Chapter VII
a plantation s good for ten y e a r n otioe
It's started. I’ve been reading up on It.
The new way la to plant asparagus In
row», the way you would rhubarb or
corn. Plant six feet apart, and four
acres anyway.”
He was not even aufllclently Inter­
ested to he amused. “Yeh. four acres
where? In the clay land, maybe.” He
did laugh then. If the short bitter
sound he made could be construed as
Indicating mirth. "Out of a book."
"In the cl<g land," Selina urged,
crisply. “And out of a book. That
west sixteen Isn't bringing you any­
thing, to what difference doe« It make
if I am wrong 1 Let roe put my own
nioney Into It, I've thought It all out.
Pervus Please. We ll underdraiu the
clay soli. Just five or six acres, to
start.
We’ll manure It heavily- _
much as we can afford—and then for
two years we’ll plant potatoes there
vVe’ll put to our asparagus plants the
third spring—one-year-old seedlings.
I’ll promise to keep It weeded— Dirk
and L He’ll be a big boy by that time.
Let me try It, Pervus. Let me try."
In the end sbe had her way, partly
because Pervus was too occupied with
his own endless work to oppose her;
and partly because he was, In hla un
demonstrative way, still In love with
his vivacious, nlmble-wltted. high-
spirited wife, though to her frantic
goadlngs and proddlngs he was as
phlegmatically oblivious us an elephant
to a pin prick.
Though she worked as hard as any
woman In High Prairie, had as little,
dressed as badly, he still regarded her
as a luxury; an exquisite toy which,
in a moment of madness, he had taken
Dirk was eight; Little Sobig Dejong
in i »nil made of beua-HM«iting sewvd
togi ilit r by |,is mother. A brown blond
boy With mosquito bites on hla legs
and his logs never still. Nothing of the
dreamer about thia lad. The oM-room
schoolhouse of Selina’» day had been
replaced by a two-story brick struc­
ture. very fine, of which High Prelrle
»as vastly proud
The rusty Iron
s ove had been dethroned by a central
eater. Dirk went to school from Oc-
t 'her until June. Pervus protested
that this was foolish. The boy could
he of great help In the fields from the
ILLUSTRATIONS
l egn.umg of April to tlie first of No-
etul .-r. but Selina fought savagely
BY CLARA AGNEW.
lor bis schooling, and won.
C o p y rig h t by
“Sobig Isn't a truck farmer."
D o ib le d a y . P a g e a C o .
“Well, he will be pretty s o o n . T ___
W N J Servi oc
im e
I was fifteen I was running our place.
Verbally Selina did not combat thia.
LContuiuoa)
But within her every force was gather­
or standing over a hot stove in Augcs-
'Belina had been married almost Women’s work 1 Housework’s tin ing to fight It when the time should
come. Her Sobig a truck farmer, a
three years when there came to her a hardest work In the world. That's wh
slave to the soil, bent by It, beaten by
letter from Julie Hempel, now married. men won’t do it."
It, b'asted by It. so that he, In time,
The letter had been sent to the Klaas
She would often take the boy Dlr
like the other men of High Prairie,
Pool farm and Jozina had brought it with her Into the fields, placing hi;
would take on the very look ef the
ttj her. Seated on her kitchen steps In on a heap of empty sacks In the shad
rocks and earth among which they
her calico dress she read It
He Invariably crawled off this lowl
tolled I
"Darling Selina
throne to dig and burrow In the wan
Dirk, at eight, was a none too hand
*T thought it was so queer that you
didn’t answer my letter, and now 1 btack dirt. He even made as though some child, considering his father and
know that you must have thought II to help his mother, pulling at the root­ moiher—or his father and mother as
queer that I did not answer yours. I ed things with futile fingers, and sit­ they had been. It was not until he
found your letter to me, written long ting back with a bump when a shallow was seventeen or eighteen that he was
ago, when I was going over mother’s root did unexpectedly yield to his tug­ to metamorphose suddenly into a
graceful and aristocratic youngster
things last week. It was the letter ging.
“L ock ! He’s a farmer already," Per- with an ^definable look abffft? him of
you must have written when I was In
Ustlnctlon and actual elegance.
Kansas City. Mother had never given vus could say."
So two years «sent—three years—
It to me.
"Mamma died three weeks ago. Last four. In the fourth year of Selina's
week I was going over her things—a marriage she suffered the loss of her
trying task, you muy Imagine— and one woman friend In High Prairie.
there were your two letters addressed Maartje Pool died In childbirth, as was
so often the case In this region where
to me. She bad never destroyed them
a Qamplah midwife acted as nbstretrl-
Poor mamma . . .
"Well, dear Selina, I suppose you cian. The child, too, had not lived.
don’t even know that I am married. 1 Death had not been kind to Maartje
married Michael Arnold of Kansas Pool. It had brought neither peace
City. The Arnolds were In the pack­ nor youth to her face, as It often does.
ing business there, you know. Michael Selina, looking down at the strangely
has gone Into business with pa here In still figure that had been so active, so
Chicago and I suppose you have heard bustling, realized that for the first time
of pa's success. Just all of a sudden In the years she had known her she
be began to make a great deal of was seeing Maartje Pool at rest. It
seemed Incredible that she could lie
money after he left the butcher bus!
ncss and went Into the yards—the there, the Infant In her arms, while
stock yards, you know. Poor mamma the houss was filled with people and
was go happy these last few years, there were chairs to be handed, space
to be cleared, food to be cooked and
and bad everything that wus beautiful
I have two children—Eugene and served. Sitting there with the other
High Prairie women Selina had a
Pauline.
“I am getting to be quite a society hideous feeling that Maartje would
person. You would laugh to see me. suddenly rise up and lake things In
charge; rub and scratch with capable
1 am on the ladles' entertainment coin
for himself. “L ittle U n a”—tolerantly,
mlttee of the World’s fair. We are fingers the spatters of dried mud on
Selina wns a farm woman now, near­ fondly. You would have thought that
supposed to entertain all the visiting Klims Pool's black trousers (he had
been
In
the
ynrd
to
see
to
the
h
orses);
ing thirty. The work rode her aa It he spoiled her, pampered her. Per­
big hug9—that Is the lady bugs. There I
quiet the loud walling of Geertje and Had ridden Maartje Pool. In the De- haps he even thought he did.
How Is that for a Joke?
That was Pervua. Thrifty, like hla
"I suppose you know about the In­ Jozlnu; pass her gnarled hand over Jong yard there wag always a dado of
Faded overalls, a shirt, kind, but unlike them In shrewdness.
fanta Eulalle. Of Spain, you know. Ito elfs wlde-starlng eyes, wipe the washing.
Him
of
dust
from
the
parlor
table
that
socks, a boy’s drawer« grotesquely Penny wise, pound foolish; a charac­
And what she did about the Potter
had never known a speck during her patched and mended, towels of rough teristic that brought him his death.
Palmer hall. . . ."
sacking She, too. rose at four, snatched September, usually a succession of
Selina, the letter In ber work- regime.
"You can’t run far enough,” Maartje up shapeless garments, Invested her­ golden days and hazy opalescent eve­
stulned hand, looked up and across the
had said. “Except you stop living you self with them, seized her great coll of nings on the Illinois prairie land, was
fields and away to where the prairie
enn't run uwa.v from life."
Hne cloudy hair, twisted It Into a disastrously cold and rainy that year.
met the sky and closed In on her; her
Well, she hud run far enough this utilitarian knob and skewered It with Pervus' great frame was racked by
world. The Infanta Eulalle of Spain
time.
a hHlrpln from which the vurnlsh had rheumatism. He was forty now, and
. . . She went buck to the letter.
Roclf was sixteen now, Geertje
“Well, she came to Chicugo for the twelve, Jozina eleven. What would long departed, leaving It a dull gray; over, still of magnificent physique, so
fair and Mrs. Potter Palmer was to this household do now, Selina won­ thrust her slim feet Into shapeless that to see him suffering gave Selina
give a huge reception and ball for her. dered, without the woman who had shoes, dabbed her face with cold wafer, the pangs of pity that one has at sight
hurried to the kitchen stove. The Work of the very strong or the very weak
Mrs. P. la head of the whole commit
been so faithful a slave to It? Who
tee, you know, and I must say she would keep the pigtails—no longer was always at her heels, Its breath hot In pain. He drove the weary miles to
market three times a week, for Sep­
looks queenly with her white hair so giggling—In clean ginghams and de­ on her neck.
Seeing her thus one would have tember was the last big month of the
beautifully dressed and her diamond cent square-toed shoes? Who, when
dog-collar and her black velvet and all. Klaas broke out In rumbling Dutch thought that the Selina Peake of the truck farmer's season. Selina would
Well, at the very last minute the In­ «rath ngalnat what he termed R oelfs wine-red rushmere, the fun-loving dis­ watch him drive off down the road In
position, the hlgh-Rpirlted courage, had the creaking eld market wagon, the
fanta refused to attend the ball be
"dumb" ways, would say, “Og, Pool,
cause she hud Just heard that Mrs. P. leave the boy alone once. He does departed forever. But these things green stuff protected by canvas, hut
was an Innkeeper’s wife. Im agine! nothing." Who would keep Klaas him­ still persisted. For that matter, even Pervus wet before ever he climbed Into
the wine-red cashmere clung to ex­ the seat. There never seemed to be
The Palmer house, of course."
self In order; cook Ills meals, wash his istence. So bopefSMy old-fashioned enough waterproof canvas for both.
Selina, holding the letter In her
clothes. Iron his shirts, take a pride in now as to be almost picturesque. It
“Pervus, take It off those sacks and
hand, Imagined.
the great ruddy childlike giant?
hung In Selina's closet like a rose put It over your shoulders."
It was In the third year of Selina's
Klaas answered these questions just
“That's them white globe onions.
marriage that she first went Into the nine months later by marrying the memory. Sometimes when she came
upon it in an orgy of cleaning the The last of ’em. I can get a fancy
Widow Paarlenberg,
High Prairie would pass her rough bands over Its
was rocked with surprise. For months soft folds and by that magic process price for them, but not If they're all
this marriage was the talk of the dis­ Mrs. Pervus He Jong vanished In a wetted down.”
“Don't sleep on the wagon tonight,
trict. So Insatiable was High Prai­ pouf and In her place wag the girl
rie's curiosity that every scrap of Selina Peake perched a-tlptoe on a Pervus. Sleep In. Be sure. It saves
news was swallowed nt a gulp. When soap box In Adam Gome' hall while all In the end. You know the last time
the word went round of R oelfs flight High Prairie, open-mouthed, looked on yon were laid up for a week ”
"It'll clear. Breaking now over there
from the farm, no one knew where. as the Impecunious Pervus Dejong
It served only as sauce to the great threw ten hard-earned dollars at ber In the west."
The clouds did break late In the af­
dish of gossip.
feet.
Selina had known
Pervus was
It would be gratifying to be able to ternoon; the false sun came out hot
away at the market when Roelf had record that In these eight or nine years and bright. Pervus slept out In the
knocked at the farrahouae door one Selina had been able to work wonders Haymarket, for the night was d ose
night at eight, had turned the knob m the DeJong farm; that the house and bumld. At midnight the lake wind
and entered, as usual. Rut there was glittered, the crops thrived richly, the sprang up, cold and treacherous, and
nothing of the usual about his appear­ barn housed sleek cattle. But It could with It came ttie rain again. Pervus
ance. He wore bis best suit—hl» first not he truthfully said. True, she bad was drenched by morning, chilled,
suit of store clothes, bought at the achieved some changes, but at the cost thoroughly miserable. A hot cup of
time of his mother’s funeral. It never of terrific effort. A less Indomitable coffee at four and another at ten when
had fitted him ; now It was grotesquely woman would have sunk into apathy the rush of trading was over stimu­
small for him. He had shot up amaz­ yeurs before. The house bad a coat of lated him but little. When be reached
Selina
ingly in the last eight or nine months. paint—lead-gray, because It was cheap­ home It waa raid-afternoon.
Yet there was nothing of the ridicu­ est. There were two horses—the sec­ put him to bed against h it half-hearted
lous about him as he stood there be ond a broken-down old mare, blind in protests. Ranked him with hot water
fore her now, tall, lean, dark. He put one eye, that they had picked up for Jars, a hot Iron wrapped tn flannel at
hla feet. Rut later came fever Instead
down his cheap yellow suitcase.
five dollars after It had been turned
of the expected relief of perspiration
"Well, Roelf."
out to pasture for future sale ss horse
“I am going away. I couldn’t stay." carcass. A month of rest and pastur­ 111 though he was, he lookedjnore ruddy
and hale than most men In health;
She nodded. "Where?”
age restored the mare to usefulness.
“Away. Chicago maybe." Ho was Selins had made the bargain, and Per­ but suddenly Selina, startled, saw
terribly moved, so he made his tone vus bad scolded her roundly for IL black lines like gaahea etched under
casual. “They came home last night. Now he drove the tnare to market, saw hla eyes, about hla mouth. In hla
I have got some books that belong to that she pulled more sturdily than the cheeks.
Io a day when pneumonia waa
you.” He made aa though to open the other horse, but had never retracted.
known aa lung fever and In a locality
• ’ « Would Tak« D irk W ith H e r Into suitcase.
It waa no quality of meanness In him. that advised closed windows and hot
“No, no ! Keep them.”
»ho Fiolda, Placing H im on a Heap
Pervus merely was like th at
air aa a remedy, Pervus* battle w et
“Good-by."
• f Empty Sacks In the 8hade.
But the west sixteen! That had
“Good-by, Roelf " She took the boy*» been Selina's most heroic achievement. lost before the doctor’» hooded buggy
fields to work. Pervus had protested dark heud In her two hands and, stand
was seen standing In the yard for long
Her plan, spoken of to Pervus In the hours through the night.
Toward
n
though the vegetables were Ing on tiptoe, kissed him. He turned
first month of her marriage, had taken
•polling m , he ground
to go. "Walt a minute. Walt a years to mature; even now was but a morning the doctor had Jan Steen
stable the horse.
It was a sultry
S’ lina had regained health and vlgm minute." She had a few dollars—in
partial triumph. Sbe had even de­ night, with flashes of heat lightning In
•Per two years of wretchedness. She quarters, dimes, hn'f dollars—perhaps
scended to nagging.
the west.
e * steel-strong and even hopeful ten dollars In all—hidden away In a
"Why don't we put In asparagus?"
”1 should think If you opened the
•g-dn, sure sign of physical well-being
canister on the shelf. She reached for
“Asparagus I" considered something windows," Selina said to the old High
-ong before now the hail realized the
It. But when she came back with the
of a luxury, and rarely included In the Prairie doctor over and over, embold­
' s time must Inevitably come. S
b x In ber hand he was goQ£.
IWgti Prairie truck fanner's product*. ened by terror, “It would help him to
•Be answered briskly, "Nonsense. P.
“And w ait three years for a crop I”
breathe. He—he's breathing so—he's
Js Working In the field's no horde
“Yes, but then we'd have IL And
“h wsshing or Ironing or scrubbing
ßY E D N A il
FE R B E R jl
We want you to investigate our
•
MARCH JS, IHf.A
MURAL BNTERPRI s R
T h is uwy o f romance
EAST
G o by tra in and «hip, th ro u g h the
S ou thland to N ew Y o rk — it coats but
little niore.
liv e superbSA oiturouter- C a lifo rn ia
— (fo u r fin e trains d a ily )- .hence the
scenic Sunset route throug! (he South­
land to N e w O rleans.
Y o u ’l l relish y o u r m ra ls In th e
S o u th e rn P a c ific d in in g a r — fresh
fru it» and vegetables always a delicious
feature.
C o n n ec tio n at N a w O rle ns w ith pa­
la tia l steamers fo r N e w Y >ik — rncala
and b e rth included in the o e fate.
A sk about C arriso Goi; ■ route
from San Diego— A p a rt e T r a il
delour o f A riz o n a .
Stopovers en route. Fo r fu rther
in fo rm a tio n , ask
Southern Pacific
C . P. M O O DY,A gent
FURNITURE •
DEPARTMENT
LUXE BEDSPRING
•
H IL L &<°
(Continued on page 6)
;
• built for comfort and durability
FOR R E N T
<
Oregon
Phone 226
risen at three in (tie morning, not
only that, she bad got Jan up, grum­
bling
Dirk hud Joined them In the
fields at five. Together the three of
them hud pulled aud bunched a wagon
load. “Size them," Selina ordered, aa
they started to bunch radishes, beets,
• when your wants are in this line. Our stock is«
• attractive in both design and price.
'
£ We call your special attention to the
(
•D E
PAGE 3
8-Room House, 6
Acres aud Barn
’
within the city limits. >12 month.
W . .1, Ribelin, Halsey.
Z ^A S II P A ID for false teeth, den-
tai gold, platinum and discarded
jew elry.
Hoke Sm elting and
Refining
C».. Otsego, Mich,
H a ll’s C a ta rrh
Medicine
Treatment, both
local and Internal, and haa been tucceae»
ful In the treatment of Catarrh foe oves
forty years Sold by all druggist».
F. J. C H E N E Y fit C O „ Toledo, Ohio
*Hs— H e’s Breathing So— " 8 h t Could
Not Bring Herself to Say, “ So T e r­
ribly."
la your child mckirig good prog­
ress at echool ?
I f your child is not making a
satisfactory average at school you
should find out why. Defective
eyesight is often responsible tor
on or progress in studies Don’t
□ wait longer. Find out for i o n -
now.
breathing so—" She could not hflng
herself to say, "so terribly." The
sound of the words wrung her as did
the sound of bis terrible breathing.
•
•
•
•
•
•
S'
Perhaps the most poignant and
touching feature of the days that fol­
lowed was not the sight of this stricken
giant, lying majestic and aloof in hts
unwonted black; nor ut the hoy Dirk,
aystlfled but eluted, too, with the un
iccustoroed stir and excitem ent; nor
if the shabby little farm that seemed
to shrink and dwindle Into further In-
■ilgnlticance beneath the sudden pub­
licity turned upon IL No; It wus the
Ight ot Selina, widowed, but having no
time for decent tears The farm was
there; It must he tended. Illness,
tenth, sorrow—the garden must be
tended, the vegetables pulled, hauled
to market, sold. Upon the garden de­
pended the boy’s future, and hers.
For the first few days following the
funeral one or another ot tlie neigh
Optometrists. Jewelers
boring farmers drove the Dejong team
and
manufacturing opticiaut
to murket, aided the blundering Jan
ALBANY
in the fields. Bnt each had hts hands
full with bis own farm work. On the
llfth day Jan Steen had to take the
garden truck to Chicago, though no!
without many misgivings on Selina's
LA W Y E R AND NOTARY
part, all of which were realised when
he returned late next day with lialf the
H alsbt , O rboon
load still on his wagon and a sum of
money representing exactly zero In
profits.
Selina was standing In tlie kitchen
doorway, Jsn In the yard with the
team She turned her face toward the
fields An observant person (Jsn Steen
Motor Hearse.
was not one of these! would have noted Efficient Service.
l,ady Attendant.
the singularly determined and clear-cut
Jaw line of thia drably callcoed farm H row n aville..... . . . . . . . . ____ riragon
woman.
"I'll go myself Monday."
Jan stared. “Go? Go where, Mon­
day?"
w . L- W R IG H T
“To market.”
Mortician & Funeral Director
At this seeming pleasantry Jsn SteeD
lialaey and Harriabnrg
smiled uncertainly, shrugged hla ahoul-
Call D. T avi . or , lialaey, or
ders. and was off to the barn. She
W . L . W S IG H T. H a rria b n rg
wsa always saying things that didn't
make sense His horror and unbelief
were shared by the rest of High Prairie
when on Monday Selina literally took
the reins In her own slim work-scarred
h sudet
"To market I” argued Jan as excited­
ly ss hit phlegmatic nature would per
mlt. "A woman the don't go to market.
W o rk
A woman—"
"This woman does."
Selina had
J. W S TC P H E
ON.
Meade & Aibro,
Amor A. Tussi ng
DELBERT STARR
Funtral Director and Li­
censed Erabalmer
BARBER
SHOP
Firsl-class