Opposite to them a few shelves were filled with simple
crockery and cooking utensils, and these also shone spotlessly. There
was a pair of knee boots in one corner with a patch partly sewn on to
one of them, and the harness in another showed traces of careful
repair. A bookcase hung above them, and its somewhat tattered contents
indicated that the man who had chosen and evidently handled them
frequently, possessed tastes any one who did not know that country
would scarcely have expected to find in a prairie farmer. A table and
one or two rude chairs made by their owner's hands completed the
furniture, but while all hinted at poverty, it also suggested neatness,
industry and care, for the room bore the impress of its occupier's
individuality as rooms not infrequently do.
It was not difficult to see that he was frugal, though possibly from
necessity rather than taste, not sparing of effort, and had a keen eye
for utility, and if that suggested the question why with such
capacities he had not attained to greater comfort the answer was
simple. Winston had no money, and the seasons had fought against him.
He had done his uttermost with the means at his disposal, and now he
knew he was beaten.
A doleful wind moaned about the lonely building, and set the roof
shingles rattling overhead. Now and then the stove crackled, or the
lamp flickered, and any one unused to the prairie would have felt the
little loghouse very desolate and lonely.
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