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Show M J J6iheir Cm miry Plhc ,V -! -X i iH.' By Edward Riddle Padgett. B More Land Bjjf IVE in tho country and get the M land fever!" is a truism that all 1 who do go back to the soil find flHUl out fits their particular case iKfcfMt aptly. And tho Townbreds wore Wmo exception; that Is to say, Mrs JBfownbrcd had been at Flvo Oaks only JgHk thort time when sho began to cast ; JHjr eyes longingly upon tho Ave acres JIHfc cleared land adjoining on tho West Jj Bo their ten acros, and then upon three , Hfcore acres, in the rear. jTo Mr. Townbred, at first, tho ten i Stores had seemed a verltablo wlldor-j wlldor-j IB!U9! and he had frequently asked Wrs. Townbred what in the world they ; Jfctantftd with so much land. But, mind Hvu. that was at first. jB'Later, when riding Into town on the JBrolley of a morning and hearing his Httlghbors speak off-hand of places of jBwenty to a hundred acres, he had be-'ftiu be-'ftiu to feol a little ashamed of thoso 'Sen. So he planned to buy more some-rBlrae some-rBlrae In the dim and distant future. JBnd he let it go at that. JB'But Mrs. Townbrod was by no means IBo easily satisfied. To her disap-jfcolntment disap-jfcolntment Bho had presently learned ;SBb.t the fivo acres adjacent were not JB0! sale at any prico for, it seemed, Bae owner was a city man who as 13 ?mw frequontly the case was planning TflBo build a house on It eventually and ' BB1111 h,a "declining years" thero. H And the three acres In the rear were '(iBffned by a arincr wno blandly asked "JHHSO an acre for thorn since he knew "SjE18 land was moro valuable $o the Uownbrods than to anyono else. So, "flBter a while that had ended any effort ' JSP Sccure more land. K,But, only the other week, the "iB'CVcr" made a fresh attack. Mr. B?ownbred had not so much as hung Hpp his hat, upon his return from tho J5JfccUy, before he was engulfed In the 'BBrislng temperature." 'IB "Oh, Ruthvln," exclaimed Mrs. , jHBTownbred, "I'm so glad you havo saBcome! And X want you to go over . Brnd sco Mr' Shawkcy right away!" HlK "GoodnRss me, Frieda, what's the IllBpia-tter? Has anything happened?" PJIB "No but something's going to!" rc- EJlHPllcd Mrs. Townbred, joyfully excited. HH'This mornl:ig Mr. Shawkcy showed 9fflBnc five acres of woodland ho ha3 for Hllrfalo and I want you to go right over $MTM lo11 hlm vrQ'u tnko 1L" 'tB It "Gee whlz!" exclaimed Mr. Town- ilHK wnais tno rus; " "-' fUP0dy elsc afler It?" !i) "No at least, I don't think so." vWm "Well, then, is tho land going to JjfflBfly off- of fall through to China?" 9K, "No of course not, you silly! But BHtanother man had an option on it which nHXplres this evening at six o'clock Myid ho Is asking Mr. Shawkcy to rc-BBew rc-BBew it for another year. So so " fv "My, my, Frieda, not so fasti Don't Hl'ltt a llttlo thing JIke that mako you aHVlosQ your nca( an(i rush pell mell Into 9. tf'-mIBB 1L Now look at this in a businesslike manner. You don't suppose Mr. Shaw-key Shaw-key Is going to give him a renoWal when ho has a chance of selling to us, do you? Of courio notl Besides, don't you think we'd better find out something about tho land before we rush In " "Now I am not boastful, as you well know, Ruthvln, but you must admit that I do know good land when I sco It. This Is all woodland pine, chestnut chest-nut and oak, mostly tho latter and It's precisoly what wo need to mako our place complete. Why, Ruthvln, there's enough wood on It to last us, with proper care In cutting and planting, plant-ing, the rest of our lives' So even If tho land shouldn't prove good which I am certain is not tho case we would have our money back anyway." Mr. Townbred sat down and strovo to be calm. "What docs he want for it?" he inquired. "Only a hundred and ten dollars an acre!" said Mrs. Townbred triumphantly. trium-phantly. "And you know perfoctly well that you can't touch land any where near us for less than from $260 to $300 an acre and " "Then there's something the matter with It!" interrupted Mr. Townbred dcclsl ely. Mrs. Townbred smiled. "That's just like a city man! Alwaj-8 imagining someono is trying to 'do you just becauso be-causo ho offers a bargain." "But but " And It is a bargain, too, Ruthvln Ruth-vln fifty dollars In cash and tho balance bal-ance at ten dollars a month, with Interest." In-terest." . "Good n-nlght!" gasped Mr, Town-bred. Town-bred. "That sottles It!" Mrs. Townbred stopped and stared In amazement. Then, suddenly, she flung her arms around his neck and exclaimed Impulsively, "Oh, you'ro a dear! And can It be in both our names?". Mr. Townbred tried to speak but couldn't; ho managed to dlsengago tho clinging arms and catch his breath. "Hero, here, Frieda," ho Anally gasped, "I didn't say we'd take It. You you misunderstand me! What I meant was that terms of that sort settled any doubt I might have of the proposition being a come-on there's an Ethiopian somewhere In tho woodpile I mean woodland!" "Oh, Ruthvln!" There was all the woo of tho world In Mrs. Townbred's tone. "Why, Just flgure It for yourself and sco whoro Mr. Shawkcy gots off. Flvo Ho Pointed Out Tho Boundaries Of The Tract. acres of land at 5110 an acre that's $D30; take off ?C0 cash ahd at $10 per month It would take flfty months, or over four years to settle in full and I bet ho could got half that much, anyway, out of tho timber on the place!" But Mrs. Townbred wasn't In the loast impressed. Sho hastened to explain ex-plain how Mr. Shawkcy was virtually ZJMKZ land poor, and how he had concluded conclud-ed to sub-dlvldo a hundred of his threo hundrod acres of land and sell It In flvo to ten-acre tracts on monthly payments, thus Insuring himself a regular reg-ular monthly Income for tho next dozen years. Mr. Shawkcy himself had told her this, and he was known as an honest man. Mr. Townbred. was lmpreessed. Of course a city business man wouldn't have handled It that way, maybe, but then well, he'd look at the land, at least. So, tho next day being Sunday, thoj hooked Old Bob, tho whito hon.e, to the buggy and drove over to tho flve-acre flve-acre tract, which was Just on tho other 3lde of the pike and not over a quarter quar-ter of a mllo from tho Townbred's place. It would havo been preferable, of course, had it adjoined their own land, but, as Mrs. Townbred pointed out, peoplo with, say, a hundred or so acres, farm fields that arc much farther far-ther from their houses than this land was from tho. Townbred's. Mr. Shawkcy met them there. Ho may havo been a countryman, but he was a good salesman. He' pointed out the boundaries of tho tract and showed a plat which listed it as a fraction over Ave acres; and he gavo quite a discourse dis-course on the valuo of wood particularly particu-larly tho wood on his land. And, withal, he was agreeable. Mrs. Townbred was for buying at once. Mr. Townbred insisted upon a few days In which to thlpk It over and asked for an option on the tract for that longth of time. Shawkey wa3 perfectly willing, bo Old Bob was unhitched from what was left of tho sapling to which he had been tied and they drove home. There, straightway, things began to happen. Scarcely had they flnlshod dinner before a Mr. Thomson who, It seemed, lived farther up tho pike. camo In and puroly as a neighborly turn, of course cautioned them against buying land from Mr. Shawkcy. Shaw-kcy. Mr. Townbred was Intensely receptive, recept-ive, and ho couldn't help casting an I-told-you-so glanco or two at Mrs. Townbred. Mr. Thomson, ho himself stated, had purchased ten acres from Mr. Shawkey Shaw-key and had discovered later that fifteen fif-teen feet clear across tho front of his place was a part of tho roadway of tho subdivision; that this deduction of courso mado his purchase Just that much less than ton full acres for which ho had paid or, rather, was paying; and that Mr. Shawkcy, far from being secretlvo about It, stated frankly and boldly that ho couldn't aoo whero he, Shawkey, was called upon to donate the land for a roadway! road-way! and that if the county over took it over as a county road tho owners of tho abutting property would bo paid for tholr land. And Mr. Thomson, i.o ho hlmsoir Z5Q1CZ states, had made a rather inconvenient trip to tho Townbreds to warn them of this thing which ho considered a flim-flam. Mrs. Townbred looked at her husband hus-band anxiously. But to hor surprise ho didn't seom to bo wrought up over It. Instead he was quietly figuring away with tho plat of th6 lot beforo him. Mr. Thomson was duly thanked, offered of-fered a bit of refreshment and sent, on his way rejoicing for, it developed later, a qulto neighborly feud existed between him and Mr. Shawkoy and ho folt he had got In a good lick. "Pshaw!" said Mr. Townbred, after going over his figures again, "tho wholo thing doesn't amount to a hill of beans. The land wo lose for the road Is worth about twenty dollars, on a basis of $110 an aero. And it seems to mo that tho liberal terms amazingly amaz-ingly liberal are worth that much. I'm satisfied; go ahead and buy it." "Twenty dollars!" exclaimed Mrs. Townbred Indignantly. "Lot Mr. Shawkey get away with twenty dol- JM lars ln that fashion? Well I Just jH guess not! If you have twentyjthj) WU lars to throw away you can givojthom 'mM to me, Ruthvln Townbrod! Ml -soo jH rr. Shawkey this evening and hetcan iH cither tako twenty dollars off the jH price of tho land or we won't buy It! H You aro easy if you consent " M " 'Penny wise and pound foolish ,H suggested Mr. Townbrod. jH But Mrs. Townbred was not to he IMmm dissuaded. rM And, somehow, sho didn't seem to jH be much concerned over tho possibil- jH ity of losing the land. jH For she took two full wooks in Mmm which to let Mr. Shawkey think it IH Also, Mr. Shawkey finally deducted (Mmm the twenty. MMm All of which shows that the Town- H breds aro beginning to conduct their jH business as business is conducted ln JH tho country. jmmM (Copyright, 1915, by Edward Riddle H Padgett). H Mi m I Jmmmmm |