Evening journal., 1900-02-09
FACT NOT FICTION

Sanderson OF Veroena had twenty
acres out in 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 picBers, who rode out
from the village on great hay ricks
and back again at night, singing and
laughing and scandalizing the neigh
bors.
Among the noisy plckers 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 n small
farm laid out in sweet potatoes and
peanuts
Daunt was not a particularly fast
picker and he seemed to dream a
good deal He set the whole company
in roar of laughter one night as lie
and they stood about the packing
sheds looking at the crates of luscious
fruit as it was being prepared for
shipment.
WohQtk MHtIt All AHtlu UtilltN
are goingT said he pensiyely. @e
looked so absurd with his watery blue
eyes and his large ears and mouth
that everybody reared.
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 a strawberry box: Il am
Daunt Jewlson of the Becker, near
South Fork. / wood like to court up
with whoever gets these here berries"
Now, little Lena Nielsen. who had
been used all her life to wide. melan
choly fields, to q sombre ford, to dis
tant hemloc' 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
dream, and it seemed to her that She
ran and laughed upon n shore where
the waves rolled in. 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
cottage which was their home. In the
Early dawn she awoke to know it for
a 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.
AMI, it being Thursday afternoon and
Lena's free day. she met him ut the
pier. They knew each other the first
thing for Daunt wore, as had been ar
ranged, a rose in the band of his Int,
and she had blue ribbons and n white
dress. She knew where she wanted to
20. 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 all the thrOng
Of the city.
"But 1 like the lake best over on
'tother side" said Daunt 81 like TO
run on the sand"
Il know It," remarked Lena
"YOu do? How do you know it?"
30. have ways OF knowing I
dream sometimes"
Daunt gasped. Then he made a con
fessOn.
$50 do l." he said. 81 guess you amt
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 AMI