Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-11-13

men and more alert Well. that was
right-the old worker faces that. But
Lindstrom was burly and strong. Sure
ly In the country. the fat land. there
was a place for q maj stout OF heart
n willing. too old to work at his
trade. but too young to lose hope. He
would saw himself from the Stag heap
OF the cities, where in he blatant re-
Hgton of success. he who fails Is either
vicious or lazy. So he came to the riv-
er bottoms where his wife had heard
OF an uncle sQuatted on unclaimed land
and truck raising for a livelihood.
There. crowding into Uncle Michigan's
house boat. which had grown through
the years by the addition OF several
crazy lean-tos until 1t was new a RAM
ling cottage. the Lindstroms were one
OF the few very poor families Of the
hope OF the country five years ago.
They did not know that. first Of all.
the farmer Ia a capitalist, and the city
man turned adrtft there. penniless and
with mouths to feed. is helpless. John
became a day worker in Tanners quar-
ries; his wife. a Tennessee woman.
long expatrtated from her hills. whin-
Ing to be gone forever OF Chicago, was
now a Querulous invalid. what with la
Dor and child bearing. There Lind
strom fought his inevitable losing fight;
but with old Michigan's truck raising.
which cloaked his whisky peddling.
and Johns wages they all got on until
Tanners quarry machine crushed the
chief bread winners hand
So it was damn the law! When one
Is old. b~ewtldered, helpless before oil
these smooth phrases and ~precedents.
all this fine talk Of sleek men to the
jury. and one hears the Judge direct
the verdict against one, does one mince
words? Why. then. did the lawyers
say n had a right II tho judge knew
30 ghbly different? A good workman.
matching his strength against the
young men. those terrible. merciless
young men, who fling the discard aside,
take his job and go whistling down
the road, pipe In mouth. when the day
Is done! And now. broken. crushed.
bewildered with the smooth talk Of the
lawyers. and knowing one has lost
Judge sentences him and his children
to beggary? No. he raises his list
n damn the law!
Lindstrom came back the quarry
road to his shanty. He sat across the
table from his two freckled sons and
the old. one-legged soldier whisky
smuggler. smoking his pipe. by the
the returned jailbird; when his wife
whined some complaint, as she held the
baby to her flat breast, stirring her
pots over the stove, he growled a rough
tenderness.
There woman. The jail-you can
smell 1t on me. but no matter. And
the work-we can do a bit yet with
the garden. It's here Wen stay. for I'll
not lift my face in town again. They
heaped the filth of the law on me. and
my children's name. Well have no
more Of their town and schools and all.
It I'm no fit man for EN-. my lads are
not-well take no more of their time
and money!"
She looked up In her slattern fright.
Puritan's righteousness. Even Au-
relic. Michigan's gypsy limb Of
a girl, under Johns foster
parenthood these five years since the
Lindstroms came, had to be still be-
fore him.
"Ah, John!" h mother cried. Take
the children out Of school? Knute
ready for his seventh grade, and Aur-
ellie in high school. And like to grad
uate II we can get ths dress and all!''
She rubbed her bony hand across her
chin to ease the sting of tn burning
pork fat and muttered. my mans
crazy!"
"Damn their schools" he erowled.
and courts. God will hold us safe,
not man with his fine talk Of justice.
I'll have no more of It,"
Old Michigan took out his pipe to
murmur, John. man-don't take 1t SO
bitter. There's enough know you're
an honest nan A day in jail-who'n
think worse Of We for that?"
The quarryman Topped his big frame
over a chair at the table. Year by
year he had come to extend his u
thority over Michigan's sorry house
and patch OF a snatched from the
willow slough of the e~verchanging
willow bed. The old confederate had
taken himself to the woods when the
Lindstroms overran him too much;
Aurelie had been the bond that held
him to his niece's family-it made
something OF a home for her, mean as
1t might be.
They were well through the meal
when the woman's brother, Albert,
came In. He sided to the tin basin
by the window, took of his celruloid
cuffs and began to wash his thin red
wrists. like a man who would rather
not be squarely seen; he snufred the
cold water into his struggling beard
as If it put sting into his rabbits
heart. He combed his hair and pulled
on his cuffs and sat down with a fatu-
GUS smile. A man Of towing, he had
followed the family from Chicago be-
cause he vas too weak to stand alone,
always the under dog, finding odd Jobs
about the country; a canvasser and
agent, forever the recipient OF cata-
logues and contracts from mail order
houses and manufacturers and medi-
cal fakirs, forever talking up his nos
trums and gim-cracks, peddling about
the farms and villages: a ringer Of
doorbells. q beseecher Of women, q
pleader to buy, shutting in and out Of
gates with his pitiful cards and dodg-
ers-one OF those men who sit to be
preached to and stand in line to be
counted. with his weak chin and far
ing ears and vapid eyes bulging-one
of those men IN short, whom the un-
dertakers are forever burying.
John. the burly religious fanatic.
with his defeated bull strength, hated
Eim-at best he gave the to~ierating
contempt of the man OF overalls for
the shabby collar-and-cuf pretense Of
the peddler-c0llar always soiled, cuffs
always frayed. Lindstrom glowered
at him a moment and went on eating.
"Ah. he good coup!" said the ped
dler. warming his hands over it's
steam-'ft puts heart in q man. Mich
igan. you an dig your potatoes on
thtsEand Knute, it'll get your lessons.
eh"" He smiled vaguely 1T he boys
he really felt like somebody tonight,
for he had earned two dollars and he
was planning how he could present It
to them all. raking over his sordid
store OF chez and evansions before
handing 1t out. His sister. with the