Sharp County record., 1903-05-01
Where the Man
with the H0eWOn
BY EDWARD q. CLARK.

save Il favored few knew why 1t
happened this time. There is a little
sunburn in this story, but no yarnish,
and let those who like leCquercd
tale turn the page. She was a bud
last winter and this winter she was
married. Most of the buds stay on
the stem a little longer than that,
but considering how many there
were who wanted her, the quick
plucking and bearing away is not TO
be wondered at in anything save in
the personality of the flower lover
who did the picking.
Frances Maryin's father had no
money, but he held a place in So
ciety by force of intellect and family,
There are not as many of those
cases as there used to be. The girl
was beauty. If a novel writer were
telling about her he would say she
was regal. James Parker, stock
broker, was not novel writer, but
he thought Frances was regal, never
thelcss. lie had a thought of this
kind from the moment he saw her
Parker followed Miss Maryin's move
ments as closely as he did the tape
in the stock ticker. lie was mem
ber Of every club in sight, and he
drove aud rode, and did all the other
things that II man of wealth in So
,ciety does when he knows how
James Parker was a catch. Every
body said so, and the fact was pretty
strongly impressed upon the Marvin
family, bar Marvin perc, who didn't
care whether Parker was catch or
not, for Frances was to be allowed
to make her own choice. Parker be-
came the girls shadow. He paid
court, however, unobtrusiycly and
with perfect tact. Frances was fiat
tered a bit by the attentions of this
man, for whom all the other
had made cast, to use piscatorial
.simile, and had failed to get a strike.
Now, there was as well as James
Parker one John Meadowcraft.
Meadowcroft had big truck farm
out beyond Bowmanville. Curious
thing, but Meadowcroft worked his
farm himself. lie was a big fellow,
something more than a tritle awl;-
ward, but with fine head and a
good 'ace. He had an education and
no capital except that which was
represented by some acres of onion,
carrot and potato beds and some
hundreds of square feet Of glass, un-
der which the roses and carnations
reached perfection when the winter
blasts howl and the optimistic snow
bunting whistles in the fields. John
M&dowcroft was a garduate of the
Amherst agricultural college, Just
what had turned him to farming peo-
pie did not generally understand. \
good guess would have made it that
Meadowcroft loved the country bet
ter than the town and took to gar.
dening so that he could live at all
times where he could smell the soil
and see some clouds besides those Of
smoke go drifting by.
One summer day number of
young people drove out beyond Bow
manulle to see the massed color and
beauty of a great field of flowers
which the newspapers had made pic
lures of and written about. 1t was
"thc thing to go ont to that spot OF
loneliness during that month of bios
SONS II was there that Frances
Marvin first saw John Meadowcroft
farmer. He had II pretty place for {
home. 1t was naturally pretty, ant
John Meadowcroft knew how to en-
hance its attractivcness. james
Parker was there that day, and he
ing man of acumen and wnrldl,
wisdom he saw that Meadowcroft
the farmer thought that France
Marvin was more to he admired THAI
any flower of his field; love them al
though he did, from the tiniest bios
som to the big Haunting peony.
Meadowcroft had friends in tn
city They were of some of the goo,
old New England stock, who in thei
earlier days had known his fathe
and mother Meadowcroft had wa
of overcoming obstacles. His friend
say that some day he will be GROWN
green chrysanthemums, and will d
it without feeding the earth wit
dyes. At any rate, he met Miss Maj
vim again and then again. She wa
rather amused than otherwise at tn
attentions Of this farmer man." a
her mother called him, There is som,
thing in sincerity that wins a wa
in all kinds of things, and tinall
Frances Marvin grew to like Joh
Meadowcroft
One day Frances had been shoppin
with her mother. They had no ca
riuge, and the street cars were luXu
ious enough for them. They me