Show EDNA R illustrations BY CLARK copyright by doubleday passa co service CHAPTER IX continued 12 1 I want to stay liero here and work the farm and make it pay I 1 can call im not going to grow just the common garden stuff any more not much anny way im going to specialize in fit the fine things the kind tile south water street commission men want I 1 want to drain the low laud tile it that thal land been used for years it ought to be rich growing land by now it if once its properly dral drained ned and I 1 want dirk to go to school good schools I 1 never want my son to go to the Ilay market never never my life count except as Bom something ething for dirk to use im done with anything else oh I 1 dont mean that im discouraged or disappointed in life ilfe or anything like that I 1 mean I 1 started out with the wrong idea I 1 know better now im liere here to keep keel dirk from making the mistakes I 1 made aug Ilem tone was one of 0 meditation not of argument it dont work out that way seems about mistakes its funny you got to make your own and not only that if you try to keep people from making theirs they get mad ile he whistled softly through his teeth following this utterance and tapped the chair seat with tits ills ff finger nger its beau beauty tyl 1 selina said t lien almost att alt passionately aug cempel he m pel and julle julie plainly could make no nothing t hing of this remark so BO she went vent on eager explanatory plan atory 1 I used to think that it if you wanted beauty if you wanted it hard enough and hopefully enough it came to you you just waited and lived your life as best beet you could knowing that beauty might be just around the corner you just waited and then it t came enone 11 Beau beauty tyl 1 exclaimed julle julie weakly she stared at selina in the evident belief that this work worn haggard woman wits was bemoaning tier her lack of per bonal pulchritude yes all the worthwhile worth while things in life work that you love anil and growth growth and watching people grow feeling very strongly about things filings find and then developing that feeling to to make something tine ine come of it she threw out tier her hands in a futile gesture whitt what I 1 mean by beauty I 1 want dirk to have it for sah sakel el pleaded jullette Jul julle lethe the Ilter ilteris id lets stop talking and do something ila youve youe probably got it all fixed in your mind long ago its time we heard it here selina was one of I 1 the most popular girls in miss Fi school and lots of people thought tho the prettiest pst and now just look at tier A flicker of the old flame leaped up tip in helln belinn U Ilat she murmured aug stood up tip if you think eh ins your our whole life to making the liny hoy haply Is going to make hint him happy you on nent vo FO smart as I 1 took you for yli nil po trying to live somebody alses lle life for them tin im not going to live his life for mm hin I 1 want to show hitti him how to live it 1 fo 0 o that hell get full value out of it Ne keeping him out of the haymarket if the lie lluy markets the natural pit altce cc fur for blin wont to do that how can you tell I 1 with to he be im out at the yards every day in and out ut of tin tile cattle pens talking to the drovers ind herders gerders her ders mixing in with the buyers I 1 can tell the weight of a hog and what lies worth just by a look at him and a steer too my ity sonin son in law All michael chael arnold sits felts up in the office nil fill day in our plant dictating letters ills clothes they never stink of the pens like mine do now I 1 aint saing anything nn thing against hint him julle julie but I 1 bet my grandson eugene lie he repented repeated it stressing the nume name su so that eliat you sensed his dislike of it eugene if lie he comes into tile the business at all when lie he grows gros up wont go within swelling smelling distance of tile yards ills office I 1 bet will be in a new office domce building on say 31 adison street with a icv view of the lake life lafel I 1 be it all your yourself elf and not know it and I 1 suppose retorted selina spiritedly that when your son in law michael arnold ls la your our age hell be telling eugene susene how lie he roughed it in an office over at the alie yards in tile the old days das these will be the old days august hempel laughed good humor edly blint can be selina that can be lie he chewed ills his cigar und settled to tile tho hils at liana you want to drain drahn and tile plant high grade stuff you got to have a man imin on tte the place that knows what not this van winkle we saw in tile he cabbage held field new horses A wagon I 1 will get you the horses a buri bargain zain lit at the yards ile he took out a long lone flat check book ile he began writing in it with a pen that lie he took from me his pocket some sort ot marvelous pen stint scorned alread tilled filled with ink and lint sou unscrewed at the top and then at the bottom ue ile j squinted through ills cigar smoke the check book propped on ills his knee ile ho tore off the check with u clean rip F for 0 r n i starter ho he said bald lie he held it 0 out ut to selina there bowl exclaimed 11 ille in satisfaction that was more like illie it doing something but selina did not take the chock she sat very ery still in her chair her hands folded that the regular way slie site ald said f august hempel was screwing the top on his fountain pen again I regular way for what im borrowing this money not taking it oil oh yes I 1 am I 1 I 1 get along without it I 1 realize that now after yesterday Yester yesterday dayl 1 but 1 in ivo five years seven ill pay it back then at a half uttered protest front from julle julie the only way ill take it its for dirk but im going to earn it and pay it back I 1 want a she was vas being enormously businesslike and unconsciously enjoying it a nn an 1 I 0 U A promise to pay you back just as as soon no as I 1 can business it and ill sign it sure said aug and unscrewed s ills his fountain pen again sure business very serious lie he scribbled again busily on a piece of paper A year later inter when selina had learned many things among them that simple and compound interest on money loaned are not mere problems devised to fill duffas arithmetic in tier lier school teaching days she went to august hempel between laughter and tears you say one word about interest that day not a word what a little fool you must have thought me between friends protested august hempel empel II but no selina insisted interest 1 I guess I 1 better start me a bank pretty soon if you keep on so businesslike ten years later he was actually the controlling power in the yards ran rangers g bank and selina had the original 1 I 0 U with its paid in full aug hempel empel II carefully tucked away with other keepsakes keep sakes that she foolishly treasured red rid ridiculous cut ous scraps that no one but she would have understood or valued a small school slate such us is little children use tile the one on which she had taught pervus to figure and parse a dried bunch of a bustled and wine red cashmere dress absurdly old fashioned a letter telling about the infanta eulaile of spain and signed julle julie hempel army f i III life count except as a something for dirk to use nold not a pair of mens old side boots with mud caked on them it a crude sketch almost obliterated obliterate now done on it a torn scrap of brown paper find and showing the Ilay market with the haigo ons vegetable laden and the men gathered beneath the street flares and the patient farm horses childish sketch chapter X it those vague characteristics called coiled variously magnetism manner grace distinction attractiveness fascination go to make up that nebulous quality known as charm and if the lie possessor of that quality Is accounted fortunate in tits hta equipment for that which the class day orators style the battle of life then dirk dejong was a lucky lad and life lay promisingly before him undoubtedly he be had bad it and undoubtedly it did lie ile was wap not one to talk a great deal perhaps that was one of his most charming qualities Hellsten he listened BO well older men especially said bald he wax was a smart young fetter feller and would make his mark tills this surprisingly enough after a conversation to which lie he had contributed not a n word other than yes or no or Iller perhaps haps youre loure right sir in tile the proper places it was during those e careless years cars of dirks boyhood between nine and fifteen that selina changed the dejong acres from it worn w orn out and down dow nat n at heel truck farm whose scant products brought a second rate price in a see sec ond rate markev market to a prosperous and blooming vegetable garden whose output was sought a year 5 ear in advance by the south water street commission merchants these six or seven years ears of relentless labor had been no showy success i with selina posing grandly as the new woman in business no it had been a painful grubbing heartbreaking heart breaking process no as Is tiny any project that depends on the actual soil for lis its realization she drove herself lier pitilessly sins she literally tore a living out of the lie earth with tier her two bare hands yet luiere was nothing pitiable uble about tills this small energetic woman of thirty live or forty with tier her alno soft dark eyes ees tier her clean cut jaw line tier her shabby decent clothes that wc cc so likely to bo be spattered pattered s with the mud of the road or fields tier her exquisite tre with the funny little wrinkle across the bridge when she laughed clather there was something splendid about herl her something rich prophetic it was the splendor and richness that achievement imparts it Is doubtful that site she ever could have succeeded without the money borrowed from august hempel empel II without ills his shrewd counsel she told him tills this sometimes lie ile denied it easier yes es but you ou would have found a way selina some way julle julie no but you yes ies you are like that me too say plenty fetters fellers that was hutchers butchers with tile me twenty years vears ago over on north clark street are butchers butch ets yet et cutting off on it a steak or a chop dirk had bad tits his tasks on the farm se llna saw to that but they were not heavy by the time he returned from school tile the rough worl work of the day was over ills food was always hot appetizing pet izing plentiful the house was neat comfortable selina had installed a bathroom one of tile the two bathrooms in high prairie the neighborhood was still rocking with the shock of this when it was informed by jan that selina and dirk ate with candles candies lighted on the supper table high prairie slapped its thigh and howled with mirth cabbages Is beautiful said old klaas pool when lie heard this cut cabbages Is beautiful I 1 betulia bet clia selina during the he years vears of the boys adolescence had never urged him to a decision about ills his future that she s he decided would come As the farm i irm prospered and the pressure of necessity lifted she tried in various ingenious ways to extract from him some unconscious sign of definite preference for this calling that profession fes sion until dirk was sixteen she had been content con tent to let him develop ns as naturally as possible and to absorb impressions Impress fona fons unconsciously front from tile the traps she so guilefully left about him there was a shed which lie was vas free to use as a workshop fitted up lip with all sorts of tools ile he did not use it much after the first few weeks lie ile was pleasantly and an mildly intel interested in all things lings ti held by bv none selina had tin thought of when they were fitting up tile the workshop the pools had heard from just once since his flight from the lie farm A letter had come from prance france selina mid had never heard from hint him but one day dav years veirs later she had come running to dirk with an illustrated magazine magal nc in tier lier hand look I 1 she cried and pointed to a picture ile he had rarely seen her so excited so stirred the illustration showed a photographic reproduction of a piece of sculpture a vo mans figure it was called the seine A figure sinuous snakelike snake like graceful re viol milting ting beautiful terrible ihle the tice face alluring insatiable generous treacherous all at once it was the settle that fed tile the fertile valley land tile the seine that claimed it a thousand bloated lifeless floating things Ti lings tile red eyed hug hog of 11 1703 03 the dimpling coquette of 1650 1600 beneath tilt illustration a line or two pool salon balon american future its Ito itself elf selina had cried roelf loelf I tattle little itself tears in tier hei eyes dirk hat had been politely interested but then lie had never knon hint him really ile he hat had heard tits ills mother speak of him but at seventeen dirk and selina talked if t the year sear to come lie he wits going to a university but to what university and what fild did lie want to study studs we e 11 hard to say sav kind of a general course there 10 oh it selina had said yes gen eral or of course if it a person wanted to bo be an architect why I 1 suppose cornell would be the place or harvard for law or boston tech for engineering or oil oh yeli yeh if a fellow wanted any of those things good idea though to take a kind of general course until you vou found out exactly what you vou wanted to do languages and literature and that kind of thing at eighteen it had bad been midwest university for dirk high prairie heard that dirk dejong was going away avny to college A neighbors son said going to wisconsin agricultural course there my M gush gisli not nol dirk had answered ne ile told this to selina laughing but she had not laughed id like to take that course myself if you must know they say bay its wonderful she looked at him suddenly dirk you like to take it would you to go to madison I 1 dinean Is that what like vestured he stored stured mel me 1 not no 1 un less legs yon nou want me to mother then I 1 would gladly i late hate your working like this on tile the farm while I 1 go off to school it makes mu me feel kind of rotten having my mother working for or me 1110 the other follows fellows 11 im doing the work im interested in for fit the person I 1 love best in the world id be lost unhappy without the farm it if tile the city creeps up on me ine hero here its as they hey predict it will I 1 daut know want hat I 1 shall do just you walt till im successful then therea there 11 be no more working for or you what do you mean by successful 1 she had not called him that in III allm hut but now the old nick nickname nattie canio came to tier lier tongue perhaps because they were ivere speaking of ills future tile ills success do you mean by sue suc cesh ces ful 1 idich illch lots of money no no dirk I 1 not not success tho the thing uvelt does doea success oh well if you have money enough you can buy the things tie lie makes roi ikea and ro at eighteen it had been midwest university for dirk have em almost as aa good it dirk commenced his studies at midwest university in the autumn of 1009 ills his first year was none too agreeable na Is Is usually the case in first years he got on well though before the end of the first semester he was popular he had great natural charm of manner the men liked him and the girls too he rarely cut a class he would have felt that tills this was unfair and disloyal to tits his mother some of his fellow students joked about this faithfulness to his classes person would think you were an unclassified fied they said the were made up for the most part of earnest and rather middle aged stu derns whose education was a delayed blooming they usually were not enrolled for st full course or were taking double work feverishly the professors found them a shade too eager eager perhaps too inquiring demanding |