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Show ' Telegram Serial Seasoned Timber VislslslslslslslslsisislslslsWslsVisHBHHislislslslsMaHisSHislsslslsMMislslslslslslsB Canby Tells Timothy He's About to Be Married ' j CHAPTER 25 i During the next two months, when it was apparent to Timothy that they were leading at forlorn hope as even Canby had predicted pre-dicted and that he would fail In this as he failed with Susan, he tried occasionally to give a prac- tical thought to what would lie beyond that failure for him and his old dependent Without Aunt La-; La-; vlnla he could possibly, probably certainly ia fact find another j teaching position. But It would not be without Aunt Lavtnia. And It ' would be with an Aunt Lavtnia i constantly more difficult to explain ; to normal people. In Clifford the passage of time had slowly laid ' down around her like a geologic deposit an unsurprised acceptance of her eccentricities which In itself had a calming Influence on her. What the Impact of a new critical - community on her would be, and of her strange manner of life on a community unfamiliar with It and seeing no reason for indulgence '. with It, her nephew found impos-J impos-J sible to Imagine. , i There were moments when, ex-' ex-' haul ted after a long day he got hi. ..In,!.. ff Amahniv Anil fall bulletins, when the clipping bureau to which (for the first time In his life) he had subscribed, sent him an eat tort at comment from the press. Most of the newspapers In the eastern large cities had commented comment-ed with bland approval at least once on the campaign being carried on In Clifford: "sturdy old-Americanism" they hsd said, and "picturesque "pic-turesque campaign going on In a country town in rural Vermont," and "farmers In overalls and housewives house-wives In gingham, asked to refuse re-fuse large gift to their school as a matter of principle." But on the whole, Timothy made little use of this unim passioned support from the outside. This was In the first days of those feverish two months, when Canby was still active, coming once In a while with suggestions to the morning meetings of the general staff, even making a few campaign cam-paign visits of his own. He soon stopped these, heartily out of patience pa-tience with Clifford's silent unresponsiveness. unre-sponsiveness. "I can't talk to that bunch of dead pans!" he said Indignantly. In-dignantly. And he appeared less and less often at the principal's office, absorbed In those Diana of ture alumni who would be gold mines for gifts and bequests, now of what those gifts would bring a fine auditorium, a theater, great playing field dormitories and a bulletin appeared devoted entirely entire-ly to explaining that all these marvelous mar-velous opportunities were to be free, absolutely free to our own people, even more so than now, because of the provision for scholarships schol-arships for needy youth made In the will of the academy's great benefactor. Hence Clifford young I people would profit by all this without anybody having to pay for It. Timothy laughed aloud that first day after Miss Peck's monument went up. He watched the passers-by passers-by stop to read the lines: j This Is the Town of . Clifford 1 Founded In 176T By Brave Men Who. Called to Fight Against York State Invaders, Risked Their Lives for Human Rights Threatened by a Legal Quibble i (So far so good. The head of the reader nodded yes In devout agree- : ment.) i ' Into bed, he could scarcely wait for the beginning of that death-ln-llfe of defeat and Inaction, so highly prised by those who have not tried It and by those who dread the responsibility re-sponsibility to make something out of success which comes with its achievement. - Until the day of the election he was constantly in the thick of dusty panting busyness, which more often thaa mot clenched his '. teeth in the erase, un poetic, vital-Jzlng, vital-Jzlng, do-or-die determination of a man playing a tournament with a j formidably skillful opponent on the j other side of the net Almost every , day brought a new fierce challenge the violence of sVhlch struck out ! from him a violent reaction not so much of the conscious will as, ' he sometimes thought wonderingly, I Involuntary, reflex, biologic of more power, more Ingenuity, more ' doggedness, more resourcefulness than he had thought he had. ' Ha had a rest, occasionally, from the considerable effort of writing his for reconstruction and selling old houses to summer people, about which he volubly Ulked at Miss Peck's 'supper table, monopolizing the conversation night after night with as ruthless a concentration on his own Interests as ever Mrs. Washburn showed. Susan helped type and address envelopes for a while and went around to talk to members of her class now living in Clifford. But as soon as her school closed, she was sent for by some Cadoret cousins on the other side of the state whom she had promised to visit, and after that of course Canby's time was too much taken up with driving over the mountain and back to allow him to give more than casual help to Timothy's lost cause. Both sides adopted every campaign cam-paign device the other side Invented Invent-ed as soon aa It was put into use, and Invented new ones of their own. The Bowen-Randall-Card-ner workers, like those under Tim- Afhv'a H I rm1 Ion 1 ms wnt un mnA down the streets and back roads and highways Into offices and farms and factories and homes, paying campaign calls on voters. They too Issued mimeographed bulletins bul-letins and circulated them in Clifford Clif-ford and among the out of town alumni, the cost covered by a subscription sub-scription taken up among the businessmen busi-nessmen of town. Those bulletins were not so well written aa the ones arranged by Timothy with Mr. Dewey to help him strike the accurate middle of the Clifford note. They did not need to be; the wine they offered needed no bush. Prosperityl they cried. Plenty of work for alii Money circulating fast, no matter what depression did to other towns! Fine young bucks In white flannels and custom-made shoes carelessly handing out dollars dol-lars as the present students handed hand-ed out pennieal Lower taxes! Prestige Pres-tige for Clifford! Rich city families moving Into town I A reservoir built to supply the town with water! A sewage system installed! Money in the banks! A market for anything the farms could produce! Better movies! Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! And as for the academy, the picture of Its future drawn by Bowen was like the Promised Land now he wrote of fine buildings, now of the wealthy clientele, now of the fu- Their Descendants Faithfully Carried Forward the Tradition of Freedom, Human Dignity and Equal Opportunity For All Handed Down to Them by Those Hardy Forefathers Through One Hundred and Sixty Years of Rigorous Rigor-ous Honest Living and In . 1938 ' When Offered a Million Dollars To Betray This Tradition They Voted On August 16 Anniversary of the Battle of Bennington By a Majority of to This Bribe. Et Majorca Ventres Et Posteros Cogitate. Think of Your Forefathers! Think of Your Posterity! (John Qulnry Adams, speech at Plymouth, December 32. 1803.) When It came It was as quickly over, Timothy thought, as being electrocuted. He was in his office one evening and Mr. Dewey sat waiting till Timothy was free for the campaigning calls at the farms which they had planned for the evening. The door to the corridor was at the extreme right of Timothy's field of vision. He saw Canby come swinging In, his head up, not shamblthg marching. To Mr. Dewey, to Timothy's profile, to the room, to the universe, Canby cried out, "I'm engaged to be married." Mr, Dewey was saying, astonished, aston-ished, sympathetic curious, "You don't say! Who to?" The question sent Canby Into fits of laughter, but laughter which to Timothy's ears quavered and j shook with quite another emotion than amusement. Timothy was lost. ! literally materially lost. For a moment mo-ment he did not know where he I was, nor who the two people were in' the room with him. Yet after a time he heard Mr. Dewey saying, "Well, now, Canby, you've certain- j ly got yourself one of the nicest. I I'd like to've married her myself, if I was the age to. Wouldn't you, T. cr I To Canby, coming up does to ' him now, looking at him out of ! shining eyes, Timothy held out his right hand. Canby laughed ner-' ner-' vously and said something to Mr. Dewey. Then he went to the door, lifted his arm high over his head ' in an elated gesture, waved a smll-; smll-; ing, already half absent good-bye j to Timothy, opened the door, closed It after him. ' (To Be Continued Saturday) |
