(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!” ? FURNITURE « DEPARTMENT j when your wants are in this line. Our stock is • attractive in both design und price. • We call your special attention to the >DE LUXE RURAL E N T E R P R IS E PACE 3 Travel Planning —for vacation journeys D e p e n d u p o n j o u r local S o u th e rn Pacific agent for aid in com pleting your vacation plana. It'* high tim e to be thin.1 ing about them. A nd he i* thoroughly informed. H e can advice you intelligently about Vacation (pot* o f especial charm and how bent to teach them. H e’ll gladly supply yen w ith all booklets and com plete, accurate inform ation regarding Fares S c h a u le s Routes Reserva. ions, etc. Your local agent is eager to serve you. Souther n Pacific C . P. M O O D Y , Agent Phone 226 here to sell the vegetables I helped raise and I'm going to do it. Get on ? We want you to investigate our 1 • APRIL 1 BEDSPRING • built for comfort and durability H IL L Hal soy Oregon 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