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Show I SO BIG 1 I By EDNA FERBER ft (. Danbtadar. fat 0.) V WNO Samoa. j J 1 .. ; f j Jt , . v -WWA" "tV '''"'J wldow'a outward air of composure, r'ervua DeJong, Handing beside Sellna, viewed the proceedings with an air of detachment Ulgtt Prairie was looking at him expectantly, openly. The widow bit her red Up, tossed her bead. Pervus Per-vus DeJong returned the auctioneer! meaning smirk with the mild gaze of a disinterested outsider. "Gents I" Adam Ooms' Tolce took on tearful note the tone of one wb la more hurt than angry. "Gents 1" Slowly, with Infinite reverence, he lifted lift-ed one corner of the damask cloth that concealed the hamper's contents lifted It and peered within as at a treasure. At what lie saw there he started bach dramatically, at once rapturous, despairing, de-spairing, amazed, lie rolled his eyes, lie smacked his Hps. . He rubbed till stomach. The sort of dumb show that, since the days of the Oreek drama, bus been used to denote gastronomic d light. "Eighty!" was wrenched suddenl from Uorls Von Vauren, the nineteen-year-old fat and gluttonous son of a prosperous New Haarlem farmer. Adam Ooms rubbed brisk palms together. to-gether. "Now then! A dollar 1 A dollar! It's an Insult to this basket to make It less than a dollar." He leaned far forward over his Improvised pulpit. "Did I hear you say a dollar, I'ervus DeJong?" DeJong stared, Immovable, unnbashed. "Elghty-eighty-elghty-elghty gents! I'm going to tell you something. some-thing. I'm going to whisper a secret." His leun fnce was veined with craftiness. crafti-ness. "(Jents. Listen. It Isn't chicken In this beautlfu 1 basket It Isnt chicken. It'a" a dramatic pause "It's roast duck!" He swayed back, monned hla hrour with hla rat hnn,iir.. PERVUS DEJONQ STNOPSI8. Introducing "Bo Big" (Dirk DeJong) In bis Infancy. In-fancy. And Ma mother, Sellna Da Jung-, daughter of Blmaon Peaks, gambler and aantlaman of fortuna. Har Ufa, to young womanhood la Chlcafo In 1181, haa baan unconventional, som-what som-what seamy, but generally enjoy, able. At achool har chum la Julia Ham pa I, daughter of August Hampel, butcher. Simeon la killed In a quarrel that la not hla own, and Sellna, nineteen yeara old and praotlcally destitute, aecurea a poaltlon aa teacher at the High Prairie achool, In the outeklrta of Chicago, living at the home of a truck farmer, Klaae I'ool. In flnelr, twelve yeara old, aon of Klaae, Sellna perceives a kindred kin-dred eplrlt, a lover of beauty, Ilka heraelf. Sellna heara goinlp concerning the affection of the "Widow I'aarlenberg," rich and good-looking, for Pervus DeTong, poor truck farmer, who la Inasn-alble Inasn-alble to tba wld w s attractions. done. Sellna's lunch basket was to be a separate and distinct affair, offered of-fered at s action with those of the Katrines and Llnas and Sophias of High I'ralrle. Not a little apprehensive, apprehen-sive, she was to pack this banket herself. her-self. Maartje, departing, had left copious co-pious bnt disjointed Instruction. Maartje's own basket was of gigantic proportions and staggering content. Her sandwiches were cubic blocks; her pickles clubs of cucumber; ber pie vast plateaus. The basket provided for Sellna, while not quite so large, still was of appalling size as Sellna contemplated It She decided, suddenly, that she would hae none of St. In her trunk she had a cardboard box such as shoes come In. Certainly this should hold enough lunch for two, she thought. She was a little nervous about the whole thing; rather dreaded the prospect pros-pect of eating her supper with a High I'ralrle awaln unknown to her. Suppose Sup-pose no one should bid for her box! She resolved to All It after her own broad black-coated backs shut off sight and Ingres". She had written her name neatly on her lunch box. Now she was at a loss to And a way to reach Adam Ooms. She eyed the great-shouldered expanso Just ahead of her. In desperutlon she decided to dig Into It with a corner of her box. She dug, viciously. The back winced. Ita owner turned. "Here I What" Sellna looked up Into the wrathful face of I'ervus DeJong. I'ervus De-Jong De-Jong looked down Into the startled eyes of Sellna I'euke. Large enough eyes at any time ; enormous now In ber fright at what she had done. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I thought If I could there's no way of getting my lunch box up there such s crowd" A slim, appealing, lovely little figure In (he wine-red cushmere, amidst all those buxom bosoms, and over-heated bodies, and flushed faces. His gaze left ber reluctantly, settled on the lunch box, became, If possible, more bewildered. be-wildered. "That? Lunch boxT "Yes. For the raflle. I'm tne scnool teacher. Sellna Peake." He nodded. "I saw you In church Sunday." "You did I I didn't think yon. . . . Did your "Walt here. I'll come back. Walt here." He took the shoe box. She waited. He plowed his way through the crowd like a Juggernaut, reached Adam Ooms' platform and placed the box Inconspicuously next a colossal hamper that was one of a dozen grouped awaiting await-ing Adam's attention. When be had made his way back to Sellna he again said, "Walt," and plunged down the wooden stairway. Sellna waited. She had ceased to feel distressed at her Inability to And the Pools In the crowd, a-tlptoe though she was. When presently pres-ently he came back he had In his hand an empty wooden soap box. This he up-ended In the doorway Just behind the crowd stationed there. Sellna pattern, disregarding Maartje's heavy provender. She had the kitchen to herself. Jakob was In the fields or out-houses. The house was dellclously quiet. Sellna rummaged for the shoe box, lined It with a sheet of tissue paper, rolled up her sleeves, got out mixing bowl, flour, pans. Cup cakes were her ambition. She baked six of them. They came out a beautiful brown but somewhat leaden. Still, anything was better than a wedge of soggy pie, she told herself. She boiled eggs very hard, halved them, devilled their yolks, filled the whites neatly with this mixture mix-ture and clapped the halvea together again, skewering them with a toothpick. tooth-pick. Then she rolled each egg separately sep-arately In tissue paper twisted at the ends. Daintiness, she had decided, should be the keynote of her supper box. The food neatly packed she wrapped the box In paper and tied It with a gay red ribbon yielded by her , , - .... .m i in icu uuuuner- chief, held one band high la the air. His last curd. "Eighty-five I" groaned the fatOorls I Von Vuuren. I "Eighty-five! Eighty-five I Elghty-flveelghtyflveelghtyflve Elghty-flveelghtyflveelghtyflve eighty - five! Gents I Gentle-men 1 Eighty-five once I Eighty-five twice !" (Crash) I "Gone to Uorls Von Vuuren for eighty-five." A sigh went up from the assemblage ; a sigh that was the wind before the storm. There followed a tornado of talk. It crackled and thundered. Tho rich Widow Paarlenherg would have to eat her supper with Von Vuuren's boy, the great thick Gorls. And there In he doorway, talking to teacher as If lhey had known each other for years, was Pervus DeJong with his money In his pocket. It was as good as a play. Adam Ooms was angry. His lean, ftx-llke face became pinched with spite. Hi prided himself on his antics as auctioneer; auc-tioneer; and his chef d'neuvre had brought a meager eighty-five cents, besides be-sides doubtless winning him the enmity en-mity of that profitable store customer,-the customer,-the Widow I'anrlenherg. Gorls Von Vuuten came forward to claim his prize amlddt shouting, clapping, laughter. The great hamper, was hunded down to him. Adam Ooms scuffled about among the many baskets at his feet. His nostrils nos-trils looked pinched and his skinny hlinrln tllirwilr as tUelH U - 1 a M CHAPTER IV Continued 6 "Weill" exclnlmed Sellna, feeling as though she had witnessed the first act of an exciting play. And breathed deeply. So, too, did the watching congregation, con-gregation, so that the widow could be said to have driven off In quite a gust. As they Jogged home ' In the Pool Win wagon Maartje told her tale with a good deal of savor. Pervus DeJong had been left a widower wid-ower two years before. Within a month of that time Leendert I'aarlenberg I'aarlen-berg had died, leaving to his widow the richest and most profitable farm In the whole community. I'ervus De-Jong, De-Jong, on the contrary, through Inheritance Inheri-tance from his father, old Johannes, possessed a scant twenty-five acrea of the worst lowland practically the only lowland in all High I'ralrle. The acrengo was notoriously barren. Pervus Per-vus DeJong patiently planted, sowed, gathered crops, hauled them to market; mar-ket; seemed still never to get on In this thrifty Dutch community where getting on was so common a trait as to he no longer thought a virtue. Luck and nnture seemed to work against him. Ills seedlings proved unfertile; his stock was always tilling; his cabbages cab-bages were worra-lnfested ; snout-beetle bored his rhubarb. When he planted largely of spinach, hoping for mounted it; found her head a little above the level r,f his. She could survey sur-vey the room from end to end. There were the Pools. ' She waved to Maartje; smiled at Roelf. He made as though to come toward her; did come part way, and "as restrained by Maartje catching et his coat tall. Adam Ooms' gavel (a wooden potato masher) crushed for silence. "Ladies!" (Crash) "And gents!" (Crush)! .... no Di.nuB n nine aa uv aeurciieu xor one small object. When he stood upright once more he was smiling. His little eyes gleamed. His wooden scepter pounded for silence. si-lence. High In one bund, balanced daintily on his finger tips, he held Sellna's little white shoe box, with Its red ribbon binding It, and the plume of evergreen stuck In the ribbon. Affecting Affect-ing great solicitude he brought It down then to read the name written on It; held It aloft again, smirking. He said nothing. Grinning, he held it high. He turned his body at the waist from side to side, so that all might see. The eyes of those before him still held a mental picture of the huge hamper, food-packed, that bud Just been handed down. The contrast was too absurd, too cruel. A ripple of "Gents! Look what basket weve got here I" Look Indeed. A great hamper, grown so plethoric that It could no longer wenr Its cover. Its contents bellied" Into a mound smoothly covered cov-ered with a fine white cloth whose glistening surface proclaimed It damask. dam-ask. A Himalaya among hampers. You knew that under thnt snowy crust lay gold that was fowl done crisply, succulently; emeralds In tho form of gherkins; rubles that melted Into strawberry preserves; fakes frosted ' like diamonds ; to say nothing of such semi-precious Jewels as potato salad; cheeses; sour creajn to be spread on rye breud asj hotter; coffee cakes; crullers. Crash! "The Widow Paarlenheig's basket, Indies and gents; The Widow a wet spring, the season was dry. Did its turn the following year to sweet ,)otatoes, nil auguries pointing to a dry spring and summer, the summer proved the wettest In a decade. Had he been small, puny and Inslgniflcnnt his bud luck would have called forth ontemptuous pity. Rut there was about him the lovableness and splendor splen-dor of the stricken giant. It was on this Pervus DeJong, then, that the Widow Paarlenherg of the rich acres, the comfortable farmhouse, the gold neck chain, the silk gowns, the soft white hands and the cooking talents, tal-ents, had set her affections. She wooed him openly, notoriously, and wltli a Dutch vehemence that would have swept another man off his feet. It was known that she sent him a weekly baking of cakes, pies and tread. She tricked, cajoled, or nagged laughter swept the room ; rose ; swelled to a roar. Adum Ooms waited with a nice sense of the dramatic until the laughter had reached Its height, then held up a hand for silence. A great scraping "Ahem!" as he cleared his throat threatened to send the crowd off again. "Ladles and gents I Here's a dainty little tidbit. Here's something not I only for the Inner man, but a feast for the eye. Well, boys. If the last lot was too much for you Ibis lot ought to be Just about rljiht. If the food nln't qulle enough for you, you can tie the ribbo.i In the lady's Hair and put the posy In your bottonhole and there you are There you are! What's more, the lady herself goes with It. You don't get a country girl with this here box, gents. A city girl, you can tell by looking nl It, Just. And who Is she? Who did Paarlenherg! I don't know what's In It. You don't know what's In It. We don't have to know what's In It. Who has eaten Widow I'aarlenberg's chicken once don't have to know. Who has eaten Widow I'aarlenberg's cake once don't have t know. What am I bid on Widow I'aarlenberg's basket! What am I bid! Wlmtmlbldwhatmlbldwhat-mlhld!" Wlmtmlbldwhatmlbldwhat-mlhld!" (Crash)! The widow herself, very handsome In black silk, her gold neck chain rising and falling richly with the little flurry that now agitated her broad bosom, was seated In a chair against the wall not five feet from the auctioneer's stand. She bridled now. blushed, cast down her eyes,' cast" up her eyes, succeeded suc-ceeded In looking as unconscious as a complaisant Turkish slave girl on the block. Adam Ooms" glance swept the hall "What Am I Bid I Thirty Cental Shame on You, Gentlemen 1" trunk. At the last moment she whipped Into the yard, twisted a brush of evergreen ever-green from the tree at the side of the house, and tucked this Into the knot of ribbon atop the box. She stepped back and thought the effect enchanllng. She was waiting In her red cashmere and her clonk and hood when Hoogen-dunk Hoogen-dunk culled for her. They were late arrivals. Sellna, balancing her box carefully, opened the door thut led to the wooden stairway. The hall wus on the second floor. The clamor that struck her ears had the effect of a physical blow. She hesitated a moment, nnd If there had been any means of returning to the Pool farm, short of walking five miles llm Into eating her ample meals. She ven asked hla advice that subtlest form of flattery. She asked him about tub-soiling, humus, rotation she whose rich land yielded, under her direwd management, more profitably 'o the single acre than to any ten of j Pervus'. Feeling that the entire community vas urging htm townrd this protltnble natch with the plump, rich, red-lipped widow, I'ervus set his will like a stub-horn stub-horn steer and would have none of her. He wns uncomfortable In his untidy un-tidy house; he was lonely, he was unhappy. un-happy. But he would have none of her. Vanity, pride, resentment were .ill mixed up In It. The very first time that Pervus De-long De-long met Sellna he had a chance to iroteet her. With such a start, the up this dainty little box Just big enough for two?" He Inspected It again, solemnly, sol-emnly, and added, as an afterthought, "If you ain't feeling specially hungry. Who?" He looked about, aplshly. Who buys Sellna's dainty little lit-tle luncheon box? And what ia to be the result? (TO BE CONTINUED.) nd was Inevitable, Then, too, Sellna had on the wine-colored cashmere and was trying hard to keep the tears hack in full view of the whole of High I'ralrle. Urged by Maartje (und rather rath-er fancying the Idea) Selina had attended at-tended the great meeting and dance at Adam Ooms hall above the general store near the High I'ralrle station. Farmer families for miles around were there. The new church organ that time-hallowed pretext for sociability so-ciability was the excuse for this gathering. There was a small admission admis-sion charge. Adam Ooms had given them the hall. The three musicians were playing without fee. The women wom-en were to bring supper packed In boxes or baskets, these to be raffled off to the highest bidder whose prlv IU?e It then was to sup with the fair wh.ise b3ket ne bad bought. Hot olTee could be had at ro much the up. All the proceeds were to be de voted t te organ. Maartje hai! packed her own basket nt noon and hnd d-lven off at four with Klnas and the children. She wns to serve on one of those bustling committees whose duties ranged from coffee making t" illsh washing. Klaas and Roelf were o h preued Into service. Jakc Hoocnduok would convey Selina to h foativittcB) when his chorea were In the snow, she would have taken It. Up the stairs nnd Into the din. Kvl-dently Kvl-dently the auctioning of supper baskets wns even now In progress. The auctioneer auc-tioneer was Adam Ooms who himself had once been the High Prairie school teacher. A fox-faced little man, bald, falsetto, the village clown with a solid foundation of shrewdness under his clowning and a tart luyer of malice over It. High and shrill came his voice. "What am I bid! What am I bid! Thirty cents I Thirty-five! Shame on you, gentlemen. What am I bid! Who'll make It forty !" Sellna felt a little thrill of excitement. excite-ment. She looked about for a plac? on which to lay her wraps, espied a 'ntx that appeared empty, rolled her cloak, muffler, und hood Into a neat bundle 'ind. about to cast It Into the box, saw, upturned to hei from Its depths, the round pink faces of the sleeping Kuy-ner Kuy-ner twins, aged six months. Oh, dear I in J4erntlon s,,;na pjncefj ier nun-dle nun-dle on the floor In a corner, smoothed down the red cashmere, snatched up her lunch box and made for the door-vy door-vy with the childish engKess of one ut of the crowd to be In It She won lered where Maartje ant Klaas Pool vvere In th: : close pa ked roomful; and iloelf. In be cotrway she found that until It reached the tall figure tower Ing In the doorway reached It, and rested there. His gimlet eyes seemed to bore their way Into I'ervus De-Jong's De-Jong's steady slurp. He raised Ills right arm aloft, brandishing the potato masher. The whole room fixed Its gaze on the blond head In the doorway. "Speak up! Voting men of High Prairie! Iloh, you, Pervus DeJong! Whntmlbidwhatmlbidwbitmlbld !" "Fifty cents!" The oA enme from Gerrlt Pon ut the other end of the hall. A dashing offer, as a start. In this district dis-trict where one dollar often represented repre-sented the profits on a whole load of market truck brought to the city. Crash! went the potato masher. "Fifty cents I'm bid. Who'll mnke It seventy-five? Who'll make It seventy-five?" seventy-five?" "Sixty!" Johannes Ambnul, a widower, wid-ower, lis age more than the sum of bis bid. . "eventy!" Oerrlt Pon. Adam Ooms whispered It hissed It. "S-s-s-seventy. Ladles nnd gents, I wouldn't repent out loud soclia figser. I would be ashamed Look at this basket, gents, nnd then you can sty . . . s-s-seventy !" "Seventy flfei" (he cautious Am-buul. Am-buul. Scarlet, flooding hei face, belled, tba |
