Show r ti ji C ROY r 4 i THE STORY THUS mus FAR FAU Amos Amol Croy and his wife settled on a farm In Missouri Mis loarl where her Homer was born Sunday meant church company for dinner and steer teer weighing The attended the Omaha Exposition where Homer had his first taste of the outside He finished high school and college then went to New NewYork NewYork NewYork York City where he secured a Job as 15 cub cubon cubon cubon on Theodore Dreiser's womans woman's maga sine zine On a visit home he was glad to learn th that t Phebe who had been his fathers fathers father's fa fa- ther's thees housekeeper since his mothers mother's death was to marry hit his father Homer returned to New York and had his first novel Dovel Boone Stop accepted for pub Royalties were practically nothing noth DOth lag ing on this book i I f C CHAPTER AP R x lt The old settlers were going He and Phebe would get in the buggy and Join the procession When there was a GAR funeral funer he would put on his old blue uniform and stand standby standby standby by the grave then he would come home and hang the uniform in the closet till next time i i He wrote no more at alL an Phebe's letters always ended Your father i says lays to come home whenever you can I The Inevitable happened One day dayi i I Pot got ot a telegram Your father is r f failing Phebe t f No one came to meet me at the I depot there was no one to swing t my grip But when I 1 got out of the I jitney litney Phebe was at the door to meet me looking old and worn her eyes still framed in the gold glasses Hes He's been asking all morning when you'd oud get here The old gentleman was in the north room in the house south of the be water tower in the walnut bed bedic he be ic had brought In from the farm Its His knotted misshapen hands were on t Che e outside of the covers He held beld is hand out to me and said in n a faint voice Im glad to see you ou son I 1 guess you got in on the 8 10 At the foot of the bed next to the south wall was the old tin camelback camel camel- back jack trunk I had taken to the uni uni- It was now covered with a horse blanket and I sat down on It t. t His face was drawn but his eyes were as blue as ever The same spirit irit of mutual understanding we lad had always when we got together after being separated leaped up All the questions were about me How is your wife Homer What kind cind of at weather have you ou been hav- hav East It was not long before he began begano to o talk about the farm Homer youve you've got a good farm there The poignancy touched me He was re- re easing his hold on the farm Some of at f them laughed at me when I got it because there wasn't any timber on onIt onit ont it t but it worked out pretty well A gleam in La his eyes there for now he I had iad the best farm in the neighbor- neighbor hood lood Your mother was always i awful fond of you He was not one oneo I 1 to o pay compliments himself himsel and I II I realized that tha t he was also saying thi this for far himself himsel I lit Ho j poke spoke of events of ot years ago agos as s if they had Just happened Once a dressed dashy-dressed drummer for a nursery nur nur- Bery sery ery had come to our house driving i a stepping high-stepping livery team and asked me to drive around with him and end introduce him to the farmers D For which he would pay my father he five ve dollars a day day day-a a fortune And Tow low my father tather spoke of it it Im glad I didn't take it He had to r rest st and I crept out of ot ote e room for a while When I looked a 1 again his blue blue blueeyes eyes were still nI n. n nI nI I I wish you'd pare my finger anger ails Bils N 1 And now I realized something that U me He had never been a aan aan Wanta an to show v open mar marks of ot n such as putting his arm around f Je as I have seen so many fathers to their children But now in inse inse inse se last hours he wanted the theof f el of ills His son I had sense enough make the paring of the nails last long as I 1 could S Ive got m my y G G. A A. A R. R suit hangin the closet Ive I've always been proud it it itis I. I is s eyes closed after a while fit ey opened Do you remember I 5 time I bought the buffalo robe i Pl I f Christmas o for your V MI rv mother O ee sf I l nodded choked with feeling le ae Rc wanted to do something for me ro cad j m if it U was some final fatherly touch eit- eit Phebe and I have a good feather siD Jd d upstairs were we're not us In How lIow pl Uld you like to have it t f explained as gently as I could It it people in New York did not feather beds 2 J I suppose not he said with a awas awas was not long before he was tk Ck to the farm Its all nil free I 1 clear Its It's been my ambition 1 leave It to you that way and andrt's its it's what Im I'm doing Dont Don't ever evera r a mortgage on It They eat like lancer jancer ancer he c time came come when I must go and I went in and sat on the hel trunk for the last laste e v Hy lly when the moment e s1 shook ook his gnarled hand I ike ke kt Jare are of yourself Homer It Iti i the last thing he ever said to tor in ter r I had been back about a aI aI I got word ord that the end had e. e I 1 could not go to the funeral r only in my thou thought ht j I 1 built n a home in Forest Hills Long Island New York The Little Little Little Lit Lit- tle House with the Big Mortgage I called it and wrote two more ping books I wrote all sorts of stuff and that's just about what it was There was my old trouble of never never never nev nev- er being able to tell whether what I Iwas Iwas Iwas was writing was WIS good or not It all seemed good when the words were towing flowing pretty bad when the words were stiff stitt and cold But I kept grinding away and managed to tomake tomake tomake make a living We had more ambitious plans than burning a mortgage and soon we were about them Yes actually u on the way to Europe One of the persons on the ship was Walter Lipp Lipp- mann I wrote him a note I would like to meet him and soon I was buying him a drink How sweet it was to consort with the famous el elbow elbow elbow el- el bow to elbow no looking up and no looking down And it was not long before we I were in Paris Wonderful Paris Parisi That was the way I had always seen it described and that was the way it was always mentioned by returning returning returning re re- re- re turning friends But I had to see seeH it H through my own eyes It was dis dis- dis- dis appointing It was odd and strange and it was interesting but certainly not wonderful Nothing seemed to tobe tobe tobe be logical and to me the people seemed to be slightly on the demented demented de de- side I 1 looked at the French through what were I 1 supposed cornfield eyes but I 1 was making up my mind as to what I saw and felt They seemed aloof and artificial some- some kc r r ra ri rr r i a r irI- irIT T 4 I I y I IThe The crooked narrow streets the yard-wide yard sidewalks times limes on the verge of childishness Now Mow that I look back this may have lave been because I met only the French who came in contact with the Jie public I did not get into a a ahome ahome home lome where I could meet the real French as my wiser and arid more experienced friends called them and I could not parley their lan lan- guage So I had to judge by what I saw And that was what I have done all my life I realize much of it has been wrong but still it was my own point of view We went to the Riviera and took rooms at the Grand Hotel in Sainte Maxime and I went to work on an andea idea dea for the novel that was to follow fol fol- low ow West of the Water Tower The guidebook said Sainte Maxime was one of the lovely spots on the Mediterranean and the two or three Americans we met said it was delightful delightful delightful de de- To me it was just plain cockeyed The crooked narrow streets the yard wide sidewalks the nonsensical wheeled two carts the mailman carrying his letters in a atin atin l tin box suspended from his ders The people eternally sitting in cafes swigging beer or tin tiny drinks Such a place was interesting to see like a pumpkin show but certainly not the place where I wanted to live Or the kind of life I wanted to live Dale Carnegie who was born on a farm a few miles from where I was came to see me He had seen much more of Europe than I had in fact had lived there But when we got down to cases he felt about it much muchas as I did I suppose you cant can't ever get a farm out of a 1 person For that matter I dont don't know that I want to TJ h part I liked best beit was to see how the Fren French h h farmed Of course I couldn't talk to them but I walked across their land and watched them working I must have watched sympathetically sympathetically sym sym- pathetically for none chased chaser me off I was fascinated by their market days and no matter how hard I was supposed to be working I 1 managed to be there Taking pigs to market in baskets I Carrying sheep with th their thir ir feet lashed over a pole It was play farming Having a manure pile just outside the house It was disgusting But when I looked a little deeper and saw sow the handicaps the farmers farmers farmers farm farm- ers had to overcome and their poor soil and primitive machinery my respect went up It was toy farms farm farming Ing but everything considered they turned in a good job Often I 1 thought how I 1 would like to take one of them to my farm farmand farmand farmand and show him the long straight stone stone- less rows three horses abreast swinging down a black loam field a whole hill covered with steers a feed feedlot feedlot feedlot lot alive with shoats How he would blink Yet these French farmers knew tricks I 1 didn't If our Missouri Missouri Missouri Mis Mis- farmers had to clop around in wooden shoes and plow with a four- four inch moldboard would we h have vc done any better In the spring we went back to Paris The day after we arrived as Homer Junior was rIding his tricycle tricycle tricycle tri tri- cycle around the hotel grounds he put his hand on his back and said in his childish voice that his back hurt By morning he was worse We got the doctors at the American Hospital Hospital Hospital Hos Hos- pital and they also brought ix in the best in Paris to help our little boy How far from home we seemed But it wasn't really so far after all for five Americans came to our hotel to ask if there was anything they could do But sometimes sometimes some- some times tunes no one can help He died in that lonely Paris hotel But in the next room were three Americans we had never seen before before before be be- fore who had come as they said in incase incase incase case we needed them When our little boy was buried burled from the American Church there must have been a dozen Americans there we had never seen before and who came up and offered their sym sym- pathy A kind faced man I had neTer ner- ner er seen before and have never seen since put his arm around my shoulder shoulder shoulder der and said The rest of them asked me to say they know how you must feel when this happens so far from home It made America seem very close When the coffin covered with an American flag was taken through the streets the Frenchmen lifted their hats That helped too It all helped and yet at such a time nothing helps for when the big crises come we enter them alone But some way or other we do stand them we do go on living we laugh again After two twenty months in Europe Europe Europe Eu Eu- rope we returned to 10 Standish Road Item fourteen windowpanes windowpanes' in our little house were broken It had been a lovely fling but all of our I money was gone One day a real estate neighbor dropped in to see me On what small incidents does the door of life lite swing I 1 had known him for some sometime sometime sometime time and had seen his cars grow bigger and raider Now what was I 1 going to do he asked Well I was going to plug along as best I could Then he asked me about how much I expected to make without quite asking asking asking ask ask- ing it And when I told him without quite telling him he looked dis dis- dis- dis It was a shame to see a person work so hard and get so lit lit- tle tIe He began to tell about deals he had pulled off ofT He wasn't the only one doing that everybody was making money in real rell estate All a person had to do was to get control control control con of a piece of property hang on ona ona ona a while then sell at a whacking price My tongue was soon hanging out He mentioned two or three men who as he said were playing the game I began to think of myself my my- myself self sell as playing the game There was a piece of at property coming onto the market by forced sale it was an easy way for somebody somebody somebody some some- body to pick up some easy mone money I had never picked up any easy money money money mon mon- ey in my l life e and now under his hypnotic hypnotic hypnotic hyp hyp- powers it seemed about time I If I could raise some money and make a down payment he could buy that corner lot for me The way property was jumping I could sell it itin itin itin in no time at a neat profit Why I could make five thousand dollars nothing in comparison to what some of the boys are lre making he said When I told him it seemed big to tome tome tome me he smiled pityingly Id I'd just never waded around in real estate Then he told of ot another man who as he phrased it had hit the jack pot He came several times and several several several sev sev- eral limes times I walked across the cor cor- corner corner corner ner lot that was bound to skyrocket He was a bit shocked when I confessed confessed con con- how tow little money I had Well writers were simply not business men Bit by bit it got around to putting a mortgage on our house I would not put one on the farm I stood out against that Should we we or should we not It would be only for fora a brief time then wed we'd clean up as my friend said wipe off the mortgage mortgage mortgage mort mort- gage and have a neat sum in hi the bank The more he talked the more plainly I could see he was right But there was a catch I would have to pay a n month interest and taxes a staggering sum But it would be he explained only for a short time Then there would be that neat sum After days of swinging between confidence and hesitation we marched down and put a mortgage on the little house with the lovely rounded doorway and became the owners of a corner lot There it was when we walked across it ours Every inch of it well at least every every every ev ev- ery other inch Now I would really have to work No doubt of that TO eTO BE CONTINUED |