Middletown transcript., 1908-08-15
STEPHEN WEBSTER'S AFFAIRS
BY EDWARD NEWTON FLINT


good reason, and that he will
explain it all to you. You don't
understand Frank.
Well, there, never mind, said
Stephen. 1t isn't too late yet.
But I must hustle tomorrow. !
will have to go to Sanford and
let them know that Crowbeach
has agreed to compete, so they
can get ready. I'll have to write
my firm and telegraph an order
for the machines. We shall come
out all right yet.
And now you can tell father.
It will cheer him up so.
No, it would not be safe. There's
too many a slip between the cup
and the lip, Alice. Father would
be dreadfully broken up if he
should be filed with hope and
then cast down. We must just
keep quiet till the last day. I've
been afraid he would find out,
but he's so deaf that he can't
hear chance talk, and nobody
thinks Of telling him what every.
body outside the family supposes
he knows; and besides, he hasn't
been into Sanford since the day
he failed to borrow on the crop,
Oh, but won't he be pleased !!
Take care; Alice. It's danger
GUS to count unmatched chickens.
Suppose the Prairie Queens
should not get here on time.
Then the whole thing would be
off and fathers disappointment
would be terrible.
A week before the contest all
the competitors were ready ex-
cept Stephen himself. The very
thing he hadlightIy feared seemed
to have come to pass, and Alice
was in despair again. The Prairie
Queens had been shipped, but
day after day passed and they
did not arrive in Sanford.
kilograms began to fly back
and forth between Stephen and
the makers. At last he received
word that the machines had been
sent off on a branch line by mis-
take and side-tracked for a week.
1t was doubtful if a second con-
signment could reach him in
time. His firm added that they
we're giving the freight depart
ment no rest; but Stephen was
not getting any rest, either.
There were now only two days
remaining before the date of the
field trial.
On the evening of the last day
b ut one before tn e contest
Stephen sat on the veranda with
his father and mother.
Well, 1 cal late we nights well
give up completely! groaned Mr..
Webster.
Why so? asked Stephen, whose
forced cheerfulness contrasted
painfully with his thin, tired
face. The anxiety was plainly
telling on him.
Why so! fretted the deaf farm
er. Haven tall my efforts failed?
I've got no credit. Can't lay my
hands on a thing that isn't mort
gagged, and even if I could, I
couldn't get any horses. There's
not a horse in this part of the
state that you can buy, borrow
or rent. Hired help wants two
dollars a day and board, and
wants it cash. And I've got a
boy that might have figured out
some way of getting through our
troubles if he was as wide awake
as I was when l was a young
man and not deaf.
Stephen flushed.
Have you forgotten the offer
you made me of a thousand dol
lars if I'd get the wheat cut? he
asked, quietly.
No, I haven't forgotten your
foolishness. 1t does seem as if
you were worse than ever, Steve.
Here everything's going to rack
and ruin, you more than half the
time off galliyanting, and now
you're harping on that string
again.
| still hope to get that thous-
and dollars, father.
Hope! Hope! Sitting round
the place, hoping! And with an
indignant snort the old man
stamped into the house. Stephen
sighed with even a worse fear
than that his binder contest
might not come off. 1t seemed
as if his fathers mind might be
unhinged.
Only one day more now inter-
vened before the trial, and
Stephen was at the depot. 1t
la4a -, H. - fk a,.l