Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-02-06
Gertrude 5 Grove.
BY Priscilla Leonard.
lR57525a5151525751S1515l

By Priscilla Leonard.
1.-TWO hundred and fifty dollars on
the sixteenth of March, said Ger
trude, wrinkling up her forehead.
''And here it is February, Dick, and
we have only one hundred and ten.
We've gone without new clothes all
the year; we've eaten only what we
couldn't sell; we've been equal to all
the articles on How to Live on Ten
Cents a Week."
Indeed we have!" growled fifteen
year-old Dick I'VE could run a vege-
tartan restaurant on our experience.
I never want to see a. turnip again,
or a bowl of mush There's been
enough mush cooked in this house
to float a battleship-and neither OF
us ever did like mush, either. AS for
clothes, I can save the farm the ex-
pense of a scarecrow, anyway" and
he held up one boyish arm, the shah
by cOatsleeve far outgrown by the
muscular young wrist. "The advan-
tages Of poverty, as school of great
ness, ought to make up for it all, OF
course, but
There was an eloquent pause. Ger
trude began figuring again, for the
twentieth time, on a scrap of paper.
ST wouldn't mind so much" she
said, disconsolate1y, eff we'd had our
chance and failed. But 1 can't get
my chance.
There are the chickens" she went
on. 'If I could afford even fifty dol
lars to put into settings of eggs and
weather tight accommodations and
enclosed yards, could make money.
There's the trolley-line coming this
spring right by the foot of the lane,
so that we can market the eggs and
chickens in the city, which we never
could do before, because the horse is
too old to drive in and out twice a
week and do the farm work besides.
With your fancy vegetables and my
chickens we could make this place
pay by spending a little. Instead of
that, we have to strip everything to
get the interest on the mortgage to-
gether and pay off the notes-and eV-
en- then we can't do it, !"
There's only fifty dollars left on
the notes" said Dick, encouragingly
"Get old Slater to renew them
again.
He won't" said Gertrude %As
long as this farm was off in the back
woods he didn't care. But the trolley
changes all that Mr.. Slater told me
last week he had waited long enough
for his money. He is going to fore
close-he said as much-unless we
can raise the money for both notes
and interest. He wants the farm. He
thinks it's worth having, Dick. That's
the hardest part of it; it is worth hav-
ing, just sa we have to lose it." And
Gertrude's head went down in her
hands in despair.
Dick looked at his sister in dismay.
She was only four years older than
he. but she had been mother as we'll
as sister to him for so long that he
looked up to her strength and ability.
His father had been dreamy,
thriftless man who had come back
to the old farm from the city for his
health, and whose creed had been
DnaC UnlnSS MOuIu last lis IlL1e.
But Gertrude! The place had already
prospered better since Mr.. Hender-
sons death, through her energy. An
other year would have seen them
through the worst of the debts, with
a little indulgence on the old money
lenders part If Gertrude gave up,
If Gertrude felt the fight was hope
less. then indeed the crisis was des-
perate! Dick felt he must say some
thing.
eve can sell the horse and-and
the furniture, if it comes to that, "
be said.
1--WE can't farm without Rex, and he
wouldn't bring anything to speak of.
One hundred and forty dollars more
before the sixteenth of March, Dick,
rye lain awake and gone over every
thing we have in the world to sell,
and seventy-f1ve dollars is the very
most. even if anybody wanted to buy.
We haven't any relations that aren't
as poor as we are, and father never
had a rich friend, nor mother either.
All we've got is the farm, and 1t has