Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1912-02-02
a
Sweetheart
BY LAURA r. ADAMS

world excepting his own shadow
And he has No Trespassing' signs
nailed up on every oak tree on his
place, so you can't miss them. Pick
ali the berries you want down in
the pastures, but don't go up the
hill"
s'What will happen if we do, Mrs.
Perkins?" asked Joyce, interestedly,
as she put on sunbonnet and took
her pail from the porch step.
s'Does he bite or bark, or both ?"
II don't think anybody round
here has been curious enough to
find out" laughed stout Mrs. Per
kins. II wouldn't climb the wall
if were YOU"
"Maybe he'll climb the wall when
he sees u.s." retorted Nan, saucily.
s'Thcre arc five against one. We're
not afraid. Come along, girls"
Mrs. Perkins watched them pass
through the barnyard, and go down
the lane to the little rock bridge
over the brook, then up towards the
pasture land, where the huckleberry
bushes grew thickly. It was good
two miles to the old manor house.
The girls would hardly walk that
far, she thought. If they did, they
would have to take the consequences.
She had warned them.
She went back into the dining
room to clear the breakfast table,
and her placid face looked worried.
1t was her first summer with Nan
home from college, and lot of girl
chums besides, and she felt like the
goose with the golden egg, fully
Matched out. Nan was a golden girl,
too. It sometimes seemed to her
mother as though all her own girl
hood longings and ambitions were
embodied in,the one chick Fate had
granted her.
"And since pa died." as she
would say, comfortably, eve have
been real well situated. Pa was
pretty close. They called him Pen
ny Perkins always up here, but it's
been good thing for Nan and me
that he did pinch the pennies stead
of scattering them like some of the
men folks, no names mentioned, of
course"
So Nan had been sent to college.
It was her first year, and now in va
cation time she had swept back to
the farm with a cluster of girl
chums, and there was a new piano in
the sitting-room that would have
made pa turn square over in his
grave, and general air of sunny
renovation and cheerfulness all over
the place.
The only shadow was Barty Yeo-
land up at the old manor house.
There had always been trouble be-
tween pa and Barty, trouble over
fence and road rights and timber
rights and spring rights, until she
wished he would either sell cut or
make up.
Nobody understood Yeoland. He
had bought the manor house about
nine years ago, brought up some
Japanese servants from New York
with him, and settled down to the
nearest imitation of a country gen.
tleman that America affords. He had
no idea of repose, or leisure. He
filed his barns with thoroughbreds,
his kennels with bench winners, and
his library with rare editions, and
his heart remained vacant. When
the heart is empty the life is. Bar
ty quarreled with his neighbors,
spent his money like water, ran
down to New York twice week,
and to Europe every three months,
and was thoroughly unhappy and
discontented.
81 don't believe that he knows a
good huckleberry from a wasp's
nest" said Joyce, as the girls went
higher up through the hills. care
we on his land yeti"
eyes, ma'am, said Nan, happily.
"Crossed IT half a mile back. Didn't
you notice the mo Trespassing sign
on the oak tree? Aren't the berries
fine here in the shade? Look at
that lot. Here goes me- as little
Jimmie says down in the village.
Oh, girls, girls!"
They all tried to reach her as she
stumbled and fell on the ground
moaning with pain.
otis my-my foot" she faltered.
"I'm awfully faint. Don't be
frightened, girls. 1 think I stepped
III trap"