Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-07-08


 Best Men Who Got Wheat In Before
 Rain-ColleSe Man Entered In Lists
 Had Pretty Miss sutton's Admirer
 on Next Farm Beaten, but Painted
 at Crucial Moment.
 Although Saline county, in Kansas, has been drenched with rain and many farmers are mourning for their ruined wheat crops, the yield belonging to s. H. Huston is safely stacked, all be- cause his pretty daughter Mabel of fered kisses and hugs to the first three men to do the heaviest work just be- fore the heavy rains set in, says a To- peka (kan.) dispatch.
 At no time for years have men been so hard to get to work in the wheat fields of central Kansas as this year. College boys have tried it, and most of them have stuck to the task, but there are few of them to be had, and the farmers have been obliged to get along with what hands they could pick up.
 The greater part of the Huston wheat was unstacked, and the farmer saw the loss of a crop worth s6,00O staring him in the face when the government reports came that continuous and heavy rain was expected. The loss of his crops meant financial ruin to Illus. ton. and both he and his daughter, who is eighteen years old, took to horse back and rode far and near, gathering up men and offering double wages for any that would go to their farm. But hands were scarce, and others were offering high prices. Things looked as gloomy as the sky above when the hands started for the fields the other morning.
 Unknown. to her father Mabel. who is as pretty a Kansas girl as ever rode a mustang. told the servant she would carry buttermilk to the fields that morning and keep on filling the men up with the grateful drink until every head of wheat was shocked. So she ap- peared in the fields with gallons upon gallons of the cool drink, and after every man had his fill the girl called them around her.
 Boys" she said. bushing to the tips of her pretty ears, "daddy's wheat must be saved before the rain comes or I won't be able to go back to school this fall and you all know how badly I want to have just one season more Of preparation for college So I won't be behind those bright eastern girls.
 Well, am going to offer a prize for the best workers, and its prize that no man has won yet, kisses and hugs for the best men here. To the man who stacks the most wheat today will give three kisses and hug-real old fashioned Kansas girls hug. To the man who is second I will give two kisses, and the third man shall have real hard hug. So please save daddy's wheat
 Never was there such a harvesting in all Kansas as that of the Huston wheat. Every man worked, not as If the crop were his own. but as if it be- longed to Mabel and her college career depended on il. as it really did. The hands to a man refused most gallantly to stop work even for dinner, and for hours the contest seemed so even that any one of q dozen husky fellows might have been the winner. Toward evening il was noticed that three men were leading all the rest, and when Miss Mabel brought the buttermilk again and noticed their progress she grew pinker and pinker and prettier and prettier Finally the contest was seen to be almost tie between Fred Norton. the brawny son of a neighbor, and two young college men who had left their universities earlier than usu- al for the health giving work in the fields.
 Besides the test Of brawn 1t began to be felt that there was another reason for the determined rivalry Of the two pale eastern students. who had over done athletics little, and the boy from the Norton farm. who had desert cd his fathers work to join the lists for MabeTs caresses.
 The way those college youths bus tied that wheat was a caution. No one would have believed It had he not seen one breast the tape in the record break ing relay race and the other lift his shell out Of the water on the long four 1 miles. Finally one fell back a little. and it was between the other and . young Norton. who plainly was work Ing himself to death for love of the ! pretty Mabel IL was nearing The quit . ting hour. and the college man was ahead and looking as pale and undis- turbed as when the race was begun. while Mabel svmpatheticaIly watched . 1nly the heroic struggles Of Norton. !
 Maybe there was tear in her eye. md maybe there wasn't. Anyway the . former varsity scuiler toppIei over in . ] faint. and while they were pouring Tater over him young Norton strug- . -led in a winner by two stacks. There were tears in MsbeI's eyes as she paid the winners and told them he- had sa-esl her father and her too. With Mir Huston as judge she be- itOwe1 the kisses and hugs. the college <. nan HiiraruIously reviving 10 get his hare before tho cheering hands If he ,Jt Gn extra kiss Mabel didn't care nor lid no N-r -1z No-Ton aur-- fo- ba