The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-11-12
TIE EVENING STORY
Digging the Potatoes.
nv Hnrl T4-1rs-

There's an acre of 'taters that orter
be dug while this fine weather lasts, ard
can't bend over 'thout hollering''
But said the Lord has His ways"
| And I've got mine, and my way is to
lay by thirty bushels of 'taters for winter.
They don't want Eaters up in heaven bnt
we DO down here. Don't know soul ths
l can hire, and there hain't been a tramp
Flint and his wife, farmer folks, were
taking as a girl of nineteen passed around
the house and stood in the open kitchen
door. Good-looking and we'll dressed-any
one could have told at a glance that she
lived elsewhere than the country.
| Flint.
Lord, gal, but howdy do?" followed
| the husband.
| or two" smiled che girl. 1.-The Conserva-
tory doesn't open until late this year. Both
| well I see.''
You don't see anything of the kind, >
| replied the farmer.
Now he's going to blame the Lord =
| warned the wife.
''Nuthin of the sort I'm jest a-going
to say that I've got the meanest, pesl1yest
| darnedest old lame back to be found in all
1 the country, and out there is an acre of
the .purtiest Eaters waiting to be dug and
| put in the bins down cellar. If the rains
come On before my back gets well I shan t
| save later. There orter be sixty BUSH
els "No see any trannps along the road?'
"'Course not. Hain't one within a hun
dred miles O. here. Consarn it, think of
| the millions of heather galloping around
IN Africa and not one here!'
Uncle DanI. let me see the field" said
''Of course. There she be, to the left of
the barn. Jest an acre and the best sIle
| in the state.''
YOU'D hire some one if you could?''
| "Quicker'n scat
by the day?"
| ''A es. any other way
| well, Row much will you give a bushel
to have the potatoes dug and put in tho
cellar?'
'Lemme see! Lemme see. Say, Til give
Is cents a bushel.''
I'll take iti''
Both the farmer and his wife cackled
over the joke, but the girl was serious as
| she said:
Yes. ri see that the potatoes are dug
and binned at your figures. hope there'II
be 2 hundred bushels instead of sixty
| Who's going 70 do the work?''
Never you mind. Let me run back and
see lAunty. Gotta hoe of courseT
| Yes, but a gal can't dig
She was running away. but she WAS
back in half an hour in her oldest dress
and the sunbonnet her aunt wore when
doing garden work, looking very beconl-
ingly over her chestnut curls.
Now, then, where's the hoe?" she
asked as she moistened the palms of her
hands.
What you a-rneaning?" asked the bus
band and wife in chorus.
'I'1o ready for the work.
But GAL
eff I don't do it satisfactorily you
! needn't pay a cent. Where is the hoe?''
Five minutes later she was hauling the
man would. and after watching her dig
for few minutes, Uncle Daniel crept
back !!A. to the house to say to his wife:
Got money in the bank and great educa-
| ton, and don't belong with such PLAIN
people as we are and yet she is going to
Jean amt one of the stuck-ups," re-
Piled the wife. IF she lost all her money
work as a hired gal. Wonder what the
digging away?''
What was thought did not come to their
ears, except in one instance. Miss Jean
had been at work for two hours when
young man came driving along with a
horse and buggy She had straightenec
up for a moments rest, and she saw THAI
he had an absent-minded look on his face.
His gaze turned toward her and he gave
pull on the reins and stared She began
digging again turning her back toward
him. and after a couple of minutes she
realized that he had hitched his horse,
climbed the fence and was advancing upon
her. He stopped almost at her elbow but
it was thirty seconds before she looked
up and queried:
well, sir?''
ct wantd to ask-ask-'
''Yes?'
THAT is, I wanted to say that those
were-were nice potatoes
Very nice" replied the girl, as she
I believe Mr.. Flint lives herer'
Eyes, SIR
but, I didn't know he had-had
a.
Daughter" she helped him out, but
added nothing more.
The young man cleared his throat and
dug his toes into the soil and pulled up
the vines of a potato hill, and after keep
ing him in suspense until he was mental y
calling himself idiot, she Strengthened
up and took a fair look at him. He wasn't
bad to look upon. She put him down as
young lawyer or doctor He had evident
O a sudden
barrassment was all his side. There
was timidity instead Of holiness in his
looks.
MY name is Charles Mortimer" he
said. as he suddenly remembered the con-
ventional.
''And my name is Miss Jean Russell Let
me ask you. Mr.. Mortimer about how
many potatoes you think your family will
require for the winter?'
But the girl laughed in his face and
he had to laugh with her. 1t was uncon-
'But if you are not Mr. FIint's daugh-
ter he said as he took the hoe from her
and began digging at a hill, how comes
IT that you are out here doing mans
He is laid up with lame back
And I've taken the digging by the
you don't sayr'
And could have dug a whole bushei
while talking with you.'' as she reached
And | beg pardon. I will go this mo
had taken this digging by the bushei
How many bushels will there be?"
about sixty, and it is fifteen cents a
'sUr1! 1 seel I'll go to the house after
basket. You dig and IN carry: Wen be
I'll give my share to a poor widow
Miss Jean advanced seventeen objections
tn ext seconds. they