She
had more sense than all the rest of us put together. I've often thought
if she'd been the oldest boy instead of me she'd have kept Jim straight,
and managed to drive father out of his cross ways--that is, if any one
living could have done it. As for riding, I have never seen any one that
could sit a horse or handle him through rough, thick country like her.
She could ride barebacked, or next to it, sitting sideways on nothing
but a gunny-bag, and send a young horse flying through scrub and rocks,
or down ranges where you'd think a horse could hardly keep his feet. We
could all ride a bit out of the common, if it comes to that. Better if
we'd learned nothing but how to walk behind a plough, year in year out,
like some of the folks in father's village in England, as he used to
tell us about when he was in a good humour. But that's all as people are
reared, I suppose. We'd been used to the outside of a horse ever since
we could walk almost, and it came natural to us. Anyhow, I think Aileen
was about the best of the lot of us at that, as in everything else.

Well, for a bit all went on pretty well at home. Jim and I worked away
steady, got in a tidy bit of crop, and did everything that lay in our
way right and regular. We milked the cows in the morning, and brought in
a big stack of firewood and chopped as much as would last for a month
or two. We mended up the paddock fence, and tidied the garden. The old
place hadn't looked so smart for many a day.

When we came in at night old mother used to look that pleased and happy
we couldn't help feeling better in our hearts. Aileen used to read
something out of the paper that she thought might amuse us. I could read
pretty fair, and so could Jim; but we were both lazy at it, and after
working pretty hard all day didn't so much care about spelling out the
long words in the farming news or the stories they put in. All the same,
it would have paid us better if we'd read a little more and put the
'bullocking' on one side, at odd times. A man can learn as much out of
a book or a paper sometimes in an hour as will save his work for a week,
or put him up to working to better purpose. I can see that now--too
late, and more's the pity.

Anyhow, Aileen could read pretty near as fast as any one I ever saw, and
she used to reel it out for us, as we sat smoking over the fire, in a
way that kept us jolly and laughing till it was nearly turning-in time.
Now and then George Storefield woul