Show t bloj by EDNAJ illustrations ay CLARK t copyright by doubleday face co service SYNOPSIS CHAPTER I 1 introducing so dirk dejong in life his infancy and hit his cimeon pother other selina dejong daugh daughter tet of 0 gambler and ot of HT her life to young womanhood in chicago in 1888 has been pa unconventional somewhat seamy beamy but generally enjoyable at school her chum la is julle julie hempel daughter of august hempel butcher simeon is must kihei filed in a quarrel that lg is not hi bis own and selina nineteen years oll old and ana practically r a C t I 1 c a 11 y destitute e becomes s se b ool r coacher fo acher her CHAPTER 11 II kellne secures a petition as teacher at the th III high jofh prairie school in the outskirts ot C Chlea eo living at the home ot of a truck farmer tar roer klass klaas pool in roalf twelve years 0 old id a son on of klaas selina perceives a k kindred 1 ard spirit 6 a lover of 0 beauty like herself CHAPTER III the monotonous lit life of 0 a country schoolteacher school teacher at that time Is Se linas brightened so somewhat by the companionship ot of the sensitive artistic boy roelf CHAPTER IV selina hears bears gossip concerning ha affection of the widow Paar Faar lenberg rich and good looking tor for pervus dejong debone poor truck farmer who Is insensible to the widows 0 attractions tr for a community sociable bellna prepares a lunch basket dainty daina but ut not of ample Dro proportions portions which tie Is auctioned according to custom the smallness of the lunch box excites derision and in a sense of fun the bidding beco becomes spirited dejong finally securing it te for or JID 10 a ridiculously ligh high price price over their lunch basket which elina and dejong share together the schoolteacher arranges to instruct the good natured matured farmer whose education has been neglected CHAPTER V propinquity in their positions positions of teacher and pupil and Bell elinas nas loneliness in her uncongenial surroundings surrounding s lead to mutual affection pervus dejong wins Se Sell linas nas consent to be his wife CHAPTER V vr VI r selina becomes mrs mr dejong a 9 farmers wife with all the hardships unavoidable at that time dirk Is born selina of vermont stock businesslike and shrewd has ba plans tor for building up the farm which are ridiculed by her husband maartje pool klass klaas wife dies and after the requisite decent interval klaas marries the widow Paar lenberg the boy roelf sixteen years rears old now leavey leave his home to make his way to france and study his ambition being to be b come a sculptor CHAPTER VIT VII dirk Is eight years old when his father dies S elina faced with the necessity of making a living for her boy and herself rises to the occasion and with dirk takes a truckload of vegetables to the chicago market A woman selling in the market place Is an innovation frowned upon for the first few days follon following ing the funeral one or another of the neighboring farmers drove the dejong team to marlet market aided the blundering jan in the fields but each had his hands full with his wan own farm work on the fifth day jan steen had to take the garden truck to chicago though not vilt without hout many misgivings on gelinas Se linas part all of which were realized when he returned late next nest day with halt half the load still on his wagon and a sum of money representing exactly zero in profits selina was standing in the kitchen doorway jan in the yard with the team she turned her face toward the fields an observant person jan steen was not one of these would have noted the singularly determined and clear cut jaw line of 0 this drably call coed farm woman ill go myself monday jan stared go got go where monday to market at tills this seeming pleasantry jan steen smiled uncertainly shrugged hla his shoulders and was olt off to the barn she was always saying things that make sense ills his horror and unbelief were shared by the rest of high prairie when on monday selina literally took the reins in her own slim work scarred handes bandes to I 1 argued jan as excitedly as his phlegmatic nature would permit A boman 11 oman she dont go to market A woman this woman does selina hadl had risen at three in the morning not only that she had bad got jan up grumbling dirk had joined them in the fields at five together the three of them had bad pulled end bunched a wagon load size view them selina ordered as they started to bunch radishes beets beeta turnips carrots and dont leave them loose like that tie them tight at the heads like this twice around with the string and through make bouquets of them not bun bundles clies and were going to scrub them bellna scrubbing the carrots vigorously under the pump thought they emerged from their unaccustomed bath looking like clustered spears of pure gold jan by now dow was sullen with bewilderment ile he refused to believe that she actually intended to carry out her plan A woman kv oman a high prairie farmers wife driving to market like a man I 1 alone at night in the market place or at best in one of the cheap rooming houses I 1 by sunday somehow mysteriously the news bad filtered through the district A fine state of things and she a widow anidow of a geeki high prairie called at the dijong farm on sunday afternoon and was inas told that the widow was over in the set west sixteen hix teen about with the boy dirk at her beels by monday afternoon the parlor curtains of every nigh prairie farmhouse that faced tile the halsted alsted II road were agitated as though by a brisk wind between the hours of three and five fire when the market wagons were to be seen moving toward chicago selina having loaded the wagon in the yard surveyed it with more sparkle in her eye than guigli prairie would have approved in a widow of little more than a week they had picked and bunched only the best of the late crop selina stepped back and regarded the riot of crimson and green of white find and gold and purple arent they beautiful I 1 dirk arent they beautiful full 1 dirk capering in his excitement at the prospect of the trip before him shook his head impatiently 1 I dont know what you mean lets letb go mother arent we going now you said as soon as the load was on oh youre just exactly like your she stopped like my what well go now son theres cold meat for your supper jan and potatoes all sliced tor for trying frying and half an apple pie left from noon you ought to get in the rest of the squash and pumpkins by evening maybe I 1 can sell the lot instead of taking them in by the load ill see a commission man take less it if I 1 have to she had dressed the boy in his bis homemade suit cut down from one of his fathers ile he wore a wade brimmed straw hat which lie he hated bated selina herself in a tull full skirted black stuff dress MOU mounted anted the wagon agilely took up the reins looked down at the boy seated beside her clucked to the horses jan steen gave vent to a final outraged bellow ever la in my life did I 1 hear or suan athing a thing I 1 selina turned the horses heads toward the city be surprised jan to know of all the things youre going to hear of some day that youve never heard of before still when twenty years had passed and the ford the phonograph the radio and the rural mail delivery had dumped the world at jans plodding feet lie liked to tell of that momentous day when nhen selina dejong had driven off to market like a man with a wagon load of liand bond scrubbed garden truck and the boy dirk perched beside her on the seat if then you had been traveling the halsted road you would have seen a decrepit wagon vegetable laden driven by a too thin woman sallow bright eyed in a shapeless black dress a battered black felt hat that looked looked like a mans old fedora and probably was on the seat beside her you would have seen a farm boy of nine or thereabouts a brown freckle faced lad in a comically homemade home made suit of clothes and a straw hat bat with a broken and flopping brim which lie he was forever jerking off only to have it i et et firmly on again by the woman who seemed to tear fear the effects of the liot bot afternoon sun on his close cropped head at their feet was the dog pom a mongrel whose tall bore no relation to his head whose ill assorted legs appeared wholly at variance with his sturdy barrel of a body ile he dozed now for it had been his duty to watch the wagon load at night while pervus slept A shabby enough little outfit but magnificent too here was selina dejong driving up the halsted road toward the city instead of sitting black robed in the farm parlor while high prairie crime came to condole in selina as they jogged bogged along the hot dusty way there welled up a feeling very like elation more than ten years ago she bild driven with klass pool up that same road for the first time and in spite of the recent tragedy of her fathers death her youth her loneliness the thought of the new home to which she was going a stranger among strangers she had been conscious of a warm little thrill of elation of excitement of adventure 1 that was it the whole things just a grand adventure her father simeon peake had bad said and now the sensations of that day were repeating themselves now as then she took stock youth was gone but she had bad lie lic alth courage a boy of nine twenty five anve acres of workout farm land dwelling and outhouses out houses in a bad state of repair and a gay spirit that was never to die though it led her into curious places and she often found at the end only a trackless waste from which sho she had to retrace her steps painfully but always to her red and green cabbages were to be jade find and burgundy and porphyry lite life has no weapons against a woman like that down the hot dusty country road she was serious enough now the cost odthe of the funeral to be aall tho doctors uin jaws jana batea AU alf the espensen large and small of the poor little farm holding on down the road here a head at it front room window there a womans comans call coed figure standing in the doorway mrs vander slade on the porch fanning her flushed face with her apron cornelia snip in the yard pretending to tic up the drooping stalks of tile the golden glow and eyeing the approaching pro aching team with the avid gossips gaze to these selina waved bowed called bow allow ayou do sirs mrs vander slade I 1 A prim reply to this salutation disapproval writ large on the farm cifes flushed face hello cornelia I 1 A pretended start notable tor for its bad acting oil oh Is it you mrs dejonge suns in my eyes I 1 think it was you like that eyes hostile cold peering five six the boy climbed over the wheel filled a tin pall with water at a farmhouse well they at ate and drink drank as they rode along tor for there was no time to lose the boy had started out bravely enough in the heat beat of the day sitting up very straight beside ills ilia mother calling to the horses shrieking and waving his arms at chickens that flew squawking across the road now lie he began to droop sleepy no should say not his lids were heavy she wrapped the old black fascinator about him in the twilight the dust gleamed white on weeds and brush and grass the far off mellow of a cowbell horses hoofs clop chopping clopping ping up behind them a wagon passing in a cloud of dust a curious backward glance or a greeting exchanged one of the boys or jakob boomsma youre never going to market mis dejonge DeJon gl staring with china blue eyes at iier her load yes I 1 am mr boomsma that aint work for a woman mis dejong you better stay home and aid let the men folks go Se Sell linas nas men folks looked up at her one the asking eyes of a n child one with the trusting eyes of a dog my men folks are going answered selina but then lien they had alwang thought her a little queer so it matter much she urged the horses on refusing to confess to herself her dread of the tha destination which they were approaching lights now in the houses along the way and those houses closer together the boy slept night had come on the figure of the woman drooped a little now as the old wagon creaked on toward chicago A very small figure in the black dress and a shawl over her shoulders she had taken off her old black felt hat the breeze ruffled her hair that was fine and soft and it made a little halo balo about the white face that gleamed almost luminously in the tha darkness as she turned it up toward the sky ill sleep out with in the alie wagon it wont hurt either of us it will be warm in town there in the haymarket twenty five cents maybe fifty for the two of us in the rooming house fifty cents just to sleep it takes hours of work in the fields to make fifty cents she drove along in the lark dark a dowdy farm woman in shapeless garments just a bundle on the rickety seat of a dec decrepit bruci truck wagon the lights of the city came nearer she was thinking clearly if disconnectedly bitterness without reproach my father was x wrong rong ile he said th that at life was a great adventure a fine show ile he said the more things that happen to you the richer you are even it if not pleasant things living he said no matter what happens to you good or bad its just so much what was that word he used so much oh yes velvet just so much lehet well it true lie ile had brains and charm and knowledge and he ha died in a gambling house shot while looking on at someone else who was to have been killed now kow were on the cobblestones will dirk wake up my little so big no hes asleep asleep on a pile of potato sacks because his mother thought that life was a grand adventure a fine show and that you took it as it came A lie 1 ive taken it as it came and made the best of it that the way you take the best and make the most of it thirty fifth street that was another hour and a half to reach the haymarket im not afraid after all you just sell your vegetables for what you can get well its going to be different with him I 1 call him any morl more ue ile like it dirk a fine name dirk dejong no drifting along for him ill see that he starts with a plan and follows it uell hell have every chance every chance too late tor for me now but hell be different twenty second street I 1 I 1 twelfth look at all the people im enjoying this no use denying it it im enjoying this just as I 1 enjoyed driving along with klaas pool that evening years and years ago scared but en enjoying joSIng it perhaps I 1 to be but hypocritical and sneaking why not if I 1 really do enjoy it I 1 ill wake him cirki dirk were almost there look at all the people and the lights were almost there the boy awoke raised himself hims from ilia his bed of sacking looked about blinked sank back again and curled into a ball dont want to see the lights people I 1 lie ile was asleep again selina guided the horses skillfully through the downtown streets they were within two blocks of the tha haymarket on randolph street birkl come now come up here with mother grumbling he climbed to the seat scat yawned dawned smacked his iiii rubbed his knuckles into his eyes soon he vas nos awake and looking about him film interestedly they turned into the the wagons were streaming in from the german truck farms that lay to the north of chicago as well its as from the dutch farms that lay to the southwest whence selina came fruits and vegetables toris tons of it acres of it piled in the wagons that blocked the historic square through tills this little section and south water street that lay to the cast passed all the verdant growing things that fed Chi cagos millions something of tills this came to selina as she maneuvered her way through tile the throng she felt a little thrill of significance of achievement she knew the spot she wanted for her own it was just across the way from chris Spank restaurant rooming house and saloon chris knew her had known pervus tor for years and his big father before him would be kind hind to her and the boy in case of need |