Show A ROMANCE OF A pennsylvania FARM by JOHN LUTHER LONG by don allson by jo SYNOPSIS tho crowning desire in the life of old baumcartner naum cartner la to obtain possession of a beautiful meadow the property was in merited by sarah pressel very pretty and athletic young girl baumgartner came to realize that his only hope of obtaining the property would be through the mar ariage of his son to sarah pressel in a mock auction heffy as I 1 baumbartner jr la popularly known Is raffled off by his father to sarah for ft sarah pressel Is quite the opposite of defly baumgartner gives belfy borne lessons in courtship baumgartner has causel to be ap pointed guardian 0 sally she promises that she will never kiss any man but him sam arltz a drunken grocery clerk calls on sally and interrupts the kissing goes to sleep and begins snoring sally leaves the room in a huff saying gool night gentlemen heffy tells his father of his humiliation of how sam I 1 rl z had pinned to his bosom while he slept a pasteboard tombstone heffy and sally meet at the poison spring she urges ht n to do something to redeem himself the father advises heffy to take sally home om church this would be the crucial test according to the custom 0 the times H was the rule in such a test thai the one whose arm the girl accepted leaving the church would be the lavoid suitor then sam takes sally arm she says I 1 am satisfied and heffy Is left in disgrace sam con his drinking and sally begins to acquire the habit baumgartner curses son and strikes him powerful blow with fist full in the face then the repentant father gathers the youth in his arms ills cries attract sally and sam fritz sally rushes up to heffy s room and finds him unconscious in the morning heffy has disappeared it Is a sad and lonesome winter tor old baumgartner lie thinks his son Is dead somewhere from the ef facts of the cruel blow when old baumgartner boea to sally a home to sur render to her his papers as her guardian he finds her haggard and worn with sorrow she agrees to quit drinking it he will take the papers back and continue as her guardian old baumgartner and sally continue as bosom friends sam dies of drinking and sally goes to keep house for old baumgartner reading the farm journal she Is attracted by a masterly article by S P baumgartner jr president of the kansas state farmers league she writes pleading with him to return CHAPTER XIV continued she watched her put it into the bag and then went dreaming home and for all of the two weeks of waiting she was very happy dreaming always poor girl she bad made her life so unhappy that joy seemed divine she was sure of sethy sometimes she won dered with a blush and a start it he might not come himself an fn answer she would not have been surprised to have him steal up behind her that wag his way she remembered and call out softly her name so she went about almost on tiptoed tiptoes so that she might hear alpa it he should it was a little difficult to keep it from the in old man who did not quite understand her sudden happiness but she did it and finally the two weeks were up she was quite sure heffy would not waste a moment with his answer and he might use that mysterious inspru ment the telegraph which she under stood would not take more than an hour from kansas she supposed his message even it he used the tele graph would come to the post office the ceremonial of a letter with simple people Is as much a matter of concern as a treaty between two na tlona and now as she dressed her self in her best clothes to go to the post office she felt somehow as it she were to be in heffy s personal presence and must be as immaculate as always she wondered how he would address her forgetting that his answer must come to the one whose name she had signed she had heard of various most dear head lines to let I 1 am afraid she blushed at all this for as she looked in the glass she saw a face so radiant that she looked agian to identify it so alt the more she dressed herself with the same care she would have taken were she going to him instead of to the post office for his letter she remembered what he had said about her hair and she ventured to pull it about her face much as it had been that night in the dark parlor dut at the thought of that the tears came slowly into her eyes she bad been iery happy that night it was all the happiness she had ever known tt seemed now she dried her ayea and then she eat at the table where had often sat and looked again in his broken mirror the radiance was quenched her face was pale and thin now she thought of it quite as it be were soon to see it 1 I wonder it hell think me band some now she shook her head doubtfully af the face she saw in the glass no I 1 have no red cheeks no more and my eyes are bigger and my alpa and my hair Is paler and my hands she remembered how he had kissed them and amt her head down and sobbed they did not seem fit to be kissed now nor worth kissing but the poet liked her bet ter that way and so do I 1 for ho had acquired a daintiness that wag almost immaculate aa abon as bally came the poet ale trea ameled and shook her head for ahe bad what the latter contained quite as it she had seen it and she had watched anxiously or the answer not yet she said compassionately sallys legs weakened and she clutched at the little shelf before her it took a moment to swallow the thing in her throat then she murmured its two weeks yes but he d have to be pretty prompt to get it here by this time sally had been sure ot this prompt ness it never occurred to her to doubt she would not have wasted a minute she turned hopelessly away perhaps tomorrow to morrow said the kind post mistress sally veered smiling you think BO perhaps one can never tell don t worry dear you see the address was very vague and it may be some time before they find him biou don t think it Is too late I 1 hape not dear she had not thought of that before she had fancied him waiting tor some such recall but of course he had formed other ties he would be glad to forget her he might be married of course he was otherwise he could not be a president 1 I guess its too late she said again 1 I would not think that the ad dress was very vague but after you were gone I 1 took the precaution to put a return address on the envelope and it he does not get it it will come ack but that will take some little time there was nothing the next day nor the next nor for the many days after ward that she went to th post office she was no longer bressert dr essert up tor the trip and sho was glad now she had not told his father for a while she had to lock herself in her room when the desire came on her to go to the post office and then she remained aay three days then a week and then the postmistress ad matted that the letter had had time to be returned she must not give up though strange things happen some times with letters the letter had been returned the postmistress had it then but she pityingly thought it best that sally should wait for it still while she tried to send it back to him otherwise it was very much as sally had planned and hoped save that she was a bit sadder she kept fathers house as perhaps no house no not everybody sighed sally was ever kept before she had not been famous for the keeping of her own house in the dayson her coquette ship her grandmother bad attended to this and then a maid who in her faultlessly but now her own hands did all and did it with love and she did replace heffy and more for she plowed and after a brief apprenticeship no one did it bet ter tho bay mare was as kind to sally as she had been to heffy noth ing in bis life had ever been so sweet to the old man as those rests when they met and no food was ever so piquant as that eaten under the trees at their sally still went to tho post office and the post mistress still had her let ter where she could have put her hand band upon it though she mercifully concealed this but there was no hope rot a word of confidence had passed between sally and the kind postmistress but each knew that the other understood quite as it their confidence was corn so that it was as if they spoke of an old matter when sally eald one day es I 1 guess its too late lies married I 1 think if I 1 till I 1 heard from him said the corn passionate woman behind the coun ter 1 I thought so once he went to war I 1 heard that ne was killed I 1 married another man just oh just because then he came back I 1 have always been sorry something filled the speakers eyes and sally with the dumb intuition ot the primitive nature stood there a long time and said only thank you but aber that hope rose and lived again that night the postmistress received from washington the address of the kansas state league of farm ers clubs and put it on the face of the returned letter and sent it forth again XV shall heffy Ent erat cue winter had come again the fifth one they sat together in the great hearth ot the kitchen in their chalao attitude when before a fire the hickory logs sputtered savagely aava gely but sent out to them eleu a grateful warmth their and bodies glowed in the fervor of it and there Is nothing like this to put one at peace with all the world said the old man this la nice very nice agreed sally but also there la nothing like this to send one a memory backward and this it was doing for both of them everybody don t hat no such alre tonight and the everybody ho thought of as he sighed was sony no not everybody sighed sally propping her head upon his knee sally who do ou mean by efery body just one person admitted sally the same one you mean yas said heffy s father very softly and then they were silent bebby somes got no homes an out freezing tonight to night the old man said presently I 1 hope not said sally we could take them tn here it we knew they are we pappy but that last note was the one which dams up tears yas it we where they aarl my god it we chust where sally don t you nefer turn no one away from the door on a cold win night you dont know who it might bel I 1 II 11 never turn any one away from the door said sally with emotion right sally somes dead I 1 d rather be dead than haf no homo and I 1 agreed sally nor no friends sally nodded sally how long Is it ance you iraa married 9 more than four years nearly five pappy my I 1 but sings Is changed sail the old man efen the sun don t seem so bright no more yes things are changed said iho girl alt it must be chust an idee why the bible says that summt r and winter shall not change tell come to pass then his voice broke alt alt alt its one sing aln t come to pass and it seems like its neter going to it s better sence you come but alt the house is damp and tery he shivered himself and empty like it was a tu about all the time yit its no one dead no one s dead he s not dead chust gone you said so you said it first and some day hell coma back and well git on our knees and beg his pardon but its so long oh my god so long oh heffy heffy little heffy I 1 got a pain in my breast about you you was all I 1 bad come back to me come back im a ol 01 man and I 1 m sorry sorry and broke broke down but it boull coma back sally do you think hell bat a scar on his facea something stifled his utterance tho girl put out a soft hand to comfort him some day we shall know see be brave yas yas that s easy to say but you nefer struck no one right in tho face when they was looking up at you in that pleading kind of a way she said piteously no then you don t know about it oh my god if you d had it before you for more than four years like a picture morning and day and night efery wheres the blood on dimand the bed and me TO BE CONTINUED |