Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-10-29
DAUNT'S WOOING.

OuPlu 10 o. llII1C CIOdIulO 6luu Co1A
hide in a small place - he has even
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 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 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 a roar of laughter one
night as he and they stood about the
packing sheds looking at the crates of
luscious fruit as lit was being prepared
for shipment.
II wonder where all them berries
OIL . SO1AS. ocl1o AC pCA0lFC 41O
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 the rest, but walked along the
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: II am
Daunt Jewlson, of the Becker road,
near South Fork wood like to court
up with whoever gets these here ber-
ries." Then he piled in the fruit, and
the box went away with the rest, none
whiting, though Daunt 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 wide, mel
ancholy fields, to a somber ford, to
distant henlocks, and to house
where logs burned ON the hearth was
homesick 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 a 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 1t over three