St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-26

"
unlucky one. From the very frst day
when Dick Prothero left the West Corn
wall ranges and took him wife, deter
mined TO settle down to agricultural re-
tirement in the far West, a fatal ill-for-
tune seemed to dog and pursue him
with merciless persistence. At least, so
Dick said; though people who knew
Manitoba better doubted within them
selves whether the discipline of the
mess room in crack regiment, where
Dick had stood junior captain on the
list, was quite the sort of thing to
prepare man beforehand for
becoming a vigorous and success
full farmer in raw community. At
any rate, things somehow didn't seem
to prosper with Dick Protheroe. The
horses were always getting CHAMBERS at
unhappy moments; the cows were
always poisoning themselves with un-
canny prairie weeds; the rain was
always rough on the ndng hay; the
fall wheat was always getting pipped
by the first sharp fIostS Of a Canadian
springtide. Dick worked as hard, to be
sure. as man could work; but he
didn't work the right way on. so experts
Said-all his energy and good will were
NNiNO tlilOni away lHtOuSll liO huhO VA
knowledge of practical farming.
They worst of it was, too, Manitoba
didn't agree with Bertha, and that was
Dicks greatest cross of all. For HIM
self, lie didn't mn:h mind the small
frame house, the long cold winter when
the grouse was on the wing, or the
changeable spring with its teal and
wild duck. A strong and hearty young
man. with a sound constitution and a
natural love of outdoor sport. can put
up with roughing it for himself very
well in those wild west countries. But
to see his pretty young English wife,
delicately bred and nurtured in Devon
shire rectory, shrinking from the priva-
tons of the frozen prairie that was the
sort of thing that makes man regret
he hadn't invested his money instead at
23l per cent in the muniiicent hands
of the right honorable the chan
cellOr of the eXchequer. If Dick
could have done it. he'd have sold his
farm: but it's always easier to buy land
anywhere III the world than sell il; SO
Dick had to hang on as best he might.
hoping for better times and turn il.
the real estate market.
Still, if il hadn't been for little Daisy
and his brother Archie Dick, who was a
sentimental, rather melodramatically-
minded young man lin spite of his
Sandhurst trainingl, would sometimes
have sat down Respondent in the frame
house, with a fixed determination to
blow his unIucky brains out. But
little Daisy, thank heaven, was as
strong as 4 toy Shetland pony, and
Archie, good fellow, was always help
full and always CHEEKY. even when the
rain came and spoiled the harvest.
Archie was the best brother any man
In ,r,nrlI hoS
help being cheered and helped Oh by
that dear good Archie.
The frame house where they all lived
tOgether-Dick ard his wife. and little
Daisy, and Archie-waS situated a good
many miles from anywhere, and at
great distance from Winnipeg, the cen
ter of mushroom civilization in the Can.
adian Northwest at the present moment.
1t was altogether about as dreary
place as any fellow could well ask
young English wife to settle in. 1t stood
alone upon the wide open prairie, a
square, bare box, just perched upon the
soil, with doors and windows like those
of q German toy house, and with not
tree or shrub standing anywhere in
sight Of it. In front you looked out upon
the waving plain OF grass and corn field
-monotonOuS arid, as far as the eye
could reach, with OILY q few more
equally square and bare little wooden
Shanties dotted about here-and there to
relieve its utter blank of sameness and
dreariness. Sometimes in dry weather
the whole UNMARRIED plain caught fire at
once from sGme careless pipe or match.
and then the smoke of 1t went up to
heaven i'll a great, dusky column, and
~ iln.i n$ciat t,r3lS5 ak, an
army over the land. and the farmers de-
Tended their own houses as best they
might by cutting down and welting the
grass all around: and next morning
nothing remained of the years laborS
but vast, black desert, smoking dis
nal and gray to the lurid sky. where
yesterday had been whole acres of corn
and meadow land. Those are the
chances OF war in the great Northwest,
the chances of that terrible pioneer war
fare which man wages single handed
with yalor0uS heart against the fierce.
blind powers of unconscious nature.
And in this bare, bleak house, with
its unlovely surroundings, gentle and
deiicately nurtured English Bertha had
to live by herself, for the most part
SerVantless. Now and then, to be sure.
some raw Irish lass, fresh cut from the
Ould country. with a bright red face
and fine rich brogue, would accept for
4 week or two situation as general
Htlp, 10 dSSiSt Ill the cOOhllS anu lahG
care of Daisy. But at the end of a fort
night the help usually came in and in
formed Bertha with tears in her eyes,
than she found it lonesome" and that
if Bertha would "Suit herself'' when
the month was up she'd like to go back
to place in Winnipeg. Bertha. as a
rule, did not succeed at all in suiting
herself: so she had TODD all the cooking
and washing and nursing and mending
more than half her time for those two
strong men and for little Daisy.
Dick, being a t nder-hearted, senti-
mental fellow. could have cried his eyes
out (only that he was ashamed when he
thought of the sort of life he had
brought that sweet, pretty little English
wife to. There are plenty more of his
sort in the West. Young man, stop
East. Don't you go and be fooled by
delusivc promises into following his ex-
ample.