it lengthen daily with my heart in
my eyes, and I grew feverishly anxious about the weather. Many things
depended on the success of that crop. Then suddenly it was summer, the
hottest summer for ten seasons, our neighbors said, and I wondered how we
would manage to cut hay for our own beasts, and the teams we had purchased
conditionally, because long grass was scanty. Assistance was equally
scarce, for, seeing us reach out toward prosperity, our friends evidently
considered that we were now well able to help ourselves.

It was done somehow, though often for a week together we worked all day
and most of the night, until there was only an hour or two left before the
dawn, and I lay wide awake, too overstrung and fatigued to sleep. Once,
too, in the burning heat of noon I fell from the wagon in a state of limp
collapse, and there were occasions when Harry, with a paler color than
usual, lay for long spaces gasping in the shade. We could spare little
time for cooking, or a tedious journey to bring in provisions, so when one
thing ran out we made shift with the rest. Still, we observed Sunday, and
once Harry laughed as he said: "I'm thankful there is a Fourth
Commandment, for without it we should have caved in utterly. Do you know
we've been living on potatoes, tea, and porridge every meal for the last
ten days? It's doubtful whether we can hold out until harvest, and you'll
remember it's then that the pace grows killing."

For the first time I noticed that his face was very thin under the
sun-burn, and perhaps he read my thoughts, for he laughed.

"We have taken on too big a contract, Ralph," he said, "but once in we'll
carry it through. Still, I wish I had been born with the frame of a
bullock, like you."

I lay in a hide chair ten hours together that Sunday, only moving to light
the stove for Harry, or to consume another pint of strong green tea, which
is generally our sole indulgence on the prairie. It might not, however,
have suited fastidious palates, because the little squirrel-like gophers
which abounded everywhere, burrowing near by, fell into the well by
scores, and we had no leisure to fish them out. Neither is there any
mistaking the flavor of gopher extract. Meantime it grew hotter and drier,
and I had to admit to myself that the crop might have been better, while
Harry, to hide his misgivings, talked cheerfully about higher prices,
until at last the crisis came.

I awoke one morning with an unusual feeling