This story is an example of Canadian “Prairie fiction.” This genre of writing appeared in the early twentieth century, and was characterized by realistic characters and landscape. Consider the very first sentence of the story: it illustrates the harsh landscape and isolation pf the prairie.
Straight across the hills it was five miles from John’s farm to his fathers. But in winter, with the roads impassable, a team had to make a wide detour and skirt the hills, so that from five the distance was more than trebled to seventeen.