Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1900-05-18
FACT NOT FICTION

sanderson Of verhena had twenty
acres out tn berries. When the June
sun turned the fruit juicy and the per
fume of the berries hung heavy upon
the sweltering air the field was
thronged with pickers, who rode out
from the village on great hay ricks
and back again at night, singing and
laughing and scandalizlng the neigh
bors.
Among the noisy pickers was one
fellow who kept to himself and who
neither whistled nor sang nor called
out to the others. This was Daunt
Jewlson, of the Becker road. He
walked two miles form the north ev-
cry morning to meet the hay ricks at
the village. and no one knew much
about him except that he had a small
farm laid out in sweet potatoes and
peanuts.
Daunt was not n particularly fast
picker, and he seemed to dream a
good deal. He set the whole company
in a roar of laughter one night as he
and they stood about the packing
sheds looking at the crates of luscious
fruit as 1t was being prepared for
shipment
81 wonder where all them berries
/ are gOingT said he pensively He
looked so absurd with his watery blue
| eyes and his large ears and mouth
that everybody roared.
| 1t was the next day that an idea
came to him--One of the first of his
life. He took his pencil and wrote on
the inside Of strawberry box: II am
Daunt JewlsOn of the Becker, near
South Fork. | wood like to court up
l with W rxshppvap srqfo fhaga hppp hnpffno -
Now, little Lena Nielsen, who had
been used all her life to wide melau-
choly fields, to sOmbre ford. to dis
tant hemlOcks and to a house where
logs burned on the hearth, was home
sick past words where she worked in
/ the fiat on North Erie street
Lena had just set the table for
| luncheon and mOaned over the raised
/ biscuits which were not raised enough
and poured the berries out of the box
/ when she came upon Daunts mes
sage She was obliged to read it over
/ three times before she got the full
meaning of it, and first she smiled a
| little cOntemptuOusly and then the
| tears came into her eyes, No doubt
| others besides herself were lonesome
at times.
She went to bed and dreamed a
/ dream, and it seemed to her that she
ran and laughed upon a shore where
the waves rolled I'm, and that a young
man ran and leaped beside her, and
that when the stars came out they
went together to some quiet fields,
planted with goodly things, and to q
cottage which was their home. In the
early dawn she awOke to know it for
n dream, and she wept homesick tears
for the home that was not
That is how it came about that that
evening Lena wrote an impossible lit
tie letter and directed it to Daunt
JewlsOn, of the Becker road, near
South Fork.
Well, Daunt wrote and Lena wrote
and Daunt wrote, and then one day he
took the morning boat over to the city,
and, it being Thursday afternoon and
Lena's free day, she met him at the
pier. They knew each other the first
thing, for Daunt wore, as had been ar
ranged, rose in the band of his hat,
and she had blue ribbons and a white
dress. She knew where she wanted to
60 and led him to the esplanade, and
they walked there together, looking at
the lake and the people on wheels and
the grand carriages and ali the throng
of the city.
"But l like the lake best over on
'tother side" said Daunt. II like to
run on the sand"
81 know it," remarked Lena.
"You do? How do you know it?"
90, | have ways of knowing.
dream sometimes"
Daunt gasped. Then he made a con
fessiOn.
$50 do l." he said. 81 guess you ain't
much different from what | thought
you would be-"
"You're the same" the girl respond
ed. I'D have known you without the
rose"
Then she told him about the fields
of her childhood, and he told her
about his house and his peanuts and