The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1913-12-25
CHAPTER vIII
THE TRAMP OF THE YOUNG MEN

on q rush Job for the Gem restaurant
whose illumination across the square,
Home Cooking--Chicago Style" was In
his eyes as he kicked the old press
treadle, when Harlan came In. Harlan
had not Intended to see Wiley again,
80 deep was his hurt and humiliation,
but when he crossed the square and
heard the clankety clank OF the News
job department, ne could not resist
old faiths and ardors. Wiley too, would
be nurt II Harlan departed without a
word. So 1t seemed the most natural
thing to lounge I'm, sink down In the
editors chair, while the editor held up
his inky hands a minute to wave them
cheeTily.
And always it was something like
this: Hello, Harlani""
Hello, Wileyt"
'fWere you down at the junction for
h seventeen this evening""
who came in2"
"Old Lady Hicks and that Sheasby
girl--frorn rOttumwa, Billy said
Hash 'em up for the local. Give
Old Lady Hicks q real snifter-her sub
scription Is about out and ! want q
renewal"
So Harlan reached for some copy
paper and scrawled the items, and
looked over the stuff on the local hook.
/" News Notes will be rotten this
week. The brakeman on Ten said his
wife had a baby
Shove 1t In,
"I4don't4 know his name :
"Shoye 1t in anyhow. Splash II Of
thick-joIly him about the cigars and
number 10, and let folks guess NS1o it
Is .g
So Harlan scrawled on while the
editor rehearsed all the news he could
think OF. Tear up some editorial dope
--local option, Saloon must be kept
Fireside. Remember Our Boys.
Outlaw the Unholy Traffic. :
y Murmuered Wiley above the
clankety-clank y
Now, Mr.. Curran had no boys, and
the unholy traffic had piled beer bottles
SO high behind the News fence that
wagons could barely pass; and his
"Home and Preside consisted of one
rotund old lady who. had followed his
haphazard fortunes from Puget Sound
to the Rio Grande and back 10 the
old town, but nevertheless, Harlan pa
tiently denounced the traffic for Ia
stickfuI. 49, r ... #
''Therell be- unused the editor, ban
bury tarts and coffee in a minute
when Aunt Abby comes from prayer
meeting. Arne and Janet will drop in
-itIl be a farewell spree for you, old
boy. I'm glad we had you last, after
all" .''
This was a rare comforting. Harlan
had wanted Ito be distant to Wiley,
but one couldn't, Even Aunt Abby
couldn't, and she ought to know his
worst. He was "a man, like many a
bachelor, who sought the mothering
stimulus of elder women. He was his
gayest and his best with them. Aunt
Abby had followed all the later years
Of his wandering; had homesteaded
with him under the gray low-hanglng
skies of the Dakota winters; she re-
membered the ceaseless winds and
sands of Nevada where he had pros
pected, and the dim puttes Of the
southwest where they had slept under
the stars in lonely COW camps. Al
ways she had saved him from sheer
vagabondia, given the responsibility of
motherhood to his Vagaries, defended
him against town gossip; was proud Of
him against all the world. THAT limb,
Whey II" nc was to her lonley need
of love-. H..
Janet" unused Wiley, land Arne-
and you--that's about all there's been
TO the old town for me. It's been lone
ly here, Harlan-sand I'm a bit gray
around the temples. You three have
made the town more green and fair
and liable"
His eye had an unwonted sparkle to-
41SN 49, Nv hSdsM L ISbCIlllJ a. BIIuII
team drew to the door, and by way of
welcome, with his hail, the editor
hurled a begrimed newspaper directory
at the newcomers feet. A tall,
swarthy-cheeked man with the air Of
the fields upon him, followed Miss
Vance into the shop, The woman sup
srintendent Of schools listened to 'ker
brothers exuberant chatting of the
others for a moment she seemed men
tally taking stock Of the place-Curran
wipfng his hands on an empurpIed
towel, Harlan impaling copy on the
hook; the general ne'sr-do-well atmos-
phsre VI the Rome, Iowa, News.
-an dar'S oofres saia M tss editor bes.
Who likes beer? Nobody. It's uniaw-
full. But there's a case under Aunt Alb
by's bed, and the good old lady, all UNI
suspecting, is at prayer meeting"
We've dined," rejoined Miss Vance,
keep on with your work"
Mr.. Curran was noted for his p~retexts
70 evade work,-which explained a deal
apout the News circulation. Miss
Vance sat down in the swivel chair at
the editors desk which Harlan had va
Gated. She was tailored far beyond
Rome's possibilities even IL Sarah
Covne, the dressmaker, had, since a re-
cent trip to Chicago, changed the leg.
end on her shop window to 'Modiste."
AhIiOTSu ana BrOomed, 80, aggressive,
keen, recerved--the county said II was
not for nothing sas was daughter of
Jak Vance, the political farmer
Jane was accredited to be the most
enectiye campaigner In the courthouse;
n had been elected to her second
term by q splendid majority after hav-
Ing carried her first election to the
courts. The old line party men had
not wanted her, but they had had to
accept a woman school superintendent.
She looked Harlan over with critical
interest; Mrs. Van Hart and High
street had not given her much support.
Arne was poking among Wiley's ex-
changes. snorting militantly now and
tnen. He was on his way back to the
agricultural school In Wisconsin, where
ne absorbed as much radical politics
as soil culture. Ont OF his pockets now
ouiged q great yellow ear OF prize corn
2 q bundle Of congressional speeches.
JAKE Vance arguing about the
square on market days In his old,
moth-eaten. buffalo coat, expound-
Ing his heresies TO the farmers, was
proud Of his two children. Country
pred, there was no "hayseed'' about
them. Out at Cloverland farm they
nad q Telephone. a piano player, a
motor that did nearly everything about
the house and stables, and all the new
tangled devices; and the doubling
farmers always stopped TO see what