Three agencies have been mainly responsible for the peaceful and prosperous peopling of the West. Two of them, the R.N.W.M.P. and the Hudson's Bay Company, have long ago received recognition for their part in this marvel of empire-building. But there is another whose achievement is but little known or lightly heralded. It is WOMAN. Wives and daughters of the bearded pioneers who conquered Canada's plains trekked west _with_ them; lived in lowly sod-houses; shared all hardships; made instant Home wherever the oxen were unyoked. These women helped tame a wilderness, and wherever they went was law and order. Elsewhere in Western America, the hotbloods, the blacksheep and fortune hunters sloughed off from a rising civilization went into the West without the good influence of womenfolks--and straight-way became "bad men," "killers" and "road-agents." Because nearly every early Canadian in the West had found _good women_ nearby, there was no "Wild West." And the influence of Canadian women is still alive--on the farms, in the factories, the stores and in the modern civic life of this oldtime buffalo kingdom of the Northwest. Abroad at Home WHAT has become of the old-fashioned winter? We would like to know the feelings of that self-exiled band who fled the wholesome prairies of Canada last fall, as they open up their home papers on some Californian strand and read of the ice famine in Iceland; of the hens laying and the dandelions sprouting in Canada, in December; of outdoor swimming at Vancouver; of spring-like mornings in Manitoba, with birds singing and school boys laying off overcoats at play. Enthusiasm ENTHUSIASM is the spark which fires the fuel of ability and personality to do its work. Without Enthusiasm, these qualities are dormant and ineffective--mere potentialities of power. A man may overcome error; he may lack judgment and acquire it; he may make mistakes and remedy them; but he can do none of these things without enthusiasm. To have enthusiasm is a matter of "morale"; if you believe in yourself and believe in the things you do, Enthusiasm is sure to ignite your dormant power and bring out your capacities to their utmost accomplishment. Conquer doubt, Enthusiasm's greatest foe. Be enthusiastic in the doing of even the smallest job! Ideals NO INSTITUTION ever amounted to anything until some man or group of men back of it established an Ideal and set out to attain it. The realization of any Ideal, or the success of any business which is struggling toward an Ideal, requires conviction. _Skepticism, cynicism and pessimism never made a dollar for anyone._ H.B.C. has an Ideal and that is to _serve_. Too often, indeed, this is said by business firms in a trite, meaningless, parrot-fashion way; but not so with the Hudson's Bay Company.