uck the nostrils again. Up
against the washed blue of the sky flocks of geese bore their way
northward. One morning they heard the liquid notes of a meadow-lark.
Then came robins and bluebirds, and a new season opened with a rush.

CHAPTER VII

THE FRENCHES AGAIN

That spring Angus kept three teams going steadily on plows and disks
while the high winds dried the soil to a powder, raising dust clouds
that choked and blinded, so that they came in black and gritty to a
shower bath of Angus' invention. He had accomplished this by a primitive
water wheel operated by the swift water of the irrigation ditch back of
the house. The water was always cold, and invigorated accordingly. But
it was icy in the morning. Rennie tried it once and gave it up, while
big Gus scornfully refused to experiment with a morning bath.

"It'll brace you up," Turkey urged.

"Vatter ent brace nobody," Gus replied with contempt. "Dees all-over
vash by mornin' ban no good. Ay ent need him. It ent make me dirty to
sleep."

But the dust vanished with the spring rains, and the grain sprouted in
the drills. One day the fields lay bare and bald and blank; and the
next, as it seemed, they were covered with a film of tender green. Then
all hands began to clear and repair the irrigation ditches, so that when
dry weather came the fields should have water in plenty.

So the early summer came and with it Jean's holidays. Her return, Angus
recognized, necessitated some preparation.

"She'll have a fit when she sees the house," he told Turkey.

"What's the matter with it?" that young man asked.

"She'll find plenty the matter with it," Angus predicted apprehensively.
"We'd better clean up a little."

"Well, maybe we had," Turkey admitted.

They gave the house what they considered a thorough cleaning, which
consisted in sweeping where it seemed necessary, and removing some of
the pot-black from kitchen utensils which Jean had never set down on the
fire. Angus eyed the rusty-red kitchen range, which Jean had kept black
and shining.

"I wonder if we hadn't better give that a touch of polish," he said.
"Where is the polish, anyway?"

"Search me," Turkey replied. "I've never seen any. What's the use? It
cooks all right."

They could not find Jean's polish, and experimented with black harness
dressing. But the smoke when the fire was lit drove them out of the
house, and they let it go.

Angus drove into town to meet Jean behind a pair of slas