Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-12-25
CHAPTER VIII
THE TRAMP OF THE YOUNG MEN

CHAPTER VIII
THE TRAMP OF THE YOUNG MEN
MI. Curran was in his office working
on a rush job for the Gem restaurant
whose Illumination across the square
Home Cooking-Chicago Style" was in
his eye as he kicked the old press
treadle. when Harlan came in. Harlan
had not intended to see Wiley again,
go deep was his hurt and humiliation
but when he crossed the square and
heard the clankety clank of the News
job department, he could not resist
Ole faiths and ardors. Wiley too, would
be nurt If Harlan departed without a
word. So it seemed the most natural
thing to lounge in, sink down in the
editors chair, while the editor held UP
his inky hands a minute to wave them
cheerily.
And always 1t was something like
this: Hello, Harlan!"
Hello, Wiley!"
Were you down at the junction for
the seventeen this EVENING""
Yes"
WHO came in?"
"Old Lady Hicks and that Sheasby
gifl-frcm Ottumwa, Billy said"
Hash 'em up for the local. Give
Old Lady Hicks a real snifter-her sub
scription is about out and 1 want a
renewal"
SO Harlan reached for some cop
paper and serawled the items, and
News Notes will be rotten this
week. The brakeman on Ten said his
Wife a a baby"
Shove it in"
II don't know his name"
Shove it in anyhow. Splash it on
thick-jolly him about the cigars and
number 10, and let folks guess who it
is
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
from u midst. * Home and
Fireside. . Remember Dur Boys.
Outlaw the Unholy Traffic. :
-" Murmuered Wiley above the
clankety-clank.
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 Fireside'' consisted of one
rotund old lady who had followed his
haphazard fortunes from Puget Sound
to the Rio Grande and back to the
old town, but nevertheless, Harlan pa
tiently denounced the traffic for a
stickful. p
"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
it'll be a farewell spree for you, old
boy. I'm glad we had you last, after
This vas a rare comforting. Harlan
had wanted to be distant TO Wiley,
but n couldn't. Even Aunt Abby
couldn't. and she ought to know his
worst. He was u man, like many a
bachelor, who sought the mothering
stimulus of elder ome He was his
gayest Il his best with them. Aunt
Abby had followed all the later years
of his wandering; had homesteaded
with him under the gray l~ow-hanging
skies OF the Dakota winters; she re-
membered the ceaseless winds and
sands or Nevada where he had pros
pected. and the dim Duties of the
southwest where they had slept under
the stars in lonely COW amps AL
ways she had saved him from sheer
v~agabondia, given the respectabiiity of
motherhood to his vagaries, defended
him against town gossip; was proud OF
him against all the world. That limb,
Wiley T." he was to her lonley need
Of love.
Janet" unused Wiley, land Arne-
and y~ou-that's about all there's been
to the old town for me. It's been lone
ly here, Harlan-and 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-
day as he worked. Presently a smart
team drew to the door, M 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-
er1ntendent of chools listened to her
brothers. exuberant chatting of the
others for a moment; she seemed men
tally taking stock of the place-Curran
wiping his hands on an empurpled
towel, Harlan impaling copy on the
hook; the general ne'er-do-well atmos-
phere Of the Rome. Iowa, News.
"Tarts," said the editor,
a n coffee. Maybe beer
ful. But there's a case under Aunt Alb
by's bed, and the good old lady, all I'M
suspecting, is at prayer meeting"
We've dined," rejoined Miss Vance,
keep on with your work"
Mr.. Curran was noted for his pretexts
to evade work,-which explained a deal
about 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 If Sarah
Covne, the ~dressmaker, had, since a re-
cent trip to Chicago, changed the leg
end on her shop window to Modesto
Tailored and groomed. 30, aggressive,
keen, recerved-the county said it was
not for nothing she was daughter OF
Jake Vance, the political farmer
Janet was accredited to be the most
effective campaigner in the courthouse;
h had been elected to her second
term by q splendid majority after hav-
Ing carried her first election to the
courts. h old line party men had
not wanted her, but they had had to
accept a woman school superintendent.
interest; Mrs. Van Hart and High
Arne was poki1g among Wiley's ex-
changes. snorting militantly now and
then. He. was on his way back to the
agricultural school In Wisconsin, where
he absorbed as much radical politics
as soil culture. Out of his pockets now
bulged q great yellow ear Of prize corr
and a 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
bred, there was no "hayseed' about
them. Out at Cloverland farm they
had a telephone, a piano player, a
motor that did nearly everything about
the house n stables, and all the new
tangled devices; and the doubling
farmers alwaya Rtnnnnd IN GOA whaf