Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-12-18
CHAPTER VII
PIGS N u

When a man is so and has lived well;
~nen he has had money without moil-
ing and honor without envy; has re-
eeived and amplified to the full a her
atage OF the best without effort n
without price; when youth and matur-
5ty have been chastened and nodded
by that fine. rugged American tradition
which began with the founding of Har-
yard and the jamestown planters n
followed easily the fighting line Of pio-
neers as III frontiers of the republic
we're INSTRUMENTATION one has. indeed,
bad. ~righteously and wholesomely. all
ehere is to be had, there is apt to come
IN arrest Of development. There comes
D GOODNESS of blood. a reserve Of faiths,
2 caution of more than age and the
inner usage. One will discover at least
one family Of this sort in every small
town Of the mid west. which is Of and
pet apart from the local aristocracy of
Tho soil enriched. the banker, the ro-
Ger. the lawyer and landholder; a fam
~ with an eastern tradition Of the
oest-New England or Virginia. pre-
tension to the elegance Of culture; q
Sroup. which. while easily the leaders.
PITS in q state OF correct isolation lest
their honorable in~dividualism be tram
blood.
h Van Harris. migrating leisurely
behind thets star of empire. had beheld
par the dust and shouting; they had
been formed by social forces that had
Fun their fire Of youth. that New Eng
and state OF mind of a~nte-slavery days
which had once been the national con-
science. but was now vestigial and sta
nc. The importing Of hungrier races
20 the mid west. who q scratched
The bleak prairies. finding the fat and
Virgin lands now gone; the surge Of
ihe political revolts Of the Miss
0Q1nnt HnffIorH TINA rord 0Oo{r fr0yo
ihe days Of populism to the present;
the pathos and the idealism OF all this
lager building. had not touched them.
Fheir county. n OF the Iowa reserve.
had felt family the thunder Of the
awakening; the dingy offices Of the
kroup of the best people" so long that
they seemed the hereditament Of q
blass and q leadership.
Their were younger men who grew
pp to feel vaguely the lapse between
What was best in the days of their ia
piers and the needs Of today. Harlan
Van Hart. himself. had discerned Curl
lnviron Of his fathers example and
he new. troublous. social conscience.
b his debates Of high school, his
oungtngs about Wiley Curran's news
etand. his friendship with Arne Vance,
ION Of old Jake, the political farmer"
No County 3 LAESl ne naO
wondered at it. The new movement
= no hunger rebellion of the cities,
phe mid west vas enriched-why, then.
the outcry?
Harlan VA packing for his depart
re. He thought rather gr1mly Of the
ourney east. Elsie would be on the
rain on her way to school. also. and
10 would have to talk to her. Elsie
Ind all the town were curious with
kome story regarding him and Aurelie
Nndstrom-nothing definite, but all
he more perplexing for that. Harlan
bad slowly famed since last night with
: resentment new in the genial COM
ing was lone he sat by the window
where he could see the red and gold
nligree Of the sugar naples thinly COW
ertng the rock face Of Eagle Point back
pf the town. Today a blue haze en-
seloped the highest pinnacle. Some
where. out Of this lazy freedom. a COW
oell dnkled: 1t was Saturday, and he
knew the boys were gathering wild
crab apples up along Sinsinawa in the
hills and routing rabbits out of the
Fence corners He felt immeasurably
old some way, and Of Of all this kind
" prosiness. He had an inclination to
climb to the hills and then checked it
with a bitter refusal-the hills and all
lhls autumn glory were a part Of her
and the inextriceble confusion Of
wrong and right. duty and honor. into
which he was plunged. He was angered
at his mother; he was enraged at Au-
relic. He had asked her to give up this
nally business OF her prize winning, and
she had sturdily refused at the last.
His mother. his class, his tradition, ca
reer. Harvard and the laval had to
do with his intolerable sense OF re-
bellion and defeat. Something was
inevitably wrong. perhaps with him
oelf. Perhaps. he did not even love
Aurelie 80 much-it was hummer mad
ness as his mother had said: but he
1eat q shame that he would allow this.
y man. he told himself. would smash
his way through to win. II he greatly
desired; but he was = Van Hart and
they. not given to that sort Of
thing. The would cody consider a
BLOW. .
He had intended to 90 down to the
drug store corner where the fellows
usually met to smoke and chaff and
grind out airs on Playter's photograph,
while groups Of girls came In from
school OF shopping to buy sodas. He
would meet them all in the frank COM
fadeship of the towns way, walk home
With one. or loiter al the high school
football practice. There were any num-
ber OF ways to spend ones last after
noon in the old town where one was
% q favored son.. His IA
Their was at court and his mother at
her club. Blu he had a curious disin-
clination to idle around the square, He
took q notion to dress for dinner. al
though there were to be no guests. His
8ather did 10 occasionally in their home
lite: 1t was understood by the Van
Warts as an assertion of. old and real
standards. There were but nine fami-
Hes In Rome who even dined at night
and these nine definitely fixed the So
c1al life. People who dine at 6 do not
dine in shirt sleeves.
Harlan was going to dress for the
last home dinner. It would divert him
from his inexplicable dissatisfaction.
perhaps. He looked about his room
1t the trophies OF his underestimate
dAys-banners, dance programs. Ia.
vOrs. his tennis racquets, fraternity
parchments-hung as he had cherished
th0in. Now he felt an intolerance OF
this sophomore display. He promised
that when he came back next fall all
this truck should go to the garnet. It
ghould be q mans room. for today he
3elt no more the boy. He would be the
man; something had cone to him In
his bitterness, his f1rst ~bewilderment.
that told him he must be a man now
and not the lovesick youth. d tho
la1rfty he had among all sorts Of people.
He recalled ~curiously now how his
m0tker always contrtyed that he. Apend
~ time with the right sort Of psopls;