s is the one safe procedure
for the would-be colonist. There is not the slightest reason why he should
pay a premium, because the work is the same in either case; and as, there
being no caste distinction, all men are equal, hired hand and farmer
living and eating together, he will find no difference in the treatment.
In any case, I had no intention of working for nothing, and answered
shortly:

"I'll come for ten dollars a month until harvest. I shall no doubt find
some one to give me twenty then."

Coombs stared, surveyed me ironically from head to heel again, and, after
offering five dollars, said very reluctantly:

"Seven-fifty, and it's sinful extravagance. Put the horse in that stable
and don't give him too much chop. Then carry in those stove billets, and
see if Mrs. Coombs wants anything to get supper ready."

I was tired and sleepy; but Coombs evidently intended to get the value of
his seven-fifty out of me--he had a way of exacting the utmost
farthing--and after feeding the horse, liberally, I carried fourteen
buckets of water to fill a tank from the well before at last supper was
ready. We ate it together silently in a long match-boarded room--Coombs,
his wife, Marvin the big Manitoban hired man, and a curly-haired
brown-eyed stripling with a look of good breeding about him. Mrs. Coombs
was thin and angular, with a pink-tipped nose; and in their dwelling--the
only place I ever saw it on the prairie--she and her husband always sat
with several feet of blank table between themselves and those who worked
for them. They were also, I thought, representatives of an unpleasant
type--the petty professional or suddenly promoted clerk, who, lacking
equally the operative's sturdiness and the polish of those born in a
higher station, apes the latter, and, sacrificing everything for
appearance, becomes a poor burlesque on humanity. Even here, on the lone,
wide prairie, they could not shake off the small pretense of superiority.
When supper was finished--and Coombs' suppers were the worst I ever ate in
Canada--the working contingent adjourned after washing dishes to the sod
stable, where I asked questions about our employer.

"Meaner than pizon!" said Marvin. "Down East, on the 'lantic shore, is
where he ought to be. Guess he wore them out in the old country, and so
they sent him here."

Then the young lad stretched out his hand with frank good-nature. "I'm
Harry Lorraine, premium pupil on this most delectable homeste