The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-17
Awheel, awheel with my lady
Abreast of the laughing rills
Where the lanes lie cool and shady

.
In the lap of the purple hills
-Guy Wetmore Carryl.
Nan sat on the style and gazed I'M
| happily, first, at the neat farm house
| and then at the long stretch of country
| road, which, beginning at the style. roll.
ed lazily down the hill, then across a.
strip of prairie, and finally lost itself in
a grove of trees. Once before Nan re-
called, pensively, she had sat on a style
it was an entertainment given for char
! lily. She was dressed as a shepherdess
and held crook in her hand The
style was a bit of painted wood, very
i uncomfortable, but Nan. remembered she
mad been happy, for there had been an
adm1rlng audience woman can bear
any amount of misery if she only has an
| audience, she reflected cynically ~ And
| tomght there was no audience. There
was Just the farm house with it's staring
| windows and the stretch of road that
| carried her thoughts back to a big CITY
where week ago she had been a happy
| girl Her happiness had ended with Mr.
| Daratt s. proposals, or rather with her
refusal OF 1t. She recalled very distinct
ly the unpleasant scene that followed
You have f1irted through three sea-
sons, her mother had remarked indig-
Enantly. ".
You are twenty-three,'' Aunt Ellen
had followed up with the brutal frank
ness of a relation.
There is Madge to be considered re-
monstrated the married sister.
And I'm not going to have an old
maid sister hanging around when l come
]; out Madge had remarked.
| But consider his nose,'' Nan had
| pleaded disparaging1y. 81 can't love a
man With such nose, even if he has
| money"
The family shifted openly at this, even
Madge' who, at eighteen. had no illu-
1 sions.-
Whats going to become of, you?"
her mother had demanded finally. You
won't always have society at your feet Z"
| III have a career. I'll be lady
| COOK, Nan had exclaimed in despera-
| ton.
"fhe very thing said her mother. The
! family looked aghast
J. II mean Jane" interposed her mother
hurriedly. Nan shall go down to Jane
and consider. Besides it will be good for
| her complexion. It looks salloW''
[ Glad to escape the famiIys importuni-
ties and not unmndful of her complex
| ion Nan had consented. Jane had once
peen cook in their family but had mar
| RED the head gardener and gone to live
! on a little farm in Southern Minnesota
| At the time of the marriage Nan recoI-
| lected that she had felt undualiiedlv
sorry for the gardener She still felt
sorry for the gardener. Jane was so
stupidity, maginatively, heavily good
| But most of all Nan felt sorry for her
self. Conscientiously she tried to con-
slider Mr.. Daratt, but it was dull work
ana she yaWned right in the face of
| gorgeous sunset AS If to punish her ir-
| Teverance, a shadow came between her
and the sunset, and looking UP Nan saw
man. He was a very nice-looking man,
| she observed In an instant, and his nose
was 1rreproachable. The stranger was
wheeling bicycle and was clad In a
/ shabby bicycle suit
Pleasant evening" he said, pulling off
MS cap and modelling cordially at Man,
who nodded back little obviously
belong to the next farm he went
1 On as II answering that dubious look
/ ESQ you see were neighbors. That is,
II you belong up there pointing to the
! Feat farm house.
Again Nan nodded, this time dolefully.
Il going to belong for two weeks she
said gloomily
The stranger laughed and leaning on his
wheel looked at Nan with interest
I Your tone is not exactly flattering to
! your netghbors,' he observed "And YOU
know what injunction is laid on us con-
corning them
"Ah," said Nan, that must be one of
| the spots where my faith is weak
have never despondently and thinking
I of Mr.. Daratt, liked the people or things
l ought to like
/ "a confession of weakness suggests
! hope of repentance said the stranger
gayly. "But perhaps ought to introduce
myself. I am John FREEDOM, of the next
| farm
"And I am Nan Newson," answered
! Nan, jumping down from the style and
preparing to return to the house.
If you Wheel said the stranger, t'you
! won't find time hanging very heavily on
| no 1dc T1an do A,oo. A.
scenery worth inspecting
II do Wheel" Nan acknowledged, "but
1t never occurred to me to bring my BIZ
cycle
There is one up at the house." ven
tured her companion rather eagerly. at
is quite at your service I'll bring it
down tomorrow morning" And with
another nod and smile he jumped on his
wheel and was spinning down the road.
! Dear me- Nan reflected as she walked
/ toward the house, 81 had no idea that
! farmers were 500 modern. He's not
! bit like the gardener, though he looked
/ juSt<aS shabby"
She questioned Jane that night about
! the neighboring farms. but Jane had
/ never heard of Mr.. FREEDOM.
They've got a new hired man over at
! Peterson's,'' she suggested MAY be
| it's him.
ut must be very trying for the garden
! err. reflected Nan
| The next morning when Nan came
down to breakfast she found that wom-
| ans wheel nicely polished and in eX-
| Cellent condition had been left at the
! door, The bracing October air made her
feel unusually enegetic, so she hurried
! through with her breakfast, put on her
shortest walking skirt, fastened a red
| tam on her head and was soon spinning
| down the road. Heretofore Mans rid
| ing had been almost exclusively in the
! city and the parks The sense of I'M
| tran1meled feeling that comes with spin
/ down a country road with. the hundred
and one little glimpses it affords into the
| heart of nature was hers that morning
! for the first time. The road had a way
! ward fancy that suitedsNan. For a long
stretch it moved decorously past neat
| farm houses, hiding for a time slyly
! among the gorgeously colored trees, or al
most loosing itself modestly in stretch
| of meadow Then a more reckless mood
! seized it and it dipped capriously down
| steep HILL glided venturesomely over the
! merest trifie of a bridge and ambitiously
climbed heights that gave it a glimpse Of
| the beautiful autumn landscape that
stretched on all sides. Nan coasted down
all the hills fearlessly. She felt that
she had never really lived before that
morning Her hair became loosened, but
she did not mind. Her cheeks glowed
! and unconsciously she trilled a little song
/; as she sped along. The city and its
| pleasures seemed insipid by contrast
| AS she neared the summit of what had
| seemed an unusually long hill and saw
stretching out before Der for quite dis
! tance a steep decline, Nan resolved ID
have one long glorious coast before she
started homeward. So she tucked her