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Show Ba c ToT h e F arm "TI " (( I ETTY was sweeping f-jTs-ffiffiPffi the hall when the KP'' bell van : and Liu m iQirajfS postman handed in fi &52 H handlul of h iters. ! ' y,x ,or Ceral- HB 1 dine-" said Betty IjJI sitting down on the A Bta,r3 "That must V I be from Mr. Raleigh. Wish I were engaged, too , so somebody would send me onu like that. I'll never be If I stay here all my life playing maid to Geraldinc and right-hand right-hand girl to Aunt Margaret I wish, If I ever did have one all my very Own, it would say on it, 'To Bett; Irom Jack.' " The last was in a whisper. Behind her came Aunt .Margaret downstairs, eyeglasses at the proper aDgle, serene and well poised as always. Don't neglect the corners, Betty," she said, pleasantly. "Has the mail arrived? ar-rived? O, yea For Geraldine! How popular and loved the child la " "Certainly," sLiid Betty, vigorously attacking the broom once more. 'Don't he ungenerous, even in thought Bettie Hm had better oil. the staircase too, today ' Hetty stood still for a moment looking look-ing after her aunt, but .Mrs Potter crossed the hall and went into the dining-room to hoy late breakfast Jack was iusi finishing his With the morning paper propped before him.: be wished his mother a perfunctory ' greeting and went on reading Mrs. Potter opened her mail. One letter attracted her attention It was a curious letter The envelope was long and narrow and of thin, pale blue paper, with a sort of checkered effect She opened it and glanced j over the firs I page, and Jack looked up irom li s paper at the quick cry of alarmed surprise. "Who's dead", mumsie?" "Don't hp flippant, Jack. The Bhock Is quite bad ellOugh. 1 bavo a letter from your father's sister re.il. a most Impossible sort of an old person, j Jack. I have not seen her in over 15 i years, not since your father made his fortune out of Potter's Pure Pellets. She lived on a farm somewhere up in Connecticut. Your father was born I there, hut he got away from the cn-j cn-j vironment. as soon as he could fairly ! toddle." "What's the old ladv writing to you 1 for?" "Heaven only knows. And she calls j ni" dear sister .Maggie. Jack, nobody ever called me Maggie, excepting her " I r Jack laughed and took the letter, I The writing was a bit quavering and uncertain, but he made it out. It was a simple, heartful letter, full of sincerity, and a reaching out after I one's own people. "Dear Sister Maggie," it read. "I have been thinking of you and the children for some time, and I do want I to see you before the Lord calls me home So, seeing as you weren't given I to visiting, I thought Ld take time by I the forelock, and come to see you. 1 know you will ho surprised, but life Is short, and ray heart strings begin I to twang after Rome of my own flesh i and blood as I grow older. "Hoping tills finds you all in good health, as I am it present, and trusting trust-ing to be in your midst shortly I remain. re-main. "Your sister, Polly Ann Potter " "The letter lins been delayed, mother." said Jack. "It went to the old address first. What a bully place she lies In Woodchuck Hill." "She must be 65, and poor as only those human relics draggii.g out life In wornout farmhouses can be. Jack. I might telegraph her that we were starting to Florida or Bermuda." "O, nonsense, munifcie Make the old ladv comfy Slip's only loripsome month here in New York, trotting around with you and Gerry, would buck her up flue and dandy." "Sometimes Jack.' Mrs. Potter I. aned her chin on her palm sadly, as she louk'd across at her eldest, "sometimes I look at you and wonder if you can be my son and the heir to Potter's Pellets ." "I gupss I am," laughed Jack. "I have them pegged at mc often enough." "Are you ashamed that your father made his fortune selling pills?' "Not if they were good pills, O, don't get huffy, dear." Jack bent over her chair and kissed her. "Be nice to the old lady." "But, child, Gerry's Avedding 1s to be soon, and there's all the shopping to do, and goodness knows where the money is coming from I haven't the time to entertain anyone. Dear, what I is a woodchuck a sort of bird, isn't I it?" Geraldine came In dressed for her I morning walk through the park She ! was b tall prettj girl, rather pallid, 1 but sweet faced. "Who's Betty helping out of the cab, mother'''' she asked. "It lookc; j like Noah's greatgrandmother ." "Jack, I am going to faint," ex-I ex-I claimed .irs Potter. "Buck up, mumsie, and be decent." ! warned Jack, as he opened the door, j and faced Betty, loaded with two large covered baskets, and an ancient black leather traveling bag Betty's face was radiant. "Here's Aunt Polly !" she announced. Behind Iipt stood the oddest Dgure As Geraldine said afterward she did not think there were any people like Aunt Polly left in the world. Tall, and spare head v. ell up, with a w ide genial smile that took In all creation j in its approval, she had happy gray eyes and eringy gray hair parted in I thp middle, and drawn down over her I ears 'Well, how are you, folks?" she eje- claimed, her voice trembling w ith J tears. "Bless my heart and soul, it's so good to see jou all How your chicks must have grown, sister Been j a'feedin' them the pellets regular?" "Betty take your aunt's parcels up to the gray chamber How do you do, Polly. You are verj welcome." Mrs. Potter closed her eyes as a I martyr should, and pressed a bird peck on the wrinkled cheek nearest her. "Betty, child, you let them satchels and things of mine alone," ordered Aunt Polly, vigorously. "I never let folks wait on me. Well. Maggie, how be ye. anyhow? You look sort of pmdlin'. You'll have to speak up louder, 'cause my hearing's defective. Come nearer, children." She sank down Into a rocking chair and beamed on the two "This is the girl you named Polly Ann after me, Isn't it?" "We call her Geraldine, to avoid confusion, Polly," Mrs. Potter passed the point of danger with poise and graciousness. "I think she resembles im side of the family, don't you?" "She does sppin more set up than the Potterses," Aunt Polly smiled, and . turned to meet Jack's hearty salute. "I'm Jack, Auntie. How's things I down home?" ' Well, fair to middlin'. fair to mid-dlin'. mid-dlin'. 1 brought you up some ginger cookies I ain't forgot when 1 was young I knew the children would enjoy things right from the old place where their father was horn." "So kind of you, Pollv." acknowledged acknowl-edged .Mrs Potter sweetly. "Betty, you may remove them to the kitchen " "Wait a minute. 1 ain't got a good look at her jet. This is Millie's girl, ain't it? She favors Millie, too" "Poor dear Millie," sighed Mrs. Potter Pot-ter as Bett slipped away, laden with the spoils from the farm, and happy a- could be. "Land. I never think of her that way," protested Aunt Polly. "She married the one she wanted to. and was happy as a lark with him. and if she died when the little one came, why. 1 don't know but what she fulfilled ful-filled her destiny That's a real nice, i sightly girl. Going out, Gelatine?"' "Call me Gerry, auntie. Jack does.'' ! "She don't handsome a bit. docs j she, Maggie9" Polly said "Anybody I sitting stlddy with you, yet. child9'' "I'm to be married soon." ) "My, backward, ain't ye? laughed 1 Polly. "Run along and take your walk. Who's she going to marry, Maggie?" "A gentleman in a Wall Street office" of-fice" "You don't tell me. Ain't that too bad! But love goes where it will. Jackie, help your old aunt off with these pesky tight shoes, and get my old slippers out of that bag on top. I pretty near lost all my religion wearing them down here." Mrs. Potter had stood by the table, as if In a trance, gazing down at the neat hand knit white stockings Aunt Polly disclosed, and the clastic sided, old style shoes. "Excuse me just a moment. Polly," she said. "Geraldine. come with mother, dear I feel a little faint." Polly looked after her sister-in-law with deep concern, "Now what does ail Maggie?" She looks fretted and pindlin'. Jack." Jack knelt on the floor, putting on the slippers. "Mother worries too much." "Hurries too much?" "Worries. She has a good many social engagements " "I didn't know they'd let Potter's Pure Pellets into New York Bocietv," chuckled Polly. "Land, Jacky, I remember re-member when your father used to putter put-ter around home over his little dough and sugar pills And he put on the label they'd cure everything on earth excepting chlllblains and boils Seems queer to think hp made a fortune out of them before he died." "It's about all gone now," said Jack cheerfully. "We're putting on a lot of dog. Auntie, that we can't back up with the real goods. It's in the air down here." "Better come home with me. You re a Potter through and through, Jackie Sitting stiddy with any girl?" Jack grinned and shook his head Out in the hall they could hear Betty's Bet-ty's voice singing "I want Betty," he said simply. "She sings like an angel." ' Umm. Be a lot of help to you on the farm, won't she? She was so glad to see me." A.unt Polly thought for a minute. , Then she said, "I'm afraid I'm too old-fashioned for Maggie and Gerry. They don't take to me, do they?" She glanced up shrewdly at Jack. "Have you asked Betty to have ye?" "She's only 17, Auntie." "Don't you waste time, Sonny. I was in love at 16, and we kept a'waitln' and a'waitin for his folks to die. and my old bedridden father to stop needln' me, and by the time they'd all passed over the shining stralnd, my lad died too, and we'd missed our way somehow along love's post road. Now, you brace right up to the occasion, and ask Betty whilo she's sweet as a rosebud." "I can't support a wife yeU" "Shame on you for owning up to it, you big, husky gamp. "Work's the best cure for the heartache. I need somebody at my woodpile this minute. Now, here she comes. Step up and have your sayso. There's no luck like pluck. I'm going up and have a talk with sister Maggie. Her faint spells give me quite a turn. If she'd let up on this putting on dog and come down to the good old red earth like the Lord intended, she'd be almost al-most human." "How long can you stay, auntie?" "Well, It depends. A day or so. I come up on a little business besides," said Polly placidly. "Mebbe I'M take you home with me, Jackie." Jack stood whore she left him, and Betty cam in. Somehow the old I lady 's simple philosophy of life had put new courage into him Geraldine was provided for. She I was to be married, and the man seemed straight and kind. His mother moth-er would live with them. Betty was to be sent to a domestic science school he had heard his mother say. And he was to try and make a success suc-cess out of the pellet business that had been dying gradually for years. "Betty." he said, slowly, "Betty, listen Aunt Polly's offered to put me to work on her woodpile if I marrv you " Betty dropped the broom and dust pan with a bang, and looked at him. Mm Jack had always been her hero, ever mWk since the day when somebody had W brought her there to live, a little pen- flfl sioner on her godmother's bounty. Immm "She's just making fun, I gueti ' mmm said Betty, with a sigh. "You couldn't fl cut wood." iLfl "I could learn, dear." Jack's arms flfl folded around her somehow as if flfl they belonged there. "We'd chuck flfl all this city life, and go back home flfl There's about 160 acre there of land flfl waiting for somebody to wake it up. flfl I remember dad tolling about 1U BB Would you go with me, Betty?" flW Betty turned her head to answer. mmm and. met his lips. An so Mrs. Potter mm found them, as she came in the din- flfl Ing-room, followed by Aunt Polly. "Jack, I'm amazed at you," she be- lmm gan, In a repressed, sorrowful tone, HB but Polly laughed. mmm "O, good land, Maggie, let the flfl children kiss if they want to. It's all IBB my doings. I found one sane member flfl in the family. I declare I'd begun to jflB feel as if Benjy's pellets had set ye flfl all plum off the handle. 'mmtm "Now. you Just told me upstairs flfl you were going down to Floridy for a flB trip. Go along, sister. I'm going tflfi home tomorrow, but I'm going to take War these children back with me. I've got flS a little money put by, some father flS left me years ago, and some Uncle flfl Jed left, and the farm's a good one, mm with the timber uncut, and chestnut flm ties bringing 50 cents for perfect WEB ones. Pes "It's time I had young blood on the WkT place, and I guess Jack will fill the mW1 ticket all right He's going to marry flfrJ Betty here, and they're coming to live w ith their old aunt on Woodchuck iflgP Hill, and work the farm on shares, BaStS ain't you, Jackie?" lis; "Back to the farm!" exclaimed Mrs. fla& Potter, desparlngly. HnS "Back to nature," retorted Aunt flxai Polly, forcefully'. "When you get MB back from your Floridy trip, sister BP Maggie, you'd better run up and stay Bmj awhile. We'd be real pleased to have HU& ye." mm |
