William Bigelow Neal

“ Jane laughed, but she recognized his troubled thought under his levity.
“You’re unjust to yourself, John. This is the difference between us. You have all the care and worry. You have the responsibility, not only of your own future— which, if you were alone, would bother you not at all—but also the responsibility of my future and—our children’s future. Don’t you know that the fear of failure is what takes the courage out of a man? What you have to learn is how to forget to be afraid; and you know you will never lose your crutch, so what does the rest matter?”
“It doesn’t matter at all, honey. ”

“ From the lungs of Grahame came the sigh of a man who recognizes defeat. Nothing on God’s green earth could save them now. All was lost, his wheat, his home, his stock, everything gone. Pieces of ice from the size of a pea to big three-cornered chunks larger than hens’ eggs were splashing and bobbing about the yard. With no wind, they were doing little harm, but Grahame drew no comfort from that, for he knew all too well what was behind them, and soon it came. ”

“ On the last day of the cutting Grahame had not been feeling well, and when the long obstinate streak of grain had finally dwindled to nothing and he turned toward home, he realized that something was decidedly wrong. He had dropped the traces and begun to unhitch when a wave of dizziness sent him leaning against the binder frame for support. With a strong man’s disregard and contempt for sickness, he attempted to go on with his task, but his strength gave out altogether, and he slipped to the ground in a heap. ”

“ Beginning with a low hum, the separator’s tone arose gradually to a whirr and thence in a crescendo to a high-pitched droning whine, steadily, monotonously, on and on.
All through the day the big machine kept up its ceaseless whine. Several times snow-squalls swept by, and one or two crossed the field, but it had grown colder during the day and the dry snow did little or no damage. ”

“ There came long hours when Kinear fought with all his might for courage to face the world again—a long uphill fight; but in the end he found a measure of peace, for he knew that after all, he was still Fred Kinear in spite of what the mirror claimed. The steam might have seared his face beyond recognition, but it had not touched his brain, and certainly his soul was intact. He was still a human being, and as such would go forth and take up his work where he had left off. ”

“ At last, worn out by work and worry, Jane went to bed, but just as she was losing consciousness, an idea came to her. If it didn’t snow during the night, she would go to the nearest rig and offer them half the crop if they would come in and thresh it, at once. She woke Grahame, and they discussed it, pro and con, finally deciding there was no other course open to them. Meanwhile the night wind sang its melancholy way around the house, and once the feeble light from the night lamp showed them a single snowflake melting against the windowpane. ”

“ It is not necessary to dwell on Jane’s ride to the nearest telephone nor the long fight the doctor and the sympathetic neighbors helped her put up before Grahame was out of danger. Influenza and pneumonia ran their course day after day, sapping the last ounce of strength from the body of a once strong man, until he lay a mere shadow of himself.
One evening Jane stood at the window, looking out over the field of flax. ”

“ A hasty examination convinced Grahame that life was not extinct, and he set about the only course that might save the flickering spark. Working as fast as was possible with half-numb fingers, he unharnessed and turned loose the stranger’s team. Trying to force them against the storm to a place they did not know would be worse than useless, and once free from sled and harness, they would drift with the storm until they found shelter in a coulee or behind a hill. Pulling the pin from the eveners, he changed his own team to the other sled. ”

“ It was a threshing rig coming down the road that passed their house. Could it be possible that someone was coming to help them? The thought came to Grahame and Jane at the same time, but it seemed too wildly impossible to mention. They could see plainly now, for the engine was almost abreast of the house, and behind it came the great bulk of a separator, lumbering along with its gaunt arms outlined against the sky, while still farther back was the low squat body of the cook-car, followed by an extra water tank and then a long line of horses and racks stretching away into the gloom. ”

“ Some days it rained—if not enough to stop the plow, then just enough to make life miserable for horses and man. Sometimes the field was half obscured by snow-squalls or sleet. More often a hot sun started hard oil running from the axles and brought flecks of foam under the horses’ collars.
When Grahame and Jane had put in their first crop, fortune had favored them. A favorable season with steadily rising prices, enabled them to put up a good set of buildings and buy another quarter section, although purchasing the second, called for a mortgage on the first. ”

“ A second good crop paid up a part of the mortgage on the land, bought additional stock and purchased the machinery they needed; and—then came the deluge. First certain impractical men then in power at the State capitol caused the golden stream of credit to be dammed—gold that had always flowed from the East to carry the farms from crop to crop. People in the East who had money to invest became frightened. ”

“ It’s a better money crop anyway, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but there are too many weeds for flax. It’s got to be wheat, but if we get even a fair crop of wheat we can meet the mortgage on the home place anyway.”
“We are going to get a crop this year. I feel it in my bones.”
“Yep, your bones said the same thing last year, if I remember right; but I didn’t see any crop, did you?”
“No, of course not; but listen, John: we can’t have a failure every year. There’s got to be a change sometime.”
“True as preaching; but if you are talking to brace up my courage, honey girl, you just don’t have to. ”

“ Lastly came years of drouth, until at the time when this story opens, Grahame had staked his last cent. One good crop would go far toward saving him. Another failure meant the loss of all he had.
Day after day he moved up and down the field, and the black streak grew wider and wider. Sometimes he changed to the drill and seeded what he had plowed, and meanwhile there came the soft rains of early spring, soaking up the thirsty earth. In time the first land plowed became a long band of blue-green. When the wheat was in, he changed to oats and finally to a few acres of spelts for hog feed. ”

“ The engine then cut loose, and turning so as to face the separator, backed toward the house far enough to allow for the long drive-belt; there it stopped, and soon the yard was quiet again except for the low whine of imprisoned steam.
Throughout the remainder of the night Grahame and Jane alternately fought for sleep and watched from the window for the dreaded change in the weather. Clouds were scudding across the sky, and there was a feeling of rain or snow in the air. Rain so late in the season would in all probability turn to snow, and so one was as bad as the other. ”

“ The purely analytic stage is common to most boys, but the synthetic period is reached only by the genuine mechanic. At the time his schoolmates were dreaming of laurels to be won in the realms of poetry, Fred was out in the backyard monkeying with a toy steam engine, and when they reached the period of vacations spent on tennis court and lake with racket and banjo, Fred was shoveling coal into a squat, puffy thing that was very hot and greasy, and had adopted the monkey wrench and oilcan as constant companions. ”

“ Jane laughed. “Oh, I’m not losing my grip. I’m only getting a fresh start; but John, as the danger gets nearer and nearer, it takes a lot of nerve never to be afraid, doesn’t it?”
“You bet it does, honey; but me—I’m learning a lot these days. A man doesn’t have to flunk entirely because he is knocked out once. Let’s forget it and go fishing.”
And there was no need for worry. September came without frost following a season of ample moisture. ”

“ For a while Jane returned to her study of the ice-swept field, but she did not show the discouragement of her husband. Instead the light of a strong resolution grew in her eyes, and soon he felt her hand on his arm again.
“John, I’ve thought of something else. I still have the hundred dollars you gave me so I could go to the hospital when—that is, this fall. Let’s take that and buy the seed. It will be enough and some left over for groceries. If we get a crop, there’ll be plenty of money for me, and if we shouldn’t—well, I can get along just as so many other women do. Come, John—come! ”

“ There are two ways of cutting flax. One is to take off the binder attachment and allow the grain to pass to the carrier and be dumped in windrows. The other is to cut it like other grain and shock it. Grahame had decided to go to the additional expense of tying it, as he explained to Jane:
“Because it is so late in the season, there is a chance of snow before we can get it threshed. Even heavy rains would damage it. If it is shocked, you can see how we can save more of it than we could if it’s lying on the ground. It will cost more, but it’s worth it.” ”

“ The team stopped, and Grahame went to investigate. There was a dark shadow ahead, which as he approached resolved itself into another team and sled, evidently going the same way as himself; but the team had stopped and swung the tongue around until they stood back to the storm. The spring seat had fallen from its place, and now dangled from one clamp. In the bottom of the box was the huddled body of a man—a man whom he vaguely recognized by his strangely scarred face as Fred Kinear, a newcomer in the neighborhood. ”

“ The men who raise the nation’s bread have but little time for talk. In twenty minutes John was out again, hitching the six horses to the gang-plow, four abreast across the tongue, and a lead team ahead.
Driving out through the yard, he came to the stubble; and half a mile to the westward he could just see a small piece of fluttering white fixed to a pole. Farther along was another, and at the end of a mile was a third. Maneuvering his team until the three stakes were in line, he drove to the edge of the field. Leaning to one side in his seat, he could see the stakes in line between the horses ”

“ When he was halfway back to the house, Jane opened the door and called to breakfast. He detected the odor of frying ham and quickened his pace. She met him at the door, anxious to know if it had frozen enough to interfere with the plowing, but John reassured her.
“The ground is a little stiff, but the horses can make it all right. I have no time to waste, you know, if I am to seed the whole hundred acres to wheat.”
“If you should be a little late, don’t you suppose you could put the rest into flax? ”

“ Socially he was a success, because like most really strong men to whom the Creator has given a level head as well, he regarded his muscular power as a trust and drew from it the supreme confidence in himself that automatically lifts men of his type above the bully class. ”

“ Kinear for me,” replied Jane. “And please tell him I will have teams here to take the grain and—”
“I was supposed to tell you about that too,” he broke in. “The boss sent his car down here ahead and notified everybody that we should start at daybreak. He has two trucks himself, and there are two more working with the rig, so he thought that maybe, as long as Mr. Grahame won’t be able to do much work this winter, he had better send the flax right to the elevator from the machine, leaving only what you will want for seed here. ”

“ Emerging at the top, they fell forward and down until upraised arms stopped their progress. The long ribbon of grain was fed into the binder, and the packer arms drove it into a solid bundle. When the pressure become too great, a long needle from below, carrying a piece of twine drew it tight through a notch in a disk which already had carried the twine back, thus forming a loop. Now three small steel fingers grasped the twine and revolved once, tying a knot. An instant later another disk revolved and brought a small knife uppermost, to cut the twine just beyond the knot. ”

“ In the house they worked fast shutting windows and getting ready for wind and rain if for nothing worse. The wall of water came on, shutting out mile after mile of fields, crossed the section line on their west and came up through the wheat. ”