Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-12-27


fornia sun and touched with new fires
the ancient bronze iii Daylight's face.
But warmer still was the glow that
came into his cheeks and burned in
his eyes as he saw Dede coming out
the door. riding-whip in hand, clad in
the familiar corduroy skirt and leg
gings Of the old Piedmont days There
was warmth and glow in her own face
as she answered his gaze and glanced
on past him to the horses. Then she
saw Nab. But her gaze leaped back
to the man.
ooh, Elam!" she breathed.
Many persons, themselves city-bred,
and city reared, have fed to the
soil and succeeded in winning great
happiness. In such cases they
have succeeded only by going
through a process of savage disil-
Iusionment But with Dede and Day
light it was different They had both
been born on the soil, and they knew
it's naked simplicities and rawer ways.
They were like two persons, after far
wandering, who had merely come
home again. There was less of the
unexpected in their dealings with ma
ture, while theirs was all the delight
OF Renaissance. What might appear
sordid and squalid to the fastidiously
reared, was to them eminently whole
some and natural. The commerce of
nature was to them no unknown and
untried trade. They made fewer mis-
| takes. They already knew, and it was
joy to remember what they had for
gotten.
And another thing they learned was
that it was easier for one who has
| gorged at the fesh-pots to content
himself with the meagreness Of a
crust, than for one who has known
only the crust. Not that their life
was meagre. It was that they found
keener delights and deeper satisfac-
tions in little things. Daylight, who
| had played the game in it's biggest
| and most fantastic aspects, found
| that here, on the slopes of Sonoma
Mountain, it was still the same old
game. Man had still work to perform,
forces to combat, obstacles to over
come. When he experimental in a
| small way at raising a few pigeons
for market, he found no less zest in
calculating in squads than formerly
when he had calculated in millions.
Achievement was no less achieve
ment, while the process of it seemed
more rational and received the sane
tion Of his reason.
The domestic cat that had gone
wild and that preyed on his pigeons,
he found, by the comparative stand
ard, to be of no less paramount men
ace than a Charles KIinkner in the
field of finance, trying to raid him for
several millions. The hawks and
weasels and 'coons were so many
DOwsetts, Lotions, and Guggenham-
mers that struck at him secretly. The
sea of wild vegetation that tossed its
surf against the boundaries Of all his
clearings and that sometimes crept in
and flooded in single week was no
mean enemy to contend with and sub
due. His fat-soiled vegetabIe-garden
in the nook of hills that failed of its
| best was a problem of engrossing i'm
| pOrtance, and when he had solved it by
putting in draintile, the joy of the
achievement was ever with him He
never worked in it and found the soil
unpacked and tractable without ex-
periencing the thrill Of accomplish
ment
There was the matter of the plumb
ing. He was enabled to purchase the
materials through a lucky sale Of a
| number of his hair brides The work
he did himself, though more than once
he was forced to call in Dede to hold
tight with a pipe-wrench. And in the
end, when the bath-tub and the sta
/ tionary tubs were installed and in
working order, he could scarcely tear
himself away from the contemplation
of what his hands had wrought. The
first evening, missing him, Dede
sought and found him, lamp in hand
staring with silent glee at the tubs.
He rubbed his hand over their smooth
wooden lips and laughed aloud, and
was as shame-faced as any boy when
She caught him thus secretly exulting
in his own prOwess.
1t was this adventure in woodwork
ing and plumbing that brought about
the building Of the little workshop,
where he slowly gathered a collection
of loved tools. And he, who in the
old days, out of his millions, could
purchase Immediately whatever he
| might desire, learned the new joy of
the possession that follows upon rigid
economy and desire long delayed. He
waited three months before daring the
extravaganza of a Yankee screw-driv-
er, and his glee in the marvellous lit
tie mechanism was SO keen that Dede
conceived fortnight a great idea. For
six months she saved her egg-mOney,
which was hers by right of allotment,
and on his birthday presented him
with a turning-lathe of wonderful sim
plicity and multifarious effciencies.
And their mutual delight in the lathe,
which was his, was only equalled by