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Show S t '- V;i;p n n p copyr.cht by RoR.y stead 7'" QVESTADR.S? PAYING VISITS SYNOPSIS Lured by his four-year-old play mule, Jean Lane, Frank Hall, ' aged six. ventures on the forbiddi-n wall of a dam, in a small Ontario town. lie fal.'s Into the water and is saved from possible death by clinging to Jean's outstretched arms. Next day Jean informs him that because be-cause of their adventure of the day before he is In duty bound to marry her. Ho agrees when they are "grownups." With Jean's broth f. r, John, also aged six, Frank begins school. Two years later they are joined by Jean and Frank's Bister, Marjorle. A little later Jean confides to Frank, In verHe, her hope of some day becoming be-coming "Mrs. Hall." He accepts the "proposal." Frank Is fourteen four-teen when his mother dies. The boys are eighteen when John's father Is killed In an accident. Two years later Frank's father and John's mother are married. Dissatisfied with conditions, and ambitious, the two boys make plans to go to Manitoba and 'homestead," the girls agreeing to go with them. They set out. At Regina they meet "Jake," who agrees to find them satisfactory homesteads. He does so, and the two friends file claims on Sections Sec-tions Fourteen and Twenty -two. Jake sagely advises the adventurers adven-turers in the purchase of supplies, sup-plies, and in a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen, and with a cow, the four arrive at their future homes. Construction of "shacks" and the making of a garden are their first occupations. A young Englishman of the name of "Spoof" Is a neighbor. They call on Spoof, who Is living in a tent. Spoof, on his return visit, discloses dis-closes himself as a man of varied social attainments. Frank's jealousy jeal-ousy Is aroused. Marjorle discovers dis-covers that they have a new neighbor. "He" turns out to be a Mrs. Alton, a widowed Englishwoman, English-woman, who, with her three-year-old son Gerald, has taken up a claim. Frank and John leave the homesteads for a time to do harvest work for wages on a longer-established farm. They encounter en-counter Jake, who tells them of his adventure Into matrimony. After two months' absence they return to their homes. Jean's enthusiastic en-thusiastic welcome encourages Frank. CHAPTER IX Continued 7 "We must get Spoof after her," said Jack. "He'll drag lier out. Now that we have real society in our community commu-nity a beautiful young widow must cot be allowed to 'waste her sweetness sweet-ness on the desert air.' " We spent a whole day conjecturing about the new arrivals, and marveling over the strange assortment of humanity hu-manity out of which it was the business busi-ness of fate and our lucky stars no one else seemed to trouble about the matter to lay In these prairies the foundations of an enduring civilization. civiliza-tion. Then we settled down to what little work remained to be done. We found our oat crops harvested, and for that we had to thank Spoof and Jake, who had taken that bit of neighborly service Into their own hands. We made the stable snug, banked up the shacks with earth, and lined them inside with brown paper which we had brought from town for that purpose. We cut firewood in our little park by the pond, being careful to destroy nothing but trees which were already dead or were too crowded crowd-ed for growth. Before we had completed these jobs Spoof paid us another visit. We saw his tall figure looming up across the brown grass one afternoon early in November. He shook hands with a warm, firm grip. He was brown and rugged, and ths prairie winds were leaving their mark on his fine English complexion. In the warmth of his grip, in the sparkle of his eye, In the leisurely confidence of his conversation, conversa-tion, there was something about the fellow that was decidedly likable. "Thought I'd Just drop in on you, strangers," he commented. "Have a good autumn's work? I hope you did. I ventured to inquire a few times while you were away, just In case the young ladles might need gome help a man around the place, don't you know? I found them most disconcertingly disconcert-ingly competent. About the only service I was able to do was to shoot a rabbit for them ; one of those big white fellows. Jolly good eating, I should say " "How long ago was that?" Jack Interrupted, In-terrupted, sharply. "Oh, not so long; In fact, they si-ke of saving lilra for your homecoming." home-coming." "Aha 1 And again. Aha ! Come along, you conspirator!" We seized Spool' by the arms and marched him into the house. Marjorle Marjo-rle und Jean were there; although we had two bouses the girls were nearly always together in the one on .Fouireen. Jean declared that Marjorle Mar-jorle was much the better housekeepei of the two, nd she came there for We thrust the somewhat bewildered Spoof into their presence. "We have discovered your duplicity," duplic-ity," said Jack, sternly, addressing the girls. "We now know the secret of Marjorle's marksmanship." "Oh, by Jove!" Spoof exclaimed. "I seem to have messed things up. I'm afraid you will think me an awful rotter, Miss Hall. Really" turning lo Jack "really, it wasn't I that shot the bally hare at all " "You're only getting In deeper," said Jack. " 'Fess up, and stay for supper." sup-per." Spoof did both, and a jolly night we had, playing euchre after the supper sup-per dishes were cleared away. But before he left he recalled that an errand of mercy lay at the bottom of his visit. "I dropped Into Brown's the other day," he said. "Mrs. Brown is a bit fed up. Staling out of the window, and all that kind of thing. Poor old Brown Is quite useless; worse than I am, If that Is possible, but his wife has quality In her that will count, , if she doesn't go under first. She needs you two girls over there now and again, Just to put a bit of sunshine In her soul. Now just hitch up the oxen tomorrow and slip over to section sec-tion Four and jolly her out of the dumps." "Well, suppose we do," Jack agreed. "But how about you keeping up your end of the social service? Why wish it all on to us?" "I don't follow you. I have already been to the Browns' " "But not to Mrs. Alton's, so far as we can learn. Mrs. Brown may have no monopoly of loneliness." Perhaps It was only Imagination, but It seemed to me that Spoof's face, usually so frank and open, suddenly became a mask. But he came back quickly and easily. "I could hardly do that, don't you know? It would not be quite the thing." "Why not?" said Jean, as Ingenuous Ingenu-ous as- ever. "Why, It would hardly be the thing it's not in accord--" "You mean it isn't done," I supplied. sup-plied. ' "Exactly. But of course I know I'm a greenhorn yet, even though I am beginning to ripen in spots. That reminds me, I've had another letter from the governor. He wants me to shoot him a young Chinook." "A Chinook 1" "Yes. When I wrote him a recent treatise entitled 'An Incident in a Hay Field, or, How About a Check for a Hundred Pounds' you will remember the time I covered the ragged edge of my purpose with a dissertation upon the prairie climate. I told him that It consisted of a melange of everything from Naples at It's best to Norway at Its worst from sleepy kittens purring pur-ring In the sun to wild she-tigers raging through the jungle. From climate 1 moved to grass by easy stages, and from grass to hay, and from that to the matter of one hundred pounds. On the way I explained that this part of the country is not really in the Chinook belt, although occasionally one came down this far. So now I am commissioned com-missioned to shoot for the governor a young Chinook. He thinks the skin would look a bit' of all right on the library floor, don't you know?" "And, of course, you will shoot one?" "A request from one's immediate paternal ancestor, accompanied by a draft for a hundred pounds, Is not to be lightly disregarded." "Let me think," said Jack, and for a few moments we remained silent to give his mind elbow room. "I have It!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Has your governor ever seen a badger?" bad-ger?" "Not likely except possibly at Che zoo." "We must take that chance. You must shoot a badger, Spoof, which we will formally christen a Chinook, and send it to your governor in time for Christmas." "I think It is wicktd to do that," said Jean, whose sympathies were always al-ways with the underdog. "No doubt jlr. Mr. Spoof, senior, is a delightful old gentleman, and it isn't fair. Fancy someone from America visiting him and Mr. Spoof goes showing off the Chinook which his son shot on the banks of the Saskatchewan. 'Chinook nothing!' says the visitor. 'That's a badger, as vommou as rabbits, aimost, and I . would describe your son as another prairie animal, sillier than a badger, with two stripes down its back." "Oh, listen to Miss Prim !" Marjorle Interrupted. "Who would think she : had a letter from her mother asking II , she was canning any buffalo beans?" was not until Spoof's tall form had dissolved out of view In the star- light that It occurred to me how skillfully skill-fully he nad changed the conversation ! from the subject of Mrs. Alton. It way something to think about. We did as Spoof suggested. Early the next afternoon we hitched Buck and Bright to the wagon and wended our slow way sovsthwestward. Jack and I taking turns in the exclamatory exercises exer-cises by means of which the oxen were kept in motion. The prairie now was very brown and bare, and only the more hardy gophers remained about' to whistle saucily at our carry-all lumbering lumber-ing by. The dazzling sunshine seemed lo have lost Its force, and there was a presage of coming winter In the air. We dropped Into silence save for the noises of our locomotion. "The world seems to have died," said Jean after a long period of thought-fulness. thought-fulness. The expression was an appropriate one. The world was, actually, dead. Every blade of grass was a stark little corpse, swaying ghostily to the stir of the cold air. Soon the shroud of winter win-ter would be woven about them, flake by flake, mantling them all in its cold, white tomb. "But In the spring It will live again," Jean continued, after a pause. "That is the life eternal." Jean was a strange girl. Her thoughts went on and on, reaching out, and out. She seemed to live always on the verge of the infinite. . . . At length we were at Brown's. The rickety shack, smaller than either of ours, presented a sad and forlorn appearance. ap-pearance. Three little faces were crowded In a single window that covered cov-ered our approach. Brown himself was busy building a stable of sods, and succeeding very badly In his work. He could scarcely be distinguished from his building material, but when he saw us he shook himself, as a dog shakes off water, and came up, touching his cap. "We are your neighbors from Fourteen" Four-teen" we announced ourselves. "May we go In?" "You may, and welcome," he said. "The wife will be a bit fuddled. I'm not the most presentable myself." Then Jean did a great thing; one of those wonderful things that' no one but Jean seemed to think of. She clambered to the side of the wagon and held our her arms. "I'm all dirt Miss," Brown protested. "I'm all earth and sand." But he came slowly forward to her outstretched Sandy Saw Us Afar Off and Swept Down Upon Us Like a Tornado. arms, and when his hands reached hers ho took her and gently helped her down. "Thank you, Mr. Brown," she said. But Brown was looking at her and at us with eyes that had suddenly gone misty with a mist not of the sods or of the sands. Two little pools of water gathered and streaked a slow, dusty course across his grimy face. Inside we found Mrs. Brown 'a bit fuddled,' as her husband had predicted. At first she merely stood wringing her hands, but when Jean and Marjorle kissed her, and then kissed the little Browns, the veil suddenly lifted and she was all kindness and hospitality. What a day It was, after we began to get acquainted! Marjorie and Jean had brought' some homemade candy, and in a few minutes the little Browns were smeared and happy and slipping gently about looking into the faces of our girls as though they verily believed be-lieved them angels. It was dark and starry when we hitched the oxen to the wngon, and shook hands all round, end kissed the children all round, and the girls kissed Mrs. Brown and Mr. Brown forgot' himself him-self and kissed the girls and Jack and I almost kissed Mrs. Brown and we drew slowly away waving our hands and watching the five figures framed In the doorway against the yellow light of the oil lamp on the opposite wall. Our experience with the Browns encouraged en-couraged us to cultivate the acquaintance acquaint-ance of our other neighbors and as the short, bright days of November wore by the low-hanging sun often saw ouv ojc-wagon wending slowly across the prairies, and the north star and the great dipper were the silent witnesses of its return to Fourteen. Sometimes, too, the great magician of the North would light his mimic candles, and we would creak homeward in the weird light of their flickering battalions min-ueting min-ueting on the stage of the universe. Smith, the Scotsman, and Burke, the American, received us with undivided hospitality and that strange sense of common interest which Is the most , priceless thing about pioneer life; one of the rich qualit ies bum- - -which seems inevltab 7 P01e the more complex civ motion Hansen entertained I -for . in the stable before h i buxo consented to admit f lnat When at last we weie b privilege there was evidence of hnr Li scrubbing of floors an f a "n'r: VrPo.ogetlcal-the VrPo.ogetlcal-the yump, Ole exp" ly. ..S0me ttoe tankb, d have too many kids en r i that Ole was beginning to haroor nodern ideas about the size of fa n ilIc, HIS opinion tha six was ,u.t. nice commence was oem0 The housing problem was coming home toh.m and bearing its InevI table fruit No such radicalism had ret Altered into the mind of the Russian, w fo' ,he sake of convenience, we conttaued to call Sneezit. He met us stolidly where the trail wound down the bank of the gully near to his dugout He wore a -long sheepskin coat, with the woo? -till on It, boots drawn well up on the thigh, and a brushy, black beard. He regarded us in silence, and at length Jack spoke. "We are your neighbors. We have come to call on you. We hope you are well." . The lips under the black mustache parted slowly, showing a set of strong, regular teeth. "No much Angleesh," he remarked. We clambored down and shook hands. This seemed to assure him of our friendly intentions, and when we managed to make It clear that we wanted to visit his house he led us to it without hesitation. It was merely a cave dug out of the side of the gully. The front was roughly built up with stones and sods, and a crude door, made of pieces of packing boxes, afforded admittance. The only light' was from an opening in the door, which could be closed when the weather was too severe. Sneezit went first and addressed some words In Russian Into the gloom. We followed, encountering in the door the fumes of the place's bad ventilation. ventila-tion. It was some time before our eyes became accustomed to the darkness, but presently we discerned a woman stooping, Indicating a long bench which had been set for ns. Across the cave was a drove of children, their eyes peering and shining like those of wild animals. Indeed It seemed that eyes were the most noticeable thing in that very humble little home. Presumably Pre-sumably there were mouths as well ; no doubt Sneezit and his wife had reason to know that there were mouths as well as eyes. As soon after our return from harvesting har-vesting as our duties permitted It we paid another visit to Mrs. Alton. Sandy saw us afar off and swept' down upon us like a tornado. Apparently he had known us at the first glimpse, or the first sniff, whichever was his source of Information, for there was no question ques-tion this time about our welcome. His barking and tail-wagging accompanied us all the remainder of the way to the little box that Mrs. Alton called home. The widow had had time to dress since we hove In view that is one of the advantages of prairie life not set out in the Immigration booklets and It was a dainty and spick-and-span Mrs. Alton that greeted us when our wagon lumbered up to her door. "I said, 'It's our friends from Fourteen Four-teen and Twenty-two' you see how I am picking up your prairie way of numbering your farms Instead of naming nam-ing them I said, 'It's our friends from Fourteen and Twenty-two' as soon as I heard Sandy's first bark. That was before you were In sight, so far as my poor eyes could see. But Jerry, who was up in the wagon playing teamster, cried, T see dem, Mudder; oxes and MIth Lane.' He's crazy about Miss Lane." "Jerry is a young man of discrimination," discrim-ination," I said, scoring for once. But my wit was lost In the' wild and panting pant-ing hug which Jean was bestow-In-, upon my rival. "So he's Jerry now," said jen releasing re-leasing her embrace enough for speech "llmt sounds like getting down to earth. Ever so much more chummv than Gerald." "Do you think so?" Mrs. Alton queried. "And I vowed that, whatever what-ever came, I never would call him Jerry. Too reminiscent of Jeremiah nnd lamentations, and all that sort of b ug that I wanted to get away from." Mis. A ton stopped short as though she had said more than she Intended then brightly took up the thread again I vowed 1 would leave my lamenta ons behind" she continued t that this Is a country where there room for everything but regrets" It was evident that Mrs. Alton's bereavement be-reavement was filling a good pa tlf her mind, so Jean deftly switched the conversation back to the bo u ' toeSt,r ,T eMla" -rnoe to the chicken shed with hers f seandyywonSandy V "5S '"in down with his rhopa on .h V oetween his paws and s Ul n, ' Ing the boards occasional.. tlu""p-batlon tlu""p-batlon Jack J 'D UI,"r- Oeck of ca.-d.rlndU .e;utrd;-rn-U Alton Into the ,, , ,lnlU"u'd 'Mrs. WUhaber'sTr"' ,Pwlr ere much too sue eSsf ? T' J'K'k and me, and when I. rr J'u 'o we lnsi ; 7, , V"i;U,'le f" rtoenson.e night" a chance to return the 1, ,K Ua , "1 should so ke to b leave Jerry," Mrs A. 1 Can't countered. "Jerry " ' ". we accessary, ,ne cow ' -V' "'1(1' lr Now you s,Im)ly ' chicken.,. und kld"P you b force" But lira. Alton 0B o definite answer 1m Bt There was no auc hat. Jake's. Jake met w tn. f'f'was flrung with th. temperature was freezing point. lalmed. "I sup- p0:nr"f co: to in my M?' . we Inquired, half St'S?4f -" an expert in n possesslon. "She'f. Ifferme this country runs TZZ fer that, all I've "But'"" "this time Ja wife appeared ap-peared in the door Com. o SIrlS'" S1 : He goes around half-blathersklte. half-blathersklte. He gov dressed, keeping hm J' , day ."CrMs hllfand that's his finish, for I won't stay married to a bald man, whatever happens. -Tut tut " returned ner byuuoo. "Where Bella Donna Is put, she stays. That's her strong point. It was an afternoon of much badi-n badi-n a" we spent at Jake's, but under he" surface'tnere were evidences tha our former land guide regarded his wife with a sort of awe wl. ch he tried to obscure from public view by a smoke screen of raillery. Bella. It was apparent, was a woman of character, char-acter, and although Jake could scarcely scarce-ly be described as plastic In her hands, his recasting was only the harder on him on that account. He was In the mills of the gods, and they proposed to make a Job of It. "I don't know whether she'll make ( me a good wife or not," he confided in me, "but I reckon she's set on makln' me a good husband." But Bella's house was clean, and Bella's table was well set, a pioneer tables go, and Bella was a living concentration con-centration of energy such as Jake needed to spur him into purposeful activity. It was Jake's weakness that he would drop a Job any day to perpetrate per-petrate a joke. "He thinks he's a Joker," said Bella, acidly, anent this characteristic of her husband, "whereas he's only a Joke. There's a big difference." We left that night with assurances from Jake and Bella that they would visit us twice a week all winter a promise which they almost kept But not all our visiting was with our new neighbors. Most of It, as you may suppose, was back and forth between Fourteen and Twenty-two. Spoof we counted on to make a fifth spoke In our circle every Sunday, and the banjo lessons, neglected during our absence, were now taken up in earnest. It gave me a little orthodox shiver to think what my strict Prea-byterlan Prea-byterlan parents would have said to Jean picking so perverted an Instrument Instru-ment as a banjo on a Sunday afternoon, after-noon, and blending her voice with Spoofs In "The Road to Mandalay." But I was little happier when they abandoned the secular for such old airs as "Abide With Me" and "Blest Be the Tie That Binds." Toward the end of the month we had our first snowfall. Old Sol that morning had a mimic sun on either, side, and there was a frosty glitter in the air In which our neighbors' shanties gradually faded out of sight as though hidden behind a veil of crystal tapestry. tapes-try. By noon a gray pall shrouded the sky and the snow began to shake down as gently as feathers fluttering from the bosom of some mammoth bird which had taken the world to be her nest and In spring would hatch again the ancient miracle of life. Marjorle and I stood In our door and watched the big Bakes descending, slowly, silently, resistleRsly, settling on wagon and hay rack and every blade of grass. Across the gully, as through a slowly falling curtain of Ivory lace, we saw the vague forms of Jack and Jean watching them, too. By mldafternooQ the ground ' was white. Next morning we looked upon a new world. The snow had ceased falling, fall-ing, the sky was clear and bright nnd the stars were still visible at our rising ris-ing hour. Then up came tho sun splashing the heavens amber und or singe ami blood red. nnd suddenly rotting rot-ting a million tons of diamonds abla -e with his brilliance. After the snow ca.no we seemed to cling to each other's company even more than before. It's s,(nm tlllllR o be alone In a world of snow. per. haps its coldness, i,s st;lrt whelM.v, maker n I'"1'" 8"W" U",t "cl makes the heart reach out for some arm pulse of friendship. ,,..,, s peace and beauty 8tlr something shared. 'ns'StS n Tho Fourteans and Twenty. I nWri,Certalnly h9Ve " Odd neighbors. But who', this my., terlous Mrs. A, ton? tTO UK CONTINUED.) |