Show FE FR I 1 A STORY TOR Q R c S y I 1 fin A R ROMANCE 0 M 0 OF F A pennsylvania PENN S b F FARM AI I 1 by JO JOHN LUTHER ai LONG G illustrations at by don wilson coper 1106 by babl ablerr lo 10 how a eidew se dog trots the place was as the porch ol 01 the etore store the time was about 10 0 clock in the morning of a summer day the people were the amiable loafers and old baumgartner the person he w as discoursing about was his son stepheni jah I 1 am not sure that the name was not the ripe fruit of his fathers fancy with perhaps the scriptural suggestion which is likely to be pres ent in the affairs of a pennsylvania german whether a communicant or not even if he live in maryland yas always last especial at tu fu gerals and weddings except his own he hes s sure to be on time at his own funeral right out in front I 1 hah but sometimes he misses his wedding why I 1 knowel a teller feller all knowel him begos hens that didn dian t git there tell another teller d married her bout bornn a year wasn gasn t it more n a year boys yas bill eisentrout Eisen krout or now was it his brother baltzer iron cabbage 7 seems to me now like it was baltz some sing wiss a B at the front end any how henry was vas erman diffidently antl inti mated that there was vas a curious but satisfactory element of safety in being last a fastnacht tast in their language in tact fact those in front were the ones usually hurt in railroad accidents al aexander althoff remembered safe cried the er of course but for why say for aly old baumgartner challenged defiantly no one answered and he let several impressive minutes intervene you doi doit t know hang ou on none of youa knows well because he aint ain t there when occurs al ways a little late they all agreed with him by a series of sage nod but fellers the worst is about courting it its s no way to be always late everybody else gits there first and its tor for the fastnacht but weeping and wailing walling and gnashing of the teeth and bebby the other teller gits considerable happiness and a good farm there was complaint in the old mans voice and they knew that he meant his own son heffy to add to their embarrassment this same son was now appearing over the lustich hill an opportune moment for a pleasing digression for you must be told early concerning old baumgart ners longing tor for certain lands tene imenes ments and hereditaments using his own phrase which were not his own but which adjoined his it had passed into a proverb of the vicinage indeed though the property in question be longed to one sarah pressel it was known colloquially as baumgartner s yearn and the reason of it was this be de tween his own farm and the public road and the railroad station when it came lay the fairest meadowland meadow land farmers eye had ever rested upon 1 I am speaking again for or the father of heffy and with his hyperbole save in one particular it an enemy s beautiful territory lying be tween one s less beautiful own and the open sea keeping one a poor inlander who Is mad tor for the seas whose crops must either pass across the land ot of lith adversary and pay tithes to I 1 liu im or go by long distances around him at the cost of greater tithes to the soulless owners of the turnpikes who aggra va tingly fix a 4 gate each way to make their tithes more sure so I 1 say it was like having the territory of his enemy lying between him and deep water save as I 1 have also said in one particular to wit that the owner the sarah pressel I 1 have mentioned was not old baumgartner s enemy in tact fact they were tremendous friends and it was by this friendship and one other thing which I 1 mean to mention later that old baumgartner hoped before he died to attain the wish of his life and see not only the elogian pasture field but the whole of the ai adjoining joining farm with the I 1 ne fences dow dom n a part of his the other thing I 1 pron ased to mention as an aid to this ambition was heffy and v nce the said sarah was of nearly nearl the same age as effa eff perhaps I 1 need not explain further except to say that I 1 ie only obstruction the old man co ild see now to acquiring title by mar garnage ilage was heffy himself he was and al ways had been atra afra d of girls es pec lally ally such ag gressi e flirtatious 1 I retty and tempestuous girls as this sarah these things however were heredi tary with the girl it was historical I 1 II 11 i tact fact that during the life of sarah s good looking father so importuna had been old baumgartner for the I 1 purchase of at least the meado v I 1 ie e could not hae have ventured at that time and so obstinate had been the father of the present owner he 1 id red hair precisely isely as his daughter had that they had come conic to blows about it to the discomfiture of old ba in egartner mg artner and afterward after vard they d d not speak let lot when the loafers at the store laughed baumgartner that he would nevertheless have that pasture before he died but t then en as if fate too were against him the railroad was built and its station was placed so that the pressel farm lay d erectly between it and him and of course the life went more and more in the direction of the station left him more and more out a of f it t and made him poorer and poor er and pressel richer and richer and when the store laughed at that baum daum gartner swore that he would possess halt half of the farm before he died and as pressel and his wife died and heffy grew up and as he noticed the fond ness of the little redheaded red headed girl tor for his little towheaded tow headed boy he added to I 1 lis is adjuration that he would be bar rowing that whole farm before he died without paying a cent for it but both seffa and sally had grown to a marriageable age ditl out any thing happening heffy had become in shy while the coquettish sally had accepted the attentions of sam pritz the clerk at the store as an antagonist more worthy orthy of her and in a fashion which sometimes made the father of heffy swear and lose his temper with heffy though of course in the final disposition of the matter he was sure that no girl so nice as sally would marry such a person as sam pritz with no ex visible means of support a salary of 4 a week and an odious rep for liquor and it was tor for tl ese things all of which were known for Daum baumgartner gartner had not a single secret that the company at the store detected the personal equation in old Bauni baumgartner gartner s communications seffie had almost arrived by this time and sally was in the store with sam the situation was highly dra matle matic but the old man consummate ly ignored this complication and dl reeled attention to his son for him the molasses did not exist the fact is he was overjoyed heffy tor for one onca in his life would be on time he ile would do the rest now boa bivs s chust look at em dogged it if they ain aln t bose like one an other how hows s the pro proberb ferb birds of a feather flock wiss one another 9 I 1 A au bac 4 dunno anyhow set flocks wiss betz constant and they understand one another good trotting like a sidewise dog of a hot summer s day and he showed the company up and down the store porch just how a sidewise dog would be likely to trot on a hot summer day and then laughed joy bously it there had been an artist eye to see they would have been well worth its whileS effy and the mare so at disparaged and after all I 1 am not sure that the speaker himself had not an artist artists s eye for a spring pasture reC a tallow fallow upland or a drove of goodly cows deep in ill his clover I 1 know he had perhaps you too have and this was bis his best mare and his only son the big bay clad in broad banded harness soft with oil and glittering with brasses was shambling indolent ly down he hill resisting restating her own momentum by the diagonal motion the old man had likened to a dog dogs s sidewise trot the looped trace chains were jingling a merry dithyramb her head was nodding her tail swaying and heffy propped by his elbow on her broad back one leg swung be tween the hames the other keeping time on her ribs was singing I 1 want to be an angel and with the angels stand A crown upon my forehead A harp within my hand his ills adoring father chuckled I 1 n onder nonder what for kind of an anhel he hed he d make anyhow and betz they 11 have to go together say I 1 wonder it if it Is horse no one knew no one offered a sug NN ell it ought to be say he 1 en perform circus wiss ol 01 betz they expressed their polite sur prise at this for perhaps the hun I 1 dreith time yas they have a kind of circus ring in the barnyard he stands on oil one foot then on another and on his hands wiss his feet I 1 icking bicking and then he says words like hokey pol ey and betz detz she kid mel s up behind and throws bin off in the dung and we all laugh happy efer after betz detz most of alii all after the applause he said I 1 gness guess I 1 d better wake em up what you linb they one and all thought he ha they knew I 1 e N bould do it no matter what they thought hie his method as isaal was his ova own he lle hopped tc to the adjoining field a d a selecting c clod with th steel polish of the plow share upon it threw it at the male mate it struck her on the flani she gather ed her feet under her I 1 in a sudden alarm then slowly relaxed cooled 1001 ed slyly foi for the old man found him and under s stand an ng su luddeni sud deni en w wheeled ee e an 1 am bled off home leaving heffy prone on the ground as her part of 01 the jol e the old man brought heffy in tri to the sto e porch chust stopped you afore you got to be a anchel he m was as sal saving ing U we e couldn coulden t bear to binl about you being a anchel an wiss the anchela stand I 1 fc a harp upon your forehead a crowd all within thin your hand I 1 expect when its it a corn planting time heffy grinned cheel fully br i bied aed ol 01 the dust and contemplated his father a I watch held accusingly against him old baumgartner went on gaily about an inch and a half alast ten heffy I 1 in glad you ain aln t break ing your reputation tor for being fast bachich chust about a quarter ot of an inch too late tor for the prize wiss iss flour en cu its hair and arms and its frock I 1 enned up tip t show its new petticoat ahu it if I 1 had such a nice pet pe ti coat he imitated the lady in ques tion to the tremendous delight of the gentle loafers heffy stared a dittli and rubbed some dust out of his eyes he ile was pleasant but dull bassir set it if you d a got yere at a inch and a quarter alast now sam sams a got her down in the he cellar a licking molasses together doggone it if sam don t git except his due b ils he ile don t want to be no anchel tell he dies he ile s got tun fun enough yere but heffy you re like the flow of molasses in january at courting this oblique suasion made no im on heffy it Is doubtful if he understood it at all the loafers be gan gall to smile one laughed the old man checked him with a threat of 0 per bonal harm hold on there jefferson bus by he I 1 don dont t allow no one to laugh at my heffy except chust me account I 1 in his daddy its it s a fight word the next time you do it mr busby straightened his coun cenance he don t seem to notice nor keer bout gals do he hea no one spoke no durn him he aln aint t no good say what 11 yoa give tor for him hahe yere he goes to the highest bidder tor for richer for or poorer for better tor for up and down in and out swing your partners what s bid he ken hen plow as crooked as a mule mules s hind leg sleep hard as a possum in winter time eat like a snake git left efery time but he ken ketch fish they wait on him what s bid 9 no one would hazard a bid alt a minute shouted the old tel fel low pulling out his bull s eye watch agala what s bid going going all done going A dollar the bid came from behind him and the voice was beautiful to hear A gleam came into the old man a eves aa as he heard it he deliberately put the watch back in its pocket put on his spectacles and turned as if she were a stranger gone I 1 he announced then who s the purchaser 7 9 come forwards and take away you property the name then he pretended to recognize her sally well that s lucky I 1 he goes in good hands he s sound and kind but needs the whip he held out his hand for the dollar it was the girl of whom he had spoken accurately as a prize her sleeves were turned up as far as they would go revealing some soft lace trimmed whiteness and there was flour on her arms some patches of it on her face gave a petal like effect to her otherwise aggressive color the pretty dress was pinned tar far enough back to reveal the prettier petticoat plus a pair of trimly clad ankles perhaps these were neither the gar ments nor the airs in which every farmer maiden malden did her baking but then sally was no ordinary farmer maiden she was all this it is true but she was besides grace and color and charm itself and if she chose to bake in such attire or even it if she chose to pretend to do so where was the churl to say her nay even though the flour was part of a deliberate make up certainly he was not at the store that summer morning and heffy was there her hair es redness by only a little but that little was just the difference be tween ugliness ug linese lines and beauty for whether sally were beautiful or not about which we might contend a bit her hair was and perhaps that is the reason why it was nearly always uncovered or possibly again be cause it was so much uncovered was the reason it was beautiful it seemed to catch some of the glory of the sun her face had a few freel les and her mouth was a trifle too large but in it were sa s1 splendid bendid did teeth TO BE CONTINUED |