Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-11-01
DAUNTS WOOING.

| %A4OS LII q Small pISINC IL 4IdS SN Gil
been known TO secrete himself in a
strawberry box. And that is the story.
| Sanderson of Verbena had 20 acres
| out in berries, which was bad sense on
his part, considering that small fruits
bring next to no profit in these days.
| But Sanderson liked strawberries, and
| appeared to be willing 20 raise them
for the delectation of the rest of man
kind, even though he was not enriched
by the labor. So when the June sun
turned the fruit juicy and the perfume
Of the berries hung heavy upon the
| sweltering air, the field was thronged
with pickers, who rode out from the
village on great hay racks, and back
| again at night, singing and laughing
and scandalizing the neighbors.
Among the noisy pickers there was
one fellow VINO 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 from the north
| every morning to meet the hay ricks
at the village, and no one knew much
about him except that he had small
farm laid out in sweet potatoes and
peanuts. In country where every
one grew fruit almost exclusively, and
where peaches were king, it seemed
amusing for man to raise sweet po-
tatoes and peanuts, and Daunt was
usually accosted in the morning with:
well, how's the peanut CROP" or,
''The great American luxury gettin'
on all right, Daunt?"
Daunt was brief but not taciturn in
his responses. He was not a particu-
larly fast picker, and he seemed to
dream a good deal. He set the whole
company in roar Of laughter one
night as he and they stood about the
packing sheds looking at the crates of
luscious fruit as it was being prepared
for shipment.
i wonder where all them berries
are gOing?" said he pensively. He
looked so absurd with his watery blue
eyes and his large ears and mouth that
everybody roared.
want to go along, Daunt?" cried
they. Daunt nodded.
you bet I'd like to go along" he
murmured Wistfully. And that even
ing he did not ride home on the rick
With hn h1,+
lake shore three miles to town and
two miles beyond to the lonely house
among the potatoes and the peanuts.
Then he MIXED his COW and drank
milk for supper, sitting out where he
could watch the red sunset.
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 road,
near South Fork. 1 wood like to court
up with whoever gets these here Der
res" Ther he piled - The fruit, ard
the box went away with the rest, none
whiting, though DauCt had been in a
terror lest some accident should occur
which would reveal his secret to his
jeering friends.
! Now, little Lena Nelson, who. had
been used all her life to wife, mel
| ancholy fields, to a somber ford, to
distant hemlocks, and to a house
where logs burned on the hearth, was
hOmeslck past words where she worked
in the fiat on North Erie street. Thir-
ty-two families were crowded together
in the big apartment building, and the
| maids at night ran down to the tele-
phone room to gossip together. More
over, they said many things which it
offended Lena to hear. So she staid
| alone in the hot kitchen and puzzled
over the English in the newspapers or
read her Bible in her own beloved
tongue
The day had been peculiarly trying.
The bread had not risen we'll. The
fruit she had selected at the store was
| overripe, and her mistress had not
| been we'll pleased. The ringing Of the
bells seemed incessant, and the kitchen
was horribly hot. Lena shut her eyes
once or twice to enable herself to
! imagine that she was little girl again
| back with her mother, walking the
quiet fields where the thousand flowers
| grew-that was what they used to say
| OF the field, that it was the place Of a
| thousand flow ers. For generations that
| had been said of it.
Lena had just set the table for lunch.
! con and made moan over the raised
| biscuits which were not raised enough,
and poured the berries out Of the box
when she came upon Daunt's message
She was obliged to read it over three
| times before she got the full meaning
Of it, and first she smiled a little con
temptuously, and then the tears came
into her eyes. No doubt others beside
herself we're lonesome at times.
She set the box away in her own ho+
little bedroom off the kitchen, and two
or three times during the afternoon
she went in and looked at it and il
the evening after the work was dom
she sat beside the kitchen table and
stared hard at it till her eyes seemed
to turn their understanding inward
Now Lena came Of an old, old famil!
of peasants, who had been famed tim