Part 3 (1/2)
”Although you recognize the lesser drawbacks,” he said, ”I'm afraid you miss the most important point. I must remind you that this settlement was founded to enable a certain stamp of Englishmen to enjoy a life that was becoming more difficult without large means at home. A man with simple tastes could find healthy occupation out of doors, keep a good horse, and get as much shooting as he wanted. So long as his farming covered, or nearly covered, his expenses, that was all that was required. We have not discouraged the making of money, but I must frankly say that this was not our object. Now I see threats of change.
We may be brought into contact, and perhaps into opposition, with men whose motives are different. Their coming here has to me a sinister meaning.”
”Allenwood has been a success,” said Broadwood; ”one can't deny it--but I think we owe a good deal to our having settled in a new and undeveloped country. The experiment turned out well because we got the land cheap and wheat was dear. Now I foresee a sharp fall in prices, and it seems to me that we may have to revise our methods to suit the times.
In future, we may find it difficult to live upon our farms unless we work them properly. I'm afraid we can't stand still while Canada moves on--and I'm not sure that it's a great misfortune.”
”Do you admire modern methods?” somebody asked. ”If you do, you'd better study what things are coming to in America and England. There is not a hired man at Allenwood who is not on first-rate terms with his master; do you want to under-pay and over-drive them or, on the other hand, to have them making impossible demands, and playing the mischief by a harvest strike? I agree with our respected leader that we don't want to change.”
”But tell us about these intruders,” Mowbray said to Kenwyne. ”What sort of men are they?”
”Well, first of all, they're workers; there's no mistaking that. And I'd judge that they came from the States--Dakota, perhaps.”
”That is to say, they're hustlers!” a lad broke in. ”Couldn't we buy them out before they get started, sir?”
”It would cost us something to buy a section, and we would have to work part of it to pay the new taxes. Then the fellows would probably find out that it was an easy way of getting a good price; and we couldn't keep on buying them out. We have all the land we want, and must be careful whom we allow to join us.”
”I think we should try to keep an open mind,” Kenwyne suggested. ”It might pay us to watch the men and see what they can teach us. Sooner or later we shall have to improve our farming, and we may as well begin it gradually. After all, it's something to gather two bushels of wheat where only one grew.”
Mowbray looked at him sternly.
”I'm sorry to see you and Broadwood taking this line, Ralph; but I've long suspected that your views were not quite sound. Frankly, I'm afraid of the thin end of the wedge.” He turned to the others. ”You will understand that there can be no compromise. We shall continue to live as English gentlemen and have nothing to do with the grasping commercialism that is getting a dangerous hold on the older countries. I will do my best to keep Allenwood free from it while I have the power.”
”Whatever my private opinions are, I think you know you can rely on my loyal support in all you do for the good of the settlement, sir,”
Kenwyne replied. ”Now that we have the matter before us, it might be well if you told us how we are to treat these Americans. We're bound to meet them.”
”I cannot suggest discourtesy, since it would be foreign to your character and against our traditions; but I do not wish you to become intimate with them.”
When the meeting broke up an hour later, Broadwood walked home with Kenwyne. It was a small and unpretentious house that perched on the hillside beyond the lake, but the room the men entered was comfortably furnished. A few photographs of officers in uniform, the football team of a famous public school, and the crew of an Oxford racing boat, hung on the pine-board walls.
”We must have a talk,” said Kenwyne. ”I feel that these fellows'
settling here is important; it's bound to make a difference. I know the type; one can't ignore them. They'll have to be reckoned with, as friends or enemies.”
”In spite of the Colonel's opinion, I believe their influence will be for good. What Allenwood needs most is waking up.” Broadwood laughed.
”It's curious that we should agree on this. Of course, my marriage is supposed to account for my perversion; but one can understand Mowbray's painful surprise at you. Your views ought to be sound.”
”What is a sound view?”
”At Allenwood, it's a view that agrees with Mowbray's.”
”Let's be serious,” Kenwyne replied. ”There's something to be said for his contention, after all. We have got along pretty well so far.”
”Yes; but the settlement has never been self-supporting. Mowbray got the land for nothing and sold it in parcels, as he was ent.i.tled to do, spending part of the price on improvements from which we all benefit.
Then a number of the boys got drafts from home when they lost a crop.
We have been living on capital instead of on revenue; but the time is coming when this must stop. Our people at home can't keep on financing us, and the land is nearly all taken up.”
”Well, what follows?”