OCR Text |
Show BIG illustrations'' rlr A BY CLARK AGNCY P " fJ wife had died in the second yesr of their marriage, when the child was born. The child, too, had died. A girl. He was unlucky, Hie that. It was the same with the farm. Sellna's heart melted In pity. lis would look down st the great calloused cal-loused hands; up at her. One of ths charms of Pervus DeJong lsy In ths things that his eyes aald and his tongue did not Women slwsys Imagined he was about to say what he looked, but bs never did. It msde otherwise dull conversation with him most exciting. Ills was In no way a shrewd mind. Ilia respect for Sellna was almost reverence. rev-erence. But he hsd this advantage: he had married a woman, had lived with her for two years. She had horns him a child. Sellna was a girl In experience. ex-perience. She waa a woman capable of a great deal of passion, but she did not know that. Pasalon waa a thing no woman possessed, much lesa talked-about talked-about It simply did not exist except in men, and then it waa something to be ashamed of, like a violent temper, or s weak stomach. By the first of March he could speak a alow, careful and fairly grammatical English. He could master simple sums. By ths middle of March the lessons les-sons would cease. There waa too much work to do about the farm-night farm-night work aa well as day. She found herself trying not to think about the time when the lessons should cease. She refused to look ahead to April. One night, late in February, Sellna was conscious that she was trying to control something. She wss trying te keep her eyes swsy from something. She realised that she waa trying not on account it'a winter, I could atart you the fire. 1111 spring. And I could come maybe three times s week, evenings, to Pool's place, for lessons" He looked so helpless, so humble, so boge; and ths more pathetic for hit hugeness. She felt a little rush of warmth toward him that waa at once Impersonal Imper-sonal and maternal. She thought again, "Why, the dear thing 1 The great helpless big thing I How aerlous heist And funny." She laughed, suddenly, sud-denly, s gay little laugh, and he, after a pusaled panse. Joined her companion-ably. companion-ably. Three evenings s week," repeated Sellna, then, from the deptlia of her Ignorance. "Why, I'd love to. I'd love to." Chapter V The evenings turned out to be Tuesdays, Tues-days, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Supper Sup-per was over by slx-tliirty in tbe Pool household. Pervus wss there by seven, very clean ss to shirt his hair brushed till It shone; ahy, and given to dropping drop-ping his hst snd bumping against chairs, and looking solemn. 8ellns was torn between pity snd mirth. If only hs had blustered. A blustering big man puts ths world on the defensive. A gentle giant disarms it. Sellna got out her McBrlde's grammar gram-mar and Duffy's arithmetic, and together to-gether they started to parse verba paper walla, dig cisterns, and extract square roots. They found study Impossible Im-possible st the oilcloth-covered kitchen table, with the Pool household eddying about It Jakob built a fire in the TEN D0LLARS1" 8TNOP8I& Introducing "So Bis" (Dirk DeJong) In hla Infancy. In-fancy. And bis mother, Sellna DeJong. dauithter of Simeon Peake, gambler and gentleman of fortune. Her Ufa, to young womanhood In Chicago In 111), hae been unconventional, somewhat some-what seamy, but generally enjoyable. enjoy-able. At school her chum la Julie Hempel, daushter of August Hem pel, butcher. Hlmeon le killed In a quarrel that la not hla own, and Sellna, nineteen yeara old and praotlcally destitute, eecuree a poettlon as teacher at the High Prairie achool, In the outaklrts of Chloago, living at the home of a truck farmer. Klaae Pool. In Roelf, twelve yeara old, son of Klaaa, Sellna perceives a kindred kin-dred spirit, a lover of beauty, like heraelf. Sellna heara goeelp concerning the affection of tbe "Widow Paarlenberg," rich and good-looking, for Parvus DeJong, poor truck farmer, who la Ineen-slbla Ineen-slbla to the widow's attractions. For a community "aoclable" Sellna Se-llna preparea a lunch boa, dainty, but not of ample proportion which is to be "auctioned." according ac-cording to cuetom. The smallnees of the box excltea derision and Sellna la heartbroken. CHAPTER IV Continued Sellna's cheeks matched her gown. Iler eyes were wide and dark with the effort ahe was making to force back the hot haze threatening tbem. Why had ahe mounted this wretched soap box I Why bad she come to this hideous hid-eous party 1 Why had ahe come to High Prairie I Why 1 . . . "Miss Sellna Peake, that's who. Miss Se-ll-na Peake 1" A hundred balloon faces pulled by a would purchase a set of tools that his mind hsd been fixed on for months paat Sellna aaw KJaas Pool's look of astonishment changing to anger. Saw Maartje Pool's quick hand on his arm, restraining him. Two dollars !" Perms DeJong. "And ten." Johannes Acibunl's cautious cau-tious bid. "Two and a quarter." Barend Deli De-li oo. Two-fifty T Pervus DeJong. "Three dollsrsl" The high voice of the boy. It cracked s Uttle on the last syllable, and the crowd laughed. Three-three-three-three-three - three-three. three-three. Three once" "And a half." Pervus DeJong. Three sixty." "Four!" DeRoo. "And ten." The boy's voice was heard no more. "I wish they'd stop," whispered Sellna. "Five!" Pervus DeJong "Sixl" DeRoo, bis face very red. "And ten." "Seven 1" "It's only Jelly sandwiches," said Sellna to DeJong, In a panic. "Eight t" Johannes Ambuul, gone mad. "Nine!" DeRoo. "Nine! Nine Tm bid! Klne-nlno-nlne! Who'll make It" "Let htm have It The cup cakes fell a little. Don't'' Ten!" said Pervus DeJong. Barend DeRoo shrugged bis great shoulders. "Ten-ten-ten. Do I hear eleven? Do I hear ten-fifty. Ten-ten-ten tententen-tcntentcnten tententen-tcntentcnten I Oental Ten once. Ten twice! Gone for ten dollars to Pervus Per-vus DeJong. And s bargain." Adam Ooms mopped his bald head and his psrlor stove snd there they sat, teacher and pupil, their feet resting cosily on the gleaming nickel railing that encircled encir-cled the wood burner. On the evening of tbe first lesson Roelf had glowered throughout supper sup-per snd had disappeared Into the work abed, whence Issued a great sound of hammering, sawing, and general clatter. clat-ter. He and Sellna had got Into the way of spending much time together, In or out of doors. The boy worshiped wor-shiped her inarticulately. She had early discovered that he had s feeling for beauty beauty of line, texture, color, and grouping that was rare In one of his years. Tbe feet of a satin ribbon In his fingers; the orange and rose of s sunset ; the folds of the wine-red wine-red cashmere dress; the cadence of a spoken line, brought s look to his face that startled her. Since tbe gathering at Ooms' hall he hsd been moody and sullen ; bad refused to snswer when she spoke to to look st his hands. She wsnted, crsslly, to touch them. She wanted to feel them about her throat She wanted want-ed to put her lips on bis bands brush the backs of them, slowly, molstUy, with her mouth, llngerlngly. She wss terribly frightened. Shs thought te herself: "I sm going crasy. I am losing los-ing my mind. There Is something the matter with me. I wonder how I look. I must look queer." At half-past eight ahe closed her book suddenly. "I'm tired. I think It's tbe spring coming on." She smiled s little wsverlng smile. He rose snd stretched himself, bis great arms high above his head. Sellns shivered. "Two more weeks," he said, "la the last lesson. Well, do you think I have done pretty good welir "Very well," Sellna replied evenly. She felt very tired. Tbe first week in Msrch hs wss 111, and did not come. A rheumatic affliction afflic-tion to which he was subject It wss the curse of the truck farmer. Sellna's evenings were free to devote to Roelf, who glowed again. She sewed, too; cheeks snd the damp spot under his chin. Ten dollars. Adam Ooms knew, ss did all the countryside, this was not the sum of ten dollars merely. No basket of food, though it contained nightingales' tongues, the golden apple of Atalanta, wines of rare vintage, could have been adequate recompense for these ten dollars. They represented sweat and blood; toll and hardship; hours under the burning prairie sun st midday; work doggedly carried on through the drenching showers of spring ; nights of restless sleep snatched an hour at a time under the sky in the Chicago market place; miles of weary travel down the rude corduroy road between High Prairie and Chicago, Chica-go, now up to the bubs In mud, now blinded by dust and blowing sand. A sale at Christie's, with s miniature going for a million, could not have met with s deeper hush, a more dramatic babble following the hush. single cord turned toward her as she stood there on the box for all to see. They swam toward her. She put up s band to push them back. "Wliafm I bid! Whafm I bid! W'hat'ni I bid for this here lovely little toothful, gents! Start her up!" "Five cents!" piped up old Johannes Ambuul, with a snicker. The tittering crowd broke into a guffaw. Sellna was conscious of a Uttle sick feeling at the pit of her stomach. Through the haze she saw the widow's face, no longer aulky, but smiling now. She aaw Roelf s dear dark head. His face was set, like s man's, lie was coming toward her, or trying to, but the crowd wedged him In, small as he was among those great bodies. She lost slgbt of him.1 How hot It was ! how hot. . . . An arm at her waist. Someone bad mounted the little box and stood teetering teeter-ing there beside her, pressed against her slightly, reassuringly. Pervus De-Jong. De-Jong. Her head was on a level with the doorway, on the soap box, for all read ; helped Mrs. Pool with ths housework house-work In a gust of sympathy and found strange relief therein ; made over an old dress; studied; wrote all her letters let-ters (few enough), even one to the dried-apple aunts In Vermont. She no longer wrote to Julie Hempel. She had heard that Julie was to be married mar-ried to a Kansas man named Arnold. Julie herself had not written. The first week In March passed. He did not come. Nor did he come the following fol-lowing Tuesday or Thursday. She was bewildered, frightened. All that week she had a curious feeling or succession of feelings. She was restless, listless, by turns. Period of furious activity, followed by days of Inertia. It waa the spring, Maartjs said. Sellna hoped she wasn't going to be 11L She had never felt like that before. She wanted to cry. She was Irritable to the point of wasplshness with the children In the schoolroom. On Saturday the fourteenth of March he walked In at seven. Klaas, Maartje and Roelf had driven off to s gathering at Low Prairie, leaving Sellna with tbe pigtails and old Jakob. She had promised to make taffy for them, and was In the midst of It when his knock sounded at tbe kitchen door. All the blood In her body rushed to her bead; pounded there hotly. He entered. en-tered. There slipped down over her a complete armor of calmness, of self-possession self-possession ; of glib bow do you do Mr. DeJong and bow are you feeling and won't you sit down and there's no Ore In the parlor we'll have to sit here. He took part In Uie taffy pulling. Sellna wondered If Oeertje and Jozlna would ever have done squealing, ft was half-past eight before she bundled them off to bed with a plate of clipped taffy lozenges between them. She heard them scuffling and scrimmaging about In the rare freedom of their j parents' absence. Pervus DeJong and Sellna sat at the kitchen table, their books spread out before thera on the oilcloth. The sweet, heavy scent of fruit filled the room. Sellna brought the parlor lamp Into the kitchen, the better to see. It wan a nickel-bellied lamp, with a yellow .lass shade that cast a mellow golden glow. "Xbu didn't go to the meeting," primly. "Mr. and Mrs. Pool went" "No. I didn't go." "Why not?" She saw him swallow. "I got through too late. We're fixing to sow tomato seeds In the hotbeds tomorrow." tomor-row." Well, it looks as If Pervus was ths man. Who does the proposing propos-ing Pervus or Selina? (TO BB CONTINUED.) They ate their lunch together in one corner of Adam Ooms' hall. Sellna opened the box and took out the deviled eggs, and tbe cap cakes that had fallen a Uttle. and the apples, and the sandwiches sliced very, very thin. The coldly appraising eye of all High Prairie, Low Prairie, and New Haarlem Haar-lem watched this sparse provender emerge from the rlbbon-tled shoe box. She offered him s sandwich. It looked Infinitesimal In his great paw. Suddenly Sud-denly all Sellna's agony of embarrassment embarrass-ment was swept away, and she was laughing, not wildly or hysterically, but Joyously and girlishly. She sank her little white teeth into one of the absurd sandwiches and looked at him, expecting to find him laughing, too. But he wasn't laughing. He looked very earnest, and his blue eyes were fixed hard on the bit of bread In bis hnnd, and his face was very red and clean-shaven. He bit Into the sandwich sand-wich and chewed It solemnly. And Selina thought: "Why, the deaf thing! The great big dear thing ! And he might have been eating breast of duck. . . . Ten dollars !" Aloud she said, "What made you do ltr He seemed not to hear her; bit rumlnantly Into one of the cup cakes. Suddenly: "I can't hardly write at all, only to sign my name and like that" "Readr "Only to spell out the words. Anyways Any-ways I don't get time for reading. But figuring I wish I knew. 'RIthmetlc. I can flgger some, but those fellows In Haymarket tley are too sharp for me. They do numbers In their head like that, so quick." Selina leaned toward him. "I'll teach you. I'll teach you." "How do you mean, teach me?" "Evenings." He looked down at his great calloused cal-loused palms, then up at her. "What would you take for pay?" "Pay! I don't want ony pay." She was genuinely shocked. Hi face lighted up with a endder thought. "Tell you what. I could start for you the Are, mornings. In the school. And thaw the pump and bring in a pal! of water. This month, and January and February and part of March, even, now I don't go to market High Prairie to see. "Five cents I'm bid for this lovely little mouthful put up by the school teacher's own fair hands. Five cents I Five" "One dollar!" Pervus DeJong. The balloon faces were suddenly punctured with holes High Prairie's Jaw dropped with astonishment. Its mouth stood open. There wss nothing plain about Sellna now. Her dark head was held high, and his fair one beside It made a vivid foil. The purchase of the wine-colored cashmere was at last Justified. "And ten I" cackled old Johannes Ambuul, his rheumy eyes on Selina. Art and human spltefulness struggled visibly for mastery In Adam Ooms' face and art won. The auctioneer triumphed over the man. The term "crowd psychology" was unknown to him, but he was artist enough to sense that some curious magic process, working through this roomful room-ful of people, ' had transformed the little white box, from a thing despised and ridiculed, Into an object of beauty, of value, of Infinite desirability. desir-ability. He now eyed It In a catalepsy of admiration. "One-ten I'm bid for this box all tied with a ribbon to match the gown of the girl who brought It Gents, you get the ribbon, the lunch, and the girl. And only one-ten bid for all that. Gents! Gents! Remember, It ain't only a lunch It's a picture. It pleases the eye. Do I hear one " "l ive bits!" Barend DeRoo, of Low Prairie, In the lists. A strapping young lnt( hman, the Brom Bones of the district. dis-trict. He drove to the Haymarket with his load of produce and played nmls all night on the wagon under the gits torches while the street girls of the neghborlood assailed him In vain. Six feet three, his red face shone now like a harvest moon above the crowd. A merry, mischievous eye that laughed at I'prvus DeJong and his dollar bid. 'Dollar and a half!" A high clear voi'-- a Hoy's voice. Roelf. "(Hi, nol" said Sellna aloud. But she tvns unheard In the gabble. Roelf had once confided to her that he had eived three dollars and fifty cents In ism last tttree, years. Five dollars "Cone i lor Ten Dollars to Pervus DeJong." him of his bid for her basket Urged, he would only say, "Oh, It was just fun to make old Ooms mad." Now, with the advent of Pervus De-Jong, De-Jong, Roelf presented that most touching touch-ing and miserable of spectacles, a small boy Jealous and helpless In bis Jealousy. Selina had asked him to join the triweekly evening lessons; bad. Indeed, Insisted that he be a pupil In the class round the parlor stove. Roelf would not He disappeared Into his work-shed after supper; did not emerge until after DeJong's departure. de-parture. There was something about the sight of this great creature bent laboriously over s slate, the pencil held clumsily In his huge fingers, that moved Sellna strangely. Pity wracked her. If she had known to what emotion this pity was akin she might have taken away ths slate and given him a tablet, and the whole course of her life would have been different "Poor lad," she thought "Poor lad." Chlded herself for being amused at hla childlike earnestness. earn-estness. He did not make an apt pupil, though painstaking. Sellna would go over a problem or a sentence again and again, patiently, patiently. Then, suddenly, like a hand passed over his face, hla smile would come, transforming It He would smile like a child, and Selina should have been warned by the warm rush of joy that his smile gave her. She would smile, too. He was as pleased as though he had made a fresh and wonderful discovery. "Its easy," he would say, "when you know It once." Like a boy. He usually went home by eight-thirty or nine. Often the Pools went to sed before he left. After he had gone F.ellna was wakeful. Stie would heat water and wash; brush her hilr vigorously; vig-orously; feeling at once buoyant and 'lepresscd. Sometimes they fell to talking. His k |