Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-02-05

exchanges to have time for this bread
and-butter work. Janet found him 81
when she came in with the program
declined to print it before Thanksgiv.
ing. But the News does need thu
money!" he concluded. For, Janet
the. News is going to run for congress-
He was happy as a boy over it. He
had been seeing a number of people
he assured her. Surprised 'em! Il
seemed quite a novel idea! But do you
so years the News has given columns
free advertising and ticket printing te
every church fair, rattle, oyster supper
and what-not in the county-boosted
all the benefits and lodges. welcomed
the labor unions over around Earlv1lle
pleaded for the farmers cooperative
association, n all that-and never
asked a thing from any one. And now
when 1 go to these men-just h run
Of workaday men-and tell them I'm
going into the primary against Jim
Hall, they look surprised and then Jay:
Why, of course, Wiley!' Just as if we
all ought to have thought Of 1t before,!"
What did I tell your" And she did not
subdue the pride in her voice.
He was cleaning his hands of the
printers ink to go up the hill to his
supper. talking eagerly all the time.
Janet U come up and see the new
window boxes he had made for Aunt
Abby's primroses, working nights and
herself, as Of old, going with him
laughingly up the path back Of the
shop.
I'm not a dead failure!" he declared.
IF only a a comes to have a sense
of his place and work somehow things
appear brilliantly easy. You see, be-
fore, never stopped to inquire any
thing. Life appears simple enough to
a man who has but two shirts-he
takes off n and puts on the other!
And that's all I've been doing here in
Rome. Janet--till now"
And now?"5 Fer serene glance was
on him as they reached the crest by the
fence. He suddenly caught her hand
and lifted 1t to point away over the
town, the twilight country, the yelled
immensely Of night. Here, there, a
lamp shone in a house; distantly a light
twinkled, and far off on the still land
one caught yet another. 2
Their homes" Wiley whispered
theirs! The people whom you wish
me to go to-the rough-coated and ST.
lent farmers driving into town, toiling
away, but thinking, too. You wanted
me to go among them, tell them hat I
-Curran Of the News, was of them, and
would fight for them if they would let
him! That what they believed in and
honored, he believed in and honored.
Janet, l stop here every night OIL my
way UP from the shop and draw in
the air-this fine air of the country,
and watch the lights come out in those
far-off farms on the hillsides. and a
vision comes to me of them all-their
homes II lives and destinies. see
1T all and understand, and It's as If
they were calling meas If there were
work and place for met"
Janet nodded slowly. Her fond smile
came. So we'll she knew him! 1t had
his imagination, his heart, his unde-
featable n simple a Well, so
good. She would be practical for him;
she would find the "a He stopped
now with a sudden rueful curiosity.
Whats this / hear about you being
asked to go out n speak In the ma
tional campaign for women's suffrage
the big fight In some Of the states?'
Il was asked Janet looked away.
It a been an anticipation come true.
Ssh had had her eyes on wider hori-
IONS; she had felt the supreme pleasure
of efficiency, of power recognized. She
went on calmly: But I declined 1t,
Wiley, this year."
He was watching her face in the
dusk. IT know why" he retorted
abruptly. 1T was to stay here and
help me-"
Yes
He was silent. Some consciousness
OF her bigness, Of the richness OF her
life. was finding way into his vision.
all this buoyant modernity, just as he
had awakened to kinshfp with the Mid
llanders, stern with the sense OF patient
and ~long-endured rongs and needing
leadership. His esthete's indrawing, his
dahbling with art and affairs. had got
him nothing; life had rebuffed him, but
now he a come upon realness. Janet
suddenly typifled all this; he saw her
and with her all women as the new
e~nfranchised companions of men, the
efficient helpers and councillors.
by George!" he broke out. You're
tso,ning on so grandly, Janet! I always
guessed at it, but you've grown SO!
'Way--'way beyond met
Most men are in a state of arrested
development in their view of women
she answered, "playthings to be pos
sessed. or parasites to be endured. But
a. companion. reliant, helpful, demand
ing freedom, extending i'll thought,
Wiley, you would grow to see that,
too."
Yes, yes" he cried, II cant" He
was fired with her largeness, her faiths
But she left him to go Tome with q
trace Of playful cynicism.
III you will only keep the oncoming
way .Wiley!" III shoos her head.
But. tomorrow, I'll find Q back
OF the News"
He waved an ardent protest. When
Aunt Abby came home from the Con-
II gregatfonal sewing circle, where she
was loved for her h~elpfulness, and re-
proved for her tolerance OF Mr.. Cur
49, ~ ~ 4 A-.I~ Wsh