f realized.

Jean felt her responsibilities as much as he. She was fond of books, but
she grudged the time spent at school, and from before daylight till long
after dark she was as busy as a young hen with a brood of chicks. The
boys helped her with the hard tasks, and on the whole she got along very
well.

But though Angus and Jean felt their responsibilities and endeavored to
live up to them, young Turkey did not. He was a curious combination,
with as many moods and shifts as an April day. By turns he was
headstrong and impulsive, and then coldly calculating. If he felt like
it, he would be industrious; but if not, he would be deliberately and
provokingly idle. In the days of Adam Mackay these qualities had been
not so apparent; but with the passing of his father he recognized no
authority and he resented bitterly the least suggestion of control.

He would soon have gotten completely out of hand had Angus permitted it.
Matters came to a show-down one morning when Turkey, snug between his
blankets, delivered a flat ultimatum to his brother's command that he
get up and help pick potatoes.

"You go plum!" said Turkey. "Saturday's a holiday, and I'm goin'
fishin'. Pick spuds yourself!"

The next moment he was yanked out of his nest by the ankle and, fighting
like a young wildcat, was thrown on the floor.

"Will you pick those spuds?" Angus demanded.

"No!" Turkey shouted, and Angus whirled him over on his face and
reaching out acquired a leather slipper.

"Get this straight," he said. "You'll pick spuds, or I'll lick you till
you do."

"You lick me, and I'll kill you," roared Turkey, emphasizing the threat
with language gleaned from certain teamsters of his acquaintance, but
which was cut short by the slipper.

"Will you come to work now?" Angus asked after a heated interval.

"No!" yelled Turkey, sobbing more with rage than with pain, "no, I
won't, you big--"

But again the slipper cut him short, and this time his brother put his
full strength into it. Finally, Turkey recognized the old-time doctrine
of force, and gave up. That day he picked potatoes with fair diligence,
and though he would not speak to Angus for a week, he did as he was
told.

And so that Fall the young Mackays were very busy, and the threshing was
done, and the roots dug and got in, and some fall plowing, before the
frosts hardened the earth and the snow came to overlie it.

With winter the work of the ranch lightened--or at least its