♦Mr •
Il
-
EDNAÌ1
^ ferber JJ.
illustrations '
k
£
1
BY CLARK AÇRCW.
CoKrlrMt bv
Doubled<y, P t f e £ Ce.
WNV Servie,
(C on tin uad )
H e r vegetables, can v is covered, were
One hand on the seat she prepared fresher than those In the near-by mar
to climb up again— did step to the kets. W hy not try to sell some of
hub.
You saw her shabby, absurd them here, In these big houses? In an
tide boots that were so much too big hour she might earn a few dollars this
for the allm little feet. “I f you’re Jdst way at retail prices slightly less than
buying my stuff because you're Hurry those asked by the grocefs of the neigh-
borhood.
for me— " Tbe Peake pride.
Agilely site stepped down the wheel,
“Don't do business that way. Can’t
afford to, ma’am.
My da’ter she’s gave the reins to D irk . She filled a
large market basket with the finest
studying to be a singer In Italy now,
Car’llne Is, and costa like all get-out. and freshest of her stock and with
Takes all the money I can scrape to this on her arm looked up a moment at
(he house In front of which she bad
gether, Just about.’'
■toppe 1. The kltcbpn entrance, she
T h e re was a little color In Selina's
knew was by way of the alley at the
face now. “Ita ly ! Oh. Mr. Talcott I"
You'd have thought she had seen It, I back, but this she would not take.
the.sidewalk, down a little flight
from her face. She begun to thank j | Across
of stone steps, Into the vestibule under
him, gravely.
the porch. She looked at the bell—a
“ Now, th a t’s all right. Mis' DeJong
brass knob. “Pull It ! " said the des
I notice your stuff's bunched kind of
perate Selina.
T cant I
I can't!”
cried all the prim dim Vermont Peakes,
In chorus. “A ll right. Starve to death
and let them take the farm and D irk,
then."
A t that she pulled the knob hard.
Jangle went the bell In the hall. Again.
Again.
Footsteps up the hall.
Tbe door
rwu, rs a s p y p o b ta
opened to disclose a large woman, high
cheek-honed. In a work apron ; a cook,
apparently.
‘ Good morning,” said Selina. “Would
you like some fresh country vege
tables?”
“ Nb." She half shut the door, open
ing It again to ask, "Got any fresh
eggs or butter?" At Selina's negative
she closed the door, bolted It. Well,
tlia t was all right. Nothing so terrible
about that, Selina told herself. Simply
hadn’t wanted any vegetables. The
next house, and the next, and (he next.
Up one side of the street, and down
the other. Pour times site refilled her
basket. - At one house she sold a quar
ter's worth. Fifteen at another. Tw en
ty cents here. Almost fifty there.
Twenty-first
street— Tw en ty-llftb —
Twenty-eighth. She had over four dol
lars In lx r purse. D irk was weary
now and hungry to the point o f tears.
“T h e la l house," Selina promised him,
“the very Inst one.
A fte r thia one
As She Gathered Up' the Reine He
we’ll go home.’'
Stood In H it Doorway, Cool, Remote.
Tbe last bouse. She had almost five
*y
e itr y , and all of h jllze. F lxln ' to d<> dollars, earned In the laat hour. "Just
live minutes,” she said to D irk , trying
that way right aloifi}?"
to muke her tone bright, her voice gay.
“Yes. I thought—they looked pret
H e r arms full of vegetables which she
tier that w ay—o f eourne \ •
. - ' 'es
was about to place In the basket at
aren't supposed to look pretty, I ex
her feet she heard nt her elbow :
pect— " she stammered, stopped.
“Now. then, where's your license?"
“You fix 'ant pretty like that and
She turned. A policeman at her side.
bring 'em In to me first thing, cr si nd
"License?"
'am. M y trade, they like theb stuff
“Yeh, you heard me.
License.
kind of special. Yessir.”
Where’s your peddler’s license? You
Aa Selina gathered up the reins he
got om;, I s'fiose."
stood again in his doorway, cool, re
"W hy, no. No,"
She stused at
route, unllghted cigar In Ills mouth,
him,, frill.
while hand-trucks rattled past him,
"W ell, say, where d’ye think you
barrels and boxes thumped to the side
are, peddlin' without a license I A good
w alk In fro n t'o f him, wheels and hoofs
mind to run you In. Get along out of
and shouts made a great clamor all
here, you and the kid. Leave me ketch
about him.
you around here again I”
“We going home now?” demanded
“What's the trouble, officer?” said a
D irk .
"W e going home now f
I ’m
woman's voice. A smart open carriage
hungry.”
of the type known asea victoria, with
“Yea, lamb.”
T w o dollars In her l two chestnut horses whose harness
pocket. A ll yesterday's grim toll, and ' «hone w ith metal. “ What's the trouble,
Reilly?" The woman stepped out of
all today's, and n in th s of labor be
hind those two days. Tw o dollars In
the victoria.
the pocket o f her black calico petticoat.
“ Woman peddling without a license,
"W e'll get something to eat when we Mrs. Arnold. You got to watch ’em
like a hawk. . . . Get along wld
drive out a ways.
Some m ilk and
bread and cheese.”
J yon, then." He put a hand on Selina s
shoulder and g a v c h e r a gentle push.
T he sun wus very hot. She took the
There shook Selina from head to foot
boy's hat ofT, passed her lender work-
sucli a passion, such a storm of out
calloused hand over the dump hair
raged sensibilities, ns to cause street,
that clung to bis forehead.
victoria, sllk-clnd woman, horses, and
She made» up her mind to drive east
policeman to swim and shiver In a haze
and then south. Pervus hod sometimes
achieved a. late sule to outlying gro before her eyes. The rage of a fas
tidious woman who had had an alien
cers. Jan's face I f she came home
w ith h alf the load still on tfie wagon 1 male hand put upon her. H e r face
was white.
H er eyes glowed black,
And whut of the unpaid bills? She
enormous She seemed tall, majestic
had, perhaps, th irty dollars, all told.
even.
She owed four hundred. M o » than
“T a k e your hand off m o!” Her
that.
speech was clipped, vibrant
*H ow
F ear shook her.
She told herself
dare yon touch me I How dare yon I
she was tired, nervous. T hat terrible
Take your hand!— " The blazing eyes
week. And now this. The heat. Soon
In the white mask. H e took his band
they'd be home, she and D irk . Tbe
comfort o f It. the peace of IL Safe, de from her shoulder. The red surged
into her face.
A tanned weather
sirable, suddenly dear. No work for
beaten toil-worn woman, her abundant
a woman, th ia !
W ell, perhaps they
were right.
hair skewered Into a knob and hebi by
D o w , Wabakh avenue, w ith the L
a long gray-black hairpin, her full skirt
trains thundering overhead and her grimed w ith the mod of the wagon
horxea, frightened and uneasy with
wheel, a pair of old side boots on het
the unaccustomed roar and clangor of slim feet, a grotesquely battered old
traffic. It was terrib ly hot.
felt hat (her husband's) on her bead,
The boy's eyes popped w ith excite
her arms full <4 ears of sweet cor«
ment and bewilderment.
and carrots and radishes and bunches
"P re tty soon,” Selina said.
Tbe
of beets; a woman with bad teeth?flat
muscles showed white beneath the skin
breasts— even then Julie hsd known
o f her Jaw.
"P retty soon.
P rairie
her by ber eyas. And sue had stared
avenne. Great big houses and lawns,
and then run to her In .h e r silk dress
all quleL” She even managed a amlle.
ai d her plumed hat, erylng, “Oh, 8e-
" I like It b e tte r home."
I'n a ! M.v dear!
My deer!" with a
P ra irie avenue at last, turning In rf
sob 'o f horror and pity. “M.v dear!"
Sixteenth street.
I t was like calm
And had taken S elin s carrots beets
a fte r a storm.
Selina felt battered,
com. and radlabea In her arms. The
spent
vegetables lay scattered aU'kbVM'
.Tbcs «Pother thuWlt SMB? to
oo the sidewalk In front of Jnlle Hem-
pel Arnold's great stone house on
P rairie avenue. But strangely enough
It had been Selina who bad done the
comforting, petting Julie's plump silkan
shoulder and saying, over and over,
soothingly, as to a child, "There,
there 1 It's all right, Julie. Iris all
right. Don't cry. What's there to cry
fo r i Bh-sht It's all right."
Julie lifted Fier head In Ita modish
Mack plumed hat, wiped her eyes, blew
er uose. "Get along w ith you,^do."
he said to Reilly, the pollevwan. using
his ' ery words to Selins " I ’m going
to report you to Mr. Arnold, see If 1
don’t.
And you know w hat that
means."
“W ell, now, M rs Arnold, ma'am, I
was only doing my duty. How cud I
know the lady was a friend of yours.
Sure, I — " H e surveyed Selina, cart,
jaded horses wilted vegetables.
"And why not 1" demanded Julie
with superb unreasonableness. “Why
not, I ’d like to know. Do get along
w ith yon."
H e got along, a defeated officer of
the law*, and u bitter. And now It was
Julie who surveyed Helinä, cart, D irk,
Jaded horses, wilted left-over vege-
A P R IL (
R U R A L E N T E R P R IS E
O f the DeJong team and the Dejong
dog Pom. and the DeJong vegetable
wagon there was absolutely no sign
and then It came."
Hl-rh P ra irie was rendered unfit fot
“B eauty!" exclaimed Julie, weakly.
Why suffer from headaches?
work throughout the next twenty-f,
She stared at Selina In the evident b e
hours.
lie f that this work w o rn haggard
In the twelve years' transition from woman
bemoaning her lack o f per
batcher to packer Aug Ham pel had sonal pulchritude.
taken on a certain authority and dis
"Yes. A ll the worth-while tid in g In
tlncrton.
Now., at fifty-five, his halt
life W .irk that you love. And g owth
was gray, relieving tbe too-ruddy coloi
- gr,iwtfWnnd watching people grow.
of hia face
In the laat few years he
Peeling very strougly about things
had grown very deaf In one ear, eo that
and then developing that feeling to—
when you spoke to him he looked at
to make something fine come of It.”
yon intently. This had given him s She threw out her hands In « futile
reputation for keenness and great
gesture
"That's whet I mean by
|
A lb any, Oregon
character insight, when it was mere).'
beauty. I want D irk to have it."
the protective trick of a man who doef
"F o r pity's sake!” pleaded Julie, tbe
not want to confess that be la hard ot
literal, "let’s stop talking and do some
bearing.
thing. Pa, you've probably got It all
Selina's domain he surveyed with a fixed In your mind long ago. I t ’s time mere dress, absurdly old fashioned; a
keen and comprehensive eye.
we heard It. Here Selina was one of le tte r telling about the Infanta Eulalle
"You want to sell?”
the moot popular girls In Miss Plater's of Spain and signed Julie Hempel A r
“No."
school. and lots of people thought tbe n o ld ; a pair of men's old side-boots
"That's good. Few years from now
prettiest. And now Just look at ber 1" w ith mud caked on them ; a crude
this land w ill be worth money." He
A flicker of the old flame leaiwd up sketch, almost obliterated now. done
had spent a bare fifteen minutes tak In Selina. " F la tte re r!" she murmured
on a torn scrap o f brown paper and
ing shrewd valuation of the property
Aug Hempel stood up. " I f you think showing the HH.vmnrket with the wag
from fields to barn, from barn to giving your whole life to making the ons vegetable-laden and the men
house. “ Well, wbat do yon want to hoy happy Is going to make him happy gathered beneath the street fin res, and
the patient farm horses—Roelf's child- J
do, heh, Selina?"
you ain t so smart aa I took you for
Ish sketch.
j
You go trying to live somebody elses
life for them.1'
(T o ba continued)
“I'm not going to live bis life for
him. I want to show him how to live
It so that p e ll gat full value nut ot
It."
The way additions to tho E n ter
"Keeping him out of the Haym arket
prise
"lu c k y dollar elaes '• are
If the Haym arket's the natural place
for him won't do that. How can you coming in is pleasing to the pub
tell I Monkeying w ith what's to be lisher, and the following, which
I'm out at the yards every day, In and accompanied one of them laat
out of the cattle pens, talking to the week, encourages renewed effort to
drovers and herder«, mixing In with keep the paper improving ;
the buyers. I can tell tbe weight of a
“ Inclosed you will find a check
hog and what he's worth Just by u look for one dollar, for which please
at him, and a steer, too. My son-in
send us your paper for one year.
Have
YOUR EYES
Examined
I F. M, French & Son
| Jewelers, Optometrists
We want you to investigate our
•
It Tickles Us
FURNITURE S
DEPARTMENT*
when your wants are in this line. Our stock is $
attractive in both design and price.
We call your special attention to the
DE
LUXE
BEDSPRING
built for comfort and durability ’
H ILL &<°
Hal aey
Oregon
«
ll i e y were seated , u uie cool and
unexpectedly pleasing little parlor
with Ita old Dutch luster set gleainluf
softly In the cabinet. Its three rows
tables. "Selina, w hatever In the world 1
of hooks, Its a ir of comfort and usage
W hat are you doing w ith — "
She
Selina clasped her hands tightly In
caught sight of Selina's absurd boots her lap— those hands that, from muck
then and she begnn to cry again. At
grubbing In the soil, had taken on
that
Selina’s
overwrought
nerves something of the look of the gnarled
snapped and she began to ladgb, hys things they tended. T he nulls were
terically.
It frightened Jnlle, that
short, discolored, broken. The palms
laughter. “Selina, don't I Come In the
rough, calloused. The whole story of
house with me. W hat are you laugh the last twelve years of Selina’s life
ing a t ! Selina !”
,
was w ritten In her tw o hands.
W ith shaking finger Selina was point
“I wnnt to stay here, find work the
ing at the vegetables that lay tumbled
farm, and muke It pay. I can. I'm
at her feet. "Do you aee that cab
not going to grow Just the common
bage, Julie? Do you remember how
gsrden stuff any more— not much, nny
I used to despise Mrs. Tebbltt's be
way. I ’m going to specialize In the
cause she used to have boiled cabbage
fine things— the kind the South W atei
on Monday nights?"
street commission men w a n t I want
“T hat's nothing to laagb at. Is it?
to drain the low land. TJle It. That
Stop
laughing this minute, Belina
land liusn't been used* for years. Il
P e a k e !"
ought to be rich growing Intel by Tiow,
“I'll stop. I'v e stopped now
I was
If once It's properly dvaiubd. And I
Just laughing at my Ignorance, Rweat
want D irk to go to- school.
Good
and blood and health and youth go
schools. I never wapt my son to go
Into every cabbage.
Did you know
to the Hnymarlçet
Never. Never.
that, Julte? One doesn't despise them
"M y life doesn't count, except, a«
nt food, knowing t h a t . . . (.'«me,
something for Qlrk to use. I'm done
climb down, D irk . H e re ’s a lady moth
er used to know— oh, years and yhars
ago, when she was a glrL Thousands
of years ago,"
C h a p te r I X
The best thing for Dlrtt. The best
thing for D irk . It was thé phrase (hat
repeated Itself over and over Is Se
lina’s spec,Si during the days that fol
lowed. In thia period o f bewilderment
and fatigue Julie had attempted to
rake charge of Selina m odi as sb* had
done a dosen years before ot the rime
of Simeon Peake's dram atic death. Apd
now, as then, she pressed into service
her wonder-working fath er and bound-
en slave, August Hempel
"PaJI be out toraorrov'and I I I prob
ably come w ith him. I ’ve got s com
mittee meeting, but I can easily—■"
"You said— did you say yoor father
would ba out tomorrow I Out where f"
“T o your place. Farm."
“But why should lie? It's a little
twenty-flve-acre truck farm, and half
o f it under w ater a good deal of tlie
time.”
"Pa'll find a ose for IL never fear.
H e won't say much, but he'll think of
things
And then everything will be
all right."
A species of ugly pride now pos
sessed Selina.
" I don't need help.
Really I don't, Jnlle, dear It's never
1 een like today. Never before. We
were getting on very well. Pervu* and
I. Then a fte r Pervue’ death so sud
denly like that I was frightened* T e r
rib ly frightened. About D irk I wanted
him to have everything.
Beautiful
things I wanted his life to be beauti
ful. L ife can be so ugly, J u lie Yon
don’t know. Yon don't know."
"W ell. now. that's why I say. W e ll
he ont tomorrow, pa and I. Dirk's go
ing to have everything beautiful. We'll
see to t h a t "
I t was then that Selina had said,
"But that's Just It. I want to do It
myself, for btm. I can " I wont to
give him all these thing« myself."
"But that's selfish."
" I don't mean to be. I Just want to
do tbe beat thing for D irk ."
I t was shortly a fte r noon that High
Prairie, hearing the unaccustomed chug
o f a motor, rushed to Its windows or
porches to behold Belina DeJong In her
mashed Mack felt hat and D irk wav
ing his battered straw wildly, riding up
the Halsted road toward the DeJong
faun In a brlgbt red «Otoaiohlle that
had* «haltered J the oqrvta of every
CXoner'a'lciUU U Lad «MU MB
law, Michael Arnold, alts up In the o f We decided that a dollar could not
fice all day In our plant, dictating let
be better spent. We certainly like
ters. H is clothes they never stink ot your paper and admire you for
the pens like mine do. . . . Now I always speaking your optoioos on
ain ’t saying anything against him, things.
W hile occasionally we
Julie« But 1 bet my grandson Eu
differ with vou oo a subject, we
gene"— he repeated It, stressing the
know that you are honost in your
name so that you sensed his dislike of
It— "Eugene, it he comes Into the bust views and enjoy them just the
On most things we heartily
nets at all when he grows up, won't go tame.
agree w ,th your opinions."
within smelling distance of the yards
The foiegoing was not sent for
H is office, I bet, will be In a new offlci«
building on, say Madison street, with publication, and, in absence ol
a view of the lake. L ife ! You'll be
xpiicit permission to give the
hoggin' It all yourself and not know writer’ s name, we withhold it.
It"
“And I suppose," retorted Belina,
spiritedly, “thnt when your son-in-law.
Michael Arnold, Is your age he'll be
telling Eugene how he roughed It In
an office over at the yards In the old
days. These w ill be the old days."
August Hempel laughed good-humor
edly. “T h a t can be, Belina. T h a t cun
be." H e chewed his cigar and settled
to the business at hand.
"You w ant to drain and tile. Plant
high grade stuff. You got to have a
man on the place that knows what's
what, not this Rip Van W inkle we saw
in the cabbage field. New horses, A
wagon. I w ill get you the horses, a
bargain, at the yards." H e took out a
long flat check book. H e began w rit
ing In It with a pen that he took from
fits ‘ pocket— some to rt of marvelous
pen thst seemed already filled with
ink and thst you unscrewed at the ,top
and then ecrewed at the bottom
He
•squinted through hie cigar smoke, the
heck hoek propped on his knee. He
(o re 'o ff the check w ith a clean rip.
“For a «■starter,” be said. Ils held It
mt to Seljnn
"There Jhow I” exclaimed J u lie ,- In
trium phant satisfaction.
T h a t ires
more lik e ,It. Doing something.
But Belina did not take the cheek. I
She sat vary still In bar chair, her
hands folded. ’ “T h a t Isn't the regular
way," she said.
August Hempel was screwing the fop
on his fountain pan again. "Regular
¡ X
•v a y ? - fo r jv h a t V . . , , ,
'
ft
"I'm borrowing this money, not f*k -
ng It. Oh, yet, I am 1 I couldn't get
along w ithout IL I realize that now.
a fte r yesterday. Yesterday 1 But 1»
dve years— seven— I ’ll pay It h a rk ."'
Then, at a balf-nttered protest from
lulls. “T hat's tba only way I'll take It.
It's for D irk . But I'm going to earn It
and pay It back I want a— " she
as being enormously businesslike, and
unconsciously enjoying lt -* " a — an I. O
A promise to pay you back Just as
ns soon a t I can
T hat's huslness,
isn't it? And I ’ll sign IL ”
"Bure," ssld Aug Hempel, and un '
«crewed bis fountain pen again. “Sure
list's business."
Very serious, he
scribbled again, busily, on s piece of
*M y L if t Doesn’t Count, Except as Paper. A year later, when Belina hsd
learned many things, among them that
•om ethlng for D irk to Ute."
simple and compound Interest on
with anything else Oh, I don't mean money loaned ere not mere problem^
that I ’m discouraged, or disappointed devised to fill Duffy’s arithm etic in
In life, or anything like that. I mean her school-teaching days, she went to
I started out with the wrong Ides
I August Hempel between laughter and
know better now
I'm here to keep tears.
D irk from making the mistakes I
"You didn’t say one word about In
made."
terest, thst day. Not a word
W hat a
Aug Hempel’a tone was one of medl- little fool you muet have thought me.”
ration, not o f argument.
“It don’t
Between friends." protested August
work out that way. seems About mis Hempel.
take» it's funny. You ro t to make your
But— "No,” Belina Insisted
“In t e r - '
o w n ; and not only that. If you try to set.”
keep people from making theirs they
I guess I better s ta rt me a bank
get mad.” H e whistled softly through pretty soon I f yon keep on so business i
his teeth following this utterance and tike."
tapped the chair seat with h it finger.
I
Ten y e a n later he was actually tba
“It's beauty!" Belina said then, a l ■ontrolllng power In the Yards A R ang
most passionately. Aug Hempel and e ra bank. And Belina had tbe origi
Julie plainly could make nothing of nal I O. U. w ith Its "Paid In Full.
this remark, so she went on, eager, ex Aug Hempel," carefully tucked eway
planatory. " I used to think that If with other keepsakes th a t she foolishly
you wanted beauty— tf you wanted It treasured— ridiculous scraps that no
hard enough and hopefully enough— It > nBs but the woold here undwateod er
came to you. You Just waited, end
— a am all acheel fla ts eueh as
lived your life as best you .rmld, , Htla
,iaa (th a
whlrh
knowing thst beauty might be Just , j , a ba4 U n l)M Parvu« to agues and
around the corner. You Just salted^
HC'L >
, poras); a dried beach of trlllln m s :
Mother’s
In
and
Howard
Jenks of Tangent invited the
waifs from Mr. and Mrs. Ches
ter Lyons’ farm at Lebanon to
come over and enjoy a chicken
dinner at Tangent on their first
Sunday at the farm this year.
ASH I*A ID for false teeth, deo-
C
ta i
s e r t lil
n la ttM e a e s a
aaeaet
' jew elry
Hoke Sm elting and
, v-o,. Otsego. Mich,
-
'ilACAYflcd
Refining
H a ll’s C a ta rrh
l / a X l A l e a a *• * Combined
1 * 1 V l U V TreatmenLboth
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F. ] . C H E N E Y & . < ± h , T o le d o , O h io
Three popular frames
with wire-core temples
Shur-Onall Shelltex
We carry the tine
«
I GuaUa* «ad w n l a w d
w u « re d
E. C. Meade I Optometrist
H. Albro, M anufacturing
Op tirina
ALBANY
OREGON.
Amor A. Tuuing
L A W Y E R A N D N O TA R Y
H alsev .
O kkoon
D ELBER T STA R R
Funeral Director and Li
censed Embalmer
Lfficient Service.
Motor Hearse.
*
Ladv A tten dan t
llro w n s v tlle .....................................
Orest"»
w . L. WRIGHT
Mortician A Funeral Director
Halsey and Harrisburg
C a ll D. T a v l o b , Halsey, or
W. L. W a io w r . Harrisburg
BARBER
SHOP
Pirsl-class W o r k
j. w. s j gPHyisoN,