ted his breakfast.

Kalman hurried through his meal, for he hated to meet French as
he woke from his sleep.

"Will he not take breakfast?" said the boy as he rose from the table.

"No, not him, nor denner either, like as not. It iss a good thing
he has a man to look after the place," said Mackenzie with the
pride of conscious fidelity. "We will just be going on with the
oats and the pitaties. You will be taking the harrows."

"The what?" said Kalman.

"The harrows."

Kalman looked blank.

"Can you not harrow?"

"I don't know," said Kalman. "What is that?"

"Can you drop pitaties, then?"

"I don't know," repeated Kalman, shrinking very considerably in his
own estimation.

"Man," said Mackenzie pityingly, "where did ye come from anyway?"

"Winnipeg."

"Winnipeg? I know it well. I used to. But that was long ago. But
did ye nefer drive a team?"

"Never," said Kalman. "But I want to learn."

"Och! then, and what will he be wanting with you here?"

"I don't know," said Kalman.

"Well, well," said Mackenzie. "He iss a quare man at times, and
does quare things."

"He is not," said Kalman hotly. "He is just a splendid man."

Mackenzie gazed in mild surprise at the angry face.

"Hoot! toot!" he said. "Who was denyin' ye? He iss all that,
but he iss mighty quare, as you will find out. But come away and
we will get the horses. It iss a peety you cannot do nothing."

"You show me what to do," said Kalman confidently, "and I'll do it."

The stable was a tumble-down affair, and sorely needing attention,
as, indeed, was the case with the ranch and all its belongings.
A team of horses showing signs of hard work and poor care, with
harness patched with rope and rawhide thongs, were waiting in the
stable. Even to Kalman's inexperienced eyes it was a deplorable
outfit.

There was little done in the way of cultivation of the soil upon
the Night Hawk Ranch. The market was far away, and it was almost
impossible to secure farm labour. The wants of French and his
household were few. A couple of fields of oats and barley for his
horses and pigs and poultry, another for potatoes, for which he
found ready market at the Crossing and in the lumber camps up among
the hills, exhausted the agricultural pursuits of the ranch.

Kalman concentrated his attention upon the process of hitching the
team to the harrows, and then followed Mackenzie up and down the
field as he harrowed in the oats. It seemed a simple enough matte