ged
down the earnest promoters to deep financial losses.

Again in the early nineties the farmers had rebelled at their pioneer
hardships by organizing the "Patrons of Industry," a movement which had
gained strength and for a while looked healthy. It had got strong
enough to elect friends to the Legislature and was sowing good seed
when again temptation appeared, centred in the lure of commercial
success and politics. Some of the chief officers began to misuse the
organization for selfish ends and away went the whole thing.

There was no use in repeating these defeats. Couldn't some way be
devised of sidestepping such pitfalls? The great weakness of the
farmers was their individual independence; if they could be taught to
stand together for their common interests there was hope that something
might be accomplished.

The sitting-room clock ticked away the hours unheeded as these two
far-sighted and conscientious farmers lost themselves in earnest
discussion. The lamps were lighted, but still they planned.

Finally W. R. Motherwell reached across the table for a pad of
note-paper and drafted the call to arms--a letter which summoned the
men of Wolseley, Sintaluta and Indian Head, of Qu'Appelle, Wideawake
and other places to gather for _action_. There and then copies were
written out for every leading farmer within reach, and in order that no
political significance might be attached to the call, both men signed
the letters.

When Peter Dayman drove away from the Motherwell place that night
perhaps he scarcely realized that he carried in his pocket the fate of
the farmers of Western Canada. Neither he, W. R. Motherwell, nor any
other man could have foretold the bitter struggles which those letters
were destined to unleash--the stirring events that were impending.

[1] Wheat was first grown in Canada in 1606 at Port Royal (now
Annapolis) in Nova Scotia, where Champlain and Pourtincourt built a
fort and established a small colony. A plot of ground was made ready
and wheat planted. "It grew under the snow," said Pourtincourt, "and
in the following midsummer it was harvested."

CHAPTER III

THE FIRST SHOT IS FIRED

Let us have faith that Right makes Might, and in that faith let us dare
to do our duty as we understand it.--_Abraham Lincoln_.

The eighteenth of December, 1901, was a memorable day in the little
prairie town of Indian Head. Strangers from East and West had begun to
arrive the ni