(.Continued)
C h a p te r X
It those vague characteristics called
(variously) magnetism, manner, gruce,
distinction, attractiveness, fascination,
go to make up th a t nebulous quality
known ns c h a rm ; and If the possessor
of that quality Is accounted fortunate
in his equipment fo r that which the
class-day orators style the battle of
life, then D irk D ejon g was a lucky lad
and life lay promisingly before him.
Undoubtedly he bad I t ; and undoubt
edly It did. H e was not one to talk a
great deal. Perhaps that was one of his
most charming qualities. H e listened so
welL O lder men especially said he
was a sm art young feller and would
make his m ark.
This, surprisingly
enough, a fte r a conversation to which
he had contributed not a word other
than "Tea,” or "No,” or, "Perhaps
you’re right, sir,” In the proper places.
It was during those careless years
of D irk ’s boyhood between nine and
fifteen that Selina changed the DeJong
acres from a worn-out and down-at-
heel truck farm whose scant products
brought a second-rate price In a sec
ond-rate m arket to a prosperous and
blooming vegetable garden whose out
put was sougbt a year In udvance by
the South W a ter street commission
merchants.
These sis or seven years o f relent
less labor had been no showy success
with Selina posing grandly as the New
Woman In Business. No, It had been
a painful, grubbing, heart-breaking
process as Is uny' project that depends
on the actual soil fo r Its realization.
She drove herself pitilessly. She lit
erally' tore a living out of the earth
w ith her two bare hands. Yet there
was nothing pitiable about this small
energetic woman of thirty-five or forty
with her fine soft dark eyes, her clean-
cut Jaw-line, her shabby decent clothes
that were so likely to be spattered
with the mud of the road or fields, her
exquisite nuee w ith the fanny little
w rinkle across the bridge when she
laughed. Rather, there was something
splendid about her I something rich,
prophetic. I t was the spleudor and
richness that achievement imparts
It la doubtful that she ever could
have succeeded w ithout the money
borrowed from August H e n ip e l; w ith
out his shrewd counsel. She told him
thia, som etim es.' H e denied It. "Easier,
yes.
But you would have found a
way, Selina.
Some way. Julie, no.
But you, yes. You are like that. Me,
too. Say, plenty fellers that was butch
ers with me tw enty yeurs ago over on
North C lark street are butuhers yet,
cutting off a steak or a chop.”
D irk had hla tasks on the farm. Se-
Una saw to that. But they were not
heavy. By the tim e he returned from
school the rough work of the day w a i
over. H la food was always hot, ap
petizing, p len tiful.
T he house was
neat, comfortable. Selina had Installed
a bathroom— one of the two bathrooms
In High P rairie.
The neighborhood
was still rocking w ith the sho< a of tills
when It was Inform ed by Jan tbaf
Selina and D irk ate w ith candles light
ed on the supper table. High P ra irie
slapped Its thigh and bowled with
m irth,
“Cabbages Is b eau tiful,” said old
Klaus Pool when he heard this. "Cab-
huge« Is beautiful I betcha.”
Selina, during the years o f the boy’s
adolescence, had never urged him to
a decision about his future. That, she
decided, would come.
As the farm
prospered and the pressure of neces
sity lifte d she tried, In various In
genious ways, to extract from him
some unconscious sign of definite
preference for thia calling, that pro
fession.
*
U n til D irk was sixteen she bad been
content to let him develop as naturally
as possible, and to absorb Impressions
unconsciously from tbe traps site so
guilefully le ft about him. T here was a
shed which he was free to use as a
workshop, fitted up with all sorts of
tools. H e did not use It much, a fte r
tbe first few weeks. He was pleasantly
and m ildly Interested In all things;
held by none. Selina bad thought of
Roelf when they were fitting up the
workshop. The Pools bad heard from
Roelf Just once since bis flight from
the farm. A letter hud come from
Prance. Selfha bad never heard from
him. But one day yeurs later she had
come running to D irk
w ith an Illus
trated magazine In her hand.
“L o o k !’’ she pried, and pointed to a
picture. H e had rarely seen her so ex
cited, so stirred.
The Illustration
showed a photographic reproduction of
a piece of sculpture— a woman's fig
ure.
I t was called The Seine.
A
t.gure sinuous, snake-like, graceful, re
volting beautiful, terrible. The face
alluring, insatiable, generous, treach
erous, all at once. I t was the Seine
that fed the fe rtile valley land; the
Seine that claimed a thousand bloated
lifeless floating Things.; the red-eyed
hag of 1798; the dimpling coquette of
1650. Beneath the Illustration a line
or two— R oelf Pool. . . . Sulon.
. . . American. . . . fu tu re .. . . .
"It's
R o e lf!” Selina had cried.
"Roelf. L ittle R oelf Pool I’’ Tears in
her eyes D irk had been politely Inter
ested. But then he hnd never known
him, really. H e had heard his mother
speak of him, hut—
At seventeen D irk nnd Selina talked
o f the year to come. H e was going to
At
Eighteen It Had Been Midwest
U niversity for D irk.
a university. But to w hat university?
And w hat did he w ant to study?
We-e-11, hard to say. K ind of a general
course, wasn’t there?
“O il,” Selina had said. "Yes. Gen
eral. Or course. If a person wanted to
be an architect, why, I suppose Cor
nell would he the place. O r H arvard
fo r law. O r Boston Tech for engineer
ing, or— ”
Oh, yeh. If a fellow wanted any of
those things. Good Idea, though.* to
take a kind o f general course until you
• und out exactly w hat you wanted
to do. Languages and lite ra tu re and
that kind of thing.
At eighteen, It had been Midwest
university for D irk
High Prairie
beard that D irk DeJong was going
away to college.
A neighbor’s son
said, “Going to Wisconsin? Agricul
tural course there."
"M y gosh, no I” D irk had answered.
H e told this to Selina, laughing. But
she had not laughed.
"I'd like to take that course myself,
if you must know. They say it’s won
derful.” She looked at hltn, suddenly.
“D irk , you wouldn't like to take It,
would yon?
To go to Madison, I
mean. la that what you'd like?”
H e stared. "M e ! No! . . f Un
less yon want me to, mother. Then
I would, gladly. I hate your working
like this, on the farm , w hile I go ofT
to school. It mnkes me feel kind of
rotten, having my mother working for
me. The other fellows— *'
“I'm doing the work I ’m Interested
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in, for the person I lo re beet m the
world. I'd he lost— unhappy— without
the farm . I f the city creep# up on me
here, us they predict It w ill. I don't
know whut 1 shall do."
“Just you wait till I'm successful.
Then there’D he no more working for
you.”
"W hat do you mean by ‘successful,’
Sobig?" She bad not called him that
In years. Bat now the old nickname
came to her longue perhaps because
they were speaking o f his future, his
•uccess. "W hat do you mean by *auc-
cessful,’ Sobig?”
“Rich. Lots of money."
“No, no, D irk I N o ! T h a t’s not suc
cess. Roelf— the thing R oelf does—
th a t’s success.''
“Oh, well, I f you have money enough
you can buy the things he makes, and
have 'em. T h a t’s almost as good Isn't
It?"
D irk commenced his studies at M id
west university In the antumn of 1909.
His first year was none too agreeable,
as is usually the case in first yeurs.
He got on well, though. Before the
end of the first semester he was popu
lar. H e hnd great natural charm of
manner The men liked him. and the
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quiet and cool. She could do as she
liked."
M attle came one Friday night. It
was the end of October, nnd Indian
summer, the moat beautiful time of
the year on the Illinois prairie. About
the countryside for miles was the
look of bounteousness, of plenty, of
prophecy fulfilled as when a beautiful
and fe rtile woman having borne her
children and found them good, now
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sits
serene-eyed,
grp clous,
ample
girls, too. H e rarely “cut” a class. H e
bosomed, satisfied.
would have felt that thia was unfair
In to the face of M attle Schwengauer
and disloyal to his mother. 9otae of there came a certain glory.
When
his fellow students Joked about this
the and Selina clasped hands Selina
faithfulness to his classes. “ Person stared at her rather curiously, as
would think you were an Unclassi though startled. A fte rw ard she said
fied," they said.
to D irk , aside; "But I thought you
T he Unclasslfleds were made up, said she was ugly I”
o
f
earnest
and
for the most part,
“ Well, she Is, or— well, Isn’t she?”
rather middle-aged students whose
“Look ut h er!”
education was a delayed blooming.
M attle Schwengauer was talking to
They usually were not enrolled for a Meen a B ras« tbe hou^eworker.
She
full course, or were taking double was standing w ith her hands on her
work feverishly.
ample hips, her fine head thrown back,
The professors found them a shade her eyes alight, her lips smiling so
too euger. perhaps; too In q u irin g ; de that you saw her strong square teeth.
manding too much. They stayed a fte r
Something had amused M attle.
She
class and asked Innumerable ques laughed. It was the laugh of a young
tions.
They bristled w ith interroga girl, care-free, relaxed, at esse.
tion. T hey were prone to hold forth
F o r two days M attle did as she
in the classroom, “ W ell, I have found pleased, which meant she helped pall
It to be the case In my experience vegetables In tbe garden, m ilk the
that— "
cows, saddle the horses; rode them
• But the professor preferred to do w ithout a saddle In the pasture.
the lecturing himself. I f there was
“ I t got so I hated to do all those
to be uny experience related It should things on the farm ," she said, laugh
come from the teacher's platform , not ing a little shamefacedly. " I guess
the student's chair.
It was hecuuse I had to. But now It
In his first year D irk made the al comes buck to me and I enjoy It be
most fa ta l mistake o f being rather cause It ’s natural to me; 1 suppose.
friendly w ith one of these OnclgMl- Anyway, I ’m having a- grand time,
rteds— a fem ale Unclassified, a large, Mrs. DeJong. The grandest time I
good-humored, plump girl, about th ir ever had in my life." H e r fane was
ty-eight. with a shiny skin which she rad iant and almost beautiful.
“I f you want me to believe that,"
never powdered and thick h air that
exuded a disagreeable odor o f oil
said Selina, "you'll come ugaln.”
B ut M a ttle Schwengauer never did
She was sympathetic and Jolly, but
her clothes were a fright, the Classi come again.
K arly the next week one of the uni
fieds would have told you. and no m at
ter how cold the day there was- al versity students approached D irk . He
ways a half-moon of stain showing was a Junior, very Influential In his
under her armpits. She had a really clast, and a member of the fratern ity
fine mind, quick, eager, balanced, al to which D irk was practically pledged.
most Judicial. She knew Just which A decidedly desirable f r a t
“ Say, look here, DeJong, I want to
references were valuable, which use
less. H e r name was Hchwefigauer— ta la to you a minute. Uh, you've got
to cut out that g irl— Swlnegour or
M attle Schwengauer. T e r rib le !
She and D irk got In the way o f whatever her name Is— or It's all off
walking out of the classroom together, w ith the fellows In the f r a t "
"W h a t
d'you
mean!
Cut o ut!
across the campus.
She told him
W hat's the m atter w ith her7”
something of herself.
“M a tte r!
She’s Unclassified. Isn't
“ Your people fa rm e rs !” Surprised
she looked at his well-cut clothes, his she! And do you know wbat the story
slim, strong, unmarked hands, his is? She told It herself ah an economy
smart shoei and cap. “W hy, so are hint to a girl who was working her
She bathes wltti her
mine.
Iow a."
She pronounced It way through.
Iowuy. “I lived on the farm all my union suit end white stockings on to
life till I was twenty-seven. I always save laundry soap. Scrubs 'em os h er!
wanted to go away to school, but we '8 the God's tru th .”
Intu D irk's mind there flashed a pic
never had tbe money and I couldn't
come to town to earn because I was ture of this large girl In her tight
the ohlest. and Ma was sickly after knitted union suit and her white stock <
Em m a— that's the youngest— there are Ings sitting in a tub h alf full of w ater
nine of us— was bom.
Ma was and scrubbing them and herself sim
anxious I should go and Pa was w ill ultaneously. A comic picture, and a
ing, but It couldn't he. No fault of revolting one. Pathetic, too, hut he
theirs. One year the summer would would not admit that.
“Im agine 1” the fra t brother-to-be
bo so hot, w ith no rain hardly from
sirring till fa ll, and the corn would was saying. “W e ll, we can't have a
fellow who goes around with a girl
Just dry up on the stalke. like paper
The next year It would be so wet the like that. You got to cut her out, see!
seed would rot In tbe ground.
Ms Completely. The fellahs won't stand
died when I was twenty-nlx.
T he for It."
D irk had a mental picture of himself
kids were all pretty well grown up
striking s nohle attitude and saying.
by that time. Pa married again In a
year.
1 came to Chicago about Ave “W on't stand for It. h u h ! She's worth
more th in the whole caboodle of you
years ago.
. I'v e done all kinds
put together
And you can all go to
of work. I guess, except digging la a
coal mine. I'd have done that If I'd b— 1!"
Instead he said, vaguely, “Oh. Well.
had to."
Uh— ”
.she told him all this Ingenuously,
D irk changed hla sent In the class
simply. D irk felt drawn tow ard her.
room, avoided M attle ’s eyes, shot out
sorry fo r her. His was a nature quick
o f tbe door the minute class was over.
to sympathy.
One day he saw her coming toward
H e told his mother about her. him on the campus and he sensed that
S elin a
was deeply
In terested
and
ahe Intended to stop and speak to
stirred.
"Do you think she’d spend him— chide him laughingly, perhaps
some Saturday and Sunday here with
H e quickened his pare, swerved a lit
ua on. the farm ? She could come with
tle to one aide, and as he passed lifted
you on F riday and go tae k Sunday hla cap and nodded, keeping b it ryes
night I f she wanted to. O r stay until I , ^ , 7 , ; h; , d O ut of the tail of h it
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eye he could see h e r standing a mo eyes were nllve. T h e ir clothe« were
ment Irresolutely in the path.
of some Indefinite dark stuff, brown or
He got Into the fra tern ity . T he fe l drab gray; their h air lifeless; thetr
lahs liked him from the first. Selina hands long, bony, unvltal
They had
said once or twice, “ W hy don't you seen classes and classes and classes.
bring that nlre M attle home with you A roomful of fresh young faces th a t
again some tim e toon? Such a nice appeared briefly only to be replaced
girl— woman, rather. A fine mind, too. by another roomful o f fresh yoüng
She’ll make something of herself. i faces like round svhit^ pendl maries
You’ll see. Bring her next week, h’m?" manipulated m om entarily on a slats,
D irk shuffled, coughed, looked away
only to be sponged off to give way to
“Oh. I dunno. Haven't seen her lately. other round w hite marks. O f the tw o
Guess she’s busy w ith another crowd, women one— thé elder— was occasion
or something."
ally likely to flare Into sudden life ;
He tried not to think of what he had a flame In the ashes of a hurned-out
done, for he was honestly ashamed
grate. She had hlim or and a certain
T errib ly ashamed. 8o he said to him enustte w it, qualities that had man
self, "Oh, what of It'I” and hid his aged miraculously to survive even the
shame.
deadly and numbing effects of th irty
A month la te r SeltDa again aald. “1 years In the classroom. A fine mind,
wish you’d Invite M attle for Thanks and lnoclastlc, hampered by the re
giving dinner
Unless she’s going strictions o f a conventional community
home, which I doubt. We’ll hHve tu r and the soul of a congenital spinster.
key and pumpkin pie and all tbe rest
Under the guidance of these D irk
o f It. She’ll love It.’’
chafed and grew restless. Miss Ru-
"M attle? ” H e had actually forgot phernls Holllngswood hod a way of
emphuslzlng every third or fifth sylla
ten her name.
“Yes, of course. Isn’t that right? ble, bringing her voice down hard on
M attle Schwengauer?”
It.
“Oh, her. Un— w ell— I haven't been
H e found him self waiting for that
seeing her lately.”
emphasis and shrinking from It as
“Ob, D irk , you haven't quurrelew from « sledge-hammer blow. It hurt
w ith that nice girl I"
his head.
H e decided to have It out. “Listen,
Miss Lodge droned. She approached
mother. T here are a lot of different a word w ith a maddening uh-uh-ul(-nh.
crowds at the U, see?
And M attle In the uh-uh-uh-uh face of the uh-uh-
doesn't belong to any of 'em.
You
(Continued on page 6)
wouldn’t understand, but It's like this.
3he— she’s smart and Jolly sod every
thing, but sha Just doesn't belong. Be I p ’ASH PA ID lo r false teeth, den-
Ing friends w ith a girl Ilka that doesn’t I w-*' tai g old, platinum and discard«!
get you anywhere
Beeldes, she Isn’t 1 jew elry. Hoke Sm elting and Refining
s girl.
She’s a middle-aged wonjan, ! Ce.. Otsego, Mich,
when you come to think of It."
“ Doesn’t get yon anywhere !’’
3e
Whin we reanmtnend K R Y P -
Una's tone was cool and even. Then,
ns the hoy's gaze did not meet here: T O K
G L A S S E S . 7°“ “ «Y
"Why, D irk Dejong. M attie Sch4en- rest assured that we are recom
guner Is one of my reasons for sending mending tbe
best bi local that
you to a university. She’s what I call optical science bas produced.
part of a university education. Just
For fourteen years Kryptok*
talking to her Is learning something
valuable.
I don’t mean that you have given the eyeglass wearer
w-oaldn't naturally prefer pretty young service and satisfaction.
girls of your own age to go around
with, and all. It would be' queer if
von didn't.
But this M a ttle — why,
she’s life. Do you remember tbat story
of when she washed dishes In the
kosher restaurant over on T w elfth
street and the proprietor used to rent
out dishes and cutlery for Irish and
Italia n neighborhood weddings where
they had pork and goodness knows
what all, and then use them next day
In the restaurant, sgstn for the kosher
customers?"
Selina wrote M attia, Inviting her
to the farm fo r Thanksgiving, sad M at-
tie ^answered g ratefully, declining. “I
shall always remenibet you,” she wrote
In that letter, “w ith love.”
C h a p te r X I
Throughout D irk ’s Freshman year
there were, for him. no heartening.
Inform al, mellow talks before the
wood-fire In the book-lined study of
some professor whose wisdom was
such a m ixture of claaalc lore and
modernism ss to he an Inspiration to
hla listeners
Midwest profeasors de
livered tb alr lectures In the claasroorn
as they had been delivering them In
the past ten or tw enty years and as
they would deliver them until death
or a trustees’ meeting should remove
them. T he younger prefesnors and In
structors In natty grey suits and
brightly colored ties made a point of
being uopedantlc In the classroom and
rather overdid It. They po«ed as be
ing one of the fe llo w s ; would dashing
ly use a bit of slang to rrsste a laugh
from the boys and an adoring titte r
from the girls.
D irk somehow pre
ferred the pedants to there
When
these had to give an Inform al ta lk to
the man before some university event
they would start by saying, “ Now lis
ten, fellahs— "
A t the dniicea they
were not abeve “ rushing“ the pretty
coeds.
T w o of D irk 's clsssee were coo-
ductad by women profeaaora
They
were well on toward middle age. or
past I t ; desiccated women Only their
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