Show r dav aa bau ab by illustrations BY CLARK copyright by doubleday page co service 7 SYNOPSIS CHAPTER I 1 introducing so biff 1319 dirk dejong in his hie In infancy fanoy and hla his other mother n selina dejong daughter of 0 simeon beake gambler and gentleman of tor fortune tune her life to young boms womanhood in chicago in 1888 has been et unconventional somewhat seamy but generally enjoyable at school her chum Is julia hempel daughter daught r ot of august hempel butcher stinson simeon Is 0 killed loust ed in a quarrel that Is n not at ba his s own and selina nineteen years acar old d and n practically c destitute becomes becom es a schoolteacher fe rac h e r CHAPTER II 11 selina secures a position as teacher at the liefh high prairie chool school in uie the outskirts 0 ot chicago living at the home of 0 a truck farmer ar roer klaas pool in roelf twelve years old son of klaas selina bellna perceives a kindred spirit a lover loer ot of beauty like herself CHAPTER III the monotonous life allt or of a country schoolteacher school teacher at that time la Is Se Sell linas nas brightened somewhat by the companionship ot of the sensitive artistic boy roelf CHAPTER IV selina behrs hears gossip p concerning the affection ot of t the e widow OW Faar lerberg rich and good bood looking for corvus dejong poor truck farmer who Is insensible to the widows attractions tr for a community sociable selina prepares a a lunch basket dainty but not of ample Dro portions which to Is auctioned according to cu custom storn the smallness Em allness of 0 the lunch box excites derision and in a sense of 0 tun fun the bidding becomes spirited dejong finally becu securing ring it for sio 10 a ridiculously aleh price over their lunch basket uhic which elina and dejong share together the schoolteacher arranges to instruct the good natured farmer whose education has baa been neglected CHAPTER V propinquity in their positions ot of teacher and pupil and elinas Bell loneliness in her uncongenial surroundings lead to mut mutual bat affection pervus dejong wins Se Sell linas nas consent to be his wife CHAPTER VI selina becomes alm mr dejong a farmers wife with all tho the hardships unavoidable at that time dirk Is born selina of Verni vermont ont stock businesslike and shrewd bax ha plans tor for building up the farm which are ridiculed by her bar husband maartje pool mass klaas wife nife dies and after the tb requisite decent interval mass klaas marries the widow Paar lenberg the boy roelf sixteen years old ola now leaveu leaver his home to make his way to franco france and study hla his ambition being to lit bi come a sculptor so bici years went three years four in the fourth year of Se Sell linas nas marriage she suffered sulT ered the loss of her oae woman friend in high prairie SI Il aartje pool died in childbirth as was so BO often the case in tills this region where a dampish midwife acted as clan the child too had not lived death had not been kind to maartje pool it had brought neither peace nor youth to her face as it often does doea ellna llna looking down at the strang strangely elv it still biff eghi figure re that 11 ad go so active so bustling realized that for the first time in the years she had known her she was seeing II maartje aartje pool at rest it seemed incredible that she could lie ile there the infant in ili her arms while the house was filled with people and there thera were chairs to be handed space to be cleared food to be cooked an and 1 I served sitting there with the other high ailigh prairie women selina had a hideous feeling that SIn artje would suddenly ly rise up and take things in charge rub and scratch with capable fingers the spatters scatters spat of dried mud on klaas pools black trousers lie he had been in the yard to see to the horses quiet the loud walling of geertje ant and joelna pass her gnarled hand over doelfs wide staring eyes wipe ipe the film of dust from the parlor table that 1 had never known a speck during her r regime gl I 1 z i e you cant run far enough II maartje aartje had said except you stop living you cant run away from life well she had run tar far enough tills this time roelf was sixteen now G geertje twelve jozina eleven what would this household do now selina wondered without tile the woman who had been so faithful a slave to it WI who 10 would keep the pigtails pintails pig tails no longer giggling in clean gIng ginghams liams and decent square toed shoes who when klaas broke out in rumbling dutch wrath against what nhat he be termed du dumb b ways would si say Q pool leave the boy alone once ile he does nothing who would keep klaas himself in order cook ills his meals wash ills clot clothes lies iron Ws his shirts take a pride in the great ruddy childlike giant klaas answered these questions ju just st nine months later by marrying the widow Paar lenberg ailigh prairie was rocked with surprise for months this marriage was tile the talk of the district so insatiable was olgh pral ties ries curiosity that every scrap of news as swallowed at a gulp when the word went round ot of light flight from the farm no one knew where it served only as sauce to the great dish of gossip selina had bad known pervus was away at the market when roelf had knocked at the farmhouse door one night at eight had turned the knob and entered as usual cut but there was nothings nothing of ille hushal hu usual sual about lii ahls ance ile he wore ills his oest dest sult suit ins firby suit ot of store clothes bought at the time of ills mothers mot liers funeral it never had fitted cited him now it was grotesquely small for him ile he had shot up amazingly in the last eight or nine months yet there was nothing of the ridiculous about him us its lie stood there before her now tall leun lean dark lie ile put down ills cheap lellow suitcase well roelf 1 I im am going away I 1 stay slie she nodded where away chicago maybe mabe he was terribly moved so lie roads made his tone casual they came home last night I 1 have got souie soine books that belong to you lie he made us its though to open the suitcase no not nol neep keep them goodby good by goodby good by roelf she took the boys dark head in her two hands and standing on tiptoe kissed hissed min him ile he turned to go walt a minute walt wait a minute she biad a few dollars in quarters dimes half dollars ten dollars in nil hidden away in a canister on the shelf she reached tor for it cut but when she came back with the box bos in her hand lie he was gone chapter VH dirk was eight little dejong in a su suit it ninde made of bean sacking sewed together by ills mother A brown Abrown blond boy with it it mosquito bites on liis ills legs and his lccy still nothing notel 0 of atlle the dreamer niner about this lad the one room schoolhouse of Sell Se linas nas day lad had been replaced by a two story brick structure very fine of which bligh prairie Ir alrie was vastly proud tile rusty iron stove had and been dethroned dethroner by it central licater dirk went to school from october until june pen perus us protested that this was foolish the boy could i be of great help in tile fields from tho the beginning of april to the first of november but solina selina fought savagely for ills his schooling booling se and won gobig a truck farmer well lie he will be pretty soon time I 1 was fifteen I 1 was running our place verbally selina did not combat this cut but within her every force was g gathering ather to olt it when tile time should come iler her a truck farmer a slave to the soil bant by it beaten by it blasted by it so that dint ile he in time like the other men of high prairie would take on the very look of the rocks and earth among naich they tolled toiled I 1 dirk I 1 at eight was i as it a none too handsome c child considering his father and mother or ills his father and mother as they had been it was not until he was seventeen or eighteen that he was to metamorphose suddenly into a graceful and aristocratic youngster with an indefinable look about him of 11 and actual elegance bleg inco selina was a farm woman now cow near ing thirty the work rode her as it had ridden SI aartje pool in the dejong jon yard there was always a dado of washing faded overalls a shirt socks a boys drawers grotesquely patched and mended towels of rough sacking she too rose at tour four snatched up shapeless garments invested herself with them seized her great coil of fine cloudy hair til twisted sted it into a utilitarian knob and skewered it with a hairpin from which the varnish had long ong departed leavi leavier nr it it a dull arav tier fier bitin billni wet feet into into shapeless shoes dabbed her face with cold water hurried to the kitchen stove the work Vork was wa always at her heels its breath hot on in her nock neck seeing her ber thus one would have thought that the selina peake of tile the wine red cashmere the fun loving disposition the lil hagli courage had departed forever cut but these things still for that matter even the wine ine red cashmere clung to existence so hopelessly old fashioned now as to lie almost picturesque it hung in Se Sell linas nas closet like a rose memory sometimes when she came upon it in an orgy of cleaning she would pass lier her tough rough hands over its soft folds and hy by that magic process mrs pervus dejong vanished lieLl in a pout and in her place was the girl selina peake perched a tiptoe on a soup soap box lit in adam owns hall while all high IT aIrle openmouthed open mouthed looked on as the impecunious pervus dejong threw ten lurd hard barned dollars at her feet it mould he be gratify ing to be able to record that in these eight or nine years bellna had been able to work wonders on the dejong farm faria that the house glittered tile crops thrived richly the burn barn housed house sleek cattle but it could not be truthfully said true she had achieved some changes but ili at the cost of terrific effort A 1 less indomitable woman would have su sunk into apathy years before the house had a coat of 0 paint lead ariy riy because it was cheapest there ft ere two live I 1 horses alie second broken down blind in a old mam mare wind in one eye that they had picked up for five dollars after it had boon been turned out to pasture for future sale as horse carcass A month of rest and pasturage restored the mare to usefulness selina lad had made the bargain bargi in an and per vils ms lad had scolded her roundly for it now he drove the mare to market saw that she pulled more sturdily than alian the other horse but had never retracted it was no quality of meanness in him pervus merely was like that but the west sixteen that had been Se Sell linas nas most heroic achievement iler her plan spoken ot of to pervus in the first month of her marriage had taken years to mature even now was but a partial triumph she had een descended to nagging why dont we put in il asparagus asparagus I 1 considered something of a luxury aud and rarely included in the elgh prairie Ir alrie truck farmers products and wait three bears ears for a crop yes but then have it and a plantations good for ten years once its still stalled led I 1 ve been reading up on it the new way is to plant asparagus in rows the way you would rhubarb or corn plant ilant six feet apart and tour four acres anyway lie ile was nias not even sufficiently interested to be amused yell yeh four acres here 7 in the clay land maybe he lid did laugh then if the short bitter sound lie he made could be construed as indicating mirth out of a book in the clay land selina urged crisply and out of a book that sixteen bringing you anything thin so BO what difference does it make if I 1 am wrong I 1 let me put my ovi own a money into it ive thought it all out pervus please well the alie clay soil just five or six acres to start well manure it heavily as much as we can afford and then for two ija years rs well plant potatoes more well put in our on r asparagus plants tile the third spring one year old seedlings IU ill promise to keep it weeded dirk and L hell be a big boy by that time lot let me try it pervus let me try in tile the end she had bad her way partly because pervus was too occupied with his own on endless work to oppose her find and partly because lie was in ills his undemonstrative way still in love with ills his vivacious nimble d high spirited wife though to her frantic goddings goa dings and prod dIngs he was as phlegmatically oblivious as an elephant to a pin prick though she worked as hard as any woman in elgh prairie had as little dressed as badly he still regarded her as a luxury an exquisite toy which in ili a moment of madness he had taken for himself little llna lina tolerantly fondly you would have thought that lie ile spoiled her pampered her perhaps lie he even thought he did that was pervus thrifty like his big kind but unlike them in shrewdness penny wise pound foolish a characteristic terl te that brought him buccello ceLlo b his death dealt ni september usually a suc succession 0 of golden days and hazy opalescent evenings on the illinois prairie land was disastrously cold and rainy that year scar pervus Ier vui great frame was racked by rheumatism ile he was as forty now and over still of magnificent physique so that to see sec him suffering gave selina the pangs of pity that one has at sight of the verv strong gt nr the in n pain cafa lie ile drove the weary we ari miles to market three times a week for september was tile the last big month of the truck farmers season selina would watch him drive off down the road in the creaking old market wagon the green stuff protected by canvas but pervus wet before ever lie he climbed into the seat there never seemed to be enough waterproof canvas for both pervus take it off those sacks and put it over your shoulders them white globe onions tile the last of em ein I 1 can get a fancy price for them but not it if all wetted down donn dont sleep on the wagon tonight pervus sleep in be sure it saves in the end you know the last time you x were ere laid up for a week clear breaking now over there in the west the clouds did break late in the afternoon ter noon the false sun came out hot and bright pervus slept out in the haymarket for the night was close and humid at midnight the lake wind sprang up cold and treacherous and with it came the rain again pervus was drenched by morning chilled thoroughly miserable A hot cup clip of coffee at four and another at ten when nhen the rush of trading was over stimulated lira him but little when he reached home it was mid afternoon selina put him to bed against his bis halfhearted half hearted protests banked lim him with hot water jars a hot iron vi wrapped rapped in flannel at his feet dut but later came fever instead of the expected relief of perspiration ill though he was he looked in more ruddy and hale than most men in health but suddenly selina startled saw black lines like gashes etched under his eyes about his mouth in his cheeks checks in a day when pneumonia was known as lung fever and in a locality that lot added closeal elac windows avs nad jd hot air its as a remedy pervus name was lost before the doctors hooded buggy was seen standing in the yard for long hours through the night toward morning the doctor had jan steen steea stable the horse it was a sultry night with flashes of heat beat lightning in the west 11 1 I should think it if you opened tho the windows selina said bald to tile hie old high iligo prairie doctor over and over emboldened by terror it would help him to breathe ile he hes breathing so hes hea fy Z SP W he hes breathing so she could not bring herself tv say so terribly bibly 11 breathing so she could not bring herself to say so terribly the 5 sound aund ot of the nords wrung her as did the sound of his terrible breathing perhaps the roost most pol poignant nant and touching feature of the days that followed was not the sight of this stricken giant liing |