Show SO BIG by EDNA FERBER IL I 1 Q doub adar P A co servi coo a i native rs Is evolved from bunding for the local climate and the needs of the community keeping belia beau i ty in mind as is you go eo wo we dont need needa turrets and towers any more than we need drawbridges draw bridges and moats its nil lilt rfelix to keep them I 1 suppose where they grew up in a country where the feudal system meant that any day your next door net neighbor libor might take it into ills his head to call his gang around around him find and sneak up to steal your wife and tapestries and gold drinking cups clim dirk was Intire interested sted and amused I 1 talu talks with ills his mother were likely to affect him thus your ides idea of a real chicago house mother I 1 selina answered quickly as if she had thought often about it as it if she would have liked just such a dwelli dwelling nj on the site of the old delong dejong farmhouse in which they now were seated so comfortably well it would need bi big porches for the hot days and nights sos to catch the prevailing southwest winds from the prairies in the summer a porch that would be swung clear around east too or a terrace or another porch east so that if the precious old lake breeze should come up just when you think youre dying of the heat AS it sometimes does you could catch that too it ought to be built the house I 1 mean rather and tight and solid against our cold winters and northeastern northeasters north easters then sleeping po porches relies of course theres a grand american institution for youl england may have its afternoon tea on the terrace and spain may have its patio and france its courtyard and italy its pergola vine nine covered but americas got the sleeping porch the screened ln in open air sleeping porch and I 1 wonder if the man who first thought of that would get precedence on judgment day over the men who invented the airplane the talking machine and the telephone after all he had bad nothing in mind but the health of the human race after which grand period selina grinned at dirk and dirk grinned at selina and the two giggled together there by the fireplace companionably 1 I mother youre simply wonderful wondern ill I 1 only your native chicago dwelling seems tabe tg be mostly porch selina waved such carping criticism away alth with a careless hand oh well any house that has enough porches and two or three bathrooms and at least eight closets can be lived in comfortably fort ably no matter what else it has or got next day they were more serious the eastern college and the architectural career seemed to be settled things selina was content happy dirk was troubled about the expense he spoke of it at breakfast next morning in dirks breakfast his mother lad had had hers hours before and now as he drank ills coffee was sitting with him FL a moment and glancing at the paper that had come in the rural mall mail delivery she had been out in the fields overseeing the transplanting of young tomato seedlings from hotbed to field she wore an old gray sweater buttoned up tight for the air was still sharp on her head was a battered black felt soft bat an old one of dirks much like the one tilie lad had wom to the haymarket that day ten years ago ive been thinking he began the expense 2 bigell do it selina said calmly ive been wanting to put them in for three or four years its august nem Hem pela idea hogs I 1 should have said ile he echoed hogl II ogI rather faintly highbred high bred hogs worth their in silver this minute and will be for years to come I 1 wont go in tor for them exten extensively just enough to make an architect out of sir mr dirk devoog then at the expression in bis face dont look so BO pained son theres nothing revolting about a hog bog hes a liand handsome some impressive looking animal the hog when he treated uke like one he looked dejected id rather not go to on hogs she took off the felt hat and tossed it over to the old couch by the window smoothed her hilr back with the flat of her palm you saw that the soft fort dark hair was liberally sprinkled with gray now but the eyes were bright and clear as ever YouL You know noNN gobig this is what they call a paying farm as vegetable farras s go were out of debt the lauds lands in gea shape the crop promises well it wo dont have another rainy cold earing like last years rm im having a grand time when I 1 see the asparagus plantation actually yielding that I 1 planted ten tea years ago im as happy as lt if id stumbled rumbled on a gold mine I 1 think some sometimes timis of the way aher her objected to my planting the first ono one april like this in the country xit with h coming up green and iiii new ta fal oie e tice ara olace EU ayumi cant tell you and when I 1 know that it goes to market as food the best kind of food that keeps hoops peoples bodies clenn clean and clear and flexible and strong I 1 like to think of bables babies mothers saying now eat your spinach every scrap or you cant have any dessert carrots mal make e your eyes bright finish your potato potatoes make you strong selina laughed flushed a little yes but how about hogs do you feel that way about hogs certainly said selina briskly she pushed toward him a little blue filid and platter that lay on the white cloth near her elbow have a bit more bacon dirk one of these nice curly slivers silvers that are so crisp ive finished my breakfast mother 11 ile he rose the following autumn saw him a student of architecture at cornell ile he worked hard studied even during his vacation he would come home to the heat and humidity of the illinois summers and spend hours each day in his own room that he had fitted up with a long worktable work table and a drawing board ills T square was at hand two triangles and a CO 00 his compass a pair of dividers selina sometimes stood behind him watching lum him ns its liea he carefully worked on the tracing paper ills contempt for the local architecture was now complete especially did he hold forth on the subject of the apartment houses that were mushrooming on aery street in chicago from hyde park on the south to Evan on the north chicago was very elegant in speaking of these never called them flats always apartments in front of e each ach of these 4 there were usually il t to te rt building was stuck a little als glass enclosed cull cuhl cle known as a sun parlor in abee these sometimes you heard them spoken of grandly as solar lunis chicago Clil cago dwellers took refuge from the leaden skies the heavy lal lake e aam atm atmosphere os phere the gi gray ay mist and fog and smoke that so frequently swathed the city in gloom they were done in yellow or rose ere cre tonnes silk lampshades lamp shades glowed therein and flower laden boxes in these frank little boxes boses chicago read its paper sewed played bridge even ate its breakfast it never pulled down the shades terrible 1 dirk fumed not only are they hideous in themselves stuck on the front of those houses like three pairs of spectacles but the lack of decent privacy I 1 they do evers everything thIng but bathe in em have they never heard the aali aduce fee given people ii mho bo live in glass houses by his junior year lie he was talking in a large way about the ho beaux beans arts but selina did not laugh at this perhaps she thought who can tf tell all after a year or two tao in an office here in hy by not another year of study in paris it if he needs it though it was her busiest time thue on the farm selina went to ithaca for ills his graduation in 1913 ile he was twenty two and she was calmly sure the best looking man in his class undeniably he was a figure to please the eye tall loiell vi ell built as ills his father had been and blond too like ilke his father except for his eyes these were brown not to so dark as Se Sell linas nas but with inith some of the soft liquid quality of her glance they strengthened his face somehow gave him an ardent look of which he was not conscious women feeling the ardor of that dark glance turned upon them were likely to credit him with feelings toward themselves vee of which lie he was quite innocent they lid did not know that the glance and its effect were mere matters of pigmentation and eye conformation then too the gaze anze of a man who talks little Is always ways more effective than that of one who Is loquacious selina bellna in her black silk dress and lier her plata plain black hat and her sensible shoes was rather a quaint little figure among all those vivacious Iva cious bevelled and beribboned mammas but a distinctive tive little figure too dirk neel need not be ashamed of her she eyed the rather paunchy prosperous middle aged fat liers and thought with a pang how much handsomer fergus would have been than any of these it if only he could have lived to see this day then involuntarily she wondered it if this day would ever have occurred had pervus lived chided herself tor for thinking thus thug when lie he returned to chicago dirk went into tho the office of hollis sprague architects but his work there was little more than that of draughtsman and ills his weekly stipend could hardly be dignified by the term of salary eat bat lie he lie had large ideas about architecture and lie he found expression pres slon for his suppressed feelings on ills his weekends week ends spent dent with selina at the farm baroque was the word with he dismissed the new hotel north lie he said the new lincoln park bandstand looked like an igloo ile he said bad that the city council ought to order the potter palmer mansion ae strayed as a blot on the landscape and waxed profane on the subject of the file enst face of the public library building downtown never r mind selina assured him happily it was all thrown up so hastily remember that just yesterday or the day before chicago was an all radian indian fort with tepees where tow ers are now and mud wallows in place of asphalt beauty needs time to perfect it perhaps weve been i waiting tilting v all these years for just such youngsters as you and maybe some day III be driving down michigan boulevard with ith a distinguished visitor boelt P pool 0 perhaps why not lets bay roelf pool the alie famous sculptor and hell say who designed that bull building ding the one that Is so strong and yet so light so gay and graceful arid antl yd 3 R so 0 rijn f centT 17 liaa say oh lob that I 1 one of the earlier efforts of my son dirk dejong but dirk pulled at his pipe moodily shook ills his head oh you dont know mother its so d d slow first tiling thing you know ill be thirty and what hat aria am it II an office boy or more than that at haills 11 during his university years dirk had seen much ot of tile file Arnol arnolds dg eugene and paula but it sometimes seemed to selina that lie he avoided these meetings these and weekends week ends she w any content that this should be so tor for she guessed that the matter of money held him back she thought it was well that lie should realize the difference now eugene had his own car one ot of five in the arnold garage paula too had hers iier her fascination for dirk was strong selina knew that too in the last bear ear or two lie he had talked very little of paula and that selina knew meant that lie was hard lift hit Some sometimes tines paula and eugene drove out to tao alie e farm eugene would appear in rakish cap loose london knick knickers erb queer broggans brogans with na an english look about them a carefully careless looseness about the hang liana and fit of ills his jacket paula did not affect sports elb clothes othes for herself slie she was wag not the type she said slim dark vivacious she wore slinky clothes crepes cerepes chit tons fons her eyes were languorous lovely she worshiped luxury and said so ill have to marry money she declared now that finished calling poor grandpa a beef baron and huleu I 1 dont know how many millions away from him were practically on the str streets Lets you look it itt 1 from dirk and there was bitterness beneath ills his light tone well its true all this silly muck raking in the past ten years or more poor eatherl of course granddad vas uns pur ty rough let me tell you I 1 rend read some of the accounts of that last indictment the 1910 1010 one and I 1 must say I 1 gathered gatli pred that dear old aug made jesse james look like a philanthropist I 1 should think nt at ills his age hed be a little seared scared after all when youre over seventy youre likely to have some doubts and fears about punishment in the next world but not a grand old pirate like grandfather hell sack and burn and plunder until lie he goes down with the ship and it looks to roe me as if the old boas boat bacha had a strong list to starboard r d right 1 I g t now rather father says himself that I 1 it unless I 1 a war breaks or something 1 at nil all likely the packing industry Is going to spring a leak elaborate figure of speech murmured eugene the four of them dirk eugene and selina were sitting on the wide screened porch that selina lad had had built at the southwest corner of the house paula was of course in the couch swing occasionally Q she aie touched one slim languid toot foot to the floor and gave indolent impetus to the couch it Is rather it jig as well finish it then darling auga been the grand find old captain right through the blage dads never been more than a pretty bum second mate and as for you gene my love cabin boy would be rue me big nugene eugene had gone into the hie business a year before what can you tou expect retorted eugene of a lad that hates salt pork and every other kind of pig ment meat ile he despised the yards and all that went with it selina got up and walked to the end of the porch theres adam coming in with the last load for the day hell be arling into town ton tiow cornelius started an hour ago she went down the steps on her way to oversee the loading of adam bras wagon at the bottom of the steps she turned why cant you two atay to supper you can quarrel comfortably fort ably right through the men meal and drive home in the cool of the evening ill stay said paula thanks thanE cs if have all kinds of vegetables cooked and uncooked and let me go out into the fields and pick em myself like maud muller antoinette tol nette or any of those make believe rustic gals in her french heeled slippers and her limy filmy silk stockings she went out into the itch ilch black furrows of the fields dirk carrying the basket Aspa asparagus rigus she ordered first then but where is it Is that it iti I 1 you dig tor for it idiot said dirk and taking from his basket the queerly curved sharp knife or spud used for cutting the asparagus cut the shoots three or four inches below the surface oh let rue me do it P she was down on her silken knees in the dirt ruined a goodly patch of the fine tender shoots gave it up and sat watching dirks expert manipulation of the knife lets have radishes and corn and toroa tomatoes toes and lettuce and peas and artichokes and artichokes grow in california not noi illinois ile he was more than usually uncommunicative munica tive and noticeably moody paula remarked it why the othello brow you mean that rot d did ld you about marrying a rich man you were jol joking log you 1 I lins nt id hate belag being poor or even just moderately rich im used to money loads of it im twenty four and im looking around ile he kicked an innocent beet top with ills his boot you like me bettor better than any man you know of course I 1 do just my luck well then well then lets take these weg gables in ill she made a pretense of lifting the heavy basket alik snatched 11 rough h ly out ot ot TM her hand 95 so that ThiTa she guve ve a little cry and looked ruefully down A ark you like me better than tha any man you know at the red mark on her palm he caught her by the shoulder even shook her a little look here paula do you mean to tell me marry a man simply because lie he happened to have a lot of money I 1 |