Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1914)
The Reign of the Automobile ' By Myra Nye. ELIZABETH GLENNEN glaneed down her pergola 'fl sun-splashed i perspective with longing eyes. It was not Co much its shade she desired, though the September sun pushed the mercury no true Californian would care to say how high; but it was with a longing for the work that the Bhade entailed. Her flower-lover's lingers fairly trembled in their eagerness to be removing dead leaves and staking trending stalks; but heat or not heat, the figs must be preserved or the silly linnets would got every one. She turned resolutely from the artis tic, home-made pergola, went down the path, paused at the eorral fenee to give Jerry a friendly 'pat Once through (the gate she pushed Jane's intrusive nose from her shoulder so that she might get the ladder lying against the b.arn. She had not quite mounted to the tap when a bell ringing made her pause. Beth, lingering behind to hunt a. basket for the figs, called insistently: I "Telephone, mother, telephone!" ' "Oh, dearl" It was a disgusted ex clamation that fell from her lips as JUiiabeth set the basket down on the top step of the ladder among the bees and fragrant Smyrna. She gathered her skirt in one hand, descended and reached the telephone with character istic and capable haste, j "HeUol" "Oh, it's you, George." I "What what did you sayt" It was in' italicized exclamation more than a auestion, "Oh, George, isn't that fine!" I "Do I like itt I should say so. It b simply great! What good times we will have. Come here as quick as you tan. I must tell Beth." Click went back the reeeiver, and Elizabeth turned to her little daughter, her blue eyes black with excitement and eagerness. "What do you think, girlie, father has a new guess what" "Oh, mother, I can't guess; tell )&.' "No, you must guess. What would jrou rather have than anything elsel" "A little baby sister. Goodie! Will he bring it home right nowt" The quick change in her mother's expression made her eagerness lessen a degree. "Isn't it a really, truly baby; or is it just a dollt" "Neither, Beth. What made you guess thatf" "Well, you said that father was go ing to make a deal with Dr. Strong to Bay, so I thought of course it would be a baby." Beth's crestfallen face escaped a pont only because the cor ners of her mouth were not made to Jtum down. Elizabeth herself felt a slight abate ment in her enthusiasm. "It is an auto mobile," she said. Beth looked at her mother with big Earnest brown eyes widening into a questioning gaze which her mother ould not interpret as gladness. "Why, don't you like it, Bethf 'Aren't you gladt It is a great big tour ing car." "Yes I I'm glad, but mother, will wo have to sell Jane and Jerry t" "Yes, I suppose we will, but just think of the fun we will have. We can go everywhere we want to, we can take aU the girls for a ride, we can go to the beach and back in one day." "Oh, mother!" Beth gave a little jump. At last she was won to unre served gladness: . They talked it over at length with increasing interest till the sound of a Gabriel horn made them pause. With lips rounded for ready exclamation they gassed for an instant through the open door in silence. "There's our automobile!" Beth's entenee was pregnant with ownership. Her slendir form slipped through the screen door before Elizabeth could reach it. Her good fellowship with her child made her hurry to catch up with Beth to be on the ground when the great new possession should appear. Under the big pepper tree, with its festooning branches brushing 'he scats and its red berries already littering the tonneau, the shining, resplendent stood incongruous between the modest four-roomed bungalow and the still mora modest, almost shabby barn. 'home and farm Jerry stood at the corral gate with ears pricked forward, and Jane, with femin ine inquisitiveneas, tnrust ner nose through the bars. They regarded the intruder and usurper with an air of re serve. When throbs and sputters and jerk ing sounds subdued sufficiently, George managed to say Hurriedly: "Elizabeth, let me present Mr. Mis ters." "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Masters." Elizabeth's provincial reply had at least feminine composure under exciting circumstances. Neither she nor Beth was going to be indecently jubilant be fore a stranger when it was a matter of trade. The had been in California real estate business too long for that Not that they were going to lead this fashionable easterner to suppose this was the first ear that ever came into their yard. Even Beth could have told him that Los Bobles had more auto mobiles for its size than any town in the state. This was one of her father's stock pieces of information in selling real estate, ud he was a truthful man notwithstanding his calling and the place of his calling. Beth Olennen could sing Los Bobles' praise in tune with her father. Later, when the two -men turned to ward the corral gate and George low ered the bars, mother and daughter with on accord walked slowly to the house, sot onee glancing at the new possession that monopolized the drive way. "I jost can't bear to see dear old Jane and Jerry go, motherl " "Neither can J, dear." In the i-v stant Elizabeth regretted her sympa thy; for sensitive little Both broke away and ran sobbing into the house. When Mr. Masters drove out of the yard, a sound suspiciously like a sob came from the screen porch. Elisabeth turned to her husband. "Beth Is broken-hearted, George. What shall we dot" "Poor little girl, she did love Jane and Jerry so." "So do 1" "Yes, and so do 1" George smiled ruefully, then he called out to Beth: "Come her, little girl, and IT1 tell you how it happened. With George's arms around cotn "his girls" they walked through the cooler pergola, he talked to them, un til Elizabeth said: ' ' The best medicine for the dumps is a ride. Lot the figs go to the bees, let my ironing go. It's too hot to iron, anyway. My sprengeri is all pot-bound. Never mind, let it go. We can afford lt anvthinc eo. We are rich. We own an automobile." George had already mastered the steering wheel, the gear-shifting levers and the brakes. The three ventured lor their first ride. It was a Joy! This devouring of spaee made them greedy tnr mnrn. So eaeh nieht for a week found them on th road. No lamplight shone through the windows of the little country bungalow to cheer the old peo- pie in the big house on tne am. vhwjd the whole day was spent in riding. One day George earn bom in tne middle of the forenoon, an unusual thing with him. He was white and his hands were trembling. Elizabeth hur ried to him. "What is itt What is the matter! Are you sick, deart" "No. no. I'm all right; but Eliza- hih I met Mr. Masters with Jane and Jerry the brakes wouldn't work -and" "You didn't hurt Jane and Jerry! Oh Goorse. you couldn't " "No, but I just missed them. Think what mieht have happened!" "I can't bear to think of it, George, and the worst of it is, it may happen anv time." "No, not me, never again. Besides, Mr. Masters told me that they begin cultivatine tomorrow in dear earnest. "That isn't any consolation. They were never meant to cultivate." tiach morning in her white night gown Elizabeth stood in the sleeping porch and worked an improvised pulley which agitated and flapped numerous twists of newspaper among the second cron of fil?S. Shining lard puil lids were twirled in the sunlight to frighten magazine section away the thieving linnets. It was by such vigilance that Elizabeth had, each year, a crop that was the wonder of her neighbors. Bnt this year the days followed ene another with none of the white figs preserved in ginger, or the purple ones with lemon. The apricots had yellowed the ground, the peaches fell bruised while the fruit shelves went empty. This was the reign of the automobile. The sprengerei ceased to send out its quick-growing fronds. The begonia leaves curled and lost their luster; the pergola changed from a cool retreat to a common, home-made clutter; the wal nuts lay upon the ground ungathered, while the muscat grapes refused to be come raisins, bnt mildewed on the roof for the lack of Elizabeth's ear. Yet there were ridesl They sped through the white moonlight; over the prone, purple shadows of the eucalyptus-bordered roads. They whirled past acres and acres of oranges where fitful far breezes earns winnowing through the smells of the many fragrant groves. They rode to the very base of the mar velous Sierra Madrea till the time when the snow fell on the mountains. Then the amethystine glow of the peaks grew white they were alabaster steps lead ing through the azure to th thron of the Most Hieh. No matter what the joy upon the road, the home-coming was) mr quite the same as it had been in the fugitive roriw? days which they remembered with Jane and Jerry. "How esa we help miasm tnemT We loved them so," Elizabeth said. "Why, we began loving therm as soon as we were married when wo took our wedding trip after them down to Ban Diego. The first time Beth ever left the house when she was a baby was to ride after them. They were always the best sort of company. "All summer when I have frightened away the birds, the first friends I saw in the morning were Jan tad Jerry. Every morning till they went away they would stiek their dew old noses through the bars and show m that they were as glad to see ma as I was to see them. Jane would nicker up to me on the sleeping-pores, and say 'Good morning' as plain as eould be. But now that dead, ugly auto stands there and does nothing, just like an old dummy. Even when we rid a it, it is not as cozy as our little road wagon used to be with Jane and Jerry U front of us three. Beth and I bump around on that big baek seat like two popcorns in a popper. Jane and Jerry are alive, alive! An auto is nothing but dead." viu.hafh mAni nassionatelv. and a nnrnose ervstalized in George's mind. A short twilight was already shading its gray into the black dark of early winter. The fog was drifting in, ban daging the trees like cotton gauze. The Umns of the automobile must be light ed before Olennen started. Like a great hoatln- the machine at first oravlod from under the pepper tree. and flew down the mntia nf innumerable peppers. muoWn watched its flight tnrougn the troML Off-blooms 01 Valeneias wafted their fragrance i,..,t, tkn linma door: yet a nomo- sickness that is part of the dying sea son wherever it is, overcame her. The scent reminded her of a spring rid with Jane and Jerry to th. Pt Hills, where the maidenhair terns w in.. . ..t ti tread UDOn ia th small canyon. There th yellow violets, shooting stars and lupine studded the slopes as thickly as stars in th Milky Way. Sueh a wealth of beauty to bring home for their garden and fernery. "We can never go so far up Into the hills with a new auto; for w might get it scratched," she said to Beth, who was just coming in from play. "No," was the mournful reply, sjd next spring we cant go up th bin roads where the mustard blooms, nor in the waahea where there are muuowi and millions of flowers. ve u ju. have to forget what they look like, I guess." "Oh, it isn't so bad as that, and spring hasn't come yet. We do go lots of places, dear, and farther than ever before. But we surel) are singing a different tune than we did when we first got the auto, aren't wet" "Yes, but autos are not sneh fun, after all, when you think of Jan and Jerry." Soon supper was ready. The home curod olives gleamed green against the scarlet pimientos, the savory smell of bacon and frijolss reached out W George Glennea returning. The smeQ added zest to the satisfaction 01 MS planned surprise. The gleam paths of light held the moving shadows of th two whom h loved, to whom b brought joy. Elizabeth stopped suddenly as she re turned from her last trip to the cup board. "Listen! Someone is coming WITH HOBSESI" v "Jane and Jerry I" Elizabeth put down th cake plat and followed Beth's dash through the door. "Father! Father! " Beth's voice pierced th night with its clear, glad treble, and Elizabeth's alto was just as eager, "George!" "Yes, yes," came the answer. "Her we are; hurry upl" It was superfluous instruction. With unerring footsteps in th dark they reaehed the open space by th corraL Elizabeth's arms went around Jerry's neck, while Beth shouted: "Lift me up, lift me up on Jan1 baek, so I can hug her good! Jane, dear Jane! Oh, Janey dear, have you eome baek to stayt" "They are oars. I bought them back.' In th lantern light th hus band and father watched these two eager children with amused fondness. "How good it is to have them hero! But did you hav to loss in th trade, George t" 'Wo, no loss. Anything is valuable according to bow much yon want it I paid a little sum for experience, but that always comes high, you know. Anyway, I wouldn't take two auto for Just one of Jans, lot alone Jerry." "Neither would II" chorused Ehzsr both. If asparagus has turned yellow it ought to b eat out and burned. It will kill spores of rust, which should be disposed of before they are rip enough to be scattered by the wind. TEN ROSES FREE Writ (or Information Today. BEST TIME TO PLANT NOW. Betialaetloa Guaranteed. Mountain View Floral Co. Eut 72nd a Mill Sta, Portland, Oregon, r- J , WHITE SHORT UOll t STORIES AND Work With Tool Hands Us Tom Brains B 1 ( money la Ik Demand ereeteT than apply. Thousands of toriai and p 1 a 7 1 oaed T r 7 month. We teaeh 70a to write and where to oil you stories. Endorsed hy Home Industry Lea raft- Chartered 1909. Booklet deserihinc this and SO other practical and money-making courses lent FREE. Write today. DopL C. Modern School of Correspondence Underwood Bldf, Ban Franciaeo, PLYMOUTH MANILA ROPE Costs 5 More Than Other Ropes, but It Give Ton 25 LONGER LIFE AND STRENGTH. Don't yon call this economy! If you want to prove this, let us send you a small piece to test out for yourself. In full coils our price Is 16 cents per pound base. Short lengths 1 cent additional Two hundred thousand pounds in stock. ' We also have the largest stock of Blocks and Sheaves on the Pacific Coast. Catalogue sent upon re ceipt of 10 eents to cover postage. The Beebe Company Dept. C. 183-6 Morrison Street Portland, Ore.