Middletown transcript., 1908-08-08
STEPHEN WEBsfER's AFFAIRS
nv EDWARD NEWTON FLINT


could see nearly five hundred
acres Of his strong, dense wheat
stretching over the Minnesota
plain in the July twilight. But
the spectacle did not cheer the
farmer.
I Ideclare, he grumbled, I'm the
most unfortunate man living! )!
How we're going to harvest that
grain I don't know.
The Lord will provide some
way, Stephen! shrilled his hag-
gard wife in his deaf ear.
That's what you said last
spring, and I borrowed every
cent I could rake and scrape and
give security for, all to get that
crop into the ground, seeing the
last chance, after the bad year,
was to risk all for a big crop
And the Lord hasn't provided.
I was reckoning to put a second
mortgage on the crop itself for
the cost of saving it, but labor's
going to be scarce, and the
weather's uncertain, and the long
and short of it is that not one
of the money-lending blood-suck-
ers in Sanford-I saw 'em all
to-day-will let me have any
more cash. And so we're ruined
that's all there is to 1t.
The Lord will provide she re-
peated.
Perhaps her husbands mood
had been a little mellowed by his
TRADE, for he replied, more ami
ably, Well, Matilda, [ guess you
must think the Lord expects me
and Stevey to get out and cradle
FIVE hundred acres in the harvest
fortnight. He smiled at his wife
and son.
Young Stephen had been await
ing the improvement in his faith
er's mood, and now he spoke, as
if uttering a mere fancy, Father,
if 7 can get that wheat cut and
punched ready to shock as soon
as any wheat in the county, will
you give me and Alice enough to
go back to school with this winter?
The father had raised his hand
to his 'best ear" in the manner
of chronic deafness now that
hand was thrust out angrlly.
The reference to his daughter
CALLED him, for he had always
meant to give her "the best OF
everything" and now his own
little Alice was helping him.
During the school vacation she
had gone to work in Yields dairy
Enough to 60 to school with!
the farmer cried. Id give you
a clean thousand dollars-not
that it's worth that-but I'd be
safe in saying ten thousand.
What do you want to talk such
nonsense for ? I declare, the
way you've been dreaming and
incoming round lately is discour'
aging, and now you talk about
getting that grain cut! You're
getting worse and worse! and
with a most sour and hopeless
expression, Mr.. Webster looked
out over the field.
I just asked in case anything
should turn up, said Stephen,
quietly!
Turn up! Things don't turn
up unless people turn 'em up!
I'm going to bed rather than
waste time talking such foolish
ness.
Stephen waited till his mother
went, too, and then, hurrying te
the barn, he mounted one of the
two horses, andsgalloped down tc
Yields.
Is that you, Steve? A gentle
yet tired voice asked the ques'
ton as he dismounted.
Yes, Alice. I've come to bring
you good news, and Stephen led
his horse up under the trees by
the gate where his sister stood
Splendid! Tell me quick!
I received a letter to-day from
the Prairie Queen people-they
make binders, you know,-and
they are going to let me manage
their binders in a field trial.
Is that all? I don't see how
that is going to do much good.
Wait till I tell you. You
see, there are eight different
kinds of binders for sale in San
ford, each by a different firm.
The Prairie Queen makes nine.
If I succeed in getting up the
field trial, no one will dare to
stay out. The contest will have
to be on our farm, because we
are only two miles out of San.
ford ; and besides, we have the
largest and best and most for
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