Show SO S ib 0 n BIG r v HIGH PRAIRIE SYNOPSIS Norsis Sy introducing lintrop cinc so u ble 1319 dirk diric dejong in lill his infancy fancy and his mother selina dejong daughter of simeon peake gambler and gentleman Kent leman of 0 fortune her lle life to young WOMAn womanhood bood in ili chicago in lifts has been unconventional somewhat sealley ny but generally enjoyable at school her chum Is julle julie hempel daughter of august hempel butcher simeon Is killed in n ft a quarrel that Is not his own and selina nineteen years old and practically destitute faces aces tile the question of 0 earning a living CHAPTER I 1 continued 2 it mas vi as perhaps because of tills that tile lie matter was pretty well hushed bushed up tip the publishers paper which was chi cagos foremost scar scarcely eely mentioned the incident nud and purposely misspelled the name the lady thinking her task accomplished had taken truer aim with noth tier her second bullet and had saed saved herself the trouble of trial by human jury simeon reake peake left ills daughter selina a legacy of two tine fine clear blue white diamonds lie he had had the gamblers love of them and the he sum of four hundred and ninety seven dollars in ersh just how lie had managed to have a suni sum like this put by was a mystery the envelope containing it had evidently once held a larger sum it had been sealed proof then slit on the outside was written in simeon peakes fine almost feminine hand for my little daughter selina peake in case anything should happen to me it bore a date seven ears bears old what mat the original sum had been no one ver ever knew to selina fell the choice of earning her own livin living or of returning to the vermont village and becoming a withered and sapless dried arple apple with black fuzz and mold at her heart like her aunts the misses sarah and abble peake she did not hesitate but what kind of work julle julie dempel demanded what kind ot of work can you do women that Is the selina peakes bild not work 1 I well I 1 can teach teach what tile the things filings I 1 learned at miss FIs tersa you toil have hare to do something first so go to normal or teach in the hie country dont you before you can teach in the public schools mostly old twenty five or even thirty or more with incapacity to imagine en an age beyond thirty then ill just teach it a country school im good gond at arithmetic YOU ton know that julle julie should have known it having had all her fister sums solved by selina country schools are just arithmetic and grammar and geography you I 1 teaching a country school she looked at selina she saw a misleadingly delicate face tile the skull small and exquisitely formed the cheek bones rather high or perhaps they looked so because ot of the tact fact that the eyes dark soft and luminous were mere unusually deep let fiet la in their sockets the face instead of 0 narrowing nar to a soft curve at the chin developed unexpected strength in the jaw line that line fine steel strong sharp and ami clear was of the stuff of which pioneer women are made julle julie inexperienced in the art i of reading the human burnan physiognomy did riot not decipher the meaning of it Se Sell linas nas hair was thick long and tine fine fo that slie site piled it easily in tile the loops colls coils and knots that fashion tas lilon demanded her nose slightly pinched at the nostrils was mas exquisite when she laughed it had bad the trick of wrinkling just a little across the narrow bridge very engaging and mischievous site she was thought thou glit a rather plain little tiling thing which she cut but tile eydi eyes were what you marked and remembered perhaps it was this velvety softness of tile the eyes that caused one to overlook the firmness of the lower face when the next ten years had bad done their worst to tier her and julle julie had sud bud denty conic collie upon her stepping agilely out of a truck gardeners wagon on in avenue a tanned toll worn yoman tier her abundant hair into a knob and held by a long gray hairpin tier her full alico ebirt grimed avith tile hie mud of tile hie wagon irigon wheel a calr of mens old side boots on tier her airn feet a grotesquely tes quely battered old felt hat her husbands on her head tier her arms full of ears cars of sweet corn and carrots and radishes and bunches of beets a woman with till bad teeth flut flat breasts breus ts a sagging pocket in ills his capacious skirt ryen even then julle julie staring had known tier her by her ebes and ehe had run to tier lier in tier her bilk suit and tier her line fine silk and tier her hat flat with mill the lie plume and had cried oh hellna 1 my dearl dear ily aly dearl bilth a SOL sob of horror and fly my afy dearl and find euren selina carrots beets corn und and radishes in tier her arms the ege vegetables tables lay scattered all about them on the he sidewalk dewalk tl in front ot of julle julie giempel arnolds ArDol dg great stone house on prairie avenue but strangely it load been selina aho who vho had done tile the comforting patting julles julies silken i houlder and saying baying over and over there therel there 1 ifa ICS all right julie its all right dont cry there to cry for I 1 slit its all right chapter 11 II ind thought herself lucky to it tile hie dutch school at elgh prairie lea jan tulles pilles outside chicago thirty dot dol T by br EDNA 0 ot doubleday pare page ft co service lc lars a month I 1 site she vas m as to board nt at the house of 0 mans pool the truck farmer it was wag august hempel who had brought it all about or julle julie urging him this was in september high prairie school did not open until the fir t week in november in that region of oc truck farms every boy and girl over six was busy in the fields throughout the early autumn TN two 0 years ot of this and selina would mould be qualified for a city grade august hempel indicated that lie he could arrange that too when the lie time thae came selina thought this shrewd red faced butcher a wonderful man indeed which lie he was wag at forty seven single handed lie he was to establish the farious famous hempel racking packing company at fifty lie was tile the power in the yards and there were hempel branches in kansas city Oni onealia Oi natia alia denver at sixty you saw the name ot of henipel plastered oer packing sheds factories and nd canning i plants all tile way toy from honolulu to portland you read dont say ilam ham say hempel products ranged incredibly frum front pork to pineapple from grease to grape juice something ot of ills his character may be gleaned from the fact that far farmers who had find known the butcher at doity still addressed this millionaire at sixty as all aug it at sixty five he be took atooli up golf and beat ills his son inlaw in law michael Mic linel arnold at it A magnificent ent old pirate sailing the per perilous lious commercial seas of the american INs before commissions investigations and inquisitive senate insisted on applying whitewash to the lie black foj tug of trade selina went about her preparations in ili a singularly clearheaded clear headed fashion considering dering tier her youth fand inexperience she sold one of tile the blue white milte diamonds anil and kept oie site she placed her inheritance ot of four hundred tind and ninety seven seen dollars do llara complete in the bank slie she bought stout sensible boot two dresses one a brown bron ladys cloth which she made herself finished with white collars and cults cuffs very neat the cuffs to be protected by black sateen sleeveless sleeve lets of course while teaching and a wine red cashmere nad mad but she resist it for b best p S t site she eagerly learned what site she could of tills this region once known as new holland its people were all truck gardeners and as dutch as the neth ei lands front from which they or their fathers had come many of them had come from the town of schoorl or near it others from the lowlands outside amsterdam selina pictured it another sleepy Il hollow ollow a replica of the quaint settlement in ili washington irvings delightful tale picturing cletur mellow golden corn fields misty crusty crullers crul lers crumbling oly foeks toothsome wild ducks sides of smoked beef pumpkin pies country dances apple checked farmer girls site she felt sorry for poor julle julie staling on in the dull gray commonplaceness of chicago the last meek in october found tier her on the way may to lugh prairie seated be sile klaas biaas pool in the two horse wagon with which he brought ills his garden stuff to tile the chicago market I 1 mile tile after mile of cabbage fields fielda jade green against the earth mile after mile of red cabbage a rich plummy burgundy veined with black between these heaps of corn were filled up sunshine against the horizon an occasional patch of woods showed the last russet and bronze of oak and maple these things selina saw with her beauty loving eye and she clasped her hands in thor their black cotton gloves oil oh mr pool she cried mr pool I 1 how flow beautiful it Is here I 1 klaas pool driving ills his of horses down the muddy halsted road was looking straight ahead his eyes fastened seemingly on an invisible spot bete between cit the barbes ears ills was IS not the kind of brain that nets acts quickly nor mas w as its ills blodys mechanism ibin the sort that quickly responds to that brains message ills ebes were china blue in a round red face that was covered with a stubble of stiff golden hair I 1 ills I 1 I 1 S round moon of a lend head was set low and solidly between ills great shoulders so that as lie he began to turn it now slowly you marveled at the lie process and waited fearfully to hour hear a creak ile he was turning his head toward ismini but keeping ills his gaze on the spot between ills horses ears evidently tile head unil and tile the eyes reo revolved ived by quite distinct processes now he faced selina almost directly ills pale blue eyes showed incomprehension flea dutiful uti ful lie he echoed in puzzled interrogation what la Is beautiful suin stint arms arm flushed out from tile the sath tugs of cloak shawl shak I 1 and ami muffler and were flung wide mile in a gesture that embraced tile landscape on oil which aich the late afternoon sun was casting a glow peculiar to that lake region till all rose and golden and mist this the the cabbag eti A slow dawning film of fun crept over the blue of 0 klaas pools stare nim film spread almost no mo that it flut d hit bla broad nostrils met and la bcd ills his full fall lips readied reached and agitated his massico shoulders tickled the he round belly so ao that all klaas pool from his fits eyes to ills lil was rippling and finking with slow solemn heavy dutch martli cabbages Is beautiful full I 1 his round pop eyes staring at tier her in a fixity of glee cabbages la ill beautiful ills silent laughter now rose end and become became audible la in a rich throaty chortle it was plain that laughter killia kia pool was not a tiling thing to be lightly dismissed once raised Cato cabbages bages lie choked a little and splutter ed overcome co me selina laughed too even while she protested his laughter but they are she insisted they are beautiful live jade and burgundy N no 0 like uh nil like lints v that in like and porphyry all thoe hose fields of cabbages and the corn and the llie beet tops together look like persian anti ies 11 wits was certainly no way for a new school teacher to talk to a holland truck gardener driving ills his benom along the lie dirt road on ills his xay to ligh high Pr prairie airle but then Sel Selin hill fl remember had read byron at seventeen mans klaas pool knew nothing of and porphyry nor of byron nor for that matter of jade and burgundy put but lie lid did know cabbages both green and red ile he knew cabbage front froin seed to sauerkraut lie knew and grew varieties from the sturdy flat dutch to the lie early wakefield but that I 1 they were beautiful that they looked like jewels that they lay iny like persian patches had never entered ills head lind and rightly what loss lias the head licad of a cabbage or for that matter of it a ro robust loust stained toiling dutch truck farmer to to do with nonsense like ilke with jade with burgundy with persian patt patterns ernst the horses lopped down own the heavy country lond load now lind and again the bulk beside selina was agitated silently as before and from between tile the golden fuzz of stubble beard she mould hear cabbages cabbages Is pill but lie he did not hot feel offended site she could not have been offended at anything today for in spite of tier her recent tragedy tier her nineteen 3 oars icara lier her loneliness the terrifying thought of this new home to which mitch she was going among strangers slie she was conscious 0 of a warm thrill 0 of elation of excitement of advent adventure urel that was it tile the whole things lings ti just a grand adventure simeon peake had said selina gave a little bounce of anticipation she was doing a revola arid and daring thing a tiling thing that the vermont and now fortunately inaccessible peakes would have regarded with horror for equipment site she had youth curiosity a steel strong frame one brown ladys cloth one minered mine nine red cashmere four hundred and ninety seven dollars and a gay adventuresome spirit that was never to die I 1 v III m t it r 11 selina stood looking about her in the dim light a very small figure in a very large world though it tell led her into chilous places and she often found at the end only a trackless mate biste from indich site she jad bad to retrace her steps painfully put but always to her red and green cabbages here ere to be jade and burgundy oprise and porphyry life lins has no ive weapons apons against a collian like that klaas kinas pool was a school director she rhe was to the hie tit nt ills his house lioi perhaps the I 1 I 1 e should na not have said that about tile the cabbages so now she drew herself up primly and tried to appear tile lie school teacher and suc bucce e led in lucking looking us severe as a mike pansy adein A Ali hein eui or nearly that you tou have three n canent you mr pool the thel 1 I all be my pu pupils tills klans klaas pul P ul nominated rumina ted on tills this ile he concentrated so that it a slight fron froin the serenity of ills his brow in tills its double question of hera hei i an all attempt to give tile lie conversation a dignified turn site she luid had apparently treated created ome some i difficulty tor for her host ile he was ryang to shahe i ills lead head two tio iams nis nt at the saine thae tills gave it a rotary motion selina saw fill amazement that lie was mas oitt empting to nod negation gation ilo arid and at once you mean iou or not or 1 I have got three cli children lloren all aill not be our bour pupils there wits something final unshakable in ills fits delix delivery ery of 0 tills dear tile me why not which ones wont do tell lell nip me aich ones will ill ano and mitch ones mont ont geertje goes to school J jozlin 07 inn goes to 0 o school rocia works by the faria fanu ilow how old 18 I 1 roelf she was bean being g school again roelf Is twelve Tw twelve elvel 1 and no longer at school I 1 but why not hotl he works by the farm fann like schools tc hool but sure bure pont 0 o you think h he ought to go ff is t LT school 1 j but sure having begun mile ghe could not go back your wife want roelf to go to school any more il No aartje larde rut but sure she gat gathered honed herself together hurled herself behind the next ques que lion then why lie he so go to school tor for saker sake klans klaas pools poola pale blue eyes were fixed on the spot between the horses ears ula face was serene placid pit pa flent roelf he works by the file farm selina subsided benten beaten dusk was coming on oil the lake mst mist came drifting across the prairie and hung bung a pearly haze baze over |