Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-10-23
IN THE OLD RED BARN.
A HARVEST STORY.

[country Gentleman.]

and waited for the answer. lHoioIiieN
Curley was too long name TO Wrlt'
Jon uncertainties. Across the sunny
sitting room the Country Gentleman
crisped impatiently in her father
hands. Miles Dolliver looked up.
My patience Dianthy, amt you go
the lay o. the land YETI" he said. Any
body'd think you warn't born ant
brought up in these parts!'
Diantlla laughed-and was answered
She did not write 'Tholomews name
in the list.
"Oh. are the Curleys on the other
side? I'd forgotten, as sure as YOU
live! We didn't have any sides at the
Sem, father, or only one, and we We're
Eall on that together. 1t weakens your
memory in side issues to be away al
school four years! You must give me
time"
Miles Deliver went back to his paper
with the little furrow plowed between
his brows that Diantha had no:
forgotten-oh, no. she had not forgot
ten that! 1t. meant that the old trouble
was troubling father. Hi, hum, why
must beautiful little Riverbye be di-
vided into dreadful sides" Why must
fathers smooth forehead be plowed vi
like that?
Hi, hum! hi, hum" sighed Diantha
over her lists. The names multiplied
rapidly down the white sheet of paper
Seventeen, eighteen, ni-ne-teen--tw--
no, there wasn't any twentieth. Di-
antha let the paper drop to her knees
We'll. I've got 1T all made out,
father she said aloud. Il don't think
I've left undone anything that ought
to be done-I mean anybody that ought
to be in, or put in anybody that ought
to be out. I wish you'd look it over
and see.''
"M-m-m." mumbled her father'svoice
behind his griZzled beard. Diantha
could distinguish names in the mum
bles. and she watched patiently for the
last one.
Well. father?"
you've left out Amasa Nye's folks,
an you've left in Eben Bruce's,-you
better scratch Eben out" He smiled
grimly. II guess it'll be a millennium
harvest supper o. mine that Eben Bruce
III come to-"
Dantha SCRATCHED out" Eben with q
sweep of her pencil and wrote in AM
asa Nye's folks. But her face was
clouded. She had not really forgotten
that Floretta Bruce was on the other
side, but how hard she had tried to!
She aud Floretta had made sawdust
pies together in long-ago reces5es at
The little red-brown school house.
They had worn twin coral rings, and
sworn eternal friendship. Who would
have thoughtful, hum!
us it RICH. now, father?" she asked
gently.
YES, guesso.-I guesso, Dianthy.
But, my patience. how are we going to
cram 'em all into our little narrer-con-
tracted barn floor! You take nineteen
families, an nary one of 'e,n small an
it makes considerable of u crowd"
Yes, Know" Diantha said, knitting
her brows thoughtfully. ut will be
quite a squeeze. won't 1T. father? But
We can't leave anybody on this side out.
hi, hum! maybe it's fortunate, after
all, that there are two sides-no."
1iercely, mo, it isn't either! It's un-
fortunate, unfortunate, unfortunate!
1t has been, is now, and always will be.
world without end.-amen."
nen,"echoed Diantila's mild little
mother, under her breath.
There. now I feel better" laughed
.Diantha. tho the red flames in her clear
cheeks still flickered. Now the ways
and means committee will meet! Fa-
ther, you're chairman-call Mumsie ard
me to order! We've got 10 decide at this
session how to make large body occu-
nv a small space. for it's got to be done.
The Doiliver harvest supper is-going-.
to-be-eaten!'' Dlantha's laughing
eyes had determination In them
Hasn't it always been eaten every Oc-
tober since the world began? And is
the family custom to stop short this
year Just because the big Dolliver barn
has burned down? What! When the
other side is sure TO have its harvest
supper at Deacon Phi.ander Dolloff's?
Never! shall make the pumpkin pies
myself. Hi, hunt" suddenly Dian
tila's eyes, fixed absently on far field
spaces without the window, fell on the
distant red roof of Miss Dangerfield's
great barn,-"Oh. hi mum. hum, don't
wish we could borrow Miss Danger
I'm going to! LIN going over there
ado the Youngest member of the ways
and means committee darted bare
headed out into the splendid October
across the crisp brown fields.
The chairman adjusted his spectacles
and gazed after her With unconcealed
pride. Diantha was smart girl an
no getting around it. Pity jeff Dolloff
was on the other side! for the chair
man of the ways and means committee
had, deep in his in,nost soul, a secret
for the bis, broad, brown
fellow who in his soul-not secretly
Diantha. But this side and the
other side We're as far apart as the east
and west, and the bis, brown, broad
fellow was on the wrong one. Pity
pity! but so it was.
There had been sides in little River
BYE for the length of Diantha Delivers
life. and Diantha was eighteen. The
trouble had begun at the spring cleo
lions of the year she was born, when
Philander Dolloff and Miles Doliver
lad both been up" for first selectman.
1t had been an Office of especial sig
lificance that year, for reasons that by
his time We're almost forgotten. As
happens. the cause of the
,eud had been all but lost in the vim
1ictive spirit it. had aroused. That
lad seemed to gain ascendancy and
,igor with years. The friends Of the
.wo men who so long ago had stood up
against each other in a grim opposition
worthy of grander cause, had rallied
about them loyally-and stayed rallied.
The bitter feeling had spread from