Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-05-12
CHAPTER IV.-Continued.


was out Monday, and he says the
the whole place will have to be sold.
He has a good proposition from the
land company, which wants to pave
and improve the whole tract and push
It on the market. for us; but they
must have the house too, for the
situation is valuable and they can
sell it to the Golf club, which will
insure the sale Of all the lots If we
don't take their offer, it means We
shall have to sell it all at a disad-
vantage and perhaps only make the
mortgage. Mother refuses to decide
it for herself and has left it to me.
What shalt I do? I don't Want-to
sell-my home. but there seems no
way to keep it." Miss Cynthia's lips
quivered, but her eyes smiled bravely
down at Miss Selma Lue.
Honey, my heart is jest a-aching
fer you, but there amt nobody can
tell what a mortgage and a Golf club
will do. II worst comes to worst, we
can build another room by tearing
down some lumber often the barn. and
you can bring your ma right here to
tive with me- I would admire to
have her" Miss Selma Lue made
her offer with heroic eagerness. for
she and the invalided Mrs. Jackson
Page had failed to find the accord
which existed between the grocery
owner and the scion of all the Jack
sons and Pages, albeit their few inter-
views had been marked by great cor
aiality for the sake of their common
interest in the conductor thereof.
Miss Selma Lue, you are darling
and l would rather be a soap-boxer
than almost anything; but we shall
have a small competency if we sell
now in the right way. It's giving up
the home-I'm afraid it will kill her
she worries So"
NO, it won't, honey, not when she's
got you-you'd be a set-off against
any kind of trouble Leaving an old
home is a wrench, as I found when /
hitched up and started down from
Warren county; and, Miss Cynthie.
eft graves behind me that I might
ncS never see again in this world.
BuAit looks like the Lord floated mine
and sCharity's mothers ark on the
right mountain, and He'll do the same
by you and your ma Now, don't go
and missrust His wisdom In selecting
mountains"
"Oh, Miss Selma Lue, I knew YOU
would say tkeSright thing about it all.
What would l do without you?" and
Miss Cynthia's slim white hand stole
tn Miss Selma Lue's strong brown
one, whose sympathetic clasp was only
rendered the closer by the smudge
of sorghum Off the Kinney moIasses
pitcher which held their fingers tight
together.
Looks like I couldn't hardly stand
1t II | couldn't git even the edge of
my shoulder under any burden you
was a-carrying, honey. Now, I've got |
something to show you that'H take
your mind often all distractments,
Lay Blossom in her box and come
along Of me to the barn"
Considering its relation to the gro-
Gerry and the Bluff in general the
barn was most ostentatious struc- |
ture. 1t was large and roomy and sat |
on the brow Of the Bluff overIookino |
the river, while the little handful of |
houses that clustered about the gro. |
Gerry seemed stranded at it's feet. r.
had been built for the teams that had |
worked on the dam up the river, and
had become the property of the gro
Gerry owner for a song when the work
that had brought the horses and men
to the settlement was finished. The |
army had moved on, leaving the barn
and the grocery in a sort of guardian
ship Of the few families which elected
to stay and find work on the river or
over III the city. Only the Hill Man
sion OF Mrs. Jackson Page farther I'D
the river on the Bluff had any such |
outlook, and for all it's wide, tall
piliared verandas and spreading wings
1t failed entirely to dwarf the impos-
'ngness of the barn.