The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-08-26
sILAs NoRRIs, BRAVE srARr.

/
A woman and a boy cannot do much
| with fifty acres. Mrs. Norris knew it.
| because she had tried. Her husband had
| left her the farm. 40 acres, and she had
| done her best with IL. She had kept her
! boy. Silas, At school. she had planted
! berries, trimmed vines, cared for the or
| chard. MIXED her own COW and tended
| the chickens. but somehow she didn't get
ahead much. She had watched her boy
| grow from q weazen, freckle-faced child
! into a great. hulking. stoop-shouldeTed
man OF %. Year after year she had
seen his patrimony diminished till the 120
acres were reduced to fifty. He could
handy with machinery. Sometimes she
/ believed that the farm was holding him
/ hack and that she should send him 10
the city 10 make his way
But she loved him now even as she had
( loved him when he was all that was left
To her Of company. of affection. of hope
| He looked as his father looked when they
were married He had been born in the
cottage in which his father had been
/ bern. The berry patches, the orchard
! the five-acre meadow. the rickety hen
/ house. the river which ran past the pas
ture lot. were in her eyes TRANSPORTED
/ by the knowledge that they were his.
/ that some day her boy would own them
] in his own right and make his home there
I for all his days. And so she struggled
along, doing her own work, making.
mending. planting, herself the foremost
and the swiftest of the berry-pickers. the
I first in the field in the morning, the last
/ TO bed at night.
! She was thin now, with whitening hair
and sailow cheeks. hands Drowned and
hardened with the work, shoulders stoop-
ed with bending over the earth and wash
! tub. Silas. the boy, was big and red
/ There were frecl1les and pimples on his
wide. expectant face, and he had been
1 shaved a dozen times. He was COM
mencing to take on the ways OF a man.
/ at Kings Landing. bought an occasional
pint of beer from the steward of the
! steamboat May Graham, and smoked his
cigar with the confident assurance of
/ person of affairs. When he went down
TO the landing with his load of berries he
/ hailed Captain Fykes Cap and called
, the amiable clerk Charlie" He had
personal acquaintance with John Egan.
( the first mate. and had no hesitation in
I shaping him on the back and asking
/ How's traffic. John?" The widow had
seen and admired these evidences of
broadening character. and deep in the
/ fond recesses of her heart she knew that
/ her boy Silas was cut out" for a man
of business. that he had a future before
! of small fruit farm were holding him
/ back"
Silas had been to ST Joe and Benton
Harbor more than twenty times He had
done a heap of trading and the town
atmosphere was the breath of inspiration
to his nostrils. He had seen each year
| the incursion of smart ''resorte-s' from
| Chicago, and seeing. yearned TO look. to
feel. to act as they did. Full of this am
bition he talked to his mother about
taking boa rders'' It was easier than
farming. he said. and more profitable.
The Jcneses had done 1t and made money
CROUCH to buy twenty acres of the Nor
ris farm. It would give him a chance TO
get acquainted and who knows but IL
might give him IAN opening" an oppor-
tunity TO settle in Chicago The boys
eyes widened at the very thought, and
Mrs. Norris, eager to help her boy along.
yet dreading the prospect of losing him.
stifed her selfish hopes of having him
all to herself and advertised for sum
r1er boarders.
With widening hopes of the possibilities
of converting the little farm into pop
ular resort" they planted only enough
| for the maintenance of a few boarders.
| They figured on cutting the empty barn
into halves and making cottages OF II.
June, July and half Of August came and
went, and they had many letters Of in
quiry about the place the water the mos
quitoes, the bathing. the terms. the roads.
the fruits. the beds. and the general
accommodations" but only one boarder
disembarked from the wheeling steamer.
and the widows heart was downcast in
spite Of the happy smile she gave him,
and the thrill of pride she felt when she
heard him call Silas, her ST. Mister Nor
ris."
He rvas q booLL-aa-ar Co.. +to oov,--is-{ov,
firm which had handled their berries and
showed all the hail marks of the strenu-
Gus and cultivated life of a great city.
He had drop-stitched stockings and patent
leather low quarters" He wore a sin
gular sort of muller. which he called
a stock" and when he saw the wheat
stacks looming brown upon the yellow
hills he said he Supposed those were bee
hives When he saw Silas milking the
cow he wondered why somebody hadn't
invented automatic COW mixer: he
didn't know beans from buckwheat in the
fields. and he couldn't bait his own fish
hook because. he said. the worm made
him feel creepy" But he took marked
Fixing for Silas, and the widow began 20
think that he was a very capable and
even brilliant young man. in exchange
for innumerable courtesies he told the
farmer boy that II he would come to
Chicago ''he would never leave it,"
It's the only place" explained the re-
sorter why, a fellow that knows rs
much as YOU do about farm lnachirIery
crops fruit and farming in general would
be snapped up right away. Tho aericul-
tural implement trust is boxing for men
Ike YOU all the time. I wish I knew as
much rs you about such things. You
wouldn't catch me shaving away for :25 a
week"
And Silas not only believed it. but in
long talks with his mother at night after
the boarder vas gone 70 bed he drew
such roseate lectures OF his hopes his
ambitions. and such gloomy. desperate
predictions of / 5 finish II she kept him
there 10 vegetata on the farm. that she
asreed that he should 60. even urged him
10 the step. though the decision cost her
many d sleepless hour and many blind
ing tear.
] saw them standing IN the knee high.
golden meadow by the river the day he
left her. She wore an old faded calico
wrapper and the blue sunbnnnet upon her
head was rusty and limp The little
steamboat. which viii stop anywhere.
wheezed ard chortled up 70 the green
hank. and a mob ~ inqu.sitive tourists
crowded 70 the rail 70 watch them. He
was dressed in his hravcst SUNDAY
clothes with a red necktie his shoes
brightly polished and his moon face
shaved and biushius. ] saw ner hold
Kim an instant 70 her fat bosom and
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