River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-03-19
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THEY were neighbors.

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inherited nursery. He was young. She
was younger. There similarity ceased.
He was rugged, uncultured, plain,
though with certain charm of virile,
forcefuI LONELINESS difficult to analyze.
She was pretty. college bred, aristo-
cratic. He believed in Drawn and brain.
She believed in blood and breeding.
They were not neighborly. She
called herself ''horticulturist." de
was merely a florist. OF course, Dick
Russell was a bachelor, and in love.
The nursery was Dicks by right of
purchase priyation and persistence
For five years he had worked and strug-
gled and hoped. The trees planted by
his own hands were his pets, his com
panions, his all-for he was alone in
the world.
why don't you stick up house on
your grounds?" asked Uncle William
one night as he and Dick sat smoking
goodnight pipe in the porch.
Cant afford it," said Dick, CURLY
''I'm putting every penny l can raise
into that gas machine I'm building ID
the nursery"
Foolish, too!' grunted Uncle Will
liam.
"Mebbe So" assented Dick, grimly
'.No mebbe about it. Who ever heard
tell Of raisin' flowers and fruit with
gas? It's agin Nature"
You'll see,'' said Dick, with fierce
puff at his pipe and far-away look in
his blue eyes.
The months passed.
Dick said little, but read great deal.
One day he Mortified Uncle William by
requesting permission to put in tele-
phone.
What for?" demanded he in a
breath.
"'Cause / want it, said Dick.
So, in spite of opposition and dire
predictions, the telephone was in
stalled, connecting the house with the
distant village of Prittlewell. His
point won, and his crop money safely
deposited in the bank, Dick threw him
self heart and soul into the compile
ton of his queer gas plant. He bought
miles of slender iron piping, and many
tons of hard coal. He dug bitches and
laid a portion of the piping around his
orchard and at regular distances
across it, until the ground looked like
gigantic gridiron. The unused pip
! ing (by far the larger pOrtion) was
stored away in the gas house. When
! the work was finished and the bitches
filled in, curious neighbors comment
ed on the queer nozzles" which showed
above the ground at intervals along the
straight rows of buried pipes.
"Goin' to irrigate?" they asked.
'Mebbe," said Dick, grimly.
How're you goin' to pillow an har-
row with them things a-stickin' up in
that way?"
The gas machine itself, situated in
the center of the orchard, was, by aid
of a stout building, stout shutters and
a portly paddock, made curiosity proof.
No one went into this building except
Dick and two trusted workmen.
''It's perfectly scand'lous!" shifted
Aunt William one bitterly cold even
ing, as she sat by the kitchen fire mend
ing a pair of Dicks socks.
which," asked William, looking up
from his newspaper absent mindedIy.
Dicks goin's-on.'
''Where's he goin' now?' he asked,
his mind still on the paper.
Don't you know" she demanded,
looking at him severely, that Dick is
a-spending ev'ry penny he's got in the
world for big black machine an
lot o rusty pipes?''
Uncle William looked crushed.
''Listen!" she said, suddenly, holding
up one of Dicks socks warningly.
Borne on the crisp night air there
came the distant ringing blows of ham
mer upon steel.
just then the telephone bell rang
loudly.
Goodness met" exclaimed William,
almost dropping the lamp. Stepping
to the instrument, he put the receiver
to his ear.
rs Dick Russell there ?" asked an I'M
familiar voice.
NO, He's away at work on his gas
engine"
"Will you take message to him at
once?"
Whore you?"
'Never mind me. Here's the mes
sage-it's important. Tell Russell that
the weather clerk wires: Severe frost
tonight. Good-by."
Uncle William gasped and turned to
his wife.
What's it all about ?" she spluttered.
Severe frost tonight" repeated he.
what"
That's what the man said" persist
ed he.
He's crazy" snapped Aunt William.
"Mebbe so. Mebbe. Folks say Dicks
crazy, too. Mebbe we're all crazv."
And Uncle William reached for his
| boots.
What are you goin' to do?"
DO? Why cart this message over
to Dick afore it gets froze on theway."
A tramp Of about 200 yards through
the snow brought Uncle William to the
''gassy madhouse" (as Dicks neighbors
politely called the structure).
who's that?" asked Dicks voice
| from within.
''Me-Uncle BILL
'|What's upe"