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Show " k . ... THE BINGHAM NEW IfEDNAll SSbtrf ILUU3TRATIONS M8&m n&4H I BY OARK AQNCW. KfX 4 Ill promise to keep it weeded Dirk and L He'll be a big boy by that time. Let me try It Perrua, Let me try." - In tbe end she bad her way partly because Pervus was too occupied wltb bis own endless work to oppose her; and partly because be was, In bis un-demonstrative way, still In love wltb bit vivacious, nimble-wltte- high-spirit-wife, though to her frantic goading and proddlnga he was at phlegmsttcally oblivious as an elephant to a pin prick. Though she worked as hard as any woman In High Prairie, bad as little, dressed as badly, be still regarded her as a luxury; an exquisite toy which, In a moment of madness, he bad taken for himself. "Little Llna" tolerantly, fondly. You would have thought that he ("polled her, pampered her. Per-haps he even thought he did. That wus Pervus. Thrifty, like his kind, but unlike them In shrewdness. Penny wise, pound foolish ; a charac-teristic that brought him his death. September, usuully a succession of golden days and hazy opalescent eve-nings on the Illinois prairie land, was disastrously cold and rulny thut year. Pervus' great frame was racked by rheumatism. He was forty now, and over, still of magnificent physique, so that to see him suffering gave Sellna the pangs of pity that one has at sight of the very strong or the very weuk In pain. He drove the weary miles to market three times a week, for Sep-tember was the last big month of the truck farmer's season. Sellna would watch him drive off down the road In the creaking old market wagon, the green stuff protected by canvas, but Pervus wet before ever he climbed Into the seat. There never seemed to be enough waterproof cunvas for both. "Pervus, take It off those sacks and put It over your shoulders." 'That's them white globe onions. Tbe last of 'em. I con get a fancy price for them, but not If they're all wetted down." "Don't slpep on the wagon tonight, Pervus. Sleep In. He sure. It saves In the end. You know the lust time you were laid up for a week." "It'll clear. Breaking now over there In the west." The clouds did break late In tbe af-ternoon ; the false sun came out hot and bright. Pervus slept out In the Haymarket, for the night was close tended, the vegetable pulled, banted to market, told. Upon tbe garden de-pended tbe boy's future, and hers. . For tbe first few days following the funeral one or another of the neigh-boring farmers drove the DeJong team to market, aided tbe blundering Jan In the fields. But each bad bis bands full wltb bit own farm work. On tbe fifth day Jan Steen bad te take the garden truck to Chicago, though not without many misgivings on Sellna's part, all of which were realized when he returned late next day with half the load still on his wagon and a sum of money representing exactly aero la profits. Sellna was standing In the kitchen doorway, Jan In the yard with tbe team. She turned ber face toward the fields. An observant person (Jan Steen was not one of these) would have noted the singularly determined and clear-cu- t Jaw line of this drably calicoed farm woman. "I'll go myse'lf Monday." Jan stared. "(Jo? Cio where, Mon-day 7" "To market." At tills seeming pleasantry Jan Steen smiled uncertainly, shrugged his shoul-ders, and was off to the barn. She was always saying things that didn't mako sense. His horror and unbelief were shared by the rest of High Prairie when on Monday Sellna literally took tbe reins In her own slim work-scarre- d handes. "To market I" argued Jan as excited-ly as his phlegmatic nature would per-mit. "A woman she don't go to market. A woman " "This woman does." Sellna had risen at three in tbe morning. Not only that, she had got Jan up, grum-bling. Dirk had Joined them in the Holds at five. Together the three of them had pulled and bunched a wagon load. "Size them," Sellna ordered, as they started to bunch radishes, beers, turnips, carrots. "And don't leave them loose like that. Tie them tight at the heads, like this. Twice around with the string, and through. Make bouquets of them, not bundles. And we're going to scrub them." Sellna, scrubbing the carrots vigor-ously under the pump, thought they emerged from their unaccustomed bath looking like clustered spears of pure gold. Jan, by now, wus sullen wltb bewilderment. He refused to believe that she actually Intended to carry out her plan. A woman a High Prairie farmer's wife driving to market like a man! Alone at night In the market place or at best In one of the cheap rooming houses ! By Sunday somehow, mysteriously, the news bad filtered through the district. A fine state of things, and she a widow of a week I High Prairie called at the DeJong farm on Sunday afternoon and was told that the widow was over In the wet west sixteen, poking about with the boy Dirk at ber heels. By Monday afternoon the parlor cur-tains of every High Prairie farmhouse that fuced the Halsted road were agi-tated as though by a brisk wind be-tween the hours of three and five, when tbe murket wagons were to be seen moving toward Chicago. Sellna, having loaded the wagon In the yard, surveyed It with more sparkle In her eye tliun High Prairie would have approved In a widow of little more than a week. They had picked and bunched only the best of the late crop. Sellna stepped back and re-garded the riot of crimson and green, of white and gold and purple. "Aren't they beautiful! Dirk, aren't they beautiful!" Dirk, capering In bis excitement at the prospect of the trip before him, shook his head Impatiently. DEATH OF PERVUS 8TNOP8IS. Introducing; "So Bis" (Dirk DeJona) in hie In-fancy. And rile mother, Sellna DeJong, daughter of Simeon Peake, cambler and gentleman of fortune. Her life, to young womanhood In Chicago In 1888, haa been unconventional, aome-wh-seamy, but generally enjoy-able. At aohool her chum la Julie Hompel, daughter of Auguat Hem pel, butcher. Simeon Is killed In quarrel that la nut his own, and Sellna, nineteen years old and practically destitute, aecuree a position as teacher at the High Prairie school, In the outskirta of Chicago, living St the home of a truck farmer, Klaaa Pool. In Koelf, twelve years old, son of Klaaa, Sellna perceives a kin-dred spirit, a lover of beauty, like herself. Sellna hears gossip concerning the affection of the "Widow Paarlenberg," rich and good-lookin- for Pervus DeJong, poor truck farmer, who la Insen-sible to tbe wldow'a attractlona. Pervua buya Sellna's lunch box at the community "auction." Over her lunch box, which Sellna and DeJong ahure together, the eohool-teach- er arranges to In-struct the farmer, whose educa-tion haa been neglected. Propin-quity leads to mutual affection. Sellna becomes Mrs. DeJong, a "farmers wife," with all the hardships unavoidable at that time. Dirk la born. Sellna (of Vermont stock, businesslike and ahrewd) has plana for building up tile farm, which are ridiculed by her huaband. CHAPTER VI Continued -9-- "You can't run far enough," Maartje had said. "Except you stop living you can't run away from life." Well, she bad run far enough this time. ltoelf was sixteen now, Geertje twelve, Jor.ina eleven. What would this household do now, Sellna won-dered, without the woman who had been so faithful a slave to It? Who would keep the pigtails no longer giggling in clean ginghams and de-cent square-toe- d shoes? Who, when Klaas broke out In rumbling Dutch wrath against what he termed Itoelfs "dumb" ways, would say, "Og, Pool, leave the boy alone once. He does nothing." Who would keep Klaas him-self In order; cook his meals, wash his clothes, Iron his shirts, take a pride In the great ruddy childlike giant? Klaas answered these questions Just nine months later by marrying the Widow Paarlenberg, High Prairie was rocked with surprise. For months this marriage was the talk of the dis-trict. So Insatiable was High Prai-rie's curiosity that every scrap of news was swallowed at a gulp. When beginning of April to the first of No-vember, but Sellna fought savagely for his schooling, and won. "Soblg Isn't a truck farmer." "Well, he will be pretty soon. Time I was fifteen I was running our place." Verbally Sellna did not combat this. But within her every force was gather-ing to fight It when the time should come. Her Soblg a truck farmer, a slave to the soil, bent by It, beaten by It, blasted by It, so that he, In time, like the other men of High Prairie, would take on the very look of the rocks and earth among which they tolled! Dirk, at eight, was a none too hand-some child, considering his father and mother or tils father and mother as they had been. It was not until he was seventeen or eighteen that he was to metamorphose suddenly Into a graceful and aristocratic youngster with an Indefinable look about him of distinction and actual elegance. Sellna was a farm woman now, near-In-thirty. The work rode her as It had ridden Maartje Pool. In the De-Jon-g yard there was always a dado of washing. Faded overalls, a shirt, socks, a boy'a drawers grotesquely patched and mended, towels of rough sacking. She, too, rose at four, snatched up shapeless garments. Invested her-self with them, seized her great coll of fine cloudy hair, twisted It Into a utilitarian knob and skewered It with a hairpin from which the varnish had long departed, leaving It a dull gray; thrust her slim feet Into shapeless shoes, dabbed her face with cold water, hurried te the kitchen stove. The work was always at .her heels. Its breath hot on her neck. Seeing bet tin one would have thought that tbe Retina Peake of the wine-re- d cashmere, the g dis-position, tbe courage, had departed foreve. But these things still persisted. Fnr that matter, even the wine-re- d caskmere clung to ex-istence. So hopelessly now as to be almost picturesque. It hung In Sellna's closet like a rose memory. Sometimes when she came upon It In an orgy of cleaning she would pass her rough hands over Its soft folds and by that magic process Mrs. Pervus DeJong vanished In a pouf and In her place was the girl Sellna Peake perched on a soap box In Adam Ooms' hall while all High Prairie, looked on ns the Impecunious Pervus DeJong threw ten hard earned dollars at her feet It would be gratifying to be able to record that In these eight or nine years Sellna had been able to work wonders on the DeJong farm; that the house glittered, tbe crops thrived richly, the "He He's Breathing So " She Could Not Bring Herself to Say, "So Ter-ribly-." and humid. At midnight the lake wind sprang up, cold and treacherous, and with It came the rain again. Pervus was drenched by morning, chilled, thoroughly miserable. A hot cup of coffee at four and another at ten when the rush of trading was over stimu-lated him but little. When he reached home It was Sellna put him to bed against his half-hearte- d protests. Banked him with hot water Jars, a hot Iron wrapped In flunnel at his feet. But later came fever Instead of the expected relief of perspiration, ni though he was, he looked more ruddy and hale than most men in health; but suddenly Sellna, startled, saw black lines like gashes etched under his eyes, about bis mouth, In his cheeks. In a day when pneumonia was known as lung fever and In a locality that advised closed windows and hot air as a remedy, Pervus' buttle was lost before the doctor's hooded buggy was seen standing In the yard for long hours through the night. Toward morning the doctor had Jan Steen stable the horse. It was a sultry night, wltb flashes of heat lightuiiig In the west. "I should think If you onened the "I don't know what you mean. Let's go, mother. Aren't we going now? You said as soon as the loud was on." "Oh, Soblg, you're just exactly like your" She stopped. "Like my what?" "We'll go now, son. There's cold meat for your Bupper, Jan, and pota-toes all sliced for frying and half an apple pie left from noon. You ought to get In the rest of tbe squash and pumpkins by evening. Maybe I can sell the lot Instead of taking them In by the load. I'll see a commission man. Take less. If I have to." She had dressed the boy In his home-made suit cut down from one of his father's. He wore a wlde-brlmm-straw hat which he hated. Sellna her self, In a d black-stuf- f dress, mounted the wagon agilely, took up the reins, looked down at the boy seated beside ber, clucked to the horses. Jan Steen gave vent to a final outraged bellow. "Never In my life did I hear of sucb a thing!" Will Sellna sell every vegeta-ble at a high price? Or will she come home in despair? (TO BO CONTINUED.) the word went round or ltoeirs nignt from the farm, no one knew where, It served only aa sauce to the great dish of gossip. Sellna had known. Pervus was away at the market when ltoelf had knocked at the farmhouse door one night at eight, had turned tbe knob and entered, as usual. But there was nothing of the usual about his appear-ance. He wore his best suit his first suit of store clothes, bought at the time of bis mother's funeral. It never had fitted him ; now It was grotesquely small for him. He hod shot up amaz-ingly In tbe last eight or nine months. Yet there was nothing of the ridicu-lous about blm as he stood there be-fore her now, tall, lean, dark. He put down his cheap yellow suitcase. "Well, Boelf." "I am going away. I couldn't stay." She nodded. "Where?" "Away. Chicago maybe." He was terribly moved, so he made his tone casuul. "They came home last night. I have got some books that belong to you." He made as though to open the suitcase. "No, no! Keep them." "Hood-by.- "tiood-by- . Roelf." She took the hoy's dark head In her two hands and, stand-ing on tiptoe, kissed him. He turned to go. "Wait a minute. Wait a barn boused sleek cattle. But It could not be truthfully said. True, she had achieved some changes, but at the cost of terrific effort. A less Indomitable woman would have sunk into apathy years before. The house had a coat of paint lead-gra- because It was cheap-est. There were two horses the sec-ond a broken-dow- old mare, blind In one eye, that they had picked up for five dollars after It had been turned out to pasture for future sale as horse carcuss. A month of rest and pastur-age restored the mare to usefulness. Sellna had made the bargain, and Per-vus had scolded her roundly for It. Now he drove the mare to market, saw that .she pulled more sturdily than the other horse, but had never retracted. It was no quality of meanness In blm. Pervus merely was like that. But the west sixteen! That had ben Sellna's most heroic achievement. Her plan, spoken of to Pervus In the first month of her marriage, had taken years to mature; even now was but a partial triumph. She had even de-scended to nagging. "Why don't we put in asparagus?" "Asparagus!" considered something of a luxury, and rarely Included in the High Prairie truck fanner's products. "And wait three yeurs for a crop I" "Yes. but then we'd have It. And a plantation's good for ten years, once windows," Selina said to the old High Prairie doctor over and over, embold-ened by terror, "It would help him to breathe. He he's breathing so he's breathing so" She could not bring herself to say, "so terribly." Tbe sound of the words wrung her as did the sound of bis terrible breathing, e e a e e e e Perhaps the most poignant and touching feature of the days that fol-lowed was not the sight of this stricken giant,- - lying majestic and aloof In his unwonted black ; nor of the boy Dirk, mystified but elated, too, with the un-accustomed stir and excitement; nor of tbe shabby little farm that seemed to shrink and dwindle into further In-significance beneath the sudden pub-licity turned upon It. No; it was the sight of Selina. widowed, but having no time for decent teurs. The farm was there; It must be tended. Illness, death, sorrow the garden must be ' minute. Mie nua a lew dollars in quarters, dimes, half dollars perhaps ten dollars In all hidden away In a canister on the shelf. She reached for It But when she came back with the box In her hand be was gone. Chapter VII Dlrk was eight ; Little Soblg DeJong. in a suit made of bean-sackin- sewed together by his mother. A brown blond boy with mosquito bites on his legs nd his legs never still. Nothing of the dreamer about this lad. The one-roo-schoolbouse of Sellna's day had been replaced by a two-stor- y brick struc-ture, very fine, of which High Prairie was vastly proud. The rusty Iron stove had been dethroned by a central beater. Dlrk wnt to school from Oc-tober untli Jnne. Perrus protested that this was foolish. The boy could m of great help In the fields from tbe v. It's started. I've been reading up on It. The new way is to plant asparagus in rows, the way you would rhubarb or corn. Plant six feet apart, and four acres anyway." L'e was not even sufficiently Inter-ested to be amused. "Yeh, four acres where? In the clay land, maybe." He did laugh then, If the short bitter sound he made could be construed as Indicating mirth. "Out of a book." "In the clay land." Sellna urged, crisply. "And out of a book. That west sixteen Isn't bringing you any-thing, so what difference does It make If I am wrong! Let me put my own money Into It, Tve thougflt It all out. Pervus. Flcase, We'll underdraln the clay soil. Just five or six acres, to start. We'll manure it heavily as much as we can afford and then for two years well plant potatoes there. We'll put In our asparagus plants the third spring seedlings. A LPy Wit ; Say "Bayer Aspirin' f INSIST! Unless you see the' ! "Bayer Cross" on tablets you are not getting the genuine Bayer Aspirin proved safe by t millions and prescribed by phy-- I sicians for 24 years. o fpy Accept on,y Bayer package j" which contains proven directions Handy "Bayer" boxes of 12 tablets Also bottles of 24 and 100 Druggists Aenlrln la the trad nark of Bayer Mann- - J acture of UoaoaoeUcecliluter at BaiicUcacH THIS WOMAN'S REMARKABLE RECOVERY Entirely Due To Lydia C Pinkham't Vegetable Compound Forest City, Iowa. "Mr first child Bred only short time and I was sick K , l'op year titer. V"JjiiC ' When Tbent over W'S and raised myself f np again I could al- - f most scream with f$ V R8" ""y back, I i i I One day I was so bad VJ ' J, that I had to leave my wa8hing and get ready to go to the T ? 4 doctor. He gave me f I,, 'tVi' 1 medicine but it did II 1 v 'if' I ro mor Kd than i iif - I if I drank Juat water. Once when we had been In town a little book telling about Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound was left in our car. I have taken five bottles of the Vegeta-ble Compound now and I do all my housework and help with the milking and taking care of chickens and gar-den. Besides I have a fine baby girl eight months old, juat the picture of health and I am feeling fine myself. You may use this letter as a testimo-nial and I will answer any letters ask-ing about the Vegetable Compound." Mrs. Oscar F. Boeoeun, Route No. IV, Forest City, Iowa. Lydia E. Innkhnm'a Vegetable Com pound is for sale by all druggists. 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Three sites. All druggists. Insist n the criminal genuine Gold Mkoau UHIOI ILI rtlLLCfl ATTRACTS ANDKILL8 f v'. LA'iilv'a IA FLIES- Neat, 7j clean.ornamrntal.con- - tSW"9? b'.l "aeon. Ute of 9aEOk-iVii,jL5- l metal, can't 8U of XJYjA3hHpei tipo,er; will eot aod .V313 TTaxLv. T y.'lor Inj'jre anything. TV CtltJV V'ST' Guaranteed Tft5eSafl H SoKi by dea'er,. or rJJ;rmkH b' EXl'KESS, i aaaiai TTr- - Drpp..d, U.26. BAluU VoiaLito. 160 le kaU) Ave., BroaklTa, M. X. Athing the Impotsible Betty and Petey had been playing hard all day and were worn out when evening came. They were nearly at "swords' points" when Betty said a few cross words that "broke the cam-el's hack." "Betty," said Petey, very much put out. "Can't you be a 111 gentleman?" Betty stopped, put her finger Into her mouth nnd from then on played by herself. Aa It Seemed to Him An old New York farmer attended a big picnic nt Birmingham and stayed over to watch the dancing at ' night, says Town Topics. He hadn't been out In tbe world much, and he was deeply Impressed with the girls' clothes at that dance. "Some of the Indies' clothes I see here," be said, "plumb puts me In mind of a barbwlre fence." Somebody asked him why. "Well," suld he, "It's this way they appear to protect the property without ohstructln' the view." Open Question "Husbands are frequently jealous of their wives' former beaux." "How about former husbands?" A new process by which any tex tile fabric, whether wool, cotton, or silk, can be made waterproof has been discovered In England, it Is asserted. She Meant Well A student brought his mother to the university and was showing her about. The deur old lady was anxious to make her boy think that she understood everything. "Over there, mother," said the son, "are our wonderful polo fields." "Oh," sighed the old lady, "what Is there that Is nicer than fields of wav-ing polo?" Unlucky "I heerd tell this afternoon." said Mrs. Johnson, upon her return from a neighborhood call, "that Mlzzus Olg-ger- y cut her foot powerful bad whilst chopping up stovewood. Ain't that Just too bad?" "It shore Is replied Oaj Johnson of Rumpus Ridge. "Pore Oabe wonS have no wife to support him for s couple of months." Kansas City Star. |