The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-20
THE EVENING STORY
The Fore RUNNERS.

perate1y wicked. She was. barring
stage aspirations, strictly normal
young person. Being thus normal she
liked things to happen. If they would
not happen of themselves, clearly it
was somebody's duty to make them.
An inspiration inevitably demands
a confidante. Daisy chose Lou Graves
and spent an hour talking with her.
AS a consequence, the two spent the
night together at the Graves house.
They went upstairs very early-a lit
tie after s oclock-but notwithstand-
| ing came down to late breakfast mani
testify sleepy-headed. They even
yawned when Miss Patience Huff
burst in upon the breakfast table to
say excited1y:
| Have you heard the news? Some
body's coming. Sure! Them very
words are wrote everywherei On
the fences, the sidewalks, the gate
posts-even on the blackboards at
school, and the sections board at
| church. Now, will you-will any
body-ten me what it means? I'm
less somebody does tell ne-tell me
a straight tale, at that-In be GER
tain it's witchwork."
| 'F'ie, Miss Patience. You know
there are no such things as witches!
They've been out of date at least two
hundred years." Daisy said, buttering
her fourth biscuit.
| Lou sighed heavily. "I wish I
could believe in witches--or any
thing" she said. Living as we do
here in Riverhead, or rather vegetat-
ing, it's hard to understand doing
anything beyond just breathing
| Somebody isn't coming-cause
he's come, in benzine buggy, red
as bloody murder" the Graves boy,
Ben by name, cried, sticking his head
inside the door and popping it out
gain.
where? You're fibbing. Come
Il h ,lr nd fo11 ft1o fT-T1f h nd
Daisy demanded in the same breath,
making a Joint rush after Ben.
| This brought them together upon
| the front porch as the benzine buggy
swept past. 1t was actual-and very,
very red, they looked at each other,
paling a little, then, with a glance at
their kimona-ed plight, darted inside.
Safe in Louis chamber they gresped
hands, and rocked back and forth,
| laughing breathlessIy, and chanting
| in whispers: I'VE did it! We did it!
| But how? How on earth? %
The answer was-they had not done
| ~ Though it was some time before
| they und erstood. The henzine buggy
| was nothing more occult than wash
| ing machine. Young Hawley, who
| rode in it. with the help of a grim
| eyed chauffeur. was a college man
| intent upon earning the expenses of
| a senior year. He had literary lean
| him doubly. Suffering across coun-
| try, stopping at likely farmsteads,
| outings up at sleepy villages, and
making himself free of the store
| crowds would give him an insight
/ into humanity in the raw. He had a
| vast belief in primitive excellence
| indeed, he had already in his own
| mind ranged himself as the Tolstoi of
| the American farm.
! He had struck Riverhead the third
| day out. They had been dull days
| and uneventful. Nobody had been
rude enough to set the dog on him,
| nor shut door in his face, but no
! body, either, had even tentatively con-
| sidered buying a machine. This not
| withstanding he had talked his very
best, baking, however, at suggestions
| of doing an experimental washing.
| The chauffeur had grinned over both
| the ballxs; he was country bred,
! though city trained, and chartered
with the whiz cart by the machine
| people.
He whistled almost inaudibly when
"Say. cap, blamed eff it don't look
\ like We had 'em takin' notice this
| time" he said condescendingly to
| young HHwley.
Hawley was also sitting up and
staring-thus he noted the scrawls in
red and blue and white chalk-and
| rose instantly to the occasion.
Him, so that fellow did it after all.
| 1 thought he was taking" he said
| oracularly.
| Ray, the chauffeur, grinned. 'He
| done it up brown he said nodding.
| ST miss my guess eff we don't have
things hummin in short"
| Things did hum, thanks to the
| scrawlS-which Lou and Daisy had set
| out in pure mischief. Riverhead was
alert as never before since it was a
village. Inside the first day Hawley
had booked. five orders-perhaps be-
| cause he had learned enough to vol
| unteer doing the weekly wash at
| Compton's the ramshackle tavern.
| Enthusiasm sometimes can take the
place of experimentation, too. luck
stood by him-inside two hours big
wash Haunted white and spotless. free
| of tears from the line. After that
| sale was enthusiastically as the
machine could be paid for ''in trade"
| Hawley had wisely determined to
/ make Riverhead his base of opera
| lions. Compton's was decent enough
land he could come and go by diff
I ferent roads for at least a week, then
make dashes of a day or so further
afield.
| 1t was not until Saturday-he had
come in Tuesday morning-that he
whom without knowing it, he owed SO
much He had knocked off work for
the afternoon. Such success he felt
entitled him to holiday, and in
charge of Billy crane, town attorney,
and Compton's only regular boarder,
ventured to the Sunday school treat,
held on the Graves lawn
Lou was the head and front of the
| treat. with Daisy her right hand. AS
soon as Billy presented young Hawley
4 that gave him each a silent blessing.
Whatever he owed them they felt their
debt the heavier
"Suppose-nobody had Gomez Lou
/ had said fearfully more than once, and
Daisy had answered: why! we should
have turned out wretches. Think of
DIT