describe the man as I knew him, and he is still alive. Some comments
upon the story suggested that it was impossible for a man to spend the
night on the prairie with a woman whom he loved without causing her to
forget her marriage vows. It is not sentimental to say that is nonsense.
It is a prurient mind that only sees evil in a situation of the sort.
Why it should be desirable to make a young man and woman commit a
misdemeanor to secure the praise of a critic is beyond imagination. It
would be easy enough to do. I did it in The Right of Way. I did it in
others of my books. What happens to one man and one woman does not
necessarily happen to another. There are men who, for love of a woman,
would not take advantage of her insecurity. There are others who would.
In my books I have made both classes do their will, and both are true to
life. It does not matter what one book is or is not, but it does matter
that an author writes his book with a sense of the fitting and the true.

Both these books were written to present that side of life in Canada
which is not wintry and forbidding. There is warmth of summer in both
tales, and thrilling air and the beauty of the wild countryside. As for
the cold, it is severe in most parts of Canada, but the air is dry, and
the sharpness is not felt as it is in this damper climate of England.
Canadians feel the cold of a March or November day in London far more
than the cold of a day in Winnipeg, with the thermometer many degrees
below zero. Both these books present the summer side of Canada, which is
as delightful as that of any climate in the world; both show the modern
western life which is greatly changed since the days when Pierre roamed
the very fields where these tales take place. It should never be
forgotten that British Columbia has a climate like that of England,
where, on the Coast, it is never colder than here, and where there is
rain instead of snow in winter.