nethy roused himself. It would be nearly dawn before
his team would reach their home stalls. He whistled to the horses and
they plunged into the black shadows of the coulee up which the trail
rose in steep ascent from the valley. When they emerged into the
moonlight he drew rein for a moment.

Somewhere back in a forgotten arroyo a coyote yapped lonesomely.
Around through the night were flung the distant glow-dots of the
burning straw piles, and as he filled his lungs with the fresh sweet
air the hope of better days warmed the heart of the belated traveller.
The Hand which set the orbits of the universe created the laws of Truth
and Justice and these never could be gainsaid. Everything would come
out aright if only men were steadfast in faith and duty.

He gave the horses their heads and they were off once more through the
cool night upon the wheatland sea that was bounded only by far purple
shadows.

[1] The provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, Western Canada, were not
created until 1906. Prior to that the entire country west of the
Province of Manitoba was known as the North-West Territories, of which
the District of Assiniboia was a part, the part which subsequently
formed the southern portion of the Province of Saskatchewan.

[2] Hon. W. R. Motherwell, Minister of Agriculture, Province of
Saskatchewan.

CHAPTER II

A CALL TO ARMS

And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one
gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth.--_Isaiah_
10:14.

For five thousand years Man has grown wheat for food. Archaeologists
have found it buried with the mummies of Egypt; the pictured stones of
the Pyramids record it. But it was the food of princes, not of
peasants--of the aristocracy, not of the people; for no man could
harvest enough of it with his sickle to create a supply which would
place it within the reach of the poor. While century after century[1]
has passed since wheat was first recognized as the premier nourishment
for the human body, it is only of recent times that it has become the
food of the nations.

The swift development of grain growing into the world's greatest
industry goes back for a small beginning to 1831. It was in that year
that a young American-born farm boy of Irish-Scotch extraction was
jeered and laughed at as he attempted to cut wheat with the first crude
reaper; but out of Cyrus Hall McCormick's invention soon grew the
wonderful h