The wageworker., 1910-04-22
BEN A N u
M A RY
By LAWRENCE ALFRED CLAY
% by Associated Literary
Press.)

It began the day Mary Lester was
nine years old and Ben Holmes was
ten. He overlook her on her way to
the little country schoolhouse. whith-
er he was also bound. They were son
and daughter of farmers.
They did not say much to each other
on that mile walk. He had a stick, of
real store gum" which he divided
with her. and she said that If she ever
broke her new slate pencil she would
give him half of it. There might have
been no love but for the red-headed
boy who snatched her half-eaten apple
away at the noon hour. She burst in
to tears over 1t. and Ben Holmes sailed
into the offender and forced his head
into a snowdrift. From that moment
on. she was the vine and he the oak
During four winter terms Ben
Holmes and Mary Lester walked to
school together. and when the snow
was deep he carried her over the
worst places on his back. They felt
themselves engaged" from the day
he licked the red-headed boy. They
used to discuss marriage In the most
sober manner. II was years ahead Of
them, OF course, but II any one had
told them that their minds might un-
dergo a change they would have been
astonished. ,s..
When Mary was 13 she was sent
away to stay with an aunt and attend
a higher school. Ben had to take
his place at farm work. They wrote
each other every week, and the boy
soon discovered that the girl was got
ting ahead Of him. He spent his even
ings catching up. He became his own
teacher and added much to his store Of
knowledge.
At IL. when Mary came home. he
saw a great change in her. but she
could see very little in him. Higher
education hadn't changed her so much.
but mingling with the world had. She
had certain assurance and polish
that Ben regarded with dismay. She
chided him; she corrected him; she
criticised him. Her three months at
home brought little pleasure to him.
and when she went away again for an
other long stay he felt that he had
lost her. A few letters passed, and
then they dropped out of each others
lives. 1t has been so thousands Of
times.
II plowing. sowing. planting and
reaping makes a clodhopper, then Ben
Holmes became one. He had freckles
and sunburns and frostbites and cal
loused hands. If Mary Lester came
home for a few weeks and he called
at the house, he was overpowered.
Night after night he had studied to i'm
prove while others slept. and yet she
had scared above him. She held him
at a distance; she wouldn't talk Of
school days; she smiled at his awkArd-
ness.
1t came to Ben at last that he must
give it up. They called him a smart
young man, but he realized that there
was something that must go with edu-
cation.
He could not quench his love for
the girl he had fought for and carried
on his back and built play-houses for.
He carried It with him every day, but
at the same time he recognized the
hopelessness Of It.
"Mary's home for good, guess" an
nounced his mother one evening as
Ben sat bent over a book.
He had heard SO three days before
but had said nothing.
"She's brought one of her girl
, chums with her."
He had heard that. too. -
"And they say, Bentley say thai
a young feller arrived today who's
going to marry her. He's come to sec
| her father about it. Polly Davis saw
him as he drove up to the house, ant
she says he Is slick as button
Wears an overcoat trimmed with fur
and is rich. She says he will be {
great match"
Ben had been preparing himself To-
the blow, but 1t came with stunning
force after all. The letters in the bool
teeth shut hard.
Polly says they are all going sli
ding down-hill this evening"" continue,
the mother. "The hill road is as slip
perry as ice, and Jabez Turner ha
lent them his big sled and his oxel
to draw it back up hill It's about tim
for 'em to be at 1t now. Why don
you go and see the fun?"
The mother didn't know the sor
She thought the past was the pas
with him. Nothing told her that a
that very moment his love was burr
ing more f1ercely than ever. Go t
join the party? Go even to see ther
from a distance? Not for all the MOI
! ey in the world. He looked at hi
mother in establishment as she SUI
gested it. And, yet, ten minutes late
he laid aside his book, put on his owe
coat and left the house.
The hill was down the road; b
meant to walk in the opposite dire
ton, but he didn't. He turned dow
the road. He did not mean to descen
the hill by the footpath to the railroa
tracks running along the valley, b,
he did that same thing. He did n,
mean to walk west to where the v
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