Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1911-11-21

LeilcII DllliiIuS.
Joan took hold Of the household witt
no uncertain grip. revOIutionizing
things till Sheldon hardly recognized
the place. For the first time the bun
galow was clean and orderly. Nc
longer the house boys Ioafed and did
us little as they could: while the COOK
complained that head belong him
walk about too much" from the siren
nous course in cookery which she put
him through. Nor did Sheldon escape
being roundly lectured for his lazi.
ness in eating nothing but timed pro-
visions. She called him muddler
and a slouch. and other invidious
names. for his slackness aud his dis.
regard of heaIthful food.
She sent her whalebOat down the
coast twenty miles for lines and or.
anges. and wanted to know scathingly
why said fruits had not long since
been planted at Bera nde, while he was
beneath contempt because there was
no kitchen garden. Mummy apples.
which he had regarded as weeds.
under her guidance appeared as appe-
tizing breakfast fruit. and, at dinner,
were metamorphosed into buildings
that elected his unqualified admira-
ton. She or her sailors dynamited
fish daily. while the Balesuna natives
We're paid tobacco for bringing In
oysters from the mangrove swamps.
Among other things. she burned the
pestiIential hospital. quarreIed with
Sheldon over the deed and in anger
set her own men to work building n
new and what she called decent hos
pitaI. She robbed the windows of their
lawn and muslin curtains. replacing
them with gaudy calico from the trade
store and made herself several gowns.
When she wrote out list OF goods
and clothing for herself. to be sent
down to Sydney by the first steamer.
Sheldon wondered how long she had
made up her mind to stay.
She was certainly unlike any woman
he had ever known or dreamed Of SO
far as he was concerned. she was not
woman at all! She neither ianguished
nor blandished. No feminine lures
We're wasted on him. BE might have
been her brother. or she his brother.
for all sex had to do with the strange
situation. Despite his warnings about
crocodiles and sharks. she persisted In
swimming in deep water OF the
beach. nor could he persuade her.
when She was in the boat. to let one Of
the sailors throw the dynamite when
shooting fish. She argued that she was
than they and that. therefore. there
was less liabili' of an accident If she
did the shooting. She was to him the
most masculine and at the same time
the most feminine woman he had ever
met
a source OF continual trouble between
them was the disagreement over
methods Of handling the black boys.
She ruled by stern kindness. rarely
rewarding. never publishing. and he
had to confess that her own sailors
worshippcd her. while the house boys
were her slaves and did three times
as much work for her as he had ever
got out of them She quickly saw the
unrest of the contract labOrers and
was not blind to the danger. always
imminent. that both she and Sheldon
ran. Neither of them ever ventured
out without revolver. and the sailors
who stood the night watches by Joans
grass house were armed with rifles.
But Joan inisted that this reign Of ter
ror had been caused by the reign Of
fear practised blythe white men. She
had been brought up with the gentle
Hawaiians. who never were illtreated
nor roughly handled. and she general
tied that the Solomon islanders. I'm.
der kind treatment. would grow gentle.
One evening Il terrific uprOar arose
in the barracks. and Sheldon. aided
by .Joan's sailors. succeeded In res
cuing two women whom the blacks
were beating to death &c save them
from the vengeance OF the blacks they
We're guarded in the cook house for
the night. They We're the two women
who did the cooking for the iaborers.
and their offense had consisted Of one
of them taking a bath in the big cal
dron in which the potatoes were boiled
The blacks were not outraged from the
OF cleanliness: they often
took baths in the caIdrons themselves.
The trouble lay in that the bather had
been low. degraded. Wretched female,
for to the Solomon islanders all fe-
males are low. degraded and wretched.
ITO be continued.