Show CP u nir OMER HOMER CROY ure STORY THUS PAR aar amos croy wife vile settled on farm in mis and ml his bourl where nomer isomer was born sunday mald enact t clinich company for or dinner anu and steer ter wl albing bing the cloys y attended the exposition where homer had hl omaha ab first uso te of 0 tze the outside ht he finished hit haltli school and college then went to new york tort city where tiers he de secured a job as cub theodore Wei keisers sers womans comans maga maca 0 on o ae on OB a visit home be was glad to learn kara that rhebe who bad been his bis ta housekeeper since his mothers her lical death was to marry inay his father tB lier nomer homer returned to new york and bad his first novel mel boone stop accepted for or publication licit li ion royal royalties ties were practically noth int ing on OB this chis book CHAPTER the old settlers settle rs were going lie he and phebe would get in the buggy and join the procession when there funeral he would yas was a GAR put on his old blue uniform and stand by the grave then he would come home borne and hang the uniform in the closet till next time ile he wrote no more at all phebea letters always ended your father says gays to come home whenever you t can thi the inevitable happened I 1 one day I 1 got a telegram your father is failing ailing phebe no one came to meet me at the depot there was no one to swing my ely grip but when I 1 got out of the jitney phebe was at the door to meet me looking old and worn her eyes still framed in the gold glasses hes been asking all morning when get here the old gentleman was in the north room in the house south of the water tower in the walnut bed he had brought in from the farm his knotted misshapen hands were on the outside of the covers he held his hand out to me and said in a faint voice im glad to see you son I 1 guess you got in on the at the foot of the bed next to the south wall was the old tin camel back trunk I 1 had taken to the university ver sity it was now covered with a horse blanket and I 1 sat down on it his face was drawn but his eyes were as blue as ever the same spirit of mutual understanding we had always when we got together after being separated leaped up all the questions were about me how is your wife homer what kind of weather have you been havin havid back east it i was not long before he began to talk about the farm homer youve got a good farm there the poignancy touched me he was releasing his hold on the farm some of them laughed at me when I 1 got it because there any timber on it but it worked out pretty belll A gleam in his eyes there for now he had the best farm in the neighborhood your mother was always awful fond of you he was not one to pay compliments himself and I 1 realized that he was also saying this for himself he spoke of events of years ago as if they had just happened once a dashy dressed drummer for a nursery had come to our house driving a high stepping livery team and asked me to drive around with him and introduce him to the farmers for which he would pay my father five dollars a day a fortune and now my father spoke of it im glad I 1 take it he had bad to rest and I 1 crept out of the room for a while when I 1 looked in again his blue eyes were still open 1 I wish pare my fingernails and now I 1 realized something that touched me he had never been a man to show open marks of affection such as putting his arm around rne me as I 1 have seen so many fathers do to their children but now in these last hours he wanted the feel of his son I 1 had sense enough to make the paring e of the nails last as long as I 1 could ive got my GAR suit hangin in the closet ive always been proud of it his eyes closed after a while they opened do you remember the time I 1 bought the buffalo robe for christmas for your mother I 1 nodded choked with feeling he wanted to do something for me as if it was some final fatherly touch phebe and I 1 have a good feather bed upstairs were not how would you like to have it I 1 explained as gently as I 1 could that people in new york did not use me feather beds 1 I suppose not he said with a si sigh gh it was not long before he was back to the farm its all tree free and clear its been my ambition to leave it to you that way and what im doing dont ever put a mortgage on it they eat like a 8 cancer the time came when I 1 must go back ack and I 1 went vent in and sat on the carnel camel backed trunk for the last las time finally when the moment momen came ia I 1 shook his s gnarled hand take care of yourself homer it II was the last thing ho he ever said to tc me after I 1 had been back about a E week I 1 got word that the end had hac come I 1 could not go to the funeral funera only in my thoughts I 1 built a home in forest hills long island new york the LU lit tle tie house with the big mortgage I 1 called it and wrote two more mor ping f books s I 1 wrote au all sorts ot of stuff and just about what it was there was my old trouble ot of nev er being able to tell whether what I 1 was writing was good or not it all al seemed good when the words wert were flowing pretty bad when the words were stiff and cold but I 1 kept kepf grinding away and managed to tc make a living we had more ore ambitious plans plan than burning a mortgage and soon we were about them yes actually on the way to europe one of the persons on the ship was walter li lipp IPP mann I 1 wrote him a note I 1 would like to meet him and soon I 1 wa was s buying him a drink how sweet it was to consort with the famous el elbow to elbow no looking up and no looking down and it was not long before we w e were in in paris wonderful paris that was the way I 1 had always seen it de described and that was the way it was always mentioned by returning friends but I 1 had to see it through my own eyes it was disappointing it was odd and strange strang e and it was interesting but certa certainly g y P the crooked narrow streets the yard wide sidewalks not wonderful nothing seemed to be logical and to me the people seemed to be slightly on the demented side I 1 looked at the french through what were I 1 supposed cornfield eyes but I 1 was making up my mind as to what I 1 saw and felt they seemed aloof and artificial sometimes on the verge of childishness now that I 1 look back this may have been because I 1 met only the french who came in contact with the public I 1 did not get into a home where here I 1 could meet the real french as my wiser and more experienced friends called them and I 1 could not parley their language so I 1 had to judge by what I 1 I 1 saw and that was what I 1 have done all my life I 1 realize much of it has been wrong but still it was my own point of view we went to the riviera and took rooms at the grand hotel in sainte maxime and I 1 went to work on an idea for the novel that was to follow west of the water tower the ine guidebook said sainte maxime was one of the lovely spots on the mediterranean and the two or three americans we met said it was delightful to me it was just plain cockeyed the crooked narrow streets the yard wide sidewalks the nonsensical two wheeled carts the mailman carrying his letters in a tin box suspended from his shoulders the people eternally sitting in cafes swigging beer or tiny drinks such a place was interesting to see like a pumpkin show but certainly not the place where I 1 wanted to live or the kind of life I 1 wanted anted to live dale carnegie who was born on a farm a few miles from where I 1 was came to see me lie he had seen much more of europe than I 1 had in fact had lived there but when we got down to cases he felt about it muc much h as I 1 did I 1 suppose you cant ever get a farm out of a person i for that matter I 1 dont know that I 1 I 1 want to the part I 1 liked best was to se see e how the french farmed of course cour se I 1 talk to them but I 1 walked wal ked across their land and watched them work working ing I 1 must have watched sympathetically for none non e chased me 0 off ff I 1 was fascinated by their market days and no matter how hard I 1 was supposed to be wo working aking I 1 managed to be there taking pigs to market in baskets basket sl carrying sheep with their feet lashed over a pole it was play farming having a manure pile just outs outside ide the house it was disgusting but when I 1 I 1 looked a little deeper and saw the handicaps the farmers had to overcome e and their poor soil and primitive machinery my respect went up it was toy farming but everything considered they turned in a good job often I 1 thought how I 1 would like to take one of them to my farm and show him the long straight sto rows three horses abreast swinging down a black loam field a whole hill covered with steers a feed lot alive with shoats how he would blink yet these french farmers knew tricks I 1 if our missouri farmers had to clop around in wooden shoes and plow with a four inch moldboard would we have done any better in the spring we went back to paris the day after we arrived as homer junior was riding his tricycle around the hotel grounds he put his hand on his back and said in his childish voice that his back hurt by morning lie he was worse we got the doctors at the american hospital and they also brought in the best profess eurs in paris to help our little boy how far from home we seemed but it really so far after all for five americans came to our hotel to ask if there was anything they could do but sometimes no one can help he died in that lonely paris hotel but in the next room were three americans we had never seen before who had come as they said in case we needed them when our little boy was buried burie d from the american church there must have been a dozen americans there we had never seen before and who came up and offered their sympathy A kind faced man I 1 had never seen before and have never seen since put his arm around my shoulder and said the rest of them asked me to say they know how you must feel when this happens so far from home it made america seem very close when the coffin covered with an american flag was taken through the streets the frenchmen lifted their hats that helped too it all helped and yet at such a time nothing helps for when the big crises come we enter them alone but some way or other we do stand them we do go on living we laugh again after twenty two months in europe we returned to 10 standish road item fourteen windowpanes in our little house were broken it had been a lovely fling but all of our money was gone one day a real estate neighbor dropped in to see me on what small incidents does the door of life swing I 1 had known him for some time and had seen his cars grow bigger and now what was I 1 going to do he asked well I 1 was going to plug along as best I 1 could then he asked me about how much I 1 expected to make without quite asking it and when I 1 told him without quite telling him he looked distressed it was a shame to see a person work so hard and get so little littie he began to tell about deals he had pulled off he the only one doing that everybody was making money in real estate all a person had to do was to get control of a piece of property hang on a while then sell at a whacking hacking price my tongue was soon hanging out he mentioned two or three men who as he said were playing the game I 1 began to think of myself as playing the game there was a piece of property coming onto the market by forced sale it was an easy way for somebody to PIC pick k up some easy money I 1 had never picked up any easy money in my life and now under his hypnotic powers it seemed about time if I 1 could raise some money and make a down payment he could buy that corner lot for me the way property was jumping I 1 cou could id sell it in no time at a neat profit why I 1 could make five thousand dollars nothing in comparison to what some of the boys are making I 1 he said when I 1 told him it seemed big to me he smiled pityingly id just never waded around in real estate then he told of another man who as he phrased it had hit the jack pot he came several times and several times I 1 walked across the corner lot that was bound to skyrocket he was a bit shocked when I 1 confessed how little money I 1 had well writers were simply not businessmen bit by bit it got around to putting a mortgage on our house I 1 would not put one on the farm I 1 stood out against that should we or should hould we not it would be only for a brief time then wed clean up as my friend said wipe off od the mortgage and have a neat sum in the bank the more he talked the more plainly I 1 could see he was right but there was a catch I 1 would have to pay a month interest and ta taxes x es a staggering sum but it would be he explained only for a short time then there would be that neat sum after days of swinging between confidence and hesitation we marched down and put a mortgage e on the little house with th the e lovely rounded doorway and became the owners of a corner lot there it was whence walked across it ours every inch of it well at least every other inch now I 1 would ready have to work no doubt of that TO BE CONTINUED |