A hundred impulses urged Abe to angry speech; but
he touched hishorses with the whip in silence.
Unless they had expelled me, motherwould never have
let me quit.
Elsewhere, the wheat harvest began; in
SpaldingDistrict there was no wheat.
One dry day in June Abe went into his field to look
at the ruin ofhis wheat. No settler had ever squatted down there; not evengood grass
grew in that alkaline marsh.
The fields beyond lookedlike the sleek, smooth
bottom of a gigantic mud-hole.
I have noobjection to your leaving school. And this
wasgeneral, brought about by an excess of rain. The district bore the imprint of his
mind. Then his attention was claimed by an unexpected snowdrift remainingin the
trail.
Their professed intention was to show the older
peoplepost-war life. I know, Elliot said, you must count meout.
And then dry, settled weather came at
last.
But why did you leave school to-day when your
motherwished you to continue?
And then dry, settled weather came at last. The
fields beyond lookedlike the sleek, smooth bottom of a gigantic mud-hole. Abe would
have furnished tenor sixteen horses; and the rest would have followed.
To such as had known Abe in years gone by he looked
weary and grey.
At half-past twelve, the usual hour, he entered
thehouse.
Incomprehensibly, therewas also Frances, a source
of disquietude even to Ruth. Ill have to go to town then, to find out.
Only shrugs couldexpress his full
meaning.
Ive had a job waiting for me for two
years.
And then dry, settled weather came at last. Not
that the speed wouldhave made any difference, for the work would go on till dark in
anycase.
That hayrack stood aslant, on the point oftoppling
over.
Theres a chap byname of Cope whos going to open a
high-class garage at Somerville. There was no work for more than a single man.