way,' put in Gertie.
'Well,' said Taylor slowly, 'it was this way: I'd put in two years on my homestead and done a lot of clearing. It seemed kind of silly to lose my rights after all that. Then, too, when you've been hailed out once, the chances are it won't happen again, for some years that is, and by that time I ought to have a bit put by.'
'What sort of house have you got?' asked Nora.
'Well, it ain't what you might call a palace, but it's large enough for two.'
'Thinking of marrying, Frank?' asked Marsh.
'Well, I guess it's kind of lonesome on a farm without a woman. But it's not so easy to find a wife when you're just starting on your own. Canadian girls think twice before taking a farmer.'
'They know something, I guess,' said Gertie grimly.
'You took me, Gertie,' laughed her husband.
'Not because I wanted to, you can be sure of that. I don't know how you got round me.'
'I wonder.'
'I guess it was because you was kind of helpless, and I didn't know what you'd do without me.'
'I guess it was love, and you couldn't help yourself.' Gertie stopped her work long enough to make a little grimacing protest.
'I'm thinking of going to one of them employment agencies when I get to Winnipeg,' said Taylor, moving his chair so that he could watch Nora's face, 'and looking the girls over.'
'Like sheep,' said Nora scornfully.
'I don't know anything about sheep. I've never had to do with sheep.'
'And may I ask, do you think that you know anything about women?'
'I guess I can tell if they're strong and willing. And so long as they ain't cock-eyed, I don't mind taking the rest on trust.'
'And what inducement is there for a girl to have you?'
'That's why he wants to catch 'em young, when they're just landed and don't know much,' laughed Trotter uproariously.
'I've got my quarter-section,' went on the imperturbable Frank, quite undisturbed by the laughter caused by Trotter's sally, 'a good hundred and sixty acres with seventy of it cleared. And I've got a shack that I built myself. That's something, ain't it?'
'You've got a home to offer and enough to eat and drink. A girl can get that anywhere. Why, I'm told they're simply begging for service.'
'Y-e-e-s. But you see some girls like getting married. There's something in the word that appeals to them.'
'You seem to think that a girl would jump at the chance of marrying you!' said Nora with rising temper.
'She might do worse.'
'I must say I think you flatter yourself.'
'Oh, I don't know. I know my job, and there ain't too many as can say that. I've got brains.'
'What makes you think so?'
'Well, I can see you're no fool.'
Gertie chuckled with amusement. 'He certainly put one over on you then, Nora.'
'Because you've got no use for me, there's no saying but what others may have.'
'I forgot that there's no accounting for tastes.'
'I can try, can't I?'
