Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1907-02-26

lue UOtulOeS ana Tie corn.
The filly ceased to take food and
sickened for time after the dam left
her. Trove lay in the stall nights and
gave her milk sweetened to her liking.
She grew strong and playful and for
got her sorrow and began to follow him
like dog on his errands up and down
the farm. Trove went to school in the
autumn-"select school," it was called.
A two mile journey 1t was by trail, but
full three by the wagon road. He
learned only a poor lesson the first
day, for on coming In sight Of the
schoolhouse he heard rush of feet be-
hind him and saw his FLY charging
down the trail. He had to go back
with her and lose the day. thought
dreadful to him, for now hope was
high and school days few and precious.
AT first he was angry; then he sat
among the ferns, covering his face and
sobbing with sore resentment. The
little FLY stood over him and rubbed
her silky muzzle ON his neck and kicked
up her heels in play as he pushed her
back.
Next morning he put her behind n
fence, but she went over it with the
ease of wild deer and came bound
ing after him. When at last she was
shut in the box stall he could hear her
calling, half mile away, and it made
his heart sore. Soon after moose
freed him on the trail and held him
there for quite halt q day. Later he
had to help thrash and was laid up
With the measles. Then game rain and
flooded fats that turned him off the
trail: Years after he used to say that
work and weather and sickness and
distance, and even the beasts of the
field and wood, resisted him In the way
Of learning.
He went to school at Hillsborough
that winter. His time, which Allen
gave him in the summer, had yielded
some $45. He hired a room at 80 cents
a week. Mary Allen bought him q
small stove and sent to him in the
sleigh dishes, a kettle, chair, bed, pill
low and quilt and a supply Of candles.
She Surveyed him proudly as he was
going away that morning In Decem-
Der.
Folks may call We handsome" she
said. They'd like to make fool of We,
but you go on bout yer business an
act as II We didn't hear"
He had figure awkward as vet, but
fast shaping to comeliness. Long, light
hair covered the tops Of his ears and
fell to his collar. His ruddy cheeks
were bit naler that morning, the
curve in his lips little drawn; his
blue eyes had begun to ALI and the
dimple in his chin to culver Slightly as
he kissed her who had been as a moth
err to him. But he went away laughing.
He got a job in the mill for every
Saturday at IS cents a day and soon
thereafter was able to have q necktic
and n pair Of fine boots and barber
now and then to control the length of
his hair,
Trove burnt the candles freely and
was able, but never brilliant, in his
work that year owing, as all who knew
him agreed, to great modesty and
small confidence. He wasa kindly, big
hearted fellow and had Wit and 4
knowledge 9f animals and of wood,
craft that made him excellent COM
pany. His schoolboy diary has been Of
great service to all with wish to un-
derstand him. On faded leaf in the
| old book one may read as follows:
+ have received letters in the handwrit-
Ing Of girls. unsigned, They think they
are IN love with me and say foolish
things know what they're up to. They
are the kind my mother spoke of-the kind
that set their traps for fool, and when
he's caught they use him for thing to
laugh at. They're not going to catch me.
Expenses for seven days have been sl.l4.
Clint Mccormick spent 90 cents to take
his girl to show. and I had to help him
through the week. I told him he ought
to love Caesar less and Rome more.
Then follows the odd entry without
which it is doubtful IL the history Of
Sidney Trove could ever have been
written. AT least only a guess would
have been possible, where now Is GER
| tainty. And here Is the entry:
Since leaving home tho men Of the dark
have been very tr0uhlesoiRs;., They wake
me about every other night, and some
| times I wonder what they mean.
Now an odd thing had developed in
the mystery Of the boy. Even before
he could distinguish between reality
and its shadow that we see in dreams
he used often to start up with a loud
cry of fear in the night, When small
boy, be used to explain 1t. briefly by
saying, The men in the dark" Later
he used to say, "The men outdoors in
the dark" At ten years Of age he
went off on three days journey with
the Aliens. They put up In a tavern
that had many rooms md sta,rways
ana large windows: was q while
after bis return Of An evening, before
candlelight, when a gray curtain Of
dusk had dimmed the windows. that lie
first told the story, soon oft repeated
and familiar, of 1.-The men in the dark
lat least he went as far us lie knew.
II dream" he was wont to say in
after life, "that am listening in the
still night alone. l am always alone.
I hear q sound in the silence, Of what
| tanhot be sure. I discover then, or
seem to, that I stand In o dark room
md tremble with great fear, of what
! do pot know: walk along swiftly
IN bare feet, ! am so fearful of making
a noise. I am feeling, feeling, my
hands out in the dark. Presently they
| touch a wall and follow it and then
discover that am going downstairs
II Is 0 long journey. At last I apn in