socks--and a lot of stones! Also there was an old duster with a piece
of paper pinned to it, advising: "Here's your linen!"

The Broadview school did not last long for the reason that the second
North-West Rebellion broke out that year and the teacher joined the
Yorkton Rangers. Fifty cents a day and grub was an alluring prospect;
many a poor homesteader would have joined the ranks on active service
for the grub alone, especially when the time of his absence was being
allowed by the Government to apply on the term set for homestead duties
before he could come into full possession of his land. Many farmers
earned money, also, teaming supplies from the railway north to
Battleford and Prince Albert.

In common with his fellow grain growers, the five years that followed
were years of continuous struggle for E. A. Partridge. The railway
came and the country commenced to settle quickly. The days of prairie
fires that ran amuck gave way to thriving crops; but at thirty and
forty cents per bushel the thriving of those who sowed them was another
matter.

This man with the snappy blue eyes and caustic tongue was among the
first to foresee "the rising colossus," the shadow of which was
creeping slowly across the farmer's path, and he watched the "brewing
menace" with growing concern. With every ounce of his tremendous
energy he resented the encroachment of Capital upon the liberties of
Labor. Being of the people and temperamentally a democrat, he had a
great yearning for the reorganization of society in the general
interest. His championship in this direction earned him the reputation
in some quarters of being full of "fads," a visionary. But his
neighbors, who had toiled and suffered beside him through the years,
knew "Ed." Partridge, man to man, and held him in high regard; they
admired him for his human qualities, respected him for his abilities,
and wondered at his theories. On occasion they, too, shook their heads
doubtfully. They could not know the big part in their emancipation
which this friend and neighbor of theirs was destined to play through
many days of crisis. Not yet had the talley begun.

But events even now slowly were shaping. With the winning of their
first clash the farmers' movement was achieving momentum. In the
latter part of December, 1902, down in the town of Virden, Manitoba, a
committee was appointed at a meeting of the Virden Agricultural
Society, to arrange a district meeting for the