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Show ! The ' Fiction FORTUNE SMILES Corner CALEB WARE was a young man who quarreled with his father, 1 . and was turned away from his I boyhood home. Caleb always said i later that he went away of his own i accord. Fortune smiled on Caleb. Five ! years later he found himself promi- .- j nent in the af- ! I fairs of the small 3 Minute city in which he Fiction ,h.ad hsen t0 I live. Moreover, he was rich, j It was then that Caleb de cided to go home. As the train began to climb into the fresh, clean air of the mountain conn-try, conn-try, the tired look about his eyes vanished. Color appeared in his cheeks. It thrilled him now to know that he was in a position to provide his father with all the comforts of old - age. He swung from the train at the tiny depot. Everything was the same; the cracker-box station, the general store, the postoffice and the few small dwelling houses. A man with side whiskers and spectacles peered at him from the at the farm. The place is plumb run down, and your dad ain't well." Caleb felt suddenly that Banty was condemning him, that everyone in the village had condemned him. "Dad isn't really bad, is he, too sick to work?" he asked. "He is now. A month ago he was took bad. Ain't worked since." Banty spat and glanced at him sideways. side-ways. "He won't be glad to see you, son, not like that. He's got too much pride." pALEB UNDERSTOOD. He knew that his father would never take succor from a son who had deserted him, would never admit he needed the help of a traitor. He'd rather die starving than that. Banty might have said more, but Caleb suddenly leaped from the slow moving buggy. "You just keep on going, Banty, and forget you ever saw me. Dad need never know but what I come home because I had to." Caleb plunged into the woods beside be-side the road and discarded his coat and undid his necktie. He walked for some distance through the heavy growth beside the highway. high-way. Branches tore at his fine linen and ripped great gashes. Briars clutched at his trousers and tore holes in them. Thus Caleb came home. Sight of the farm gave him a pang. The house and grounds were run down and in need of repair. A cot had been placed on the rear porch and on this cot Caleb saw the thin, gaunt figure of his father. He came and stood over the figure and looked down at it and smiled. "Hello, Father," he said. "It's Caleb. I've come home to ask your forgiveness and to be taken in." His voice was humble. Old man Ware opened his eyes and looked up at his son, and there was a quick happiness in his ex, pression. His dimming vision saw the tousled, ragged farm boy who had stalked so proudly away five years before. "I knew you'd come back, Caleb. I knew you'd come to your old father for help sooner or later. And and I'm glad." doorway of the depot. "Hello, Banty. Where's your I rig?" ; The man stepped through the j door. "Caleb Ware! Know yuh any- I where! How be yuh, Caleb?" ( "Fine, Banty. And you?" ! "Tol'able, Caleb. . Just tol'able. Figure on goin' out to the farm? Drive you out if you say so." "Figured you would." He climbed Into Banty's ancient rig, glad of this opportunity to ride with the station master and learn the news. "Looks like you done quite well in the city," Banty suggested cautiously. cau-tiously. "Not bad," Caleb agreed. And he knew that feeling of triumph and I victory at his success. He thought i "Caleb Ware! Know ynh anywhere! any-where! How be yuh, Caleb?" of his father's surprise and disappointment. disap-pointment. It would be a bitter pill for old man Ware to swallow. "How are things at the farm, Banty? How's dad?" "Your dad's ailin'," said Banty. "He ain't been right since you left five years ago." "Me left him? Why he turned me out!" J "Don't make no difference. You i shouldn't a done it. He needed you i |