lk from dry cows! Although ten per cent. on each share
was all the cash that was asked apparently some farmers were so hard up
that if yarn were selling at five cents per mile, they couldn't buy
enough of it to make a pair of mitts for a doodlebug!

"If you take four shares," admitted Al Quigley at his meetings, "I
can't guarantee that you're not losing four times $2.50, which is ten
dollars. But you lose that much when you draw a load of wheat up to
the elevator anyway," he argued. "You might just as well let another
ten go to see what's become of the first ten!"

"Huh!" grunted a skeptical farmer after one of E. A. Partridge's
meetings. "This here thing's just a scheme for Partridge to feather
his nest! You bet he didn't get any o' my money," he bragged. "Did he
get you, Pete?"

"He did, Ben, an' I'll tell you why. This thing'll probably go bust;
but I put a hundred into it. Supposin' I put a hundred in a horse an'
he dies on me. Same thing, ain't it? I got to have horses to do
farmin' an' I just go an' buy another one. I figure it's worth takin'
a hundred-dollar chance on this thing to try her out."

Up in the northern part of Manitoba was one man who was meeting with
pretty fair success. His name was Kennedy and his friends who knew him
best called him "Honest John." His plan was simple--to start talking,
talk for awhile, then keep right on talking.

"For God's sake, Kennedy, if $2.50 will stop you talking, here it is!
We're sleepy!"

Then he would stop talking.

One by one the original canvassers dropped out of the field till almost
the only one left besides E. A. Partridge was this hard-talking
enthusiast up in the Swan River country who wound himself up for the
night and tired them out--but got the money!

[1] See Appendix--Par. 4.

[2] See Appendix--Par. 5.

[3] See Appendix--Par. 6.

CHAPTER VII

A FIGHT FOR LIFE!

My dear little Demus! you'll find it is true,
He behaves like a wretch and a villain to you . . .
--Aristophanes.

It was characteristic of John Kennedy to keep everlastingly at it. He
was used to hard things to do. In this life some men seem to get
rather more than their share of tacks in the boots and crumbs in bed!
But every time Fate knocked him down he just picked himself up again.
Always he got up and went at it once more--patiently, conscientiously,
smiling. Even Fate cannot beat a man like that and John Kennedy was a
hard fighter i