The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-08-11
Copyright, 1912, by Bobbs-Merrill Co.

HS
Copyright, 1912, By Bobbs-Merrill Co.
With the dog for comrade he ira
versed the garden and plunged across
the valley below, humming as he went.
The place was painless and over
grown with paw-paw bushes and sassa-
fras Great trees stood so thickly
In places as to make a twilight and the
SUMMER spots were masses of pink
laurel, poison-ivy, flaming purple rho
dodendron and wine-red tendrils Of in
terbraided briers. This was the for
est land of whose possibilities he had
thought In the heart of the woods he
came upon great limb that had been
wrenched off by storm. The broken
wood was of deep rich brown, shading
TO black He broke off his song, snap
ped a twig and smelled 1t. It's sharp
acrid odor was unmistakable. He sud-
denly remembered the walnut tree at
Rosewood and what Shirley had said:
Il know a girl who had two in her
yard, and she went to Europe on
them"
He looked about him; as far as he
could see the trees reared, hardy and
perfect, untouched for a generation.
He selected one of medium size and
pulling a creeper, measured it's cir
conference and gaging this measure
with his eye, made penciled calcula-
ton on the back of an envelope
Great Scott" he said jubilantly to
the dog; that would cut enough to
wainscot the Damory Court library
and build twenty sideboards!"
He sat down on a messed boulder,
breathless. his eyes sparkling. He had
thought himself almost beggar, and
here in his hand was small fortune!
Talk about engagement rings!" he
muttered. why, dozen of these
ought to buy whole tiara!"
At length he rose and climbed on,
presently turning at right-angle to
bisect the strip to it's boundary before
1e paused to rest. I'm no timber
cruiser" he said to himself as he
wiped his brow, "but calculate there
are all of three hundred trees big
enough to cut. Why, suppose they are
worth on an average only hundred
apiece. That would make-Good
lord!' he muttered, -and rye been
mooning about poverty"
The growth was smaller and sparser
now and before long he came, on the
hills very crest, to the edge of
ragged clearing. 1t held a squalid set
Inrn - ,,-& n Had
cabins little better than novels, some
OF them mere mud-walled lean-tos,
with sod roofs and window-panes OF
hour-sacking Fences and outhouses
there was none. Uttered paths ram
bled aimlessly hither and thither from
chip-strewn yards to starved patches
of corn, under-cultivated and blighted.
Over the whole place hung an indie
scribable atmosphere of disconsolate
filth, of unredeemed squalor and vile
ness.
With one hand on the dogs collar,
hushing him to silence, Valiant, I'M
seen, looked at the wretched place
with shiver. He had glimpsed many
wretched purlieus in the Sums of
great cities, but this, in the open sun
Tight, with the clean woods about 1t
and the sweet clear blue above, stood
out with an unrelieved boldness and
contrast that was doubly sinister and
forbidding. He knew instantly that
the tawdry corner was the community
known as s-Half-Acre, the place
to which Shirley had made her night
ride to rescue Hickey Snyder.
A quick glad realization OF her cour-
age rushed through him. On its heels
came feeling Of shame that spot
like this could exist, a foul blot on
such landscape. 1t was on his own
land! It's denizens held place by
squatter sovereignty. but he was,
nevertheless, their landlord. The
thought bred new sense of RESPONSE
bility. Something should be done for
them, too.
AS he gazed. an uproar in cabin
reached q climax. A red-bearded fig
ure In nondescript garments shot from
the door and collapsed in a heap in
the dirt. He got up with dreadful
oath-a jug thrown at him grazing
his temple as he did so-and shaking
his fist behind him, staggered into q
nearby lean-to.
Valiant turned away with feeling
almost of nausea, and plunged back
down the forest hillside.