Sally
understood him did not appear, but she came of folk who had waged a
very stubborn battle with the wilderness, and there was a vein of
somewhat grim tenacity in her.

She was, however, conscious that there was something beneath her feet
which forced her, if she was to sit comfortably, rather close against
her companion; and it seemed expedient to point it out.

"Can't you move a little? I can't get my feet fixed right," she said.

Hawtrey looked down at her with a smile. "I'm afraid I can't unless I
get right outside. Aren't you happy there?"

It was the kind of speech he was in the habit of making, but there was
rather more colour in the girl's face than the stinging night air
brought there, and she glanced at the bottom of the sleigh.

"It's a sack of some kind, isn't it?" she said.

"Yes," said Hawtrey; "it's a couple of three-bushel bags. Some special
seed wheat Lorton sent to Winnipeg for. Ormond brought them out from
the railroad. I promised I'd take them along to him."

"You should have told me. It's most a league round by Lorton's place,"
said Sally.

"That won't take long with this team. Have you any great objections to
another fifteen minutes' drive with me?"

Sally looked up at him, and the moonlight was on her face, which was a
very comely one.

"No," she admitted, "I haven't any."

She said it demurely, but there was a just perceptible something in her
voice which might have warned the man had he been addicted to taking
warning from anything, which was, however, not the case. It was, in
fact, his trouble that he seldom thought about what he did until he was
compelled to face the consequences; and it was, perhaps, to his credit
that he had after all done very little harm, for there was hot blood in
him.

"Well," he said, "I'm not going to grumble about those extra three
miles, but you were asking what land I meant to break this spring.
What put that into your mind?"

"Our folks," said Sally candidly. "They were talking about you."

This again was significant, but Hawtrey did not notice it.

"I've no doubt they said I ought to tackle the new quarter section?" he
suggested.

"Yes," assented Sally. "Why don't you do it? Last fall you thrashed
out quite a big harvest."

"I certainly did. There, however, didn't seem to be many dollars left
over when I'd faced the bills."

The girl made a little gesture of impatience. "Oh," she said, "Bob and
Jake and Jasper sowed on les