to ask what it ist"

After a moment's thought he shook his head.

"I'm sorry not to be as kind as you were when
I asked that but— no, I cait't tell you."

"Then how can I set it right?"

"It is all right now. Please believe that I
am sorry if I have let my manner bother you. It
was thoughtless of me. ' '

That was all I gotr— absolutely no clue as tfl

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■^B«tv "•«;:

JANET OF KOOTENAY 141

^^ll^^^'^f^^^^^^^J been relegated to the status
of **Miss Kirk" again.

Last night the moon on the fragrant fields was
a witching and wonderful thing. To-night the
charm and lure of the hill and canyon, the river
and lields is under a cloud.

Can it really be that I, the scoffer of sentiment,
am writing things like that ? Please do not apolo-
T ^°;/^^P«^^^ising about M. P.'s goodness and
stren.o^th. Far be it from me to scoff. I imagine
that ^e two should have stayed together. In
union tliere seemed to be strength

pla^n^ki* ^^* ^""""^ ""^'^ against next week's trans-

Ever yours,

Janet K.

L^g^f*?.^^-'

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Arcadv, June the twelfth.
Dear Nan:

Am writing this on a most gorgeous June day.
Have just returned from driving to church with
the Essingtons. Later, they and the Mortimer-
Deanes are coming here to dinner — a dinner of
mountain brook trout.

Yesterday, I took a holiday from the garden
and spent a vagabond day down there among the
cool rocks, coming back in the evening with my
creel full and heavy.

Saundy, who brings his scientific angling lore
from Highland streams, gave me some flies of his
own make, showing me the kind to use where the
pools are green and deep, and those that the fish
rise for where the rushing waters are white. My
ears ring yet with the dynamic, high-water roar
where the canyon walls are narrow, partly be-
cause, any time I listen, I can hear the sound at
Arcady. The fishing will be easier and better
in another month when the water is lower.

Beside the trout at dinner, there will be aspara-
gus in butter sauce and French fried potatoes>
Rose very generously offered to make a Charlotte
Russe and angel cake. "What do you think of
that for a dinner, edited by two bachelor girls?

142

JANET OF KOOTENAY 143

The whole thing is in the nature of an experiment
on mj part I wish to see if those two families
can get past a Sunday without their roast beef
and. Yorkshire pudding. If so, I shall imme-
diately attempt to Canadianise them in other
directions.

I invited Captain Fenton but he had promised
to take dinner in town with a visiting Major.
Even when Kose took both his hands and coaxed
m her very prettiest manner, he still was adamant.
However, she secured a promise to drop in later
for scjoe of her dessert so she does not regret her
trouble.

As his refusal left a vacant place in our plans I
decided to ask Peter, partly also to recompense
him for his disappointment over the picnic.
AVhen I phoned he said he would find out and let
me know. Later he called me up to say that he
would be pleased to accept, as Mrs. Good had
been kind enough to let him off this time.

Ye gods I Wasn't that just like a man.

There is no doubt but that she mil «'let him
off," and no doubt in the wide world but that she
will add that up in her score against me. This is
merely another of the circumstances that seem
to be bent on demonstrating that it is my inten-
tion to antagonise her. Why she thinks any one
would be senseless enough to do that, I cannot see.

My friendship with the Mortimer-Deanes an-
noys her. ''Birds of a feather flock together,"

'■"""Iff""

144

JANET OF KOOTENAT

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she says. "When I asked Captain Fenton what
her objection to the harmless Morthner-Deanes
could possibly be, he said :

"Nothing could be simpler. You must have
noticed yourself that Mrs. Morty sometimes hangs
her wash out on Fridays. On another week it
will be Tuesday, or even Saturday. It has been
known to flaunt itself brazenly all day Sunday.
Surely that is sufficient ground for reproach.
What more could one want?"

More of the dinner later.

The weather this Week has been ideal for trans-
planting,— moist and cloudy, with a great deal of
rain. I cannot think of a greater delight than
setting out plants in the rain; than seeing them
lift up their thirsty heads and begin to grow,
almost before one has one's hands off them. The
rain on my clothes— I use an old raincoat made
into an absurd smock— does not bother me nearly
so much as does the sun on the back of my neck.

The tiredness I felt last week, the feeling that
I would never get straightened up again, does not
bother me now. I am garden-broke. Saundy
had sympathised with me by humorously prophe-^
sying that the first six months would be the worst.
I have lowered that record to the first six days.

Contact with Mother Earth, even in the form
where it may be described as mud, has a wonder-
ful effect on the nerves. In fact, it seems to
eliminate them altogether. Also it seems incred-

JANET OF KOOTENAY

145

ibie that there ever was a time when I could not
sleep, or, stranger still, when I hated to rise in
the morning. At six at night I tumble from my
muddy clothes into a Japanese kimono, read
garden magazines for an hour or two after sup-
per, then crawl into bed with a relish never felt
before. From that instant I sleep soundly till
the Canyon Mills whistle tells me it is six o'clock,
when, incredible as it may seem to you, I am
ready to get up, shake the soil from my garden
clothes and get back to my work again.

Farming has already done me so much good
that I long to pass its benefits along to others in
need of them— Aunt Abigail for instance. I am
sure she could not spend a week in a garden in
the spring, with possibly one day off for fishing
in a mountain stream, without getting a set of
new and wholesome ideas; without having **the
proprieties," as she describes whatever it is that
she worships, shrink till they assume proper pro-
portions.

Also Lily Hawtree. Nothing better than coun-
try life could be prescribea for her case. The
year she shared an apartment with me, when we
were on the Bulletin together, she was nothing but
a bundle of tight-drawn, discordant nerves. Back
agarin among the elemental things of life, she
would not require a bromide to stop her brain
machinery at night, nor strong coffee to start it
again in the morning.

146

JANET OF KOOTENAY

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And often when, even across Peter's place, I
hear the merry shouts of the Perry "Kewps," as
I call them, I wish that every mother, worried and
weary with the necessity of keeping her children
dressed up to city requirements, could taste the
freedom of putting them into overalls and turning
them loose onto a few acres of God's earth some-
where, ^t is hard to say whether mothers or chil-
dren would receive the greater benefit.

I must not neglect to mention that I am becom-
ing really expert with my twenty-two. Exter-
mination of the gopher pest is both the cause and
the result of this. Sometimes I have hardly
turned my back after setting in a plant, when I
see a gopher sneaking up to nibble at it. Yester-
day I got five of them with five shells : the record
remains to be beaten. As Saundy prophesied, I
can see no more reason for letting them get my
plants on Sunday than on any other day.

There is a bud on my Margaret Die' on rose.
I warned Saundy to leave it there on peril of his
life. If it blooms in time I intend to wear it to
the farewell dance to the soldiers — if I go. I
think I told you that two officers had asked me to
go, but I find that, as the Board of Trade is giving
them a dinner the same night and they will have
to parade from there to the hall, neither will be
able to come for me. Unless some other invita-
tion turns up in the meantime, Margaret Dickson
and I will remain quietly at home.

JANET OF KOOTENAY 147

Lo has been to visit me again. When I came
from feeding the chickens one evening, he was in
the yard admiring the colt.

♦'What you call him?" he asked.

"Mowitza."

"Huh," he nodded with his amiable grin.
♦ * Good name. Guess you keep him ? ' '

"Yes, I think so."

"You buy two calves?"

"Heap cheap?"

"Sure. I sell you cheap all time. You good
pay. Sometime maybe you sell me colt."

Did you ever in your life see such persistency?
I am not at all certain but that he will get the
colt from me yet. I went to the gate and in-
spected the calves in his waggon and ended by
adding them to my herd.

The next day Saundy and I drove them, along
with Betsy's William, back to the Arrow. I rode
Molly, who hates a saddle to begin with, and who
shook her head and switched her tail ' ' ' -'olence
at the indignity of being compellcvi to follow
squirming, contrary-minded calves from side to
side of the road, not to mention diving' into the
woods for them ever and anon. I resolved that
any further purchases would be f.o.b. Arrow sec-
tion.

Mr. Worth is pasturing two with mine while the
flats are under water and Peter is going to drive
some back, so that will help to pay my rent.

f-T

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148

JANET OF KOOTENAY

While on the subject of stock, let me say that
I am becoming more and more enamoured of the
kind of stock that Eleanor Essington goes in for—
if one would put bees under the heading of stock.

Eleanor began, four years ago, with five hives
and has expanded the business until now she has
fifty hives on a slope behind the house and fifty
more five miles back, quite near the Arrow, where
the wild flowers are simply crying for bees to turn
their sweetness into honey.

While the home bees are busy through the sea-
son on the orchards rou.id about, visiting in their
turn, the blossoms of the cherries, peaches, apples
and plums, as well as the raspberries, currants,
cucumbers and so forth of the garden, and the
alsike clover and alfalfa of the fields, the wild
flower bees, as they call those in the colonics back
in the hills, will go through just as abundant a
season among the willows, the n^ ar-laden
Kanickinic, dandelions, wild spirea an' »nally the
fireweed that grows densely on whate\ r wild land
that has been visited by bush fires.

The wonderful part of it all is that while the
bees are benefiting the fruit blossoms and the
fruit blossoms ar^ benefiting the bees, this amiable
reciprocity costs the owTier nothing, and he gets
the ultii te benefit both going and coming.

Another point worth noting is that, even when
one cannot supply them from one's own place»
they are perfectly welcome to board on the farms

■■ m

M \

JANET OF KOOTENAY

149

of the neighbours — a distinct advantage they en-
joy over Betsy, the pigs or my snow white chicks.

I think I have my hands full enough for this
summer, but next year, if I am still alive, bees
it is.

After the planting, there will be a lull in the
garden till strawberry time, although there is al-
ways hoeing and more hoeing to be done. But if
Chow can handle it for a time I hope to get some
plumbing done.

I have the duckiest blue and white linoleum to
I)ut on the floor of tliu bath and sanitary blue and
white oilcloth for the walls. Once this is on I am
sure it will be quite simple to set the furniture in
place. Of course it must bo connected up. When
I get any qualms about that I think of how well
the fireplace draws. I think I shall begin with
the kitchen sink. It looks as simple as any. I
have a water tank standing beside the kitchen
stove, looking ever so wise; the cess-pool that
Chow has been digging in the evenings, time and a
half pay, is also ready for the venture — adven-
ture would be better.

Later:

Our dinner was an unqualified success. Saundy
came in the afternoon with a small pail full of
mushrooms. He has been experimenting with
the spawn for three years — never with any suc-
cess till now. He was pleased as a child with
his achievement. When I asked him to stay to

150

.lAXCT OF KOOTENAY

^■ir

dinner with t I accepted gladly, not eceraing
to mind that if v:>s an eleventh hour invitation.
Ho fried the " ; ' rooms as I could never have
done.

"\Vo put 111 i iicL' ri table, one from Rose's room
and the rea Vw~: fa )le in line, coniorwise of the
livinij^-roora. 01 o/wrse I liad to wash silvor and
dishes bctw' cij rcur r>'3 1 . lat only inado more
fun. Morti ^ r ! •- . utation of an English

butler as ho vait. i • i •» i' e was too funny for
words. My ''ngli .sts professed absolute

satisfaction r ith a li^-h dinner. Rose and I felt
more than gratified at tiuir praise.

When thoy took leave Peter escorted the Essing-
tons, in spite of firm protestations from every one
of them.

"Really, please don't," Eleanor remonstrated.
"We'd heaps rather not trouble you."

Quito unheeding of their protestations, he de-
terminedly took Eleanor's knitting bag and went
with them. I hope he is not ovor-sonsitive, for
Betty is apt to consider this a suitable occasion
for an application of "the truth."

Captain Fenton came soon after they had gone
and Rose fed him bountifully with some of the
dessert that she had cached for the purpose. She
was in high spirits and took the entertainment of
our guest into her hands, insisting on lighting
his cigarettes and playing and singing her pretti-
est songs for him.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

151

Althoncfh he smoked in silence he Rocraod con-
tented with it all, but when it pot to where she
called him a i?reat, bijf, wonderful num, I had had
enoujj:li. I saiil I had letters to write and would
they mind bein,:jj ehaperon»'d from the next room.

RoHe ('\[)lained my cas(».

"She's disconsolate, poor dear, because Peter
ft'lt that ho ouglit to take the Esses homo."

"Peter! lie was here?"

'M)i" I'ourse," she lau?j:lH'd. : "Peter's stock is
away above par hereal)outs. You and I may have
to take to the road for a chance to talk soon."

At this I left. The Captain stood while I
gathered my writinj^ things and magazines. His
eyes seemed intensely inquiring as he said g'uod-
night.

I feel like niT aged and lonely aunt as I listen to
h'T endless chatter, which gets tangled up in my
letter so tliat I cannot think what I wanted to
write and might as well stop.

Am mailing you six pounds of asparagus and a
few of my special radishes. Tell mo if you do
not think thrm better than those, "so iikee wood,"
Chow says, that w^e got in Fort Weyne.

Also, I think there will be a pair of chickens big
enough for a fry by the time your birthday ar-
rives, so I shall send them along. The chickens
are growing rapidly and I shall soon have to turn
over a part of the stable for sleeping accommodji-
tions as I do not want to build any more space

I I

152

JANET OF KOOTENAY

for them. Next year I shall not have so many,
unless feed is cheaper.

A very important-looking man came the other
day and said he had been told that I was the most
extensive aviculturist in the district. I kept my
head and did not deny this, and it finally dawned
on me that he was alluding to my keeping chickens.
He gave me an order for five dozen a week to begin
the minute they are ready for shipping; wants
them for use on the lake boats. I feel glad to
have such a ready market, and the price — twenty
cents, live weight, crated f.o.b. siding — is good,
considering that I shall escape the tedium of
dressing them.

Your devoted

Janet — aviculturist.

Arcady, June the nineteenth.
Dear Nan:

The strawberry season is imminent in the
Kootenay valley. Every one is preparing for the
rush of work and securing pickers wherever pos-
sible. Later, for the raspberry crop, this is an
easier matter, for the high school students from
the neighbouring towns are available then. Now
they are all cramming for exams. In seasons
when the crop is heavy and help scarce, it is neces-
sary to resort to Indian pickers, but this is avoidad
if possible, a ad, in any case, is never advertised.
As my crop will be ve: / light, compared with the
others, I am farming Chow out to neighbours in
need. He is to assist Captain Fenton's Chinaman
in the morning and go to the Mortimer-Deanes ' in
the afternoon throughout the season.

On an afternoon of this last week, when I had
gotten my courage up to boring a hole in the
kitchen floor preparatory to setting in the trap of
the sink, I heard, from far up the road, a weird
noise — a sort of roar, increasing in rapid cre-
scendo.

I hurried to my front porch and saw that all
the neighbours were on theirs. The equipages
that pass to and fro on this road are usually quiet
and orderly and uninteresting.

153

* I

* ■

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lil!:,ii:

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154

JANET OF KOOTENAY

What I saw resolved itself into a motorcycle, fol-
lowed by a cloud of dust. Up over a small hill it
sped and dipped out of sight again. When it re-
appeared I made out two riders, clothed like pic-
tures of military dispatch riders or something
terribly important. As you may imagine, it gave
me a start when, with a wide swing, they entered
the open gate of Arcady, rounded the drive and,
not deigning to notice that I stood on the porch
steps, swept by me, stopping the machine finally
by the simple device of running it into my small
but symmetrical hay-stack.

You may be sure that, as I followed this appari-
tion to the barn, I wondered what I was in for.
However, it turned out to be nothing more formi-
dable than Eve Milton that took off goggles that
would have been a credit to a deep-sea diver and
mopped a moist brow. Her sister, Mary, after
extricating the jaunty red motorcycle from the
hay, followed suit, complaining.

"Why didn't you stop by the porch. Eve. This
informality borders on familiarity when this is a
first call."

* * But I forgot how to stop it. That curve in the
drive tangled me. You never even mention how
well I did that. How do you do. Miss Kirk! I
suppose we should apologise for startling you in
this manner, but as you are responsible for the
whole thing "

JANET OF KOOTENAY

155

"I am glad to see you," I said, "but as to being
responsible for the noise that you made "

"No. It shouldn't roar like that. It is al-
lowed so much racket, which is enough, goodness
knows. I must look in the book again. The mix-
ture may not be right."

* * Isn 't that spraying that you are speaking of ? "
Mary asked mildly.

"No, I am not. But as I said. Miss Kirk, you
are responsible for the undertaking on our part.
We have wanted a motorcycle for two years, but
not until we saw your working uniform did we
get the courage to get one, together with suita'^le
clothes to ride in. How do you like us?"

"Immensely," I said as they turned about, ex-
hibiting suits that looked like dust-coloured avia-
tion rigs. "You look to be equipped for the
high air, the deep sea or anything that goes be-
tween."

" 'Anything that goes* is good," Eve said.
"We got up to fifty twice coming here. Mary
threatened to shriek her head off if I didn't go
slow till I had learned to steer.

* * Oh, how heavenly ! " she went on. " You have
a tennis court. We are spoiling for a game. ♦And
just think. It only takes us thirteen minutes to
get here. I timed it, and I think I could get it
down t' ten if I could shake Mary."

"We'll have a game," I said, loading the way
into the house, * * after we have had tea. Rose will

156

JANET OF KOOTENAY

. m

I'll

■■I

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be home then. And you must come again on
StHurday. We are making up partners for a
tournament then. Would you care to bring your
iriend, Mr. Delmar?"

After a moment's hesitation Eve, usually the
spokesman, said, "If it's all the same to you, we'd
love not to."

"Indeed!" I exclaimed. *'I thought he was
supposed to be — er — fond of geese."

"He seems to be. After he has proposed to me
once more, the odds will be e^on ; twice each. But
I am sure that he doesn't play tennis "

' ' Why, Eve ! ' ' Mary exclaimed. ' * You know he
said that back in "

" — this time, I was going to say, Mary."

Before they left tbey inspected my chickens, ad-
mired my home-made hoppers and the general
yard arrangements. I told them of the visitor
who had pronounced me an "extensive avicul-
turist."

"Aw well, say," remonstrated Mary in a funny
little mournful manner she has. " That 's not fair.
Here our birds weigh five times what yours do and
we've twice as many, and all we ever get is 'goose
girls.' "

Before they left the Essingtons came down for
tennis so it was six o'clock by the time the nine
of us bent our energies and ignorance to the task
of making that obstinate red motor run. But at
last they were off, with great sputtering and roar-

Hlil

JANET OF KOOTENAY

157

ing and waved a farewell through their sunset-
tinted cloud of dust.

Betty commented on the fact that their uniform
seemed to suit their type and said she had heard
of several other girls who were going to adopt
one somewhat similar. She said that when they
saw how smart my other clothes were they thought
that the working suit must, perforce, he smart
also. Personally, I think that they all see what a
splendid protection the leggings or puttees will
he against the mosquitoes, and once they have
discarded skirts for outdoor work I am sure they
will never consent to wear them again.

Rose, who was the only one in the group in
frills, said that Mrs. Good had asked her what the
womanhood of the country was coming to.

"The most of us are coming to work," said
Betty, "and we cheerfully admit the disgraceful-
ness of that."

Two invitations I have received that I look for-
ward to with keen pleasure. One is to spend an
afternoon with the Goose Girls on their place; the
other is to spend next Sunday wi:h Saundy up at
the station. The latter I look on as an adven-
ture. Mountain climbing has always held a sort
of charm for me. Goat Mountain cannot be
climbed all the way from the back of my place,
but there is a trail that leads from the back of
Essingtons' and winds to the top in a spiral

hI'H
III

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mmmi

158

JANET OF KOOTENAY

course. I shall take that. I hope the day will
be fine.

Much as I am interested in Arcady, I find it
hard to stay at work these days, the call of the
wild is so insistent. The syringa and spirea that
grow wild in great profusion all about are com-
ing white on all the hills, and mixed wdth them
are sweet wild roses everywhere. These, climb-
ing over rocks and filling glades, are bravely chal-
lenging the stereotyped beauty of the orchards.

Yesterday we had some splendid games and ar-
ranged partners for the summer's tournament.
Mortimer-Deane is my partner in the mixed
doubles and Cynthia Essington in ladies' doubles.
Norine Essington and Mary Milton elected to be
partners, saying that they stood a good chance at
the prize, both being musical. Rose then asked
Maude Essington to go in with her, as their com-
bination of good looks should be irresistible. At
this Betty exclaimed:

* ' Come on, Mrs. Morty ; you and I. As we are
by all means the best players, I don't see why we
shouldn't stand a show."

"Well, you will see," the Captain said, *'when I
get the handicaps fixed up."

"This club is a democracy," Betty objected.
"There should be no handicaps."

I played into Rose 's hand and saw to it that she
was cast to play with Captain Fenton. She did
not at all suspect me of deep-dyed villainy in this,

JANET OF KOOTENAY

159

and my conscience was easy when I remembered
her motto: that old one that tells wherein all is
fair.

Last night, after they had gone and I had
cleared up after the tea, Peter came to inquire
again about Mowitza. Rose came from her room
at once, made him feel at home, then said :

"I am going to phone for Captain Fenton and
we'll have a game of bridge."

This, in spite of the fact that she knows that I
loathe bridge. Not content with this, she utilised
the time we spent in waiting for the Captain in
making arrangements for me to teach Peter the
pleasant game of tennis. Thoughtful soul, isn't
shef

With a perfectly grave face, C. F. professed ig-
norance of any game but penny-ante and pinochle,
and let Rose proceed to teach him. She did this
with great sweetness and patience and was so
intent on her job that she did not notice when he
set her right on two or three points of the instruc-
tion.

Then, when the game was finished, he gathered
in the cards and showed us tricks that make me
gasp yet; things I had not thought a magician
could do. He explained how, during his army life
in India, there had been times— days at a stretch —
when there was nothing to do but play cards. In
these times of monotony they would hire a native
Magi and take turns at offering him gold to dis-

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Ifiili'

160

JANET OF KOOTENAY

close his tricks. He promised to show us other
magic on some evening, even to the extent of
charming a cobra, if we could procure one for him.

Then Rose made cocoa, calling Captain Fenton
to help her to butter bread. Once, on entering, I
heard her ask him if he didn't think it was getting
serious when I was going to teach Peter tennis.

Rose has been working on a pink mull frock for
the dance. It is very sweet. She asked me this
morning what I should wear. I told her that as I
was not even sure of going I had not worried about
clothes for it. Her- eyes hardly bore out her
spoken hopes that I would be there. I rather
think the Captain has asked her to go with him,
as there seems to be no other reason for the air
of elated satisfaction she carries about.

I have canned ten pints of asparagus against
the frosts of winter. Strawberry jam will be the
next on the summer's canning programme.
Yours much the same as ever,

Janet K.

Later: Captain Fenton phoned to say that he
will call for us with a car on the night of the
dance, so I shall be going af'cT all. J.

Arcady, June twenty-six.
Dear Nan :

Knowing that you are anxious for particulars
of our dance, I am mailing you the local paper.
This goes into detail in a manner that I could not
approach. The "sussiety" editor has excelled
himself — note the descriptions of the costumes.
Wherever Mrs. So and So is described as looking
handsome in black and white, know that she wore
a dark skirt and white waist. People here very
sensibly go and have a good time in what they
have.

Some of the costumes of the older women had
been made for Queen Victoria 's Diamond Jubilee.
By a virtue of sheer elaborateness they held their
own, in spite of the abundant evidence that was
present that since that time skirts had been both
very long and very short, very wide and very nar-
row.

Mrs. Mortimer-Deane's gown of black sequins
hf^d a train that proclaimed it as grandeur of a
rosier era.

As for me, I unearthed that gold net over cloth-
of-gold that I got at Yvette's and wore once in
Winnipeg. Rose threw her pink into a comer
when she saw it and declared she would not go a

161

162

JANET OF KOOTENAY

step. Why had I not told her I should wear a
London model that would put hers in the shade T
If she had known that I would play such a trick
on her, she wouldn't have let the Captain ask me
to go at all. This statement did not terrorise me,
for I knew that she had told him that the Lieuten-
ant was coming for me and that he had found out
the reverse for himself.

However, I pacified her with the loan of my
silver slippers and stockings, and the silver Su-
muroon girdle from India. She looked very youth-
ful and nice. Beside her simplicity the gold
looked a bit sophisticated. However.

Captain Fcnton did not dance, of course, but he
kept soldiers and others about so that Rose and I
were busy. He looked, if possible, more gorgeous
in a dress suit than he does on horseback. He told
me that I was the only bit of New York present,
but that, from an Englishman, is not at all certain
to be a compliment. In fact any tendency he has
felt towards complimenting me of late has been
held in admirable restraint.

At twelve o'clock they varied the programme by
a number of speeches of farewell and Godspeed to
the departing men. Mrs. Essington, naturally a
good speaker, made much the best one. Her
words came straight from the heart of a mother of
fighting men.

After this there were tableaux on the stage of
the hall, — tableaux lepresenting the different ele-

JANET OP KOOTENAY

163

ments of the army, posed by soldiers and others
and exhibited in spot-light from the moving pi©-
tnre machine at the back of the hall.

Two or three English regiments were reprt>
sented in their red coats of their dress parade
regalia. These were very colourful and effective.
Peter was a very splendid Highlander in full Gor-
don tartans. C. F. was an Indian officer in the
sun hat and uniform of that climate. All the
various Canadian elements, even to a cavalry-
man on his horso, were given an enthusiastic re-
ception. For the final picture of these the curtain
said:

* ' Here *s tc the new recruit. ' *

Then slowly the new recruit was revealed, stand-
ing at awkward salute. If. was Johnny Good.
The house rocked with applause. The soldiers
gave three cheers and thre.^ again, the civilians
joining them heartily.

The enthusiasm was carried into the last scene,
where, from the imitation prows of two battle-
ships, a British tar and an American sailor joined
hands under their respective flags while we sang,
in honour of America's entrance into the war,
the two national anthems and every nautical song
we knew.

Rose endeavoured to get Peter to join us at
supper but he ensconsed his "hieland" finery
among the Essingtons and did not even look our
way.

164

JANET OF KOOTENAY

The Irish sergeant rode home with us so as
to tuko the car back to town. From him I learned
that Johnny Good's cleverness in picking out the
psychological moment in volunteering was some-
what due to his friends, most of whom were in
uniform. They had it properly figured out that
after an ovation of that kind he would naturally
wish to sign on, and for that reason asked him
to help them out by impersonating a new recruit
as they were short-handed.

"Why," 1 said, "I think you are perfectly ter-
rible."

"Merely kind," he corrected. "Did you notice
how much happier he looked than he has for
months? We simply caught him away from his
mother. No, it wasn't coercion at all. He him-
self suggested signing on. But of course it is
only decent not to let this out. lie will march
away covered with honour, and I know,** he added
generously, "that he will march back in. the same
way."

When, on the following day, the trainload of
soldier boys pulled out, pulling so many heart-
strings, Johnny Good's seat was piled as high as
any with gifts and many of the cheers that went
up from the crowd were all for him. As the train
moved off there was a light in his eyes that I shall
never forget.

I hate to sadden this tale by telling yon that
Mrs. Good was so furious that she could not keep

n 10 mcvcLC <jri«>'7ia'i.

,*:'<> Hiti'W

JANET OF KOOTENAY

165

quiet about this episode, bo she diramed the glory
of her son's dopurturo by just that much. And
she pctually blainos me for the whole thing.

♦*0f course," she said, "she was at the bottom
of it. 1 had not talked to her for ten minutes
when sho asked me why lie did not enlist."

"Ah, weel," as Saundy savs.

I got six cups from the sir. i wherry patch yes-
terday. We have had them with heaps of Betsy's
cream twice daily all week. Yes i crday, when I got
all of six, Rose oxclaimtd ;

"Oh, do lot mo mak.^ a pic i >r tia ]>oor Cap-
tain!" adding brightly, "aid "^'1! mnko one for
you to give to Peter and you iic 1 WLVcr tell him
that I made it."

"Or," I suggested soberly, **you make one fop
Peter and lot me give Captain Fentou one and not
say who made it"

Needless to say, her plan was the one she
adopted. Then she was astonished that I refused
to carry a pie to Peter, and when, after she had
declared her intention of being my messenger, I
ate a piece out of it, she was too furious for words.
She took C. F.'s pie into her room for fear I
should bo moved to sample it and did not even
vouchsafe a smile at my peals of merriment over
the matter. I hope, Nan, that you have made M.
P. pass tho most rigorous tests of his sense of
humour. Living with one who is without this fao-

16«

JANET OF KOOTENAI

i:t" I

nlty makes one sympathise with General Sherman
in a famous definition he made.

During this last week I had an inspiration and
followed it up by going to the fruit growers and
offering to take my team and waggon and collect
the berries from this road and the Canyon road
and ship them at the station. I have practically
none of my own and it seemed to me an economic
waste, when every one is so pressed for time, for
every farmer to take his time and his team's time
for that period every day when one might do it.

The train is due at the siding at twelve thirty,
which meant that every man left home at the
awkward hour of twelve. This would not be so
bad if the train was sure to come at that hour, but
it is as apt as not to be one or two hours late, due
to waiting at the landing for the Kootenay lake
boat. This boat, in berry sea» .ii. is obliged to
call at the ranches along the shores of the lake
whenever they float a white flag, so it is a pretty
safe bet that it will be late. So, you see, it is not
possible to be home again before two.

They are all delighted with my idea and I find
myself quite popular. I said that each might
pay me what he thought it worth, and, as many
seemed to hesitate to offer me money, I have ao-
quired a varied assortment.

The Essingtons' donation was a hive of bees.
Now I am an apiarist also, if you please. The
Mortimer-Deanes contributed a gorgeous silk

rimt^tm;^^,fm^'w»^i'MKB.t

JANET OF KOOTENAY 167

Union Jack that I had coveted. It flies from a
flag-pole, announcing Arcady's patriotism this
very minute. Mr. Good, who is quite a carpenter,
IS making me a buitter-mixer like the one I saw at
the Agricultural College. I gave him the plans
and he is going to make oae for Mrs. Good also.
I doubt its success at working butter over there.

Peter has given me a pig. Was not that ro-
mantic of him? However, I could truthfully tell
him that it w s exactly what I wanted. TheMao-
Allisters down the Canyon road have a calf that
I can have if I want it but it looks to me as though
it has ringworm. If so, I would never dare to
drive it back among my beauties at the Arrow.

CaJ)tain Fenton sent over a wonderful black
bearskin that I had especially admired the day I
had tea there. The skin is of a bear he himself
shot on the place in earlier days and the head
IS mounted— its expression most ferocious. It re-
poses on my cedar chest making it a thing of
beauty.

And Mr. Worth, who, glory be I had never
heard of a book on plimibing but worked at it all
his life before coming here, is going to connect
up my bath and kitchen fixtures with the water
motor and cesspool the minute the berries are
over. I had thought of asking him for Nicky but
this is really better.

So M. P. is going to buy you a Chummy Road-
ster for a wedding present. Good for him. Good

f:'swiBimBismiti!^frm^^ssism}i^^

^'J^-MiM^^:i^i.

!;fe

168

JANET OF KOOTENAY

for you. Good for me. What about the house ?
That place of his is unhandy to work in and cold
in winter. I feel that I can leave the matter in
your hands now.

Yours as ever,

Jaitei Kibe.

lis '11

Arcady, July the third.
Deab Nan :

It is raining to-day. Playful but thorough-
going showers are chasing each other from hill
to hill. Away across, the wide waters of the flats
are mottled with their shadows. At one spot a
grey shower almost blurs the view, while just be-
hind it shafts of sunlight stir the greens and blues
of the water and bring the colourful surface into
high relief.

Tuesday it rained all day. Showers are not so
welcome in strawberry season for when ripe ber-
ries have been rained on they are unfit for ship-
ping. Most people make jam of these as they
are all right if used at once.

The next day was fine again but there was
almost no shipping to be done. As Peter wanted
to meet the train anyhow, he offered to take my
team and collect the cream cans, so I seized the
chance of a day off to make my promise "" visit to
Saundy.

Making an early start to avoid the heat, I set
out with a few magazines and some home-made
candy for Saundy 's sweet tooth slung in a knap-
sack on ray back. What a trip it was ! The old
trail is almost overgrown in many places with the

169

170

JANET OF KOOTENAY

syringa and roses. Fancy fighting one's way
through drifts of summer fragrance I

Thf;n, higher up, the trail winds among dense
growths of Jack pine, the summer sun stirring its
pungent and resinous odour. 1 was soon around
the cnrve of the hill and shut off from all signs
of the habitations of men, where only an occa-
sional sound of wild life disturbed the monu-
mental silence all about and where hill after hill
sent back a friendly echo to my calL

I tried to realise that I was treading in the
paths of dead romance. I tried to imagine what
hopes had led the early prospectors to build those
little bridges over the mountain streamways, to
blast the little trails round the curved rock sur-
faces of the mountain side ; tried to visualise the
pack-trains of laden mules that had wound upward
to the silver lead prospects where many men had
been lured to spend their best years.

Often I have wondered why I was not bom
earlier and placed in this country in the days of
real pioneering : before the flavour and savour of
civilisation had encroached even into the mountain
fastnesses. I am thrilled and spellbound when
Saundy tells of days when, with a mirror, he used
the sun's rays and the telegraphic code to flash
messages to a friend on another hillside prospect
ten miles away: when two fires instead of one
on Friday night indicated whether or not they

'■''*li',

JANET OF KOOTENAY 171

would be down for a glass and a game at Bob's
Place.

I reached Saundy's cabin in time to have noon-
day dinner with him. His surprise was too funny
for words.

"And it's not every day you can surprise
Saundy with your doings, either," he said. "I
was just about to telephone to see whether or no
you were ill, seein' as Peter has your route the
day."

"Saundy I How on earth do you know Peter
has my job to-day?"

"I'll be telling you that when you tell me what
was in that parcel the good-looking expressman
gave you yesterday.'*

"Those deUcious McWhill's chocolates are none
of your business, even if I did save a few to bring

Tip to you, but how ?"

"And it was a great laugh I had at the bunch of
girls that could not start a new-faixgled bicycle."
"I know," I said. ''It's your telescope. It
must be a good one. I want to look the minute
1 ve eaten. As to the present, I dM not break-
tast against a long mountain climb, so I am starv-
ing. Give me a real, old-time prospector's meal. "
This he did. Ham and eggs and flapjacks, with
the second course the same, and coffee that was
ambrosia m spite of condensed cream. And while
we ate, two white tail deer that he feeds every
day came and looked in at the window, crowding

rsiri*

i'l'ii!

172 JANET OF KOOTENAY

each other good-naturedly. I almost wept that
my camera was down on the bookcase in Arcady.
Saundy thinks a great deal of his pets and can
hardly remain calm when he thinks that they are
likely to be shot as a reward for their trusting
him, as soon as the season opens and untrust-
worthy men with guns come up on the hills.

I wondered that he did not bring his dog up
for company but he explained that neither dogs
nor cats can tolerate the rare atmosphere of the
hilltops. Before they get used to it they take a
fit and have to be shot. When my nose had bled
the second time I inquired with some concern
whether he thought he would have to do the same

with me.

Then I looked through his powerful telescope
and found out how he knows so much of the val-
ley's business. I could see Eose playing with the
children in the noon hour, and Mrs. McAllister
spanked her Bobby right in plain sight. I was
q.ule surprised to hear no noise about it. I could
even see a tiny speck, probably a motor boat, mov-
ing on the Kootenay where it crosses the border
into the state of Idaho. And how it worried
Saundy and me that we could not make out who
it was that had the widow MacNee out in a canoe

on the flats !

A telephone connects Saundy 's station with the
office of the fire warden so it is possible to have
men on the way to a fire a few minutes after it has

JANET OF KOOTENAY

173
started. The amount of money saved to the Gov-
ernment and mill owners through this station
IS mestimable Also, beside locating the fire,
baundy often has a pretty good idea of what
campers or other persons are responsible for its
ongm.

**But you would need - witness," I said "in
order to indict any one." *

"Saundy's word has never needed a witness in
this valley," he answered with some pride

baundy walked down Avith me as far as his
"7'^ ,.l ^^"^^ see by his eyes that it is the love
ot his hfe at present; I wondered if he had ever
had any other. He took me into his tunnel, which
tascmated me as nothing else had done on that
day of fascination. We would have gone down
m the shaft but that it wa s half full of water He
explained the mining laws about working claims.
±ie has done what is necessary to hold his claim,
and added enough to know that he has a good
vein of ore that he tried to show me was of excel-
lent quality.

"And when will you make your fortune?" I
asked.

"After tho big mines have run out I guess " he
answered. "You see, it takes capital to develop
a mme after the ore is found. One or two com-
panies have looked the prospects over with a view
to buying the hill. Thoy will, some day-the ore
IS here— but it will not be in my time."

•;!

^?«

'M.M^.i

174 JANET OF KOOTENAY

"But think," I said, "of the surprise of your
Scottish heirs at the wealth that Saundy has left

them."

' ' I have no heirs, ' ' he answered sadly. ' * There
were three bonny nephews, all anxious to come
to me in Canada, but the war came first. One, a
sailor, wont down when Lord Kitchener did. The
other two will not come back from France."

Sudilenly realising that I could not speak, I
gave him my hand, which he gripped in silence,
and left him there, a sad but valiant figure, the
last of a valiant line, thousands of miles from his
native highlands. The picture seemed more pa-
thetic in that the rewards of his best years would
come at last— to some one for whom he cared
nothing. When, at a bend in the trail, I looked
back, he waved his hat as he started back to his
lonesome hilltop vigil and I knew that he under-
stood, even though I had not been able to thank
him for his hospitality.

It was after six when, at last, my weary feet
got me back to Arcady. Eose had taken puiiis
to cook me a good dinner but I was so tired that
I did not dare to eat. I told Chow to wash the
dishes when he had milked, dumped myself into
the hammock on the porch and was soon fast

asleep.

I was awakened at eight o'clock by Captam
Fenton 's step on the porch. Rose has trained him
to stretch his length along the wide porch-rail

JANET OF KOOTENAY

175

while she swings in the hammock, so I imagined
that he thought it her this time.

♦♦Shall I call Rose!" I asked.

"No. Sit still. I want to smoke in peace."

I slid down and almost went to sleep again.

♦'I didn't mean it quite so literally," he said.
'•Tell mo about Saundy."

So I gave him Saundy's messages and told him
of my dinner, the deer and the views per tele-
scope.

"If I could," I said, "I'd try to tell you of the
beauty of that mountain trail. It will haunt me
always. It made me aknost intoxicated with de-
light and sad and depressed both at one time."

"I know. I've felt that too," he said. "Why
is it?"

"I thought it because I had no one with which
to share it all. With an understanding soul a
walk like that would be heaven. Alone, it is all
the more lonely for its beauty."

"Yes," he said at length. "I dare say -bat
might be the reason. I have a small share in a
claim up there and used the trail a great deal be-
fore I went away. Somehow I always returned
dissatisfied and unsettled. Probably I was, as
you say, mourning for my kindred soul." Here
his eyes became quizzical, "You know, I brought
from India a native belief that she was some-
where, waiting for me to come and find her."

\ti"

176

JANET OF KOOTENAY

"Then, afterward, you found herT** I wondered
at my own daring.

"If I did, it was too late."

I waited but got no more. His eyes had gone
from quizzical to sombre. How I longed to tear
aside the curtain of his roticcnce and ask ques-
tion after question about this Miss Edith, Lady
Harboro. But something told me that the conver-
sation had better take a lighter vein.

"Remembering that Saundy particularly asked
me to tell you how glad he would be to see you,
I suggest that we take next Sunday dinner there.
Perhaps we might console each other for these
kindred spirits that elude us so diligently in the
mountains. The flowers will be out yet next week.
Shall we?"

It was long before he answered.

"Saundy should know," he said, "that I can-
not climb hills any more, and you should know
that, for much the same reason, I cannot aspire
to be either a companion of dreams or a consola-
tion for their absence."

Here Eose came out, expressed regret at not
knowing the Captain was waiting, scolded him
for waking me and bewailed the fact that she was
two half days out on her yearly reports.

"I'll just bring them into the fresh air," she
said. " It may clear my head. "

"Then," Captain Fenton said, "we'll go over

JANET OF KOOTENAY 177

to Morty*8 so as not to disturb you. Are you too
tired to walk it?" This to mo.

"First, I'll need the suppen Rose so kindly
left for me."

I think that Rose would have come too, reports
or 110, but that* the Captain said farewell in a
jokingly final manner. Slie withdrew to her two
half days a little wonderingly. I wondered too.
lie had not expressed a desire for my exclusive,
company for some weeks.

His thoughts must have followed mine to Rose
for, havin,^ lighted his pipe, he threw the match
at a late gopher and said:

"Do you never get tired of constant and con-
tinual chatter?"

"Chatter? You mean Rose^ I thought it all
amused vou. You've seemed appreciative."

"Am 4sedf Well, perhaps, sometimes. But
amusement is not all one demands in a living com-
panion, is it?"

"A living compaiiion! For me, you mean?"

"Certainly," ho snapped.

Here I decided that, even if I have none of the
mid-Victorian virtues, I need have none of its
vices. Anyhow, I suddenly felt light-hearted
enough to be generous to any one.

"Rose is congenial in heaps of ways," I said
warmly. ''Few girls would have troubled to have
the warm meal ready for mo that she did to-
night/"

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178

JANET OF KOOTENAY

|a5

He smoked in silence for a time. We were
away past the Mortimer-Deane gate.

"You are a great deal more generous* than she
would be," he said at length.

That set me wondering. What had the little
puss been saying? My thoughts wandered back
to the time when he had called me "Miss Kirk" so
stiffly after having talked to her. What had she
told him 1 Only once- had I given her even a straw
to build on. She must have used it to the fullest
advantage.

"Look here," I said, sitting on the rail of a
little culvert on the Canyon road. "Tell me this.
Supposing that it was two o'clock in the morning,
you were dead tired and longing to get to sleep
after having rubbed a patient from chill to
warmth ; supposing this patient insisted on extol-
ling to heaven the wonders of the man who had
saved her life — I almost said 'and made this
bother necessary' — ^wouldn't you say that that
man might be all very well but he wasn't a tin god,
so go to sleep? Wouldn't you?"

"I should never put it as mild as that," he said.
"But neither should I say he thought he was."

"She didn't put it that way."

I see now," he went on, "that I should have
paid no attention to such remarks. They came
so fast that I soon learned. We will forget it
all, that is, if you will accept my apologies for any
seeming rudeness on my part. I would not have

,.^gE^:■..

JANET OF KOOTENAY

179

felt that it was right or necessary to mention that
she has misconstrued facts, to me and to others,
except that it may influence you about her stay-
ing on.'*

''Staying on — ^how do you meant"

"She hasn't mentioned doing so?"

"Not as yet."

"It is odd that she should have mentioned it
to me first. But here is your gate. I will say
good-night as you are tired."

Tired I may have been as I went up my Ar-
cadian driveway, but I noticed that the moon was
bright again on all the hills and fields; that its
beams were stirred together with the faint after-
glow that lingers among the hiljs, long after the
red of the setting sun has died away.

Friday evening, after school. Rose broached the
subject of remaining M-ith me through the holi-
days ; said she had nowhere she especially wanted
to go and that the work at her own home was
very tiresome. I had said nothing of what the
Captain had told me, thinking that as we were
going to part so soon we might as well do so in
peace. But this was different.

"You know," she said, "I've always tried to
make myself useful. ' '

"Yes indeed, you've really done more than you
ought."

"I should love to work on a farm for the sum-

mer.

>»

180

JANET OF KOOTENAY

"I fear," I said, "that this work would not
suit your type."

**I know, but it's so patriotic I had a letter
from a girl in Toronto and she says it is all the
thing to do — going out on farms, you know."

**"Why not try Mrs. Good? She needs another
berry hand. I have really no more than Chow
and I can manage."

No, she wouldn't like Mrs. Good. Then Mrs.
Mortimer-Deane. Heavens, no ! Not her. In fact
she didn't want to stay anjrwhere but just where
she was and wasn't I flattered at that?

"Then," I said, "put it this way. If you have
always and at all times been absolutely square
with me, you may stay."

"Square? "Why, what do you mean?'*

I did not answer but waited for my meaning
to dawn on her.

When it did, she got up and went to her room at
the door of which she turned with this four-year-
old remark :

"If that is what he is like, you can have him."

She packed up noisily and emphatically and
took my original advice about going to Goods'.
Later in the evening I saw her, in a borrowed
apron and sunbonnet, out in the berry patch with
Mrs. Good. The fact that my ears were not burn-
ing shows that all signs fail at times.

I must stop now and get the hose going in the

JANET OF KOOTENAY 181

little irrigation system I have in the cucumber
patch.

As soon as Nicky sees me there he will be over
for he thinks it all great sport. The other day,
he asked:

"Why is it that you seem to be playing when
you are gardening, when every one else thinks
they are working so hard?"

"Because I like it all so well, I suppose, Nicky."

"Well, your garden looks as well as any, 'n
better too, / think. W^hy doesn't every one
play?"

I am wondering how to either face or sidestep
his enquiry as to why Rose is at Mrs. Goods'. I
rather think I may hint that he get her version of
the move.
As I said: the cucumber patch.

Yours as ever,

Jan.

Arcady, July the tenth.
Deab Nan :

Remembering that you were pleased to sooff at
my statement that Arcady fronts on the National
Automobile Highway, let me say that a man
passed here yesterday on his way from Halifax to
Vancouver.

He had backed his machine into the Atlantic be-
fore starting and means to run it right down into
English Bay when he reaches the Pacific. He had
Halifax air still in one of his tires. I am sure
that, had you been here, you would have asked
for a whiff. I askea if he had any from Ontario,
but he said that the other tires all contained
Southern Alberta atmosphere, caagbt in a state
of great wildness.

I gave him fresh buttermilk to drink, in return
for which he promised to mention me kindly in a
book he is writing of the experiences of a motor
tramp. I made him promise to look up Aunt
Abigail, who is, at present, in Vane uver, and to
tell her about my place. If he happens to men-
tion the costume he saw me in he will be more
than repaid for his trouble — that is, if he has any
sense of humour.

The strawberries are almost over but early

JANET OF KOOTENAY 183

raspberries keep the shipping about the same.
On the heaviest strawberry days I liad upwards
of three hundred crates. We kept the train stand-
ing thirty or thirty-five minutes. People from
the Pullman would stroll down to know why in
thunder the train stood so long without a station
to stand by, or something equally sensible. Once
there, they usually remained to stare at the ef-
forts of the expressman and myself at getting the
shipments off; and to comment on my clothes.
Yesterday, I heard a Johnny in an eyeglass tell
a woman that I was some sort of Government in-
spector or some such thing, don't you know, and
that the uniform was jolly becomin', bajove.

The breath of the entire valley has been almost
taken away by most unlooked for actions on the
part of Peter. It all began on Thursday when, at
about four o'clock, he phoned to know if I was
alone, as he wanted to see me most particularly.

The Mowitza excuse for coming over had been
worn till of no further use so I know tliere must
be something new in the air and waited in a state
of expectancy. When he came, he was dressed
as I had never seen him before. Instead of his
usual tweeds or khaki overalls, he wore a suit-
new, I'm sure, of pin stripe serge.

"We are good friends, are we not. Miss
Janet?" he began.

"Why, I hope we are.'*

'Then," he said, looking embarrassed but very

((I

184

JANET OF KOOTENAY

determined, "will you be good enough to act in
my sister's place and tell me if these clothes are
all right. Just go ahead and criticise as she
would.'*

"But I don't know your sister, or how she
would do it.'*

"She is a very thorough woman, and always
saw to it that I was dressed right when she was
around. But somehow, I don't seem to get the
hang of company clothes. Is it asking too much
of you?"

"Not at all. But — for what do you want to be
correct? There is a difference, you know, be-
tween a morning wedding and a polo game."

lie was too Scotch and too much in earnest to
joke about it.

"For instance, if I was invited somewhere for
Sunday dinner."

"Um-m," I answered. "Well, would you —
could you part with that Strathcona?"

"This hat? Why, it's— surely I can "

"With your leveryday clothes it is just the
thing, but get a dark one, conventional shape for
this suit — and wear it straight on your head."

"And what else?"

"Personally, I prefer black boots, but that, of
course "

"Black boots. What about the tie?"

" It is splendid. And with a more military trim
to your moustache and that watch chain hidden I

JANET OF KOOTENAY

185

think you would be extraordinarily presentable."

"Do you really think soT" He was pleased as
a child. "But about the watch chain,— why
should I hide it? It is solid gold and was my
father's."

"Never mind. That was just a notion of mine.
And no- ', are you going to tell me why all this!"

"You will be the first one I shall tell, as soon
as there is anything to tell. And many thanks."

He left me more mystified than I had been be-
fore he came. However, keeping an eye to the
weather, as it were, I noticed that he went back to
town and made the changes I had suggested. I
also noticed that, thus arrayed, he presented him-
self at the Essingtons* later in the evening.

But even then, I almost had to support myself
when, later on, he came round to announce that
Eleanor had consented to be his wife. I collected
myself and congratulated him heartily, after
which I sent him over to tell the news to Mrs.
Good. I had noticed that she put her light out
so as to see w^iether he came in or not, so I
thought that, as she had that much, she might as
well have his reasons too.

Eleanor seems wonderfully happy and does not
in the least mind the banter of the others over
her conquest. She smiled serenely whtn I pre-
tended to weep that I had accepted the asparagus,
and thus, capitulating too easily, had lost his
interest.

186

JANET OF KOOTENAY

Words fail me when I attempt to toll you how
much the chicjkens and I appreciate the shipment
of cull wheat from the Three Bar. Two of the
unfortunate chickens that have grown the fastest
will leave here to-morrow, bound for Fort Weyno.
They convey our gratitude. I hope you will be
able to get a bountiful birthday dinner from them
— for you and M. P. and his mother, whom you
said you were having. I have asked Captain Fen-
ton for dinner on the same evening; it is his birth-
day. Friday is bad enovgh; you may bo glad
that it is not the thirteenth ad well. What a pity
we could not join the two diiiuers and have a
party all in one! I will not havo anything like
a mother-to-be to chaperone mine but I have asked
my self-elected chaperone to come. Saundy sel-
dom makes the descent from the station ; says he
is too old. He can phone his orders down easily
and the man who tends his place takes his things
up every Saturday. But thi^ time he will waive
custom and forget age in order to help me to give
the Captain a pleasant birthday.

A crate of strawberries will be shipped with
the chickens. They are to be your birthday pres-
ent. I am proud to have something from my place
to send, and do not apolo^-ise that the gift is not
greater as I am economising so as to buy a friend
a dear wedding present — that does not look right :
**a dear friend a wedding present" is better.

Your statement that Mrs. Devereaux, Senior, is

JANET OF KOOTENAY 187

going to decorate the Devoreaux homo before you
arrive "to save you the trouble" filled mo with the
utmost alarm, espoclally as you said that, to k^op
peace, you hud better let her do it.

Why do you cry "pcaco" when there will he no
peace—when you are surrounded with the decora-
tions that 8he will devise? I have been in the
good woman's own house. The wall-paper vraa
abundantly beflowered; the carpet mai^niifict'utly
bescrolled; then when, in the face of that, her
chairs should have kept pilence, she had chintzed
every available piece in the room. Peace with
your immediate surroundings will be much more
important than peace with some one that you will
see only once in a great while, if it comes to that
decision— which I do net believe it will.

Just you weep a little on Mortimer's shoulder
and say that it really doesn't matter a bit, but
you had counted on the pleasure of doing the
house yourself. He will then make it right with
Mrs. Senior and you will continue to be a prime
favourite with both.

This advice is good but use it now. It is not
guaranteed to obtain the same effects after a
year or two.

I shall send a full account of my dinner party.
Do you the same.

Ever yours,

Janet K.

Arcady, July the gnvcnteenth.
Dear Nan :

Outside of shipping berries, tendinj:^ cliic'ken:4,
hillin/? celery and pickinpf peas, my dinner ]>arty
has filled my week pretty fully. You will gather
from this that the preparations were, for me,
quite elaborate. Many a time I longed for your
able assistance. I should even have been glad
of Rose, when it came to making the dessert. I
was of a mind, at first, to have strawberry short-
cake, but while mine, at times, aspiro to groat
heights of flulliness, they are by no means of the
uniform and certain monotony of goodness that
yours are, and I did not want to insuU fried chick-
en with a heavy finis, such as some shortcakes I
have made would be.

After momentous deliberation the final choice
fell on ice-cream with a chocolate sauce. You re-
member dear old Mrs. Brice's saying tha; -'f she
had some cream and a freezer, she ivoulrl make
some ice-cream, if she only had some ice. Well,
I was better off than that. I had the cream and a
freezer, * * if I only had some ice. ' ' Nicky had once
mentioned that they had an ice-house, so, thinking
that probably an ice-house would contain ice, I
rode over intending to bring some home on Molly's
broad back.

188

JANET DF KOOTENAY 189

The ico was thoro, all right, but Mr. Worth was
away and Mrs. Worth had lost her key and for-
gotten the combination. I looked at tiio flimsy
shack and knew that I couM easily onou^di have
gotten into it had she not beer! there, but there
is something about her mild prespuc that dis-
courages violence. So I was up against it, dis-
couraged but not defeated, for, once an idea get'

firm lodgement in my mind— as ou know .

Just here I remembered that I had seen ico at the
butcher 'o.

In a minute Molly's w -villing head was turned
to\vn-ward. In a few liuiules more it came on
rain— drenching, soaking rain. Xo. the butcher
had no ice for sale, ilo had instructions not to
sell any on any account. 1 asked him if there
were any direct instructions against trading a
pi -co for a basket of fresh green peas and a couple
of early cauliflowers. I knew I had him there. He
is a married man who has just arrived, too late f >
begin a garden.

"No," he said, as he dived into the rear room
for the ice, "I've never heard of any objection
to that particular deal.'*

He put a huge piece into a double sack, saying
that the piece must be big and that I must hurry
as ice would not last long in a summer rain. I
tried to convey this idea to Molly but she objected
strenuously to being asked to hurry with a sack
of ice bumping about on her back.

190

JANET OF KOOTENAY

I endeavoured to hold it out so that the sack
would not touch her, but this almost pulled my arm
out by the roots, beside which she stopped dead to
turn and look at it each time. Finally I got
down, tied the ice to the end of a rope and secured
a stout switch, after which we made good time,
even if the ice was bounding about at the rope's
end in an alarming manner.

I washed the mud from the much diminished
piece and hurried it into the freezer. The ice-
cream was scrumptious, which, somehow, was
more than I had expected.

Just as I finished it the phone rang. It was the
man on the MacPhaill place with a message from
Saundy, to say that, as it had rained so hard, he
thought it best not to come down the hill this
week-end, and would I send him some of the
asthma tablets we had spoken of.

I sat down to puzzle this out. As far as I could
remember, Saundy had never even mentioned the
word asthma to me. Then I began to see. The
message was really to tell me that he could not
come to my party, and the tablets were thrown in
as a blind for Mrs. Good, who, ever faithful on her
job on the party telephone (especially when one
long two shorts is wanted), would not be able to
tell that anything unusual was in the air. I read
in this his approval of my going ahead with the
dinner, even if he could not be present.

By the time it was evening, the rain and chill

JANET OF KOOTENAY

191

had made a small blaze in the fireplace permis-
sible, so I set the table by it, with my first sweet
peas to furnish fragrance, and wore ray heliotrope
organdy to complete the colour schorae. And
when, after my guest had shed his raincoat and
stood before the fire, he pronounced it all "a
glimpse of heaven," I felt very happy, although
I knew that many of his birthday parties must
have been much more heavenly.

All rules of the food controller were off for the
day, and my conscience did not trouble me that I
had made this dinner to a returned hero some-
thing of a feast. Of course most of my dishes
would come under the classification of perish-
able eatables, and one does not need to consider
the matter of economy when on a farm. Figure
out what it would cost you in Fort "Weyne to serve
a dinner such as this, every item of which I had
patriotically produced my own self — even to the
equivalent of the ice. We began with giant straw-
berries, picturesque in thpir hulls, and followed
this with friec" chicken a la Maryland and new
potatoes in cream sauce — to get these potatoes I
had scratched round under with my frjing fork,
so as not to disturb the hen, as it were, and cream
sauce is cr^am sauce in Arcady. For vegetables I
had young chard with mushro( m sauce and water
cress from the Essingtons' brook. And I men-
tioned the ice-cream, did I not?
For the birthday toast I felt warranted in open-

192

JANET OF KOOTENAY

ing the champagne that had been Pierre Eibot's
gift when he left to take his place with the French
Reservists. You remember how he told us to
treasure it on account of its venerable age, and
said that if it cheered for us an "auspicious occa-
sion," it would surely cheer him to the same ex-
tent, even if, by that time, he was filling a shallow
French grave. Poor Pierre! I wonder where
the cheer he believed in would find him.

When Captain Fenton took the bottle from
the pail of ice and poured two glasses, I told him
of Pierre Eibot's request that whenever or wher-
ever the champagne was opened the first toast
should be * * France. ' ' -

**And he is right," my companion said. "It is
perfectly fitting that even an Englishman, should
put it so. To the valiant army and people across
the water! To the Republic of France!"

Then I noticed that, having barely tasted the
champagne, he set it to one side in apparent dis-
taste.

"Is it not all right?" I asked.

"As champagne it is superb, but it takes me
back all too vividly to the last toast I drank. I
even remember that the wine is the same vintage. ' '

"That was in France?" I asked.

He nodded. "In a little village on the Aisne.
The mayor had invited our officers into a cellar —
the only place where there were four walls and a
ceiling — and had opened some treasured cham-

JAXET OF KOOTENAY

193

pagne to show his gratitude to the British who had
driven out the invading enemy."

After a silence, in which he divided the Mary-
land chicken, he asked:

"Did you ever have a real friend, so much so
that whether together or on opposite sides of the
earth, you felt the same companionship?"

"I have one," I answered. I was thinking of
you.

''Then you can better understand the regard I
had for a chap from South Africa, who went
through Cambridge with me. After that, we were
cubs together in the German Embassy, where he
was valuable on account of the fluent German he
spoke. I knew nothing of his people— not even
their nationality. One could tell, from his man-
ner, that they w^ere of the best, and as he did not
mention them, I did not.

*'Once, he came all the way to India to see me,
and I think I averaged a letter a week from him,
both there and here. And, down in that French
cellar, it enhanced my joy in our victoiy to know
that he was there and that we had come through
together, nnscratched.

"Just after our toast to the downfall of the
Kaiser, he left the room. When next I saw him,
it was between guards. He had been caught send-
ing flash signals to the enemy.

"The evidence was incontestable. At daybreak

194

JANET OF KOOTENAY

there was a squad. He looked into my eyes at
the very last minute, bogging me to understand.
That was what was in the taste of the champagne.
It made me see the eyes of that friend."

**But," I said, "he only got his deserts. A
German spy, partaking of French hospitality
while he betrayed the British army,"

"His deserts! Oh, yes, I know. If there had
only been ho and I left in the world, I'd have shot
him — ^but there it is. A man of rare qualities
and a fine mind — see what war had made of him. ' '

Captain Fenton insisted on helping me to wash
up the dishes. It was so cosy, having him there,
asking how one ever got cut glass dry, hunting
where to put the cups and, finally, sweeping the
crumbs from the hearth, that I was glad I had
been persuaded from my original intention of
leaving them for Chow.

Then ho wheeled the davenport to the fire and,
after he had held my wool while I wound it, he
smoked in silence and watched me while I knit-
ted. To my questions as to his life in India he
replied in monosyllables, or merely with a sleepy
nod. Once, when he had not answered me and
I glanced up to see the reason, I saw that he was
regarding me through half closed lids. He
shrugged contentedly and said :

"Don't wake me up. I am dreaming."

So I afbandoned myself to the content of the

JANET OF KOOTENAY 195

crackle of the fire, the sleepy yawns and grunts
of Bingo and the soft sound of the rain on the
roof. Perhaps I did a little dreaming of my
own.

When my little clock chimed ten, he sliook him-
self out of his bilence and got his cane, preparing
to go. He took the sweet peas from the table
then took my hand to say good-night.

''As I said," he said, •* you've given me a
glimpse of heaven, but I won't pretend that I
think it has been good for one who is debarred."
"How do you mean, debarred?"
"I think you know."
"Then how, not good for him?"
"Thin ice, Janet," he said and was gone into
the rain-washed dark.

With mental apologies to Pierre, I took the
"bottled cheer" out to the back porch, where I
dropped it into a bucket, wondering if the cheer
had not, indeed, all flown back to him when re-
leased. Then, not being sleepy, I sat before the
fire to ponder on the obtuseness of a certain
titled cigarette fiend, and on the tragedy of a war
that has deprived so many of their cherished
dreams.

However, with the morning came the sun again,
and in the work of the day there seemed no place
for thoughts of tragedy. Almost the first thing
I noticed was that that fool. Bingo, with a whole

196

JANET OF KOOTENAY

il:
ill

brookful of water from which to quench his thirst,
had actually lapped up from the bucket enough
champagne to make him feel like sitting on his
haunches and howling in a most dismal manner.
Furthermore, he was not content with doing this
at home but must needs place himself in front of
Mrs. Good's doorstep, lured there, no doubt, by
inebriated memories of a white cat ho loved to
chase. Soon, as I quite expected, the phone rang,
and, for the first time in my life, I listened in on
a party line.

Mrs. Good wanted the police station. She
wanted a man sent at once to destroy a mad dog
that was performing on her door-step. She
wanted them to make haste as she was afraid to
move lest the beast jump through a window. Very
well, madam, they would attend to the matter at
once.

Hardly had I hung up when there came three
shorts, Mrs. Good's call. It was Captain Fen-
ton explaining to her that the dog was not mad
but acting foohshly on account of his having care-
lessly left some alcohol where he could get it. He
promised to come for the dog and to keep him till
he felt sensible again. She was none too pleased
vith this turn of events.

"But what of the way he chases my cat?" she
&sked.

"The oat is safe for the present," he said.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

197

**Tho dog is in no condition to successfully chaso
anything. I will tell them at tho station."

So that is all as to my dinner. As to yours,
I hope it was very jolly and that you will have
many, many more like it.

Ever ycur

Janet K.

I i

li 1

ife:

Arcady, July tweirty-fotirth.
Dear Nan :

Another strenuous week has winged its way
into history. Excepting, perhaps, Mie first week
of transplanting, it has been the hardest week's
work I have done in Arcady. I allude to the
pruning of some two thousand tomato plants.

There has been an unusually heavy rainfall
this summer and, while it has made the raspberry
crop tremendous and brought on the com, cu-
cumbers and all that wonderfully, tho tomato
plants do not seem to know what to do with so
much moisture, so have made the mistake of grow-
ing most prodigious plants.

I was enjoying this till I noticed that my neigh-
bours were all busy reducing the size of theirs and
then Captain Fenton told me to get Chow at work
on mine. When I went to find Chow he was al-
ready there ; had made a good beginning, in fact.
He got some pruning shears for mo and showed
me what leaves and shoots should come off and
what should be left to bear the tomatoes and
nourish the plant. Then they were tied to stakes
and left to the sunshine which is gorgeous and
all-pervading again.

As soon as Nicky had finished with the irk-

ids

JANET OF KOOTENAY

199

some task of helping with this work at home, he
came ovor to h.ivo the fun of assisting with ours.
ily head was almost di/zy with the heat on the
day that ho came, so I said :

''Surely, Nicky, you've l,ul enough of this.
Don't bo foolish enough to do it when you don't
have to."

"Shucks. I'm not a bit tired. If you'll play
German while we do it, I'll help all week. No,
I've nothing to do at home, honest."

"In that case, I will play German gladly, and
what is more, I will take you with me the next
time I go up to Saundy's station."

"Oh well, then!" he said, and foil to work with
such enthusiasm that he almost forget that he
was dealing with my future income.

Nicky and I are both in despair oi' ever be-
coming as adept at pruning as is Chow. Ho has
about half of the rank growth cut away and the
plant tied to its stake before I have decided where
to begin on mine, \\licn I tell you that almost
the entire patch of two thousand plants has been
pruned, you will see that some one has been hurry-
ing during the week.

I think we should have finished but that I took
a vagrant notion and absconded on Captain Fen-
ton's ^fidnight for a whole afternoon. It was all
the fault of the horse ; he thought of the idea first.
I had just finished my lunch, and, distasteful as
was the thought of going back to that sticky, dis-

I ■

' i:

200

JANET OF KOOTENAY

agreeable job, had valiantly grasped my pruning
scissors and started forth.

Midnight had crossed the little biiui^o and was
standing by my porch. As .soon as ho saw me,
he reached his glossy head and whispered in my
ear:

"Pruning is an awful bore. Let us go for a

run.

Without stopping to think of the indelicacy of
Midnight's proposal, or to find out whether ho
was wanted for the afternoon, I Mi row my sad-
dle into p ice and was soon away, rltiing as easily
and smoothly as though I were ilying.

I turned him in the direction of the Arrow,
not having been tliore for some time. We ar-
rived in time to see young William give a few
final kicks before expiring on the grass just in-
side the wire gate. I was too terrified for words
and somehow expected to see the other animals
follow suit. I hurried to the rearest telephone
and summoned Peter, who is the standard au-
thority ().'. the reasons why animals are unpa-
triotic enough to die mthout regard for the pres-
ent scarcity of beef.

Peter rode right out and pronounced Wil-
liam's indiscretion to be the fatal one of eating
twigs off the trees and shrubs. He said that he
had lost one or two valuable milch cows in the
same way. There are compensations on a prairie
cattle farm after all, to wit, there are no twigs.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

201

William was buried by Peter, who also exam-
ined the rest of the herd for sipis of the unprofit-
able habit. Had there been any there would bo
nothing one could do about it except to take them
home and put them in the stable, for once they be-
gin eating twigs, they eat and cat, rather than
stretch their lazy heads down to ..*e gooil grass.

I threatened to take them all home and put thera
on the clover, garden or no garden, but Peter
said they might get up early some morning after
a rain, eat wet clover and die in the very same
manner.

Peter helped me to fill a pail of wild raspber-
ries, red and black, and we ::pfnt a very com-
panionable afternoon, talkiiig mostly of Eleanor.
He confided that they were going to be married
very soon, spend a month at the coast, going there
by way of Banff, at the end of wJiich time he is
going overseas to join a Highland regiment.

"But what of your place?" I asked.

** Eleanor will keep my place for me. She will
see that the fruit is harvested and will probably
move her bees there when the winter comes."

"And does she not mind your going?"

"She is glad that I am to go. Isn't she won-
derful?"

"They all are. Why, I'm not glad myself. I
can only think of how much I shall miss such a
good neighbor."

And I shall too, Nan. He is really a tower of

t*' tSJi'-*';

1 1 *gi
li m

202

JANET OF KOOTENAY

etrongth and I am sorry that I ever thought mean
thoughtg of him.

Kight then and there I bought two young cows
from him uh well as IiIh nuite for Mowitza.
Eleanor does not want to be bothered with tho
stock, except his riding horse, which alio will keep
for him.

Itiding home, as we passed Captain Fenton's
gate he "emarked:

*'I know now what Johrny Good meant when ho
said, after he had enlisted, that it felt good to be
' le to look Fenton square in the eye when ho
me* him."

Instead of Chow's stooped figure in its faded
blue smock over in the tomato patch as I had left
him and expected to find him, Midnight almost
stmubled over him, kneeling beside the stone-
flagged walk.

"What arc you doing, Chow?" I demanded as
my eye took in a small trench that ran from the
house down to the bridge at the brook.

"i) <? a ditch," he answered truculently.

♦♦Well, but why?"

**Mrs. Good, she away."

"Is that a reason for digging up hiy garden?"

"Capt'n Fenton, he says so."

I looked and saw that from the bridge to his
house was another little trench. Great as was
my mystification, it did not clliterate my hunger
so I went into the house to look for Lomething

wiw^^m^^m

JANET OF KOOTKNAV 20:\

to cat. Snundy'8 man had left some nuisljroonis,
8(), having hml thera and piled them on toast,
I sat hy the kitchen window to puzzle out the mat-
ter of the trenches. I could more easily have he-
lieved Chow had he attributed the i<lea to Xieky.

Then, sitting tlicre, 1 saw that my neigiihour
was engaged in tlie odd pursuit of hiying a wire
in the trench, covering it with the soil again as
ho went along. lie came in this way right down
to the bridge, ran the wire under the planks
and proceeded in the same way up to my house.

When I came out I could see that ho hadn't
known that I was home. His face was that of a
small boy caught in the jam jar.

"Did you know," he asked, "that a new com-
pany has just been promoted, with your name
down for fifty-one per cent of the stockf

"How odd," I said, "that I had not been in-
formed. What is this company?"

"It is the Arcady- Albemarle Telephone Com-
pany."

"Is that a telephone wire?"

"It is. I shall put an instrument in my house
and one in yours, then we can talk whenever we
feel like it ; you can call me if for any reason you
need me, and ''

"But," I asked, "don't you like to look at me
when you talk to me?"

"I'd rather look at you than do anything else
on earth," he said, with that odd note of sin-

204

JANET OF KOOTENAY

cerit^ that almost compels one to believe, in spite
of the fact that one knows better. "But I am not
thinking of myself. I am thinking of you."
"Well, I like to look at you too."
"Thanks. Perhaps, then, I should say I am
thinking of Mrs. Good."

"Oh-h. Why this sudden— what have you
heard?" I asked.

"Nothing much. But the combination across
the way is a high explosive that it will not do to
tamper with. Peter happened to be in the house
when Rose went over there from here. Of course,

for myself, I don't care what they say "

"Neither do I," I said. "So why worry about
such people?"

"We need not worry, of course, but the safe
way is in not supplying them with material.
That is the real reason for the Arcady-Albemarle
Telephone Company— to keep them guessing."

He got the phone installed and connected with
the batteries before the Goods got home. In my
house it stands in the part of the bookcase that
is curtained for magazines, and I can sit on a low
hassock and talk to my heart's content.

I was quite excited when he called me and the
little bell rang for the first time. It took me
a while to get off the guarded manner one uses on
a party line, but when I did it was comfortable
to feel that no one, not even a central, was lis-
tening.

JANET OF KOOTENAY 205

Next week we must finish hilling the celery for
the first time. We are using boards for the early
varieties, aii'l banking the late so that it cannot
freeze so readily if left in the soil till an early
frost happens along. I have two rows of the self-
blanching variety and it is almost ready for mar-
ket now. I go out and get some for my supper
whenever I think of it. Next week I expect to
market the two earliest rows of cauliflower. We
have tied the leaves over their faces so as to pre-
vent freckles and sunburn, for, in market circles,
white IS the fashionable complexion for cauli-
flower.

Every one of my small roses has either a bloom
or one or two buds. It is so exciting to see what
colour and shape each will be. The rose garden
is the first spot I visit every morning. What will
it be like when I can bring in an armful with me
each time!

The neighbours all profess to think that, for
first year soil, mine is producing beautifully. My
corn is almost six inches higher than that in any
other garden. I think that is because I set it
out m a three days' rain and it got no set back,
as plants on which the sun shines while being
transplanted do.

I feel guilty every time I look at my com and
thmk of what the Mortimer-Deanes' would be by
now. I must see that they get some often from
mine.

,-i

■i

206 JANET OF KOOTENAY

Must close and get my cream can and a ship-
ment of head-lettuce and early beans otf. Nicky
is helping Chow to hitch now, leaning far over
to protect his precious Sunday suit. It is a bore
to have to ship on Sunday, but things must go
when ready. It would be a crime to waste them

at this time.

More and more each week I wish I had a car.
If so I could leave here when the train whistles
as it rounds the curve at the other end of Goat
Mountain, and could be back again with my feet
on the porch rail in twenty minutes. If quite
convenient for you to nr -nage that other payment
in August, I think I really must have one.

And then, if I squander my last reserve m that
manner, it will be up to me to make the place go
-or go broke. However, I think I shall make it
go The thing to do is to hang on till the trees
are bearing, after which the work is easier and

the returns secure.

Very much love from

Jan.

Arcady, July thirty-first.
Deab Nan:

See if you can close your eyes and imagine
Janet Kirk picking peas at four o'clock in the
morning. That is what I have done every morn-
ing, only that on alternative days it was beans
instead of peas that I gathered.

I must admit that it is a bit hard to get out of
a cos bed at four in the morning, but once out,
the crisp early air banishes all thoughts of sleep
and makes one glad one has a garden to get one
out. In fact, that is the only time when I do not
mind the slow and tiresome job of picking peas;
it is just so good to be alive that I do not mind
what I am doing.

Round about five o'clock. Chow is in the patch
too. When I first suggested to him that he get
up early and then sleep in the heat of the day as
I do he shook his head decidedly:

**No, no," he said. ** Daytime sleep no good."

However, the intense heat c ^ the sun soon
changed his mind. Whether he sleeps or not, he
at least gets out of the sun.

Getting an early start like that, we are always
ready to carry the buckets in at about ten to get
them ready for market. Tlie sight of figures

207

208

JANET OF KOOTENAY

seemingly drooping in the sun in other gardens
always makes me thankful that I have done my
morning's work in the wonderful night — cool that
we always have in the mountains.

There is no such thing as a bushel or a peck in
market-gardening in the west. Everything is sold
by the pound and crated.

Corn and cucumbers go by the crate, so many
dozen to the crate. Some use sacks for peas and
beans, instead of crating them, and it was from
this that I got what I am told is a bright idea
in shipping mine. My peas are what we call
nines, having nine peas in almost every pod, and
I thought it such a shame that they had to be
covered like ordinary peai that grow in fours,
fives and sixes. To avoid this I made shipping
sacks of white mosquito netting, of a size to hold
ten pounds each, and you have no idea how well
the peas, beans and cauliflower look when shipped
in these sacks.

I sent a small sample sack to a fiirm in Leth-
bridge, and got an order by return mail, asking
for all I could spare. The next day, what with
the three things, I had ten sacks, all done up with
Arcady tags and looking nicer than I had ever
seen garden-truck look, anywhere.

The trainmen evidently shared my modest opin-
ion for they crowded round and ^^ffered me fif-
teen cents a sack more than I had been offered by
the distributing firm. I could have sold the lot

t**"^^m

^MTT

JANET OF KOOTENAY 209

easily but I took future orders instead. The con-
ductor made me a dazzling oifer for all the peas
1 could supply that were as big as these.
^ J^'But thoy have a market value," I said.
Ihere is no use in your paying more."
"I don't know anything about market values "
ho said, -but I do know that my wife makes me
shell the peas and I know what I want when I
see it."

As the raspberries are almost over and Mrs.
Worth can easily manage theirs now, .Air. Wortli
18 working on my bathroom. He hopes to finish
it before the haying on the flats commences.

The fact that I ordered all that paraphernalia
myself and that things are correct as to measure-
ment and desi.gn puzzles him sorely. So also does
the fact that I liad gotten the sink, tank and
water-front connected up successfully. He never
even heard the like of it. Xever.

In fact, I often see him standing, lost in pro-
found meditation, as lie endeavours to grasp the
magnitude of the enigma. Having never before
been able to even imagine what must be the
thoughts of a plumber as he stands in one of
these trances, I feel more than pleased with the
achievement.

I have not sho^^^l him my book on plumbing
as he told me once that it took seven years to mas-
ter the diihcult art of plumbing--steam-fitting or
some such thing goes mth it— and I did not want

".'rtu-'^l i^vic

210

JANET OF KOOTENAY

to destroy this illusion. I merely said that it was
a littlo knack I was born with— plumbing and
Bteam-fitting.

Mrs. Morty has offered me the use of her
rougo, her French perfumes, her shampoo — the
same as Queen Mary uses— and all the lotions and
paraphernalia that a wealthy sister sends from
Louilon, iicaginlng them to be useful on a fruit
farm, if she may come over twice a week for a
full length bath. I made the bargain with tho
proviso that it be not compulsory either for her
to take the bath or for v\q to use the beauty sup-
plies.

The Moitimer-Deanes' dragon aunt has been
quite ill. It has been bad enough for her doctor
to have sent them two or three cables about it.

"They sound," he told me, *'as though the doo-
tor fearod the worst."

"I reuise to be cheered," his wife said. "She
is probably playing a trick on us."

Then, seeing my look of astonishment, she

said:

"It's merely my unusual honesty that shocks
you, my dear. I have a beastly headache from
'stooping in that garden. I always get one, and,
as she alone is responsible, I can't pretend to
hope that they keep up just to benefit her."

The Mortimer-Deanes have a cousin working in
the Canyon mills, who, having heard of the cables,
came down to enquire. They were at Arcady

T^)?3t^^^s^^r'^'j'^^^^S^!^^^?S^?^^WS.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

211

when he camo, having como for the milk, and
then stayed on for a game of tennis, so he came
on hero to see them.

I was glad to hoar Mortimer-Deane express
only sorrow at the news he gave, and was quite
surprised when he spoke of not going home, evon
in ease the worst came, hut that he thought of
pulling up stakes and going on to Now Zealand,
unless the military let down the bars in the mean-
time and took him on.

I have boon pondering on this news ever since.
The neighbourhood will take on quite a different
colour with both Peter and the Mortimcr-Doanes
away. I have never met any one that could just
take the place of either of them.

On Thursday we got our first English mail for
some time. I got three from Ned, in the cavaliy
section, you know, and was so eager to hear that
he vv-as all right that I gave the team to Chow
and slid into the hammock, just as I was, to open
them. Even the thrill of knowing what an only
brother was doing '*over there" was powerless
to keep me awake for long. In the drowsiness of
the noon heat, my siesta overtook me where I
was.

In one of the letters Ned had told of a night
raid of enemy airplanes, in which the horses, terri-
fied by the roar of the machines overhead and
the lights flashing hither and yon, stampeded,
causing terrible havoc in the cavalry section.

M5i^.^ ^&..i?l.

212

JANET OF KOOTENAY

m !

All of tills letter became woven into a dream
in which I was in an airplane myself. Ned, who
was the pilot, had just noted an enemy plane pur-
suing ours, so the hum of the engine rose higher
and higher as he tried to elude them. When tho
pursuing airman was just over us ho dropped
a bomb in our direction. Our piano was struck
and lurched horribly, almost upsetting me. At
this I woke with my heart in my mouth to see
that Bingo had just jumped into the hammock
with me and seemed to bo wanting to tell me
something.

I realized what had hit the airship, almost up-
setting it, and that the fact that Bingo was pant-
ing with the heat or a chase after Good's cat
would account for the sound of an engine that had
been so plain. But the sound of humriing was
still in my ears, growing more insistent. Wliy,
I wondered sleepily, should the enemy's engine
still hum when I had discovered that my machine
was a hammock and my engine a dog.

But it was not till Bingo, despairing of making
me understand him, jumped to the porch rail and
barked savagely, that I sat up to investigate.
There, a few feet away, the cause of the loud
humming was taking shape.

My bees had swarmed.

They were settling in about tho head of one of
my dainty cherry trees, making it look like an
absurd toy balloon on a string.

TTV

JANET OF KOOTENAY 213

I waa in a turmoil of excitement. I did know
that it waa as well not to have Bin^o there bark-
ing at them, but there my knowledj^o ended. I
knew the Essin^tons' i)]ione Wcis out of order so
that I could not ask Eleanor what to do about
it. Finally I got Captain Fenton on the A- A
telephone line.

**Vvliat does one do when one's bees swarm?"
I asked.

"You get them into a hive, of course," he told
me.

"Back into the same one?"

* * Heavens, vol Have you no other ? ' '

"No, none."

"Nor a box that would do?"

"I haven't a thing."

"Did you call Eleanor?"

"I can't gQi them."

"I'd go up for a hive but you need something
quicker than I could get it here. Oh, I have it.
Peter has one of Eleanor's. He was going to
make some more like it and took it to copy. Get
him to bring it over."

So I called Peter and he brought a Langstroth
hive of Eleanor 's on the back of his horse, which
seems not to have an outrageable dignity such as
Molly's. Then the two of us, neither of whom
had ever handled a single bee before, proceeded
to get that swarm into the hive.

214

JANET OF KOOTENAY

'^'i^^^^''<

If the bees swarm on an apple tree branch, as
they often do, it is easy to talce the branch to
where one wants the bees, but breaking off an
entire clieriy tree and nipping thousn»ids of dol-
hirs' worth of cherries in the bud, as it were, was
another matter. So we took the mountain to
Mohammed. Peter set the house before the little
tree in a most inviting manner. Th^u, at his di-
rection, I got a sheet and 8i)rea!l It on ihe ground
in front of the hive, after which Lc shook the tree
until tho bees were loosened ai*! most of them
shaken on tho sheet. I expected the boos to be
angry enough, in the face of such treatment, to
rise up and demolish us, but they seemed to take
it as a matter of course, and, when Peter had
gently given them a general idea of where to go,
thoy piled into the hive in great order.

I'^^ter thought that, when I told Eleanor of
our feat, I need not have mentioned that ho shooed
them in w ith the broom, and that I need not have
betrayed our ignoranco of the fact that bees al-
most never sting at this time by telling of the
hastily improvised gas masks that we wore. How-
ever, I thought that, having turned the trick most
successfully, we should worry whether or not they
laughed about the methods.

I am sure I shall get along famously with my
bees. Eleanor is going to show me how to cut
out the queens so that there will be no more

JANET OF KOOTKNAY

215

Bwarraing in this season. Tho tv.-o hives look
quito companionable as they sit side hy sulo
among llio currant bushes, aixl it begins to look
like a n.^uhir apiary.

Mrs. Cood and Rose were quito curious to know
of Peter why I had called him on the telephone
instead (if ('aptain Fcnton. rViLT t-.^ld tliat likely
I liad called the Captain first and that hi', know-
ing that the hive was there, had suggested that I
ask for it.

"Nothing of the sort," Mrs. Good retorted.
"There wasn't a ring all morning till hho called
you. After calling him for next to nothing, as
she has done dozens of times, it is extremely
strange that she does not call him when she really
has a reason. Perhaps he is beginning to size
her up as I did in the beginning."

T»'hen Peter ventured to inquire whether that
need prevent my calling the Captain, her unan-
swerable parting shot was that ho was "just like
a man."

Rose went to her home for this week-end but
is coming back again, although I cannot see what
pleasure she gets out of it. Of course, Mrs. Good
insists that she be just a visitor and that she
would not think of charging for her board. "Wliat
she really would not think of is paying out money
for an extra farm hand, which is what Rose really
has been.

216

JANET OF KOOTENAY

■■•T^

i-M

Monday morning is the timo ^frs. Good holds
sacred to writing to Jolinny, and, in tho meantime,
Eoso is graciously allowed to proceed with tho
washing.

"Sunday," sho says, "was not made to write
letters in, neither should it he profaned hy knit-
ting or washing one's hair."

Tho last was, of course, tho incvitahlo shot at
mo. Tv'hilo still puzzled by her enmity, I have
como to ho resigned to it. At tho last small ad-
vance I made she piously wondered v*'hat I could
be up to this timo, so I have decided to forget
that sho exists, at loast in so far as Is possible.

Sorry to say that it will bo quite irapossiblo
for me to attend your wedding, as on September
tenth, the day you mention, we shall bo in the very
thick of our three big crops, — tomatoes, cucum-
bers and corn. Ilowever, I shall think of you and
hope that your wedding veil and AIontagnD'" Valo
are each on straight.

I think your wedding plans very sensible, also
your idea of running in to Winnipeg in the new
car for a week, and then spending a real honey-
moon in California when winter comes.

As yon are to be married two days after elec-
tion, it is up to the "peepul" to decide whether
or not this week will be much of a celebration.
Give my regards to all the old crowd in the wheat
city when you get there, and as for the present,

JANET OF KOOTHXAY

217

I could wish to got your lettors wHh n littlo moro
rogularity. Up to the present J have refrained
from boini,' jealous of M. i\
Enough, 1 trust, has been said.

Lovo from

Jan.

Arcady, Au^st the seventh.

Dear Nax:

Arcady has just received an order for thr«-e
d6zen milk-fed broilers for a huge trade banquet
to be held in a thriving prairie city on Labour
Day. An enquiry as to ray price on that num-
ber came about a week ago, and as I was not
anxious for the trouble of crating and milk-feed-
ing chickens that are growing wonderfully well
roaming at large, I named a price that I was sure
would end the matter then and there. And as a
special anti-inducement I said that I should re-
quire the name of Arcady be mentioned on the
banquet menus.

The next letter expressed their entire satisfac-
tion with the price I had named, and also said
that they would take great pleasure in mentioning

the source of supply.

So I have made the crates, whitewashed them
and selected thirty-six of the largest cockerels.
They are on a very light diet at present, for the
change from wide range to close quarters is apt
to bring on indigestion if they are allowed to
stuff at first. Then, when they are reduced to
hunger, their rations can be increased as fast as
they seem able to take it, and in a month their

218

ii^'%*?t.''fe?!.

.^^•j^^aW k^'^^±:

JANET OF KOOTENAY

21!>

)t
;o

flesh should be greatly increased, and temptingly
delicious as well.

If I find that it is not too terribly much troublo,
I may advertise that grade of bird and put quite
a number of them off m that manner.

Sixty of the h Tt'sl puilc+s have been selected
and set aside f( i- Vrcady': laying flock, and I
I'.avo all sorts of i ':ins in nn head for fancy-pack-
ing the eggs for special trude. Then, when Feb-
ruary comes, I shall buy the largest AVhite Wyan-
dotte cockerel in the world and get outrageous
prices for my sets of hatching eggs.

For this a foreign market will have to be worked
up, as I have been told that most of the local
chicken raisers expect to trade a dozen eggs, laid
by a dozen different kinds of mongrel hens, for
the same number of pure-strain eggs. If I see
{'.iiy such people approaching Arcady, I want to
be able to hang a "sold out" sign in the window.

I really wanted to set aside one hundred pul-
lets for the egg business, but with grain prices out
of sight, as they are, I have decided to be satis-
fied with five dozen eggs each day. Did I hear
anybody smile?

The mention of chicken food brings me to
thoughts of my sunflower hedge. IIow I wish
you might see it. The line of yellow is visible for
miles — and it is straight ! Not a single flower is
out of alignment. The way in which the hedge
singles Arcady out from among the other farms

j.ls^jJ^i,'.- ^-.m-.

220

JANET OF KOOTENAY

• 1 .

AC-

makes mo feel compensated for the poor showing
we made in apple-blossom time.

Your mention that your hay is all under canvas
fills me with envy for we are only thinldng of be-
ginning ours, but of course you do not have to
wait till spring floods have left your fields before
the hay can grow.

Cynthia Essington and I have formed a Maud
Muller partnership. Not that wo shall look the
part of that demure maiden or that a judge is
liable to venture our way— but at least we shall
be making hay.

C}^lthia is the stock-raising Essington. In her
menagerie, as she calls it; she has two horses^
two cows, ten pigs and almost one hundred tur-
keys. It was really her entimsiasm that got mo
into the venture. She says it means a tremen-
dous difference, not having to buy hay during the
winter.

In the partnership, I supply the mower and
team, while she furnishes a rake and the tent
and supplies for our camp. We shall come homo
week-ends for a fresh grub-stake. Thursday we
took the tent down and set it up, making every-
thing ready to begin to-morrow morning. We
"claimed" a spot on the edge of the flats where
the water covers the ground for only a short time.
We are earlier than any one else, for the hay on
the lower areas is not yet mature. It is only
along the edge that one can gather it at this

.1 ■ M . t -, '^..i .

A^V^^^^^

JANET OF KOOTENAY 221

time, but wo thought it best not to run haying
and Septem' >r gardening together. Anyhow,
most of the best spots near the river's edge are
claims of such long standing that I doubt if even
tho Goven>:nt>nt itself would dare dispute them.
When we h;id set the tent and all in place, we
decided, as it was still early, to avail ourselves of
the kind invitation of Eve and Mary Milton to
visit their goose farm.

We did not make tho trip in motorcycle time
by any mcnP-S and as Molly and Dexter ambled
along in tho hot sun we waxed eloquent over the
advantages of travel by motor.

_ The farm on which the JMilton sisters *'do their
bit," not to mention making a tidy income, slopes
from east to west down to a brook that enters the
Kootenay farlhcr along. In order that tho geese
may have a pond tho girls have built a dam, with
a gate that allov- " running out the water every
day or so so as . t with a clean slate again.

The place was lascinating in its orderliness.
Thoy have long sheds for housing tho birds, from
which yards ran down to the water, across it and
up again among the trees of a peach orchard on
the other side. The first yard we entered con-
tamed Toulouse geese. The girls explained that
most of tho young were incubator birds as they
had not found the Toulouse mothers very dili-
gent or successful. Cynthia mentioned having

^J ^ .rJi)^,^tJb£AA

222 JANET OF KOOTENAY

heard that the goose eggs were difficult of hatch-
ing by artificial incubation.

"They really are," Eve said. "Last year we
had terribly poor luck— only p venty-five hatching
from three hundred eggs. But we were not dis-
couraged. This year we enlarged the incubator
house "md put in four hundred eggs. We had
ov';r three hundred and fifty birds."
"What was the difference I" I asked.
"We are not sure. Last year the eggs seemed
not to DC fertile so wc preserved twenty males for
the sixty layers. Also, we liept the eggs at higher
temperature and much more moist while incu-
bating, so that we cannot tell why wc have more
this year. Probably a little of both reasons."
"Do you never hatch by setting?" I asked her.
"Almost entirely, among the Embdens here."
We were now in a yard where half grown and full
grown v.'hite geese were everj-where.

"They make wonderful sitters and mothers.
Also, we started quite a number with a week in
the incubator and finished them under hens. We
were the cause of a famine in sitting hens here-
abouts. This method is very successful in get-
ting them hatched but the goslings are verj- affec-
c'onate and do better with a mother of their very

cwn.

In the next division were Chinese birds, also
white. They explained the preponderance of
white by saying that the feathers are softer and

^SM^MVSi' ^KHrT^tM*

£iiJ-:. .,i-.<S.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

223

so more valuable. The Chinese geese seemed
very timid, and, at our presence, sent up shrill
cries that were piercing and deafening. The girls
say thoy do not mind any one tlioy know well.

"And here are our real pots," Mary said, open-
ing the gate into the last yard. "Dome«ticatod
Canada wild geese. Don't you love their white
collars?"

She entered the yard alone and was soon sur-
rounded by a gabhiing crowd that rubbed their
heads against her and nipped at her fingers and
boot laces. These were the very same dark grey
birds that we used to go sniping for on the little
prairie lakes, and Marj- showed us that the only
tie that held them to civilisation was one clipped
wing.

"Do you want to see them fed?" Eve asked.

At our affirmative she went dou-n an iron track
that ran past the top of each yard and disap-
peared into a shed from which a smoking chim-
ney protruded. When she came out she was fol-
lowed by a small, dried up Chinaman who pushed
a tram car on the track.

At the very first squeak of its wheels the gen-
eral racket commenced. Down from the green
grass of the peach orchard slope came dozens and
hundreds of birds, their wings spread and their
throats squawking hoarsely. What a splashing as
they hurried through the pond! And once
through, how they charged up the slope to where

'i i

!»!<

22i JANET OF KOOTENAY

the troughs were placed, ahuost falling into them
in their hurry.

As the Chinaman pushed this cart along he
filled the troughs with a mixture that smellcd like
com meal porridge. The sound of the yellow
beaks on the zinc lining of the troughs was like
the rattle of hail on a tin roof. In less than five
minutes' time, supper had been served to sev-
eral hundred birds.

*'No wonder they wanted moving pictures of
this,'* Cynthia gasped. "I think it is wonderful.
My turkeys are not brought up in any such lux-
ury. After the first few weeks they are turned
out on the mountain side to rustle their own
breakfast among the grasshoppers and are fed
at night to bring them back to their shelter."

**I am afraid," Eve said, **that our geese would
not appreciate that treatment any more than your
turkeys would this lovely, gravel-bottomed pond.
But I thought turkeys were terribly hard to raise.
How do you manage to be so successful?"

"I keep them dry while young; they have
plenty of range and their quarters are absolutely
clean and sanitary. I do not know of anythmg
else, except that the climate is ideal for them.
They are much more easily hatched than geese."

"Yes. But once these are hatched, one need
not have any more brains than the geese them-
selves to raise them. Come in and we shall have
tea."

^- :AVm

JANET OF KOOTENAY

225

By this time the birds were back again on the
water, plucking at their feathers and each other
contentedly, and the Chinaman was sluicing out
the feeding pans and the cart with a hose.

Beyond tlie cabin were fields of turnips, car-
rots, cabbage and clover, which, they explained,
were ahnost the only feed the breeding stock re-
quired over the winter.

Over the teacups I asked what had led the girls
into the venture. At this question they both
smiled, and said that it was one that was always
being asked them.

"We only tell the truth to people with a sense
of humour. The others would think that too
much geese had gone to our heads," was Eve's
answer.
"Thanks. Go on," said CjTithia.
"Well. In Ontario the two of us lived alone
with father, and, after he had gone and it was
necessary for us to do or die, we began to take
stock of our resources and abilities. To tell the
truth there were very little of either. Mary could
teach music but two or three could do it better
and already had the pupils.

"At the time, we had with us an elderly and
not very likeable Cousin Beulah, playing pro-
priety. She was an insomniac, as we called it,
and blamed her sleeplessness on the noise of our
geese. Mary and I always slept like logs— which
is probably our stock in trade in this business.

2JG

JANET OP KOOTENAY

Vro told Cousin Bculah that she only imagined
she heard the ^oose and, I am ashamed to say,
hi'gau to regard witli a sort of affection anything
that had power to annoy our guardian.

'•Things came to a head when, one day, an old
neighbour woman hrouglit her geese, wanting to
self them, as she could no longer stand the racket
thoy made.

"'How odd,' I said. 'Ours never make a

sound.'

" 'Then you are the one as should have them,'
^]:l' said, 'ir you think that.'

"Tliat was where the idea was horn.

"^Vhen Cousin Beulali could get her voice, she
declared that she would he in the lunatic asylum
if I brought another noisy goose on that place. ^

" 'That will bo all right. Cousin Beulah,' I said,
finishing the idea as I went along. 'We are not
going to have them here. AVe are going to talce
them to British Columbia to Billy's peach farm.'

"In spite of her objections that bears and lions
would cat the geese and us, and her hint at our
ingratitude to her in wanting to come West to
our only brother, I persisted in the idea.

"We sold the farm and took a short agricul-
tural course. After that we toured the county
buying up geese, packed them in a car with our
other belongings, and here we are. And although
we are two hundred miles from the prairie mar-
ket, we are closer in hours than we were when

itwiwj'e:

.T 1^' jLj'i'LvJ

mr^iiii^-iak^- ,s>tir iv^ 1* a'^ucv

JANET OF KOOTENAY

227

thirty miles from a city. Will you have more
tea?"

"How fortunate that you have a brother," I
remarhoJ.

"Did you think he was here?" she asked.
•'Why, 1)0. The minute war came he shoved the
place onto our hands and was off. He said we
had l)Con sent by JVovidence to keep the farm
running so that ho could go."

They gave us feathers enough for two gor-
geous pillows to take to lOleanor and promised to
give some to us as soon as we could show just
cause why they should.

As a farewell to tennis before we went to the
flats I decided to have another party yesterday.
I ma<le a loaf of nut bread and phoned to all the
people round who play, and to ^Irs. Perry and
I'eler wii » are learnijig. Kose is again at Goods',
so I asked her too.

She accepted with alacrity and was quite ef-
fusive when she got here. I could sec that her
eagle eye took in the fact that Captain Fentou,
when not playin,^, divided his attentions between
Mrs. Morty and Claude Essington, and troubled
very little with me.

When I went in for the tea, she slipped her arm
in mine and came along.

"Poor Mrs. Good," she sighed, sure of my sym-
pathy, I suppose, if she adopted a hostile tone
there. "She is in a stew to know why you and

2'2b

JANET OF KOOTENAY

*5 4

Captain Fenton do not phono each other any more.
Sometimes I think that she must burst if she can-
not tind out what she wants to know."

"How alarminj?!" I exclaimed. *' Perhaps, in
that cabo, it would be kinder to enlifjfhten her."

"Well, how can I! What could I tell her I"

"You cj\n tell her this," I said, "and ifc is per-
fectly true; Captain Fenton and I are on excel-
lent terms, as usual. In fact he called me twice
this morning."

"But — I was there myself. No one called you
all morning."

"Yes, ho did, twice. Will you carry this kettle
of hot water?"

She was still too puzzled for words when she
handed the Cai /in his tea.

* * You look Ll. vvildered, ' ' he remarked.

"I am wondering," she snid, "whether to be-
lieve Janet or my own ears. She says that you
called her on the phone twice this morning. Is
she not mistaken?"

"No."

"Why, I was listening and did not hear the
ring once. I was wondering if she had gotten
back from the flats. Are you sure you called her
this morning?"

"Quite. The first time, if you remember, it
wp«» about the bees; the next time "

"Of course I do not know what you talk about.
But I thought the ring was one long, two shorts."

JA.NKT OF KUOTENAY

229

"Correct.''

"Then thcr* is something wrong with our bell.
Mrs. Good will want it atti'nded to. I must go.
Janet. This has been lovely. Mrs. Good usked
mo to say, C'ajdain Fonton, that sho will be j^dad to
have you over any time. I hope you will come."

"Thank you," was his reply.

I was glad to hear that, owing to your confiding
in M. P., you are to have the pleasure of deco-
rating your own home. It is nice that it was not
necessary for you to weep on his shoulder, as
you will still have that trump card reserved for
a weightier occasion.

Yes, I can hear your indignant denials thsit you
will ever weep, anywhere or on anything, but re-
member, Nan dear, that while we reach for new
advantages, it is as well not to let go the old,
which may, after all, be much the best.

I am also glad that the ciimpaign is looking so
rosy. Do you read the opposition papers! How

jhould like to boost with a full-sized vote. If
you liked that eulogy of M. P. in the Bulletin, I
don't mind telling you that it was written by yours
very truly. Not a bad interview, was it?

Must close and go to Essingtons' for my roast
beef and Yorkshire pudding. Owing to the heat
we shall top it off with ice-cream to-night. And
then for the hay fields.

For this week

Maud Mllt.ee.

n^'^.

Arcady, August twenty-eighth.
Deab Nan:

It scoins like agos since I wrote you and I can-
not tell you how nuicli I appreciated your I'ro-
quent letters, even though I was unahle to answer
them. At present I am allowed to sit on the
davenport for the sake of a change from the bed
and to rest my eyes after too much of tluit un-
decorated room. ^Irs. Good said that when my
fever was high and I talked a great deal, I kept
insisting that I was going to begin to paint it
at once. But here I am, ahead of myself.

Cynthia and I were blithely contemplating hay-
ing, I believe, last time I wrote you. "Well, we
got it cut, beautifully, although Molly and Dex-
ter sadly missed the language that old Ben used
on such occasions. They had to loam to turn
corners all over again as I was quite unable to
swear them around in the manner that he did.

Then, on the day that we intended to begin to
rake it rained; and oh, the ease with which it
rains in haying-time along the noble Kootenay!
Bright sunshine rested everywhere else but on
our hayfield. When one cloud had finished with
us it moved on to make room for another bent on
the same mission. We were some distance from

230

ri^:.3-^

r^m.'M*^^

JANKT OF KOOTENAV

231

tho tent when it began, so we ran across and took
rot'ugo with a Mrs. Potter. She made us tea and
seemed to bo glad of the rain that forced us
to stay with her. It rained on so she insisted on
our staying for supper, so that by the time we
got tho horses dried oft' and in their shelter it
was almost tlark.

We j,ot roa«iy for bed by means of a lantern,
only to find that tho tent walls had leakeil and
the bed was damp.

As neither of us was in the humour to dress,
g<'t tho horses and travel the three miles liome,
we put a blanket over the mattress, chnngeil tiie
sheets and made the best of it. A cliill wind
canio up in the ni,t,dit and we awoke to (ind our-
sclv{!s half frozen. We had not known that we
unixht need our eiderdowns for hayinif in August.

Also, our throats were sore and our shouMers
stiff and aching. Cynthia suggested that we go
homo and lot her mother dose us and I tried
to get her to go, but as I had no mother to look
after mo and wanted to get tho hay done I in-
sisted on staying, so she, with a stubborn streak
that matches mine, stayed on too.

The night wind had dried tlie hay so I put
the team to the rake and drove to the upr)er grass,
while Cynthia attempted to dry the bedding at the
tent.

Soon I saw how foolish I had been. My head
got heavier as the sun rose higher, and black

232

JANET OF KOOTENAY

«'!'

I'L
11:

spots danced with the heat between me and my
team. Finally I succumbed to the circles that
my head had been swinging in, and in some
strange manner I fell forward and under the
wheel. I only remember a sort of crunching as
the wheel went over my chest. I nay add that
it was a barred iron wheel.

Cynthia found me hours later when Bingo,
after being scolded for acting like a mad dog,
got it into her head that something was wrong.
My face had a coat of sunburn on one side that
was days in going.

Cynthia and Mrs. Potter improvised a stretcher
and got me to the Potte. cottage. I was so afraid
that I would be put to bed there that I made light
of my cold and the sharp pain in my chest, so
Cynthia phoned for a car to come and take us
home. ^Ye hired Mrs. Potter's son to finish the
hay and bring the team and other effects home.

Arcady did look good to me again. Cynthia
came into the house, lit a fire and helped me to
get to bed. She put a hot water bottle at my feet
and gave me a dose of all the medicines she found
in the bath cabinet. Then, after having phoned
the doctor, who was away for the time being, she
went on home to her mother to be coddled in
much the same way herself. She asked me to
phone them if I wanted anything before the doc-
tor came, but, once inside my sheets, I knew that
nothing on earth would tempt me to leave them.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

233

I was sore and stiff from tip to toe, my head
seemed splitting, and my ears heard weird noises.

I did want to answer when I heard the Arcady-
Albermarle bell ring but I could not even rise on
my elbow. As I rather expected, he came right
over. When, after looking about, he stood in the
door of my room, he looked so alarmed that I
tried to laugh, — for the last time in many days.
I heard him at the telephone, moving heaven and
earth to find Doctor Beath. Then he came back
and announced:

"I am going to stay till he comes."

"You can't," I said with an effort.

**No. That's right. I'll go for Eleanor Es-
sington."

"Eleanor is away."

"Then one of them."

"No," I said. "All I want is a chance to sleep
till Doctor Beath comes."

He thought a moment, then went out, returning
with a piece of electric wire, with which he moved
my telephone to the chair beside my bed.

"Will you promise me to call if you feel worse
or get alarmed?" he asked. "If not, I'll stay
right here. I think you are in a bad way."

"Yes, I'll call you. Please go," I said.

After that I drowsed along, seeming to be
swinging in fantastic circles. As these got to be
wilder and more frequent and my throat seemed
to be swelling shut, I got the idea tbit if some one

#<7?'1ilb/

234

JANET OF KOOTENAY

did not soon come I would really go on one of the
long slides that I seemed in danger of in my swing-
ing.

I rang the A-A bell and got such an instant
"yes," that I am sure he hati the machine in his
hand. Then I found that I could not speak; could
not make a sound.

The fact that Bingo was standing there, look-
ing so much as though he wanted to help, made
mo think of that absurd trick you taught him of
barking when you made a sort of click with your
finger-nails. I did ^ot know whether he had for-
gotten it, but it seemed the only resort so I tried
it. He remembered. With his feet on the edge
of the bed, he barked vociferously.

I heard an exclamation of alarm at the other
end of the wire and had only queer impressions
of the happenings after that. One was of some
one praising Bingo ; another of a doctor sounding
my chest and putting things in my throat; an-
other, at first hazy and floating through mazes of
grotesque imaginings, finally resolved itself into
a blue uniform with a white apron over it that
moved noiselessly about my room. I wondered
how Dolly Drew had gotten into my house. Sud-
denly I found that I had a voice — queer and
hoarse, but still a voice.

"Dolly," I said, "what time is it?"

"It is after nine."

I half rose to my elbow — subsiding soon, how-

JANET OF KOOTENx^Y

235

ever, at the quick stab of pain that I felt— for
the voice that had stated the time was none other
than Mrs. Good's, and the face beneath the cap,
when the uniform moved to the foot of the bed,
also belonged to Mrs. Good.

"Yes," she said. "It is after nine. You have
had quite a night of it but I think you will be all
right now."

As I glanced at the chair beside me I began
to doubt my senses again. The telephone that
had been there was not there. Mrs. Good, who
had certainly not been there, was there.
"Where did my telephone go to?" I asked.
"It has not gone."
"It was on this chair last night."
She tiptoed softly out and I heard her asking
the doctor over the wire if he could come again
soon, and saying that my temperature was still
what it should not be and that I called her Dolly
and talked of telephones on chairs about the bed.
So I knew enough not to mention the matter
till I got a chance to ask the captain. This came
one day when she wanted to go home and seemed
to think it "delicate" for him to sit with me.
Usually one of the Essingtor.s or that good soul,
Mrs. Perry, filled the bill. But this day all of
them were busy, so she actually called on him
herself.
"You did put the telephone here on this chair

jm^'::i'm

236

JANET OF KOOTENAY

9Bw'

by me,'* I said, "and Bingo did bark for me,
didn't het Surely I did not dream that too."

"No. You dreamed enough, but that was real.**

"Then, how did it g^'. away?"

"I took it altogether before calling Mrs. Good.**

"How did you get her to come to nurse a per-
son she disliked so?" I asked.

"She has been satisfactory?'*

"Perfectly. The hatchet has apparently been
buried deep. She is too good a nurse to let a
prejudice intervene. I did not know she had
ever been one.'*

"I had only noticed her photograph in a uni-
form. I remembered it that night."

"You didn't tell me how you induced her to
come."

"Not Did I not? Did Chow show you the ripe
tomato he got this morning?"

"Did he really?"

"Take care," he said, "or your temperature
will rise and I shall not be allowed to keep watch
again. I'll see if I can find it.**

After rummaging in the kitchen, he returned
with a tomato, perfect in proportions and a won-
derful red.**

"Oh dear," I grumbled. "TT/iy ca^'* I S^t up
and help to get them in? Are the cucumbers
growing, and what about the chickens in the
crates? Isn't it all too-

((

Please take it coolly. Everything is as fine

JANET OF KOOTENAY

237

as possible. You sound like the night when you
raved so much."

"Did I rave of the garden!'*

"Garden and chickens, with, once in a while,
hay and geese and a person named Edith mixed
in for variety."

**0h, heavens/' I thought. Aloud I said calmly:

* * How funny. What did I say of her t "

"I didn't jot it down, and you weren't any too
coherent. I simply gathered that she stood in
the way of your peace of mind in some way."

"Not so as to bother me in my sane moments,"
I said. "But I've always disliked the name, some-
how."

* * How odd. It is one of my favourites, owing to
the fact that it belongs to an only sister who is
very dear. She married Sir Edward Harboro
after I went to India, so I have seen little of her
since then. She was at war work in Salon iki
when I was discharged, and, as I was asked to
assist with recruiting in Canada, I came away
without seeing her then. She would admire you
tremendously, and I am sure you would like her.'*

"I am sure of it," I answered. "She would
probably redeem the name for me."

Since then the doctor has marvelled at the quick
recovery I have made. The next day I made Mrs.
Good let me up as far as the davenport, upon
which she produced a Mrs. Bidder who could do

238

JANET OF KOOTENAY

the work of the house, and was glad to get back to
her tomatoes.

She had been here just a week, for which she
asked thirty dollars. I made it thirty-five for
good measure, and I am in hopes that the week
will have dissolved her hostility to some extent
at least. I am anxious to see how we meet as
civilians.

I soon began to feel so good that I wanted to
gather the vegetables, feed the hens and all that,
and Mrs. Bidder earned her pay mostly by re-
minding me of what the doctor had said. The
day I told her that I felt well enough to do with-
out her. Captain Fenton, who heard me say it,
calmly contradicted the verdict and ordered her
to stay another week.

I thought my raised eyebrows would provoke
something from him, but no — he paid not the
slightest attention to them. And I — Janet Kirk —
have come to be of the opinion that it must be
wonderful to have some one to order one 's goings
and comings.

My mind goes back over the times I have urged
you to start right. I still hope you have done so,
but I am certain now that the right start is in
selecting a man who could, and would, be the head
of the house, who might consult one deliciously
over small trifles, but who would decide big mat-
ters for himself, relieving one of unnecessary re-
sponsibility.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

239

Perhaps, when I am strong again and do not
have to be careful of a shoulder and collar-bone
that a hay-rake ran over, I shall again revel in
my independence and long to order my own ex-
istence, but I don't a bit right now.

At this point I was interrupted by none other
than Mr. Delmar. He entered at my invitation,
and, after sitting down sententiously, came right
to his point.

**I have come," he said, "to buy your place."

"To what I"

"To — ah — make you an offer for this farm."

"But Arcady is not for sale."

"Just a moment It is not for myself that I
speak. I represent almost unlimited American
capital." He said this with the utmost rever-
ence. "The fact is that my former chief has
written asking me to secure a farm for his son,
who has been ordered, for reasons of health, to
resort to country life. He requested an artistic
place in healthful and beautiful surroundings.
Your place here fills the bill, so I have come to
open up the deal and I have his authority to
close it. At what do you va. 'e your property?"

"I value it at twelve thousand dollars, partly,
perhaps, because it is, as you say, artistic and
beautiful. These things have a money value to
me. But it is not for sale."

"Twelve thousand is reasonable," he said.
"First, because, as I said, money is no object

24a

JANET OF KOOTENAY

to my client; and secondly, because, as you say,
artistic surroundings have a money value to the
discriminating. Of course, twelve thousand cash
does not come into the hands of a young woman
every day."

**I said I valued the property at that. I did
not say I would sell for that."

**Um-m. The orchard is young, you know.
Still, I mig] ' make it fifteen thousand if you in-
sist. Buying on commission, you know, I can
afford not to be niggardly. Shall we say fifteen
thousand?"

"But I am not thinking of selling at all.'*

At last he began to wonder if it could be that
I was not merely bargaining with him. He re-
doubled his efforts and arguments. Clearly I
saw how Eve and Mary had had such diflBculty in
persuading him of the singleness of their inten-
tions.

Finally, however, he was convinced and his dis-
appointment was touching. In the light ol" lay-
ing refused him I did not feel justified in asking
him to go to Mr. Good, Mr. Worth and the others
who had thought ray farming ideas ridiculous, and
tell them of his appraisal of the value of Arcady,
as I would really have loved to have done.

Not only my hand but my knees also are shak-
ing so this must be farewell for now.
Very much love from

Janet.

Arcady, September the fifth.
Deab Nan :

Only a few days left until I must needs address
you as Madame. I quite expect that, instead of
being out on Norvell, enjoying your few days
of freedom to go and come as pleases you, you
are endeavouring, even into the "wee sma'
hours" to have a certain number of pillow cases
and luncheon sets embroidered, not to mention
the precise number of roses sewed on the exact
number of boudoir caps.

I am afraid I should be a terrible outlaw when
it came to this business of preparation. "Away
with boudoir caps and luncheon sets," I should
say. On the level prairie they may be essentials,
but here in the divine hills they are anything but.
Instead — a sudden notion, a wild ride, a tent in
the mountains — perhaps even a c~' ""^zt part
couldn't matter — but just the music of a moun-
tain stream, the new acquaintance vdth a chiv-
alry as old as the ages, the wonders of ihe choicest
of Nature's realms mingled with the ^vonders of
the growing knowledge of a mind in tune with
one's own, with a philosophy and humour as
varying as the tints of the mountains them-
selves.

241

L^ :{m^Kz':^

242 JANET OF KOOTENAY

There I would say, "Take me to-day,
This is your realm and mine."

Eleanor Essington is going to some city, Cal-
gary or Spokane, to gather her trousseau next
week, and they want me to go along. Nerdlcsp
to say, the sentiments to which I have just fcdven
vent have not been aired in their presence. Mrs.
Essington says I need to be off the place for a
time as I cannot refrain from pa' king when Chow
has so much to do.

The early corn is in full swing. We, that is,
he, packed ten crates to-day. They run about
five dozen to the crate. We also got seven crates
of cucumbers. So there is quite a bit of crating,
even after things are gathered and sorted.

Mrs. Essington and the girls have volunteered
to superintend packing and shipping if only I
will superintend Eleanor's selection of clothes.
Never before has she bec„ known to take an in-
terest in what she is to wear, and the whole m-
ily are anxious that her concession shall be ken
advantage of, and that she shall look hanasome
for this time, even if she is to be a war bride.
Their faith that I will be able to accompLish this
is inspiring.

So, I think I shall go, if she decides on Calgary.
I have a scheme of my own that I want to work
out.

And it will be such fun, dressing Eleanor. Blue

Janet of kootenay

243

I have decided on, about two shades duller than
her eyes and with grey squirrel trimming. Chin-
chilla would bo adorable but*! wouldn't dare to
mention it. A lecture on Red Cross, Victory
Londs and so forth would bo certain to follow.

Eleanor has twenty-one hundred dollars that
she has made from her bees and the honey. I
could scarcely believe her. Needless to say, she
has not wasted much on clothes, and she felt sure
that one hundred would be ample for garments for
her trip and for use here when she settles to the
task of running Peter's farm.

I Jim trying to tell her that we are not on our
way to England five years ago, and I shall take
along sufficient so as to be able to make loans. The
rest I am leaving to the attractions of the shops.

Since my last letter, I have had a visit and re-
quest from Mrs. Good. She came one morning
and asked if I remembered saying that if a time
came when I could be of service to her, I would
be glad to repay her for helping me out in my ill-
ness.

I remembered.

"Then," she said, **I want you to come out with
me to-day and join our War Work Club."

This club handles the Red Cross work that is
done here, sending the proceeds in through an-
other society. I have turned in my socl:s and
other work and paid Mrs. Essington a weekly do-

1^^ .

244

JANET OF KOOTENAY

I'^i

Iflii

^ i;:!:

, r r

1 '■

nation for supplie , ),\ii have not become a mem-
ber.

Seeing no reason for refusing and no way of

doing so, I consei '^ I
at her sudden Um-i^
way there my < t rio-^i
that she is the vi. o-itr

go, although I wondered
• have me join. On the
was satisfied. It seems
s dent of the club, and that
the president, A^ .^^. I't i^res^ is absent. Mrs.
DeForest favours riii'^^Iii^ ^n : ~ ds by means of
raffling and has ! 'uc jntly. Mrs. Good

frowns on the pra ^ticv- . "^ . ' ed to have a mo-
tion passed doing" iwa^ .^ it while she was in
charge.

And hero was f, who have engineered raffles to
the extent of three hundred dollars for purposes
of war relief, meekly driving out to vote against
i'lo Kitchener War Work Club's doing anything
of the sort.

Mrs. Good handled the meeting very much as
I had seen her handle a patient; expecting, and
getting, very little back-talk.

The question of raffling came marching up and
after a motion was made that we — I was a mem-
ber by this time — confine ourselves to other
methods of raising funds, discussion was called
for. One woman inquired at length how we could
be assisting our men at the front by teaching
those who remained at home to gamble. Many
other reasons, most of which I forget, were ad-
vanced for dispensing with the pernicious prao-

JANET OF KOOTENAY

245

tioe. Then Mi*8. Good asked if there were any
final words before the question was put.

"Mrs. Ksaington," she Huid, "you, like me,
hope to have your boys with you again. D(s you
not think the country should be kept pure against
their home-coming t"

Mrs. Essington rose quietly. There was a stir
of e-vpectancy. A woman near me whispered:

"AVhen she talks, she says something."

Here are her words, verbatim.

"Ladies: I am perfectly willing to admit that,
in ordinary times, there is nothing to be said in
favour of raffling.

"Also, we know that, if, in ordinary times, a
man took a gun and went out with the deliberate
intention of killing his fellowmen, he would be
violating the very fundamental laws of God and
man.

"But these are not ordinary times. The safety
of small nations, of women and children, of the
weak of this and all future generations is at the
mercy of a strong nation gone mad. To meet this
foe, to protect the weak, our men at arms have
been forced by grim and terrible necessity to per-
form acts that must be quite as odious to them,
quite as foreign to their general principles as
could be the raffling of a sofa pillow to the mem-
bers of this club.

"When we think of the way in which our
enemies have devastated Belgium, and of how

??a.'i

246

JANET OF KOOTENAY

jj; }

!i 'I

1^1

gladly they would Lave devastated Canada, yes,
and this lovely valley, in the same way, we can
indeed be glad that our men were able to lay aside
their personal prejudices in favour of a larger
patriotism— even if Ave at home are not big
enough to do the same.

"Our means of raising funds are excellent —
so far as they go — ^but if the blessing of God rests
on the brave efforts of our men, and who is there
that does not believe so, surely it will also rest
on fifty dollars or so extra sent once in a while
to help alleviate their sufferings.

"When the men who have gone from here to
fight for us hear— and hear they will, be very
sure of that— that while, in cold and danger they
fight our battles with whatever means are avail-
able — though no one imagines they approve of
the methods— we, at home in comfort and safety,
are standing back and with imagined piety are
saying that we will help them only with such
means as we can approve of, what, we may very
well wonder, are they going to think about it?"

When the vote was taken, Mrs. Good did not
give the count. She merely said ,'hat the ma-
jority wished to continue rafSing amorg the means
of raising war funds.

The trepidation with which I began the ride
home was gradually dispelled by the silence and
the September evening peace. It was not until
we neared her gate that she asked :

JANET OF KOOTENAY

247

"Did yon vote against raflBing?"

"No," I said. "I did not."

"Then I wonder who did cast that vote against
it It must have been Caroline Towers. She al-
ways was more or less bigoted in her notions."

As I opened the gate for her, she said :

"Be thankful you haven't a man to raise his
eyebrows because you have changed your mind."

As she called me up this morning to ask me
to come to see a new photograph of Johnny that
had just come, I imagine that, througli circuitous
means, I have finally found a place in her regard.
I have always felt that, once this happened, wo
might get on famously.

There was great excitement in the camp of the
Mortimer-Deanes yes* >rday, when the English
mail brought a letter irom the aunt.

I think I told you once of a co isin of theirs
coming down to enquire about the news of her.
It seems that the aunt had asked this cousin to
find out their attitude to the news of her illness,
which had not been very real, and also to find out
why Wilmont did not enlist.

When the cousin, who, by the way, had every-
thing to gain and nothing to lose by sending bad
news, reported only concern as to her condition
and a seeming indifference to the fortune, as well
as mention of going on to Australia, she changed
her front at once.

The letter spoke of being lonely and of hoping

till

Hi;

248

JANET OF KOOTENAY

they would come home as soon as possible, and
enclosed a check for five hundred pounds. Part
of this they invested in Victory Bonds and they
are using the rest to go into dairying quite ex-
tensively, insisting that the cousin join them
fifty-fifty in the venture. They have cabled an
urgent invitation to the aunt to spend the next
year in the mountains of British Columbia. I do
hope she accepts, as a character such as she would
lend colour to life anywhere.
We are off for Calgary to-morrow.

; From your devoted Jan.

Later: Saundy came down to-day and came
round to know what could be up. He had noticed,
per telescope, unusual activity round the place
and wanted it accounted for. When I told him
of our plans and whispered to him of my private
scheme, he exclaimed,

**Goodforyou!"

He gave me twenty-five dollars with which to
buy something useful for Eleanor, and another
twenty-five with which to buy something foolish
for himself. He said he had not spent a cent
foolishly for at least ten years and that he just
naturally had to burst out now. He gave me
carte blanche in the matter.

I do not know how I shall make out in this odd
trust. The only foolish purchase I can remember

^^^siju''^*'>>ibl1».:,' ,:

JANET OF KOOTENAY

249
dress,

having made for myself was a chiffon
which would hardly help me any here.

Something useful for Eleanor will be a much
easier matter.

Y. T.

R^^^toiit'i;^'

I J

i" -^i;

T|l

Calgary, September tenth.
Dear Madame it is :

I have just sent off a wire which you will doubt-
less get before you leave on your journey, and
I must snatch a few moments from the whirl of
shopping hero to tell you that I have shipped
my wedding present to your hotel in the city.

It is an Oriental rug, a Princess Bokhara, to
be used as the coter for your living-room table.
I am sending it to you there so that you can tuck
it under your arm when you go shopping and buy
everything to match soma one of its wonderful
shades. Just lot me know if this does not put Mrs.
Senior out of conceit with her chintzes.

Congratulations re the election. M. P.'s ma-
jority was a source of satisfaction to me that I
would never have believed possible, considering
how much in the wrong I know him to have been
at all other elections. Such are party politics.

Eleanor and I are having the time of our lives.
Instead of urging Eleanor to buy, I— even I— am
preaching economy to her. I am talking Red
Cross and Victory Bonds— to unheeding ears.

There was a dream of a beaded blouse, such a
shade of blue but such a price! I attempted to
draw her away but no : "That was made for my
suit," she said and counted out the money.

260

JANET OF KOOTENAY

251

"That would go a long way in the Red Cross,"
I murmured.

"Go find one somewhere and give them this,"
she said, counting out another eighteen dollars.

•'And there are Victory Bonds," I said se-
verely.

"If I am to send my husband," she said, blush-
ing like a rose, "you can buy the Victory Bonds."

We got a very satisfactory blue suit with grey
fur collar and a hat that harmonises. The blue
blouse truly was made to go with these. This and
a smart and serviceable blue serge frock and a
handsome green driving coat and toque were the
main purchases. She spent a great deal of time
in the lingerie section, but would have none of
the adorable pink silk that was everywhere. I
felt so sorry to see it slighted that I bought quite
a lot of it myself.

A motor coat and a driving hat of suede were
my only other purchases. Then, while I left
Eleanor to the handkerchief and glove finishing
touches, I slipped out and bought my car.

Yes. Just like that.

I saw it first on the street with a "Demonstra-
tion" card on it and I followed it home. Not be-
cause it ran beautifully or otherwise— although
it does; not because I knew its engines or its
merits, but because, if you please, of its beautiful
shade of brown— body, whaels, upholstering, car-
pets and all— just the shade of my eyes. A rea-

252 JANET OF KOOTENAY

sonable reason for buying a piece of machinery,

what! . 1 V •

With a few tears for their almost barbaric
beauty, I took back the crimson coat and hat I
had bought and exchanged them for brown as near
the shade of the car as possible. Two cosy brown
plaid rugs were added to the equipage and, thus
arrayed, I drove slowly up and down Eighth look-
ing for Eleanor. The car runs almost the same as
Lester Owen's machine, so I was able to manage
it and to stop it when I saw her coming from a

The surprise in her face was wo-th the price of

the whole outfit.
* * Janet ! " she cried in amazement. * ' Is it yours I

Did you really fcw2/ it?"

•*Do you like it!" I demanded.

' ♦ I couldn 't tell you how much. The whole thing
is a colour poem."

She deposited her bundles in the back and we
drove about to test it out a bit , <«Tf

' ' But why so grand ?' ' she asked at length. It
is wonderful, I know, but I think you could have
put on sufficient swank in the Kootenay with any
kind of a car."

'*Do you suppose the paint on this cost more
because it is all of the same colour 1" I asked.

"Well, yes I do. And you mentioned once that
yon wanted one to ship crates with. Wouldn't
something cheaper have answered?"

JANET OF KOOTENAY

253

*'Look here, Miss Beaded Blouse," I said, "you
have lost the right to preach economy to me. I
think this car will yet turn out to bo tho wisest
buy I ever made. Enough said for tho present."

We shipped the car to Golden that afternoon
and shall follow it to-morrow. From there we
shall drive the two hundred and fifty miles home.
My solo reason for not telling any one except
Saundy of my plan was that I know Mrs. Essing-
ton and Peter would have positively forbidden
Eleanor to risk going that distance with a woman
driver.

Tbis settled, I had nothing left but Saundy 's
commissions. A dinner service for Eleanor was
the final choice. Of course it was not Coalport or
"Wedgewood, but the design and shape were good
and she had especially admired it.

After this we put our two heads together over
Saundy 's wish for something foolish.

**As he is Scotch," I said, "he simply means
something pleasant. But what? What is he
fond of?"

"Country life, Scotch collies and Scotch musio
is all I can think of."

"Is there an idea there? He has two collies,
and abundance of country life. How about music?
Oh, Eleanor! How much do bagpipes cost? He
told me once that there was the music of heaven
for one.'"

"Saundy already has all kinds of bagpipes,"

:2.i^-

Ij".

ti)

254 JANET OF KOOTENAY

she said, ''but, havirg asthma, he cannot play

tbem." , ., _ ,„„^

♦♦Well, then," I said, "you decide. I have
bought three wedding presents in this plac^ and
I don't pretend to have a single idea left.

"I have it," she cried. " The very thing. Did
you notice that gramophone in the window of a
curiosity shop or whatever it is you call onel

"A second hand store!"

"Yes It was marked at twenty-four dollars.
It was in a box, you know,-didn't have a horn
Saundy will not worry that it is not a cabmet

grand." ' i v * *

We fairly flew to the shop and in the shortest
possible time the machine and eight records were
ours. I am sure we might as well as not have had
a dozen records but for our haste to close the
bargain. Then we each added a bit and cleared
a dealer or two of their Scotch selections We
sent all this along to Golden too and will take it

home in the car. . . • -, j ^,

If the engine stalls on a mountain-side road or
a tire blows out we shall cheer each other as we
wait for assistance with "The Keel Bow or
"Ye Banks and Braes."

Eleanor joins me in wishir,^ you a life of hap-
piness and prosperity.

Ever your friend,

Janet I.

11^:

Arcady, September fourteenth.
Deab Nan :

Home again. How dear the guardian poplars,
the lazy brook, my little homo and all seemed as
we came between the stone gateposts. The chick-
ens scratching industriously at their supper and
Chow, nailing crates in the shed, seemed to say
that all was running well.

The trip home has been most wonderful. If
you and M. P. want a real honeymoon, drive from
Golden to Cranbrook through the enchanted
Windermere Valley — two hundred miles of roads
such as you never even dreamed of and a moving
panorama of landscapes that one could never for-
get.

I was anxious to take a day at Banff, but as
Peter and Eleanor are going there together, she
would not. She did not want to see a thing first,
and looked out of the opposite window as we
passed.

We left Golden in the early morning. The sun
rose above the gorgeous hills, battling with and
finally vanquishing a fragrant September ground
mist. The air was intoxicating and the car in a
singularly good humour. It took the hills as

255

Il' ii

256 JANET OF KOOTENAY

though it had no idea that wo were tackling a
twelve per cent grade.

We reached Invermere, the half-way stopping
place, that evening, our only mishap having heen
a minor puncture. Wo jacked up the machino
and put en the spare tire ourselves, so did not find
it necessary to resort to ''Ye Banks and Braes."
As our heads seemed still to swing with the con-
stant windings of the long drive, we decided to
take a day in which to rest.

We began our "rest" early with a game of
golf on the links above the lake. These are at
the disposal of the guests of the summer hotel,
as are the tennis courts and boats. Below us,
beautiful Lake Windermere was peaceful and ir-
idescent in the morning light.

After this, accompanied by two charming
women whose acquaintance we had just made, we
made the run to the Sinclair Hot Springs, twelve
miles into the mountains on the new Banff-Win-
dermere road, which will be, when completed, one
of the costliest and most wonderful roads in the

world. ,. , ,

We had a dip in the pool of the radium hot-
springs. The water is of a queer, greenish hue
that makes one look like the figures of the rising
dead in Lord Leighton's masterpiece in the Tate
Gallery. I revelled in the heat of the water, and,
as I swam about and watched the others climb out
to wait for the **weak feeling" to pass off, I felt

JANET OF KOOTENAY

257

compensated for the many times I have had to
sit on a bank, shivering as I tested with my toes
cold water that other people seemed able to enjoy.

The luncheon that wo ate would have been a
credit to a wood-chopper. After this, to sort of
balance our trip into the Rockies where the hot-
KI)riiigs are, we drove up into tlio Selkirks to the
west of the lake, — up and up around the winding
hillsides, with Toby Creek running, like a silver
ribbon, hundreds of yards below, till we reached
Paradise Mine — the highest point to be reached
by motor in Canada.

Truly this is a land of superlatives. It seemed
in keeping with the graudenr all about thai, the
horses that haul the ore to where it is loaded on
to tractors for the rest of the journey down were
as big as elephants.

The Chinese cook came out and inquired, * ' Take
some teat" to willing ears.

The next morning wo were on our way again.
At the top of Thunder Hill we paused to wonder
at the gorgeous view that was spread below:
the placid silver lake — from which the hills rose
straight, sending their peaks far up into the fleecy
clouds.

"Oh, dear," I exclaimed. "If only I had my
sketch book here."

"Janet," said Eleanor, patiently. "That is
eltrhteen times you have said that since I began

WW^

nil"

!:^

111'

258 JANET OF KOOTENAY

counting. If it were not for the variety of the

scenery, the monotony of your remarks—

"Nevertheless," I said, "I am coming hero
sometime with plenty of colours ,and severa
blocks, and I am going to sketch and sketch and
sketch. I am warning you and if jou fear the
monotony of it you need not come."

"You had best bring Clay," she said. He
would make a duet of your raptures and ho
sketches rather well, you know." . , ,^. ,
"I shall think about it," I said, lettmg her think
her idea perfectly original.

We passed the spot where those waters that are
to be the mighty chain of Columbia rivers and
lakes have their source and start northward. A
few yards further along, turning southward, is
the beginning of the mighty chain of rivers and
lakes that is the Kootenay. At various pomts on
our southward way we caught further glimpses of
the Kootenay, grown bigger each time. Its green-
ish waters made us think of the Eeclamation
Farm, the hay-fields and home.

And now we are home. The Essingtons have
all been over to admire the car and profess to be
delighted with Eleanor's clothes. While they
were here, we set Saundy's music box before the
telephone, got his attention and played him
"Scots Wha Hae." He was beside himself with
delight at our purchase and intends taking it up

FmmsKi W9S'':>ff!mmw \ w. jwi. u» -«b '.i'. yr^Sc ibokd

JANET OF KOOTENAY

239

to the station even though ho has only two weeks
more to put in there.

Johnny Good is home for a few clays' furlough
before going overseas. He looks very fit and sol-
dierly, lie came with his mother and Rose to
see my now purchase. I am to take thrm driving
to-morrow. Rose and Johnny are walking up and
down the Goods' drive arm and ann this minute.
So that is settled. Johnny is no match for the
cleverness of Rose, but he will be happy, which
is the main thing.

After the others had gotio, < apialn Frnton
came, welcomed me home and a 'nircd the car,
but all very gravely.

"You don't really like it?" I ask^u, suquised.

"Like it! Why, it's a beauty."

"You didn't look enthusiastic."

"You have heard of sour grapes."

"Yes. But not t/oi*."

"And why not me?"

"You couldn't be so small. Besides, you could
have one if you wanted it. ' '

"Perhaps. But I couldn't drive it if I had it. ' '

"Oh! Why is it that you keep reminding me
of something that I would otherwise never think
of?"

"You are mistaken. It is you who remind me
of it. Not with intent of course, but — I must
go now. Some day you must take me for a spin.

'mm

!il

260 JANET OF KOOTENAY

I will redeem myself by praising your car ex-
travagantly."

So I am alone with a restless feeling of dissatis-
faction with my home-coming.

This is, possibly, because those steel grey eyes,
that had said so many exquisite things when I was
ill, are now only grave and preoccupied.

However.

I shall probably recover and die of something

else.

If not, then ever yours,

) Jan.

l^ ,11''

1"
Jii{

!■;'.

hf r

Axcadjj September twenty-first.
DeabNan:

As you mentioned expecting to be again in Fort
Weyne by this time, I am sending you a crate of
my tomatoes to show you what can be grown in
the Kooten-'T' Valley, I cannot tell you how
proud I am of this part of my garden crop. The
com has been good, also the different varieties of
cucumbers, but the tomatoes are par excellence,
both as to colour and size and shape. I sent some
to the Spokane fair and anxiously await the ver-
dict.

They are just about over for this year and we
are getting in the last of the cucumbers and pick-
lers. Cabbages, carrots, turnips and beets come
next. My second crop of cauliflower is much bet-
ter than the first, a huge success, in fact.

I have my garden all planned for next year.'^
This year there were ninety crates of tomatoes.
Next year, as the soil shows such partiality for
them, I hope to have five times as many. I shall
have a special paper label for my crates and
expect to take a trip through the prairie cities
making known the virtues of Arcady's products.

Asparagus, strawberries, raspberries and any-
thing that is of finest quality will be sold under

261

^;^^--

■■

--—

■ 11

262 JANET OF KOOTENAY

the same name and label. It will probably be
necessary for me to allow my neighbours to use
the name of Arcady for their best products, for
only so shall I be able to fill the droves of orders
that I shall receive. Some imagination, did I hear
you sayt Never mind. You may some day find
my garden truck as famous as Sunkist oranges.

Mrs. Essington has just gotten word that Jack,
her second son, is wounded and missing. The
two boys have been round about the front lines
over there for so long that the family had sort of
given up looking for the envelope marked O.H.
M.S. and franked from the militia department. It
came when Mrs. Essington was spending the
afternoon at a neighbour's.

I was there helping to pack Eleanor's things.
Not that I was needed among them all, but they
wanted me there so that none of them would feel
"in the dumps" as Betty put it, about parting
with the effects of the reliable member of the
family. It was a very jolly party into which a
neighbour's boy brought the wire.
At once their whole thought was for the mother.
* ' We must phone at once, ' ' Eleanor said. ' ' She
would not want to be left a moment after this

came." . _

'♦Phone for Clay first," Cynthia oned. I

want him here when she comes."
He said he would be over at once.
Their relief was great when I said that I would

JANET OF KOOTENAY

263

phone the mother. I tried to keep my tones
natural when I said that the girls would like her
to come home, but I believe she read it in my
voice.

"I will come," was all she said.

The captain went to meet her, down the walk
between the rose bushes.

"Which one is it?" she asked him quickly.

"It's Jack."

"He's killed?"

* * Wounded — and missing. ' '

"Not a prisoner?"

"We cannot know that till particulars arrive."

She turned on the porch and seemed to be look-
ing away across, right to the fields of Flanders.

"Wounded," she said at last, with broken quiet-
ness. "My son. And I cannot go to him. lean-
not know. They may not have found him. He
may be cold, or a prisoner. And he wants his
mother. Oh, girls — ^your brother ! ' '

"Don't, mother dear," said Eleanor. "Jack
may be all right. His wound may be slight. He
is probably not blind, like Arthur Wills."

"Arthur Wills is at least cared for," the mother
said. * * But my boy is— m * ssing. ' '

"A wire came to-day for Mrs. Hailing. Her
boy was killed in the same battle," the captain
told her.

" I congratulate her. He is at rest."

Then she fell into a silence that was more heart-

264

JANET OF KOOTENAY

".»■'■''.'

rending than her words had been. When Cynthia
saw me slip on my coat and take quiet leave she
came along.

"I can't make it any harder for Mother," she
said, with a sort of grimness, **so I am coming
down to your house to cry my heart out. Jack
was my twin, you know. If he has gone, the
bottom has aropped from everything. Oh, if
Mother and I could only go to him! Fighting in
a trench is an easy thing compared with this. I
am so glad Clay is there. He has the sort of
strength she needs." -^

The whole valley seems to feel the same thing.
Two or three times he has been asked to break
news of the last casualty lists, which have been
long. The tensity in the valley has been such
that no one was amused that little Mrs. Allenby,
whose husband went with the Fifty-fourth, went
into hysterics when she saw him turn in at her
gate, although he only wanted to ask her to ac-
company a duet at a musicale.

Do you remember our visit in Vancouver the
September after war broke out, how our confi-
dence in the guns at Point Gray and the Inlet
made us feel so secure that the Germans could
not hurt us, how the picturesque Kiltie squads, as
they swung round the curves of Stanley Park
Drive to the skirl of the bag-pipes, thrilled and
exalted us?
And we thought that that was war I

■ !i.'i

JANET OF KOOTENAY

265

Later, the first contingent left Fort Weyne.
The eyes of the men were bright. They were on
a great adventure. They feared that the war
would be over before they could finish their train-
ing, and that they would return un-covered with
glory. When they had gone, how empty the place
seemed! Several of the finest boys had gone —
the best tennis player — a number of our dancing
partners. We were lonely.

And we thought that that was war I

But now we know that thrilling music and cheer-
ing crowds do not spell battle. It is the mother
who looks away across and wonders of her son;
the wife who knows that her mate will never again
watch the cunning tricks of the baby boy so like
him; the thousands of children who will never
know "daddy" except by his picture in uniform;
the tens of thousands of girls whose home-makers,
who did not want to die, are dead — these, we now
know, are what is meant by the grim and terrible
word that thrilled us once.

As I cannot get Mrs. Essington's eyes from my
mind, I will close for the present.

Janet.

As I did not get this p'osted, I will add to it
Mrs. Essington has received further word that
Jack is in a base hospital seriously wounded. He
was found beside a shell hole ahnost covered
with earth. While still anxious about him, she is
tremendously relieved to know where he is.

Cynthia has at last gotten permission to go
overseas in the V. A. D. and is beside herself with
ioy. Her one thcight is to get to see JaJ.

With the reception of this better news, Eleanor
decided to be married on the date she had first
planned. The four weeks that remrun before
Peter's departure will be little enough for him to
remember over there, she said. , , - .,

A car from town and mine conveyed the family
to the church and afterwards to the train. There
W-: no rice or frivolity but the happiness that
shone in the faces of the newly wedded pair
buoyed up the others until the train had carried

them away. , .,

We drove home in the empty and rather melan-
choly atmosphere that follows the departure of a
bride and groom. I did not expect the Essmg-
tons to feel very jovial, but the captain, who
should have helped things along, was the most
morose of all.

266

JANET OF KOOTENAY

267

I suggested a run down the Idaho road, glorious
in the yellows of autumn, but Mrs. Essington
asked me to take them home instead. After I had
dropped them, I still had Captain Fenton in the
car.

"What are you going to do nowT" I asked.

"I don't know yet," he said. "But it has got
to be something and that very soon."

At his tone I refrained from again suggesi>g
the Idaho road.

"Do tell me what is wrong," I said as I stopped
at his gate. "We were good friends. Are we
not now!"

"No. We're not. That is — yes, of course.
I'll say good-bye now. No, no tea, thanks. It's
this confounded wedding, I guess. Something
like my raptures over your car. Sour grapes."

"But again "

"Good-bye, Janet."

Slowly I drove into the gate of Arcady, wonder-
ing at the tone of finality in his words. This kept
coming into my thoughts during the next day or
two, so that I was tremendously relieved to hear
the A-A signal on the second evening. It was my
first summons over this wire since my trip.

"Are you alone!" he asked.

"Yea."

"May I come for a few moments?"

I utilised the interval in donning something to
accord with my plans — an azure blue affair that

f'l

268 JANET OF KOOTENAY

I had not yet worn here. Once he had mentioned
particular partiality to blue on women.
Just as I finished, he stood at my door-4n hts

uniform. , ._

While I Btared at his unexpected appearance m
army clothes-and he is gorgeous in them, Nan-
he stared at my azure frock.
Then he a.ked, almost roughly:
"Why do you wear that?"
-Because you told me once that you were fond
of blue. Why do you wear that^' ^^

*«I am going away. I came to tell you.
**Back to the army?"

* ' No ; to California. I am being sent to inspect
the completing of a big macliine gun order m
San Francisco." ^ . ,

Did I ever tell you that he has mvented several
improvements in the British machine guns, and
from that source derives a good mcomet
' ' When are you leaving ? " I asked.
"To-morrow— the next day at latest. As soon
as Saundy and I can get things arranged.''

I dropped onto the davenport facmg the txic
and, with a diffidence quite foreign to his usual
ease, he followed suit,
-i am sorry," I said. -Fancy this vaBey with

^'^ThaTis good of you," he said. "I missed a
neighbour terribly myself, quite recently. ^ But,
of course, the two cases cannot be the same.

JANET OF KOOTENAY

269

_»»

"Whynott*'

"Because they're not."

"Why are they nott"

"Because they — you don't-

"I do not what! How do you know?"

He wheeled and gave me a startled look.

''Do you?"

"You shouldn't force my hand, you know," I
said, "when you're not willing to show your
own."

And ther. I waited. I knew, in that wonderful
moment, that all his love was mine ; it was in the
air, surrounding me. For a moment I had the
most exquisite fedling that his arms must steal
around me. Then— he rose and leaned on the
mantel, staring deep into the fire, his arms folded
tight.

I waited on in a paralysing tenseness — I do not
know how long. Then, almost without disturbing
the silence, the door opened and closed again and
I was alone.

I buried my face in that beautiful shirred satin
puff you gave me and cried myself to sleep. I
was still there, cold and aching, when morning
came. I longed to cover myself with my motor
rug and repeat the performance — would have
done so but for Bingo, who objected almost fran-
tically to my attitude of woe.

The concern in his homely face seemed to say :

■ftr^ofmuk*

lifS'

270 JANET OF KOOTENAY

- Cheer np. The world may be a dismal place and
th?rea» endless, but there is no nse m gettmg
indigestion, even over that.
However, this is from a very dismal ^^^^

Arcady, September twenty-fifth.
Deab Nan :

Did I paso on Bingo's statement that the world
is a dismal place and that the years are endless T
Well. Doubtless no harm has been done, for you
know that the world is not dismal, and you hope
the years are endless.

The morning after Captain Fenton was here I
saw Saundy go to Albemarle, presumably to assist
in making the place ready to leave. He proceeded
out about the barn and, later, I saw him lead
Midnight out and over to my stable. I again had
recourse to the shirred satin puff. My heart
lightened i little that he did not leave for the
train that day.

Next morning, early, Saundy was there again.
Mortimer-Deane was with him this time. I won-
dered at this and wanted to phone, but I had said
that last word and I felt that the next, if there was
to be any, must come from him.

But when, the next morning, the doctor came
with Mortimer-Deane, I was beside myself with
the delay of the few minutes till they had gone.
I had called on our wire almost before they were
at the gate. I hardly knew the voice that an-
swered me.

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1,.l

272 JANET OF KOOTENAT

"Something is the matter," I said. "Are yor
ill? Whatisit!"

"Please do not be alarmed," he said. "I—
well, I walked about all the night after I left yoa
and it seems not to have been good for me."

"You walked about— all night!"

"Yes. Your shade was not drawn and I coul(
see you there. I thought I would go mad. :
wanted to rush back in to you. I ahnost did so-
a dozen times. But I won out— which is well
When Gertnan gas has left a man so that he can
not stand a mental battle on a misty night with
out the attending results of quinsy and rheuma
tism, there is nothing but a thorough retreat f o
him. You can see that."

I had been thinking very fast indeed, while h

talked.

"Then you cannot go for a day or so?" I askec

"I hope to get away Thursday. That gives m
four days yet. I should be around by that time.

"Will you come in the evening before yo
leave ? " I asked. * ' There is something you can d
for me in California."

"But certainly. I shall be most happy to d
anything possible for you. But, as for comii
over — ^my behaviour last time "

* * Never mind that. I have forgotten it. Can
do anything for you now?"

"Thanks, no. Morty is coming again. He is

capital nurse."

((

I—

Can I

JANET OF KOOTENAY 273

In the days that have gone since then I have
been busy. There was a slight frost over by the
nver, so as it usually goes there first as a warn-
mg we began to get the remainder of the garden
under cover Chow got two other ChinamfranS
they got m the potatoes and other vegetables.

Yesterday I crated and sent off the remaining
four dozen chickens that were for sale. This
leaves me with five dozen choice ones for my
flock Last night I made up the books m my

f^f T f '.^.^ ""^''^ *^'y ^^^« balanced, I found
hat I had fifty-eight dollars and my sixjy pullets
to show for my summer's work. If the original
cost had not been so great-but it was. If I had
not lost so many, and food had not been so ex-
pensive-but I did and it was. However, I have
gained useful experience, and next year shall
grow my own chicks and make quite a fortune.

iietsy IS almost dry, so Saundy is to take her
bade to the Arrow with the others. Her cream
and cream money, abetted by the garden, is all
that has kept me alive this summer. So that I
have re^y boarded for the original outlay of
seventy doUars-and I have secured a cow for
nothing. Yes, I remember that my book-keeping
always amused you.

I sold my pigs to the butcher at a profit of
twenty.four doUars and seventy cents. Molly
and Dexter are rented to Mr Good at three dol-
iars a day for the rest of the season, for Govern-

274

JANET OF KOOTENAY

ment road work. They, too, have been a good in-
vestment, and I have their winter hay put up.

As to my garden, I should like to say that the
truck sales had more than paid Chow's wages, but
as it was only fifteen dollars over, I gave that to
him for special efficiency and for the purpose of
having a sort of lien on him for the next season.
Next year I shall not need him so early, but I mean
to garden more strenuously than ever then. By
all accounts the necessity for production will be
ever so mucl^ more urgent then than now. i hope
you are planning to fill every inch of your place
with wheat and more wheat.

And when you ask what the special profit of
my venture has been I will refer you to the visit
of Mr. Delmar who cheerfully placed Arcady's
value at five thousand above the actual cash out-
lay in getting it to where it was then. I think his
estimate was quite moderate, too.

And after five years— well, the Perrys will
easily make three thousand off an eighty acre or-
chard, not to mention any of their side lines. So,
you see, I am on my way.

Both to-day and yesterday I saw Captaiii Fen-
ton going to Mortimer-Deane's for dinner, so I
knew that he was improving. Just as I was writ-
ing this he called on the phone to say that he leaves
to-morrow and will be over soon to get his com-
mission. Saundy, who was here when the mes-
sage came, has just gone, not seeming to feel i1

JANET OF KOOTENAY 275

his duty to stay and chaperone us. He and I have
a secret— the dear, trustworthy old soul.
Later :

He came. The stage was set as before, in
colours of azure blue. After only a few sentences
he asked what it was that he might do for me in
California.

"I will not trouble you about it," I said, as I
arranged myself comfortably on the davenport—
an act which he did not copy— "because I can do
it myself I am going to California too. ' '

"You are going to California," he repeated,
like an automaton. **When?"

"To-morrow. It is to-morrow we go, is it
not?"

"But— Why, Janet, that is impossible. Your
neighbours' opinions may have changed about you
once, but they could easily change again. Be-
sides "

**I am going to California \7ith you to-morrow,
as your wife," I stated distinctly, as I rvose and
stood with him by the fire.

"Janet, don't joke. I can not stand it."

"I'm not joking. Claymore, look at me. You
k. / I'm not. If you go away and leave me, I'll
die. I'll "

I got no further, for I was seized hungrily, and
with his strong arms far about me I knew that I
had done exactly and precisely right. Then he

276 JANET OF KOOTENAY

sat me on the davenport and sat there with me,
staring moodily into the fire for many seconds.

*«What is it now!" I asked patiently, at last.

"I am just getting my senses again," he said.
♦'Janet, I can't do this.'*

"Do whatt"

*'Let you make this sacrifice. It is wonderful
of you, but I must not let you. ' *

"Personally, I cannot see how yon are going to
escape," I laughed. "But if you know of any
just and sufficient reason why these two "

"It's my knee, of course. And my general
state as exhibited this last week.'*

"Then you need "

"Listen, Janet, till I've finished. I don't know
what you will think of me, but I've got to be
honest. I am not at all sure— Suppose that
you were ten years my senior— that you were
maimed— rheumatic, perhaps, and all that. I am
not all sure that I would be the wonderful soul
that you are. I want you now with every breath

I draw, but then I might not want "

"Nonsense," I laughed, relieved. "I don't m
the least care whether you would or not. A
woman is different."

"Is she?" he asked, with an eager longing to
catch at a straw. ' * I wish I could be sure. ' '
"Claymore," I said. ''There are three words

I would like to hear you say. Anything more thai

I have to say comes after that"

JANET OF KOOTENAY

277

He said them; over and over — in my ear— on
my lips

**Is that enough, or shall I repeat *'

"No. Wait a minute. Saundy has a license
and has arranged for everything to be ready in
the church to-morrow at ten. I will wear your
seal ring till we get to Spokane. We can pick
the others together there."

So it is settled that way, Nan dearest. We are
going to drive to California in my brown car,
leaving at ten to-morrow. Won't it be heaven T
The drive through the Walla Walla and Cceur
d'Alene in October days! A gypsy jaunt right
down into the perpetual summer of the lower
coast, where we shall be waiting for you and
Montague.

I must pack suitable clothes for my trip. Will
finish this the very last minute before I go.

The last morning of Janet Kirk.

This sounds like an obituary, but it isn't. Not
a bit of it.

We are all packed. A camping outfit, double
de luxe, fills the tonneau of the car. It fill? me
with joy that Captain Fenton— I mean Claymore
— has never once objected that I am to furnish and
dri" i the car for our honeymoon. That should
augur well for our future together.

Early this morning came Nicky, very dressed
up and business-like. He inquired with dignity

278

JANET OP KOOTENAY

for Captain Fenton. I directed him to the oar in
the rear.

"Captain Fenton," I heard him say. "Has
Miss Kirk any flowers t"

"You mean a bridal bouquet, Nicky t"

"Um-hum."

"Yes, Nicky. She made a special request for
the big shaggy asters in my yard, so that we need
not leave them all alone. Why?"

* * Because. My mother has a bush covered with
the loveliest white roses, and she says I can and
I want to give them to Miss Kirk."

"Well, Nicky," Claymore answered, "it is
usually a man's privilege to furnish flowers for
his bride, but it shows how much I think of you
that I let you do it this time."

Nicky left in highest glee and in the shortest
possible time was back with a fragrant bunch of
sweet, white roses and maidenhair fern, tied with
white satin ribbon.

Then Saundy came, with a large blue envelope
that contained, he said, his wedding gift. Clay-
more slipped his arm around me as I wonderingly
drew out a folded document.

It was a deed of the MacPhaill Mines, willed
over, on the death of Saundy MacPhaill, to Clay-
more Fenton to be held in trust for Saundy Fen-
ton and his heirs.

The import of this did not reach me for some
moments. When it did, the fact that Claymore

JANET OF KOOTENAY 279

took the old man's hand, looked into his eyes and
thanked him from the bottom of his heart with-
out a blush, put him at once among the super-men
in my adoring regard.

And now I think that we may go. The Essing-
tons, Mortimer-Deanes, Worths, Perrvs and
Goods all drove toward the little church some time
ago, but I do not want to pass their horses on the
way.

Saundy and Nicky are to be our special body-
guard, just as they are to be the guardians of
Arcady and Albemarle while we are absent.
They are calling me, so I must go.

Good-bye, Nan dearest.

I know that I can leave it to your sweet dis-
position never to recall the rage of a certain
young woman at the fears, attributed to a neigh-
bour, that a bachelor in her vicinity was in danger.