Show t k t r ii iF C ROY Jj y THE TE STORY THUS FAR Amos Croy settled on a farm fum in Missouri where be married and a son Homer nomer was born Sunday meant church company for dinner din ner and steer weight guessing Dehorn In lag of the calves curing of hams barns wean wean- In lug log of calves sausage making and helping helping helpIn help help- In ing Newt break In the mules were all aU part put of his Ws work He lie won a prize for writing his most unusual dream The Crays attended the Omaha Exposition where Homer nomer saw his Ws first horseless carriage first hula dancers and first motion picture The motion picture scared him Wm at first but later he came to be I thrilled by It as well as the dance and the horseless carriage It was not long before he was to produce a picture CHAPTER Xin XIII Most of ot the hired men talked sex almost continuously with the sons of the men they worked for Renzo had hada a finer streak He thought of girls and he talked of girls But he didn't go past a certain point Some innate innate innate in in- nate fineness held him back there A girl lived behind our farm to go goto goto goto to town she had to drive through our farm to get to the main road Each time she went by Renzo must have thought his thoughts but he never said anything that told me what was going on In hi his mind Once as we were trimming hedge near her house bouse we saw one of her undergarments undergarments undergarments under under- garments on the clothesline It set setI I my mind jumping and it must have f fired Renos too but he made only f some mild remark and went on onI I whacking The girl became aware of us us plucked the undergarment oft off the theLine thelIne theline Line and darted back into the houser house I r guess we can do a better Job now said Renzo and although I tried tried to lead him into more talk when we rested it was all he would bay say It may have been he thought t laas as too young or that my fai father fa- fa i I. ther er would not approve but on the thet t whole Whole I think it was a bit of fineness fineness fine fine- ness in humble Renzo I 1 I He bought a buggy with the i spokes staggered in hi red hubs spread his bis lap robe on the back of the seat rand and asked the girls to try his new I buggy But they found excuses excuse He HeI I was as too smart not to understand and and at times tunes had depressed spells Renzo who had always been so j Cheerful cheerful and the life me of our fireside J. J I He became secretive and wrote letters and took them down to the ther r mailman mallman and handed them to him himI I personally On the day he expected d an answer he would manage to meet the carrier before he got to our box But in spite of this now and then I- I there would be a nice ne net neat t little envelope envelope en en- elope addressed to Lorenzo Davis among among our farm papers and incubator incubator I tor catalogues He would put the letter into his hip pocket as if it didn r t amount to much Sometimes l scat tat at the barn I would see the ends he ragged oft off it 4 fl In the meantime he be to tade s. s In a big businessman this l' l I would would have been called financial We called it dicker dicker- KIng 1 On the Fourth of July he put in his hisa pet a celluloid button which said irl Wanted and walked slowly from om om one group of girls to another ther boys were also wearing the button but his really meant some- some g to Renzo I t J. Finally he said he had been offered of of- fred red a Job in Holt county when p e ie e left he had two horses horse and two or H three pieces of farm machinery nd d some money hi in the bank We Wei i to see sae him go It was lonee lone- lone me e that evening without Renzo Reno j nd his violin JO Two years later possibly he drove TK p in a wagon spring-wagon a girl beside i. i How do you like her he i ed proudly He stayed for dinner aid md we talked over old times de- de to have Renzo Reno at our table ain am The girl we found was a aI aed I 1 ed girl working for a farmer who i. i d id a sickly siddy wife We liked the firL irl She was all right But thee the pie e we really liked was Renzo We the neighbors and sev- sev ral kl of them came in He introduced gr r proudly Once there was a slip t r one of the neighbors pretended at Renzo had sparked every girl f r the neighborhood I think this hurt hurtIn In fl n lenzo a little for the real truth of Il must have flashed before belore him We I r f g 9 rent nt out and had a stock weighing id d Pa let him guess the closest so enzo could impress his girl Id When time came to leave Renzo ove ove away with his own team I g to us as he whirled out of the theA t. t A bit later he sent us a threeSe three three- Se ae e newspaper Item pasted on his her ber with white wrote of egg saying saing that arenzo renzo Davis and Miss So and d been married and had rented such and ch a farm where they f uld soon move and set up house- house ep iping Dg wo wo or three years passed Now Nowthen Nowthen Nowthen then we would get a letter writ writ- I by his wife asking us how we l and as she put it express express express- g C my husbands husband's best wishes One ty we were surprised and delighted have Renzo swirl up in our drive o I lith ith a very dashing team cove cov- cov e i with expensive fly nets He Hed liS Iad d hardly wait walt to tell us the s. Fp s. s He had bought the and So-and So and So Som w m m In our neighborhood And he heS S S eU city had r He hadn't had much ney ney ey to put down but he had hadde hadde de ide the deal and maybe with good goodbe goodhe Ii K he be could pull through Well pulled through i He lives in the neighborhood which once wouldn't have him and andis andis andis is one of its leaders And so is his wife She is a member of the Knabb Country Club she entertains entertains en and does it very well The favorite kind of home entertainment is the dish covered luncheon Which means that the women arrange arrange arrange ar ar- ar- ar range to meet at a members member's home and each member takes along a covered dish this is usually a hot dish These are put on the table and luncheon is announced The women go in and someone says grace and the lunch is served Well Mrs Renzo has as good covered- covered dish I luncheons as anyone and is as aswell aswell aswell well thought of as anyone And the very girls now girls now women women who who once turned up their noses at Renzo now accept him fully and so does the then n neighborhood for he now belongs to the land aristocracy Our farmers felt immensely inferior inferior inferior in in- to city people as we thought of those who lived in town There was good reason for it For when we clunked in in our mud spattered mud spattered wagons the city people were dashing around on vitrified brick paving in carriages with step high ping horses and with buggy whips whips whips' that stood up straight As we would pull up in front of the grocery store and get out our half-bushel half measure of oats the city people would smile 1 1 Il IlM M r ll Y 1 1 I I LS i l Talk together as we ate our cheese and crackers superciliously Sometimes as we stood in the back part of the grocery fishing the eggs out of the oats the city people would come in and purchase purchase purchase pur pur- chase things we couldn't even dream of buying When we went in to trade the merchants wore fine clothes and had I elegant polished manners When we I wanted to buy a pair of shoes we weI I would feel sensitive because of the milk stains One day Pa took me inthe in inthe inthe the Bee Hive and said Id like to get a pair of Sunday shoes for my mybo bo boy The man said Sit right down Im I'm sure we can fit you out with any dress shoe you want We noticed such things All of us country boys felt a dreadful dreadful dreadful dread dread- ful sense of inferiority and when we met on the street or walked together together to to- gether we didn't laugh and joke and have a good time the way we did Sunday afternoons on the farm We could spot a town boy coming a block and we could see him nudge his friend and make funny remarks Wed We'd pretend we didn't see or slink out of sight on the stairway going up to a photographers photographer's and talk in inlow inlow inlow low constrained tones Sometimes we would meet at dinnertime in the back of the grocery store and talk together as we ate our cheese and crackers But not the hearty way we did dig on the farm The town girls would sweep down the street three abreast arms locked when we saw them coming we would swing over so they could I pass In the paper was a department called Society where we would read about the people as if it they were titled foreigners No farmer ever everI got into Society On another page I was a department called Selected I Jottings A farmer could get Into that but usually he had to top the hog market or have a two headed calf But there was one place we felt at ease the Pavilion This was the arena where every other Saturday afternoon horses and mules and cattle cattle cattle cat cat- tle and sheep were auctioned off Sometimes household plunder The farmers would stand around in their muddy and their caps with and feel at home no city man ever came there unless he wanted wanted wanted want want- ed to see us queer people Sometimes Sometimes Some Some- times however the city boys would come But this was a different world our our world world and and they didn't monkey monkey mon mono key around long Only one other boy from Knabb had ever gone to the high school at the county scat seat no Croy ever had It was a new world for Pa to think in In but he said If you want to go Homer Ill I'll manage to send you I knew how much was behind this Someone must do the work I had been doing some way must be provided provided pro pro- vided to get me back and forth six miles twice a day When I had had gone to Uncle Will Sewells Sewell's to visit it had been twelve miles a tremendous tremendous tree tre tre- tre distance Now I must travel travel trav trav- el that far each day Ma drove in to town with me to see the professor and I was enroll enrolled cd As the day approached I became more and more concerned Could I Ibold hold bold up my end among the smart city boys On top of this was another another an an- other millstone all my life lite I had been shy and self-conscious self and I had the feeling that all the country boys in our section had inferiority And I was awkward and ill at ease and throat when I met new people There was the problem of clothes And the problem of money to buy them with You can wear my Sunday Sunday Sunday Sun Sun- day pants Homer I protested and yet I did want to wear them You go ahead and wear them Ive I've been thinking of getting a new pair anyway Pa must have sensed the violent change that was coming Into my life me Homer Ill I'll drive you in Monday Monday Mon Mon- day morning and bring you back Ive I've got some things I want to do doIn doin doin In tov to n I knew that was a polite lie but it made me like Pa Sometimes he seemed so indifferent and impersonal impersonal impersonal imper imper- and hard driving that I almost almost almost al al- al- al most hated him then he would do something that made a warm flash come in my heart He drove me up In front rant of the schoolhouse and I climbed down out of the hack Ill be up around the Square at noontime Then he shook the lines and drove slowly away I did not speak to a soul I didn't have to I was taller and older than the boys in the freshman class as asI asI asI I soon discovered and knew nothing nothing nothing noth noth- ing about the ringing of the classroom classroom classroom class class- room bells and the constant marching marching marching march march- ing here and there At noon one of the teachers sat down at a piano and played for us to march out I thought I had just about reached the top in education Pa was standing In hi front of the grocery where we always met How did you fare son All right I guess Well I guess wed we'd better eatWell eatWell eat Well We'll go to the short order today No eating in the back of the grocery grocery gro gro- cery today It was where the farmers went and where we felt at home He said proudly to one of the men My sons son's just a term of school The man looked me over Aint he goin to be a farmer Sure he is said Pa confidently At the end of the meal he said You needn't hurry when school dis dis- dis- dis misses Ill I'll be around the grocery There he was when school was out patiently waiting The next day I was on my own In InI I my ill fitting clothes I moved about in this new and complicated world in hi a sort of da dare dace e. e When I arrived each morning I hated to go hi in in and when school dismissed I darted away to where I had my horse stabled stabled stabled sta sta- bled and clunked off for home as fast as I could Mornings were worst As M I rode in hi on old Dave I would have to pass students on the way to schooL I felt horribly ashamed of ot footed big Dave who had a way of making distressing distressing distressing dis dis- dis- dis noises I was the only one who had to clump in on horseback and when Dave rumbled by the students students students stu stu- stu- stu dents would turn their eyes on us and it seemed to me I would die I soon discovered the streets most frequented and veered my course so I wouldn't be seen by so many students Now and then a boy would come out of his home fresh from breakfast and fall in hi with friends on the way to school It seemed to me methe methe methe the very epitome of luxury to be beable beable beable able to live in m town get up late and have gay friends to walk to school with At noon the boys and girls went to their homes but I went to the widows widow's stable where I kept Dave I would water him and put his feed In his box then sit down near him and the two of us would eat The barn was so gloomy and fly fly- filled that I wanted to take my pa pa- wrapped per-wrapped lunch somewhere else But there was the problem of the theother theother theother other students who always seemed to tobe tobe tobe be smiling at me I began putting my lunch in hi my pocket and going behind the Methodist Methodist Methodist Meth Meth- odist Church But now and then someone would come through the alley alley alley al al- al- al ley and stare Finally I hit on a anew anew anew new plan There was an areaway back of the church and I would lower low low- er myself into it and unwrap my lunch I would go back to the school ground where the other boys were playing and would stand around wanting to play but not knowing how to go about it Now and then one of the boys would make a friendly friend friend- ly advance but I would be brief with him to show I was was' getting along all allI I right I TO BE DE CONTINUED |