The next day Evelyn made a remark which quite upset them.  She told them that if Fred did all the work he should have more than half the crop.

The twins did not like these occurrences.  Instinctively they felt that a storm was coming.  They began to wonder what would be the best way to avoid trouble.

The prairie-dwellers have a way of fighting a prairie fire which is very effective.  When they see the blue veil of smoke lying close to the horizon, or the dull red glare on the night sky, they immediately start another fire to go out and meet the big fire!

Some such thought as this was struggling in the twins’ brains the day that Rance Belmont came over from the Stopping-House, and in his graceful way asked Mrs. Brydon to go driving with him, an invitation which Fred urged her to accept.  When the drive was over and Rance came in to the twins’ apartments, and on their invitation had a game with them and lost, they were suddenly smitten with an idea.  They began to see how it might be possible to start another fire!

CHAPTER VII.

LADIES’ DAY AT THE STOPPING-HOUSE.

The glory of the summer paled and faded; the crimson and gold of the harvest days had fled before the cold winds of autumn, and now the trees along the bank of the creek stood leafless and bare, trembling and swaying as if in dread of the long winter that would soon be upon them.  The harvest had been cut and gathered in, and now, when the weather was fine, the industrious hum of the threshing-machine came on the wind for many miles, and the column of blue smoke which proclaimed the presence of a “mill” shot up in all directions.

At the Black Creek Stopping-House the real business of the year had begun, for every day heavily-loaded wheat wagons wound slowly over the long trail on their way to Brandon, and the Stopping-House became the foregathering place of all the farmers in the settlement.  At noon the stable yard presented a lively appearance as the “boys” unhitched their steaming teams and led them to the long, straggling straw-roofed stables.  The hay that John Corbett had cut on the meadows of Black Creek and stacked beside the stables was carried in miniature stacks which completely hid the man who carried them into the mangers, while the creaking windlass of the well proclaimed that the water-troughs were being filled.  The cattle who foraged through the straw stack in the field near by always made the mistake of thinking that they were included in the invitation, much to the disgust of Peter Rockett, the chore boy, who drove them back with appropriate remarks.

Inside of the Stopping-House the long dining-room, called “the room,” was a scene of great activity.  The long oilcloth-covered table down the centre of the “room” was full of smoking dishes of potatoes and ham and corned beef, and piled high with bread and buns; tin teapots were at each end of the table and were passed from hand to hand.  There were white bowls filled with stewed prunes and apricots and pitchers of “Goldendrop” syrup at intervals down the table.