(Continuati I
senna, having louded the wagon In
B»ore. He doesn’t Mke It Dirk. That's
I she's going to starve there, and hei
a fine name. Dirk Dejong. . . . No
drlftlDg aiong for him. I’ll see that he 1 boy with h er! Staying home In np
starts with a plan, and follows It. kitchen won’t earn me any money. I' ii
He’!: have every chance. Every chance.
Too late for me, now, but h ell be dif
ferent..................Twenty-second street
Twelfth. . , . Look at all
the people! . . . I'm enjoying thia.
No use denjing It. I’m enjoying thia.
Just as I enjoyed driving along with
Klaus Pool that evening, years and
ears ago. Scared, but enjoying It.
erl.ips I oughtn't to be— but that's
ypoerttical and sneaking. Why not.
t 1 really do enjoy It I I’ll wuke
1m. . . . Dirk I Dirk, we'rfi al
most there. Look ut all the people.
nd the lights. We're almost there.”
The boy awoke, raised himself from
ils bed of sacking, looked about,
blinked, sank hnck again und curled
Into a ball. “Don't want to see tlie
lights. . . . people. . . .”
He was asleep again. Selina guided
the horses skillfully through the down
town streets. They were within two
blocks of the Haymarket, on Ran
dolph street.
"Dirk! Come, now. Come up here
with mother." Grumbling, be climbed
large and small, of the poor little farm
the yard, surveyed It with more sparkle j holding.
la her eye than High Prairie would
On down the road. Here a head at a
hsv« approved IE a widow of little front room window. There a woman s
more than a week. They had picked ; callcoed figure standing In the door
and bunched only the best of the lute way. Mrs. Vander Sljde on the porch, to the seat, yawned, smacked his up
crop. ' Selina stepped back and re I fanning her (lushed face with her rubbed his knuckles Into his ejes.
Soon he was awake, and toukin,
garded the riot of crimson and green, apron; Cornelia Snip In the yard pre-
, tending to lie up the drooping stalks ubout him Interestedly. They turne.
of white und gold and purple.
“Aren’t they beautiful! Dirk, aren't of the golden glow and eyeing the ap In’o the Haymarket. The wagons wer.
proaching teum with the livid gossip's streaming In from the Geru.un truck
they beautiful!"
Dirk, cupering In his excitement at gaze. To these Selina waved, bowed, farms that lay to the north of Chicago
as well us from the Dutch farms tha:
the prospect of the trip before him, called.
"How d’you do, Mrs. Vander Sljd * 1” my to the southwest, whence Salina
shook his head Impatiently.
A prim reply to this salutation. l> s- came. Fruits und vegetables—tons of
“I don’t know what you mean. Let’s
go, mother. Aren't we golDg now? appro.al writ large on the furm-wUe's 't acres of it—piled in the wagons
•
that blocked the historic square.
You said as soon as the load was on.” ■ flushed face.
"Ob, Soblg, you’re Just exactly like ! “Hello, Cornelia!’’
A pretended start, notable for its bad
your—” She stopped.
acting. "Ob. Is It you, Mrs. De.Iong!
“Like my what?”
“We'll go now, son. There’s cold Sun's In my eyes. I couldn't thiuk It
meat for your supper, Jan, and pota was you like that.”
Women’s eyes, hostile, cold, peering.
toes all sliced for frying and half an
Five o'clock. Six. The boy climbed
apple pie left from noon. You ought
to get In the rest of the squash and over the wheel, filled a tin pall with
pumpkins by evening. Maybe I can water ut a farmhouse well. They ate
sell the lot Instead of taking them In und drank as they rode along, for there
wus no time to lose.
by the load. I'll see a commission
The boy lmd started out bravely
man. Take less, If I have to.”
She had dressed the boy In his home enough in the heat of the day, Bitting
made suit cut down from one of his up very straight beside his mother,
father’s. He wore a wlde-brlmmed calling to tile horses, shrieking and
straw hat which he hated. Selina her w iring his arms at chickens tliut flew
self, In a full-skirted black-stulT dress, i Squawking across the road. Now he
begun to droop.
mounted the wagon agilely, took up the
“Sleepy, Soliig?’
reins, looked down at the boy seated
"No, Should say not.”
His lids
beside her, clucked to the horses. Jan
were heavy, sh e wrapped the old
Steen gave vent to a Anal outraged
black fascinator about him. In the
bellow.
twilight the dust gleumed white on
”N e v « In my life did I hear of such
weed?, and brush, und grass. The far
a thing 1“
off mellow aonunce of a cowbell.
Selina turned the horses’ heads Horses' hoofs clopping up behind them
toward the city. “You’d be surprised, a wagon pussing In a cloud of dust, a Through this little section, and South
Jan, to know of all the things you're cut Ions backward glance, or a greeting Water street that lay to the east, passed
all Ihe verdant growing things that fed
going to hear of some day that you've exchanged.
Chicago's millions. Something of this
never heard of before." Still, when
One of the Ooms boys, or Jakob
come to Selina us she maneuvered leu
twenty years had passed Mnd the Ford,
Boofitsnin. “You're never going to mur
way through the throng. She felt a
the phonograph, the radio, and the
ket, Mis' De.Iong!" staring with china
little thrill of significance, of achieve
rural mall delivery had dumped the blue eyes at her load.
ment. She knew the spot she warned
world at Jan's plodding feet he liked
"Yes, I am, .Mr. Boonismn.”
for her own. It was Just across the
to tell of that momentous day when
“That ain’t work for a woman. Mis’
Selina D ejong had driven off to market De.Iong. You better stay home and let way from Chris Spanknoehel’s restau-
ant, rooming house, and saloon. Chris
like a man with a wagon load of hand- the men folks go.”
knew her; had known Pervus for years
scrubbed garden truck and the boy
Selina’s men folks looked up at her and his father before him; would be
Dirk perched beside her on the seat.
—one with the asking eyes of a child,
If, then, you had been traveling the one with the trusting eyes of a dog. kind to her and the boy In case of
II a Is ted road, you would have seen a “My men folks are going," answered need.
Dirk was wide awake now; eager,
decrepit wagon, vegetable laden, driven Selina. But then, they hail always
by a too thin woman, sallow, bright- : thought her a little queer, so It didn't excited. He called to the horses;
stood up in the w agon; but clung closer
eyed. In a shapeless-black dress, a bat matter much.
io her as they found themselves In the
tered black felt hat that looked like
She urged Hie horses on, refusing to thick of the melee.
a man's old “fedora” and probably
confess to herself her dread of the
"Here's a good place, mother. H ere!
was. On the sent beside her yon destination which they were approach
There’s a dog on that wagon like Pom."
would have seen a farm boy of nine or
ing. Lights now, In the houses along
Pom, hearing his name, stood up,
thereabouts—a brown freckle-faced lad
the way. and those houses closer to
In a comlcglly home-made suit of gether. The boy slept. Night had looked Into the boy's face, quivered,
wagged a nervous tall, barked sharply.
clothes and a struw hat with a broken come on.
“Down, Pom ! Quiet, Pom !” She did
and flopping brim which he was for
The figure of the woman drooped a not want to attract attention to herself
ever Jerking off only to have It set
little now as the old wagon creaked and the boy. It was still early. She
firmly on again by the woman who
on toward Chicago. A very small fig had made excellent time. Pervus hud
seemed to fear the effects of the hot
ure In the black dress and a shawl over often slept In snatches as he drove Into
afternoon sun on his close-cropped
her shoulders. She had taken off her town and the horses had lagged, but
head.
old black felt hat. The breeze ruffled Selina hnd urged them on tonight.
At their feet was the dog Pom. a
her hair that was fine and soft, and It Halfway down the block Selina espied
mongrel wltose tall bore no relation to
made a little halo about the white face (lie place she wanted. From the oppo
his head, whose Ill-assorted legs ap that gleamed almost luminously In the
site direction catne a truck fanner's
peared wholly at variance with his
darkness as she turned it up toward cart obviously making for the same
sturdy barrel of a body.
He dozed
the sky.
stand. For the first time that night
now. for It had been his duty to watch
“I'll sleep out with Soblg in the Selina drew the whip out of Its socket
the wagon loud at night, while Pervus
wagon. It won’t hurt either of ns. and clipped sharply her surprised nags
slept.
It will be warm in town, there in the With a start and a shuffle they broke
A shabby enough little outfit, but
Haymarket. Twenty-five cents—maybe Into an awkward lope. Ten seconds
magnificent, too. Here was Selina De-
fifty for the two of us, in the rooming too late the Gentian fanner perceived
Jong, driving up the Halsted road house. Fifty cents Just to sleep. It
her Intention, whipped up his Own tired
toward the city Instead of sitting, takes hours of work In the fields to
team, arrived nt the spot Just as Se
black-robed, in the farm parlor while make fifty cents.”
lina, blocking the way, prepared to
High Prairie came to condole. In Sc
She drove along in (he dark, a dowdy back Into the vacant space.
llna, ns they Jogged along the ffot
"Heh, get out of there you—” he
dusty way, there welled up s feeling farm woman In shapeless garments;
roared; then, for the first time, per
very like elation. More than ten years Just a bundle on the rickety scut of ceived In the dim light of the street
ago she had driven with Klaus Pool up a decrepit truck wagon. The lights of that his rival was a woman. He fal
that same road for the first time, and the city came nearer. She was think
tered, stared open-mouthed, tried other
In spite of the recent tragedy of her ing clearly, If disconnectedly, without tactics.
“You can't go in there,
bitterness,
without
reproach.
father’s death, .her youth, her loneli
missus.”
"My
father
was
wrong.
He
said
that
ness, the terrifying thought of the
'Oh, yea, I can.” She backed her
new home to which she was going, a life was a great adventure—a fine team dexterously.
Stranger among strangers, she had show. He said the more things that
“Yes. we can!" shouted Dirk In an
been conscious of a warm little thrill happen to you the richer you are, even attitude of fierce belligerence.
If
they're
not
pleasant
things.
That's
of elation, of excitement—of adven
“Where's your man?" demanded the
tore! That was It. "The whole thing's living, he said. No matter what hap- defeated driver, glaring.
Just a grand adventure.” her father, pens to you, good or bad, It's just so
■'Here,'' replied Selina: pul her hand
8lmeon Peake, had said. And now the much—what wag that word he used? on Dirk's head.
sensations of that day were repeating —so much—oh, yes—'velvet' Just so
The other, preparing to drive on, re
themselves. Now, as then, she took much velvet. Well, It Isn't true. He celved this with Incredulity.
He as
had
brains,
and
chunn,
and
knowledge
stock. Youth was gone, but she had
sumed the existence of a husband in
health, courage; a boy of nine: twenty- and he died in a gambling house, shot the neighborhood—at Chris Spanknoe-
five acres of wornout farm lan d ; while looking on at someone else who bel’a probably, or talking prices with s
dwelling and outhouses In a had state was to have been killed. . . . Now friend at another wagon when he
of repair; and a gay advpntnresome we're ou the cobblestones. Will Dirk should be here attending to his own
spirit that was never to die, though It wake up? My little So Big. . . . No. In the absence ?f tills, her natural pro
led her Into enrlous places and she lie's asleep. Asleep on a pile of po- tector, he relieved Ills disgruntled feel
often found, at the end, only a track tnto sacks because his mother thought ing* ss he gathered np the reins.
less w aste from which she had to re that life was a grand adventure—a "Woman ain’t got no business here In
trace her steps painfully. But always fine show—and that yon took It as It Haymarket, anyway.
Better you're
to her. red and green cabbages were to cume. A lie! I've taken it as It came home night time In your kitchen where
and
made
the
best
of
It.
That
Isn’t
be Jade and burgundy, chryaopraae and
the way. You take ihe best, and make you belong.”
porphyry. Life has no weapon» against
This admonition, so glibly monthed
the moat of It. . . . Thirty-fifth
a woman like that.
u eet, that was. Another hour and a by so many people In the past few
Down the hot dusty country road j
b If to reach the Haymarket. . . . days, now was uttered once too often
Rhe was serious enough now. The cos
I'm not afraid. After all. you Just tell Selina's nerves snapped.
of the funeral to be paid. The doctor r
“Don't talk to me like that, you great
jour vegetables for wbat you can get.
bill. Jac'a wages. AU the expenses
. . Well, It'» going to be different stupid! What good does It do a wom
with him. 1 mustn't caU him Soblg anj an to stay bom« In her kitchen U
“I’m Here to Sell the Vegetables I
Helped Raise. Get Out of My Way
You!”
?
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Routes
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Phone 226
here to sell the vegetables I helped
raise and I'm going to do it. Get on
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of my way, y o u !”
Now she ('lumbered over the wuqui.
wheel to unhitch the tired horses. It i
Impossible to tell wliut Interpretathu
the dumfounded north-slder put tip«
her movements'.
Certainly lie hu>
nothing to fear from this small gnur.
creature with tlie bluzlng eyes. Never
Iheless us lie gathered up his reins le i
ror was writ large on Ills rubioim
face.
“T eu fel! What a w om an!” Was
off In a clatter of wheels and hoofs or
the cobblestones.
Selina unliurnessed swiftly. “Y<ii
stay here, Dirk, with Pom. Mother'l
he back In a minute.” She nmrcbei
down the street driving the horses b
the barns where, for twenty five ccn'r
ihe animals were to be housed In more
otnfort thou their owner.
She was back soon. "Come, Dirk."
“Are we going to sleep here I" He
was delighted.
“Right here, all snug In the hay, like
campers."
The boy lay down, wriggling, laugh
ing. "Like gypsies. Ain't it, mom?"
” 'Isn’t It,' Dirk—not ain't IL’ " The
school teacher.
She lay down beside blm, put one
arm uround blm and drew him to her.
close. And suddenly he was mficep,
deeply. The street became quieter.
The talking and laughter ceased. 'Die
lights were dim at Chris Hpankniiebel'a.
Selina lay looking up at the sky.
There were no tears In her eyes. She
was past tears. She thought, "Here
I am, Selina Peake, sleeping In a
wagon. In the straw, like a dog with
Its puppy snuggled beside It. I was
going to be like Jo in Louisa Alcott’s
book. How terribly long It la going to
be until morning. .
. . I must try
to sleep. . . .
I must try to
sleep................. ”
She did sleep, miraculously.
As
she lay there, tlie child In her arms,
asleep, peace came to the haggard face,
relaxed the tired lluihs. Much like an
other woman who had lain In the straw
with her child In her arms almost two
thousand years before.
C h a p ter VIII
It would be enchanting to he able
to record that Selina, next day, hnd
plienomennl success, disposing of her
carefully bunched wares to great nd
vantage, driving smartly off up Hoi
sted street toward High Prairie with
a goodly profit Jingling In her scuffed
leather purse. The truth Is thst she
had a day so devastating, so catas
trophic, as would huve discouraged
most men and certainly any woman
less desperate and determined.
She had awakenpd, not to daylight,
but to tlie three o'clock blackness. The
street wae already astir.
Selina
brushed her skirt to rid It of the cling
ing hay, tidied herself as best she
could. Leaving Dirk still asleep, she
called Pom from beneath the wagon
to act as sentinel at the dasiiboard, and
crossed the street to Chris Spank-
noehel's. She knew Chrta. and he her.
He would let her wsah at the faucet
at the rear of the eating house. She
f ould buy hot coffee fof feer»el{ and
Dirk to warm and revivify them. They
would eat tlie sandwiches left from the
night before.
As Selina entered tbe long room
there whs something heartening, reus-
surlng about Chris' clean white apron,
bis ruddy color. From the kitchen at
the rear came the sounda of sizzling
and frying, and the gracious scent of
coffee and of frying pork and pota
toes.
Selina approached Chris. His round
face loomed out through tbe smoke
like the sun In a fog. “Well, how goes
It all the while?" Then he recognized
her. “Vm Gott ex I—why. It's Mis' De
jong 1” He wiped bit great hand on
a convenient towel, extended It In
sympathy to the widow. “I heerd," he
said, “I heerd." His Inarticulateness
made hta words doubly effective.
“I've come In with the load, Mr.
Spnnknoebel. The boy and I. He's still
asleep In the wagon. May I bring him
over here to clean him up a little be
fore breakfast?"
“Sure I Sure I" A sudden suspffloh
struck him. “You ain't slept In the
wugon, Mis' DeJong I Urn Gotten)“-"
“Yes. It wasn't bad. The boy slept
tbe night through. I slept, too, quite
a little."
“Why you didn’t come hero? Wl«r—"
At the look In Selina's face he kbew
then. “For nothing you and the bey
could sleep here.”
“I knew that I That’s why."
“Don't talk dnmb, Mrs DeJong.
Half the time the rooms la vacant. You
and the boy clinst ua well—twenty
cents, then, and pay me when you got
IL But anyway you don’t come In
reg'lar with tha load, do you? That
ain't for womans."
"There’s no one to do It for me, ex-
cept Jan. • And he's worse than no
body. Just through September and
October. After th a t maybe—" Her
voice trailed off. It Is hard to be
hopeful at three In the morning, before
breakfast.
She went to the little wash room at
tlie rear, felt bettor immediately she
bad washed vigorously, combed her
hair. She returned to the wagon to
find a panic-stricken Dirk sure of noth
ing hot that ha hud been deserted by
Illg motliei1. Fifteen minutes later the
two were seated at a table on which
was spread
what
Chris Spank
n rebel considered on adequate break
fast. A heartening enough beginning
for tbe day, and a deceptive.
Tbe Haymarket buyers did not want
to purchase Its vegetables from Selina
DeJong It wasn't used to buying of
women, but to selling to them.
Selina had taken the covers off her
vegetables. They were revealed crisp,
fresh, colorful. But Selina knew they
must be sold now, quickly. When the
leaves began to wilt, when the edges
of the cauliflower heads curled ever
so slightly, turned brown and limp,
tbelr value decreased by half, even
though the heads themselves remained
white and firm.
Down the street came the buyer»—
lit Lie black-eyed swarthy m en; plump.
* bort-aleeved, greasy m en; shrewd, to-
I acco-chewlng men In overalls Stolid
red Dutch faces, stinhnrned. Lean, dark
foreign faces. Shouting, clatter, tur
moil.
The day broke warm The sun rose
red. It would he a humid September
duy such as frequently came In the
autumn to this lake region Garden
stuff would have to move quickly this
morning
Afternoon would find It
worthless
The peddlers looked at her bunched
bouquets, glanced at her, passed her
hy.
ft was not nnklndness that
prompted them, but a certain shyneea.
a fear of tha unaccustomed. Her
wares were tempting but they passed
her by with the Instinct that the Ig
norant have against that which la un
usual.
By nine o'clock trading began to fall
off. In a panic Selina realized that
tbe sales she bad made amounted to
little more than two dollars
It she
stayed there until noon she might
double that, but no more. In despera
tion she barn eseed tbe horses, thraod
ed her way out of th$ »wanning street,
und luado for South Water street
farther east. Here were the commie-
slon houses. She knew thut Pervus
bud sometimes left his entire load with
j an established dealer here, to be sold
| on commission. She remembered (he
name—Talcott—though she did not
know the exact location.
The boy hnd been almost Incredibly
patient and good. At tlie wagon he
had atood sturdily next his mother,
had busied himself vastly assisting her
In her few pitiful sales; hnd plucked
wilted leaves, brought forward tlie
freshest and crispest vegetables. But
now she siiw that he was drooping a
little as were her wares, with the heat
and the absence from accustomed soil.
“Where we going now, mom?”
"To another street, Soblg—”
“Dirk I"
“—Dirk, where there's a man who'll
buy all our stuff at once—maybe.
Won't that be fine I Then we'll go
home. You help mother find his name
(Continued on page 6)
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