The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-04-09
CHAPTER Xxx (continued,.

SilfA la ~
Done quit. My little girl did it. Mr..
Hemminger. She and Mr.. Curran, they
done want me to quit. Mr.. Curran and
our little girl"
Mr.. Hemminger drove on with a sigh.
The story Of them actresses" had done
Mr.. Curran no good, despite his win
ming fight. Neither did his Quixotic
championship of the pocket squatters.
Mr.. Curran was always meddl1ng in
some Improbable affair. the defender
of some lame-dog case. When Mr..
Hemminger cache Janet Vance's Of
flee to discuss the new seats for his
district school with her, he touched on
Mr.. Curran's weaknesses. Somebody
ought to hold Wiley in tight, Miss
Vance. He needs it. And he's coming
on 90 big, Wiley Is"
She smiled, wondering what curious
pain it gave her to lear Curran praised
by these rugged men Of the country
who daily came into her office. Her
farmer constituents took a shy graft
fcation in Janet's appreciation Of their
homely affairs. They were proud of
her also. "Old Jake's girl was a smart
one-maybe she would marry this new
fighting governor who was SC mighty
interested in her! But hen there was
Wiley Curranl They were proud Of
him. too.
An Jour later. glancing out, she saw
Curran and Hemminger together. their
shoulders to q heavy casting, which
some farmer was trying to load in his
wagon at Dickinson's warehouse. And
again her faint smile came. Yes, they
loved him-they had made place for
him. And she? Well. she had done
her part also for him. And she knew
him so much better than any Of them!
Curran had been busted all the final
campaign. There was fear that the old
county gang would knife his candidacy
30 his hackers had kept him at the
front. But he had no m~isgivings. He
had returned to his home town brown
victory. He had discovered surprising
qualities in himself, n caustic retort,
a merciless clearness that pleased the
farmers. The paper commented on
his "brilliance." Janet had read and
listened. 1t was more thar winning a
campaign; 1t was the making Of a man.
He saw her when he passed the court
house and came to her, eager, volatile.
bubbling with tales of the progressive
cause. II made EN- listen, Janet!"
Then in her calm eyes, back of her
serene smile, he seemed to read again
the inexplicable pain which he did not
care to fathom. And he went from
but refusing to dwell upon it. 1t was
like his enlargement from Harlan
at first it had been a desperate hurt.
But through the weeks. rising with his
new fighting life, he had fiercely told
himself that he would yield nothing;
he was crying out to life with a dong
sian gladness-he would seize growth
n owe and recreate himself. So
when he found e. letter from Aurelie on
his desk. he cried out as If a meteor
had LIGHTED his dingy shop. Aurelie.
the village baggage, old Michigan's
girl; the one-time rabbit hunter of the
hills. the ridiculous beauty prize win
ner; an actress trapesing over the land
with an ambition to come back with a
bul pup and a press agent to startle
the old town! Janet was right: If
there was anything needed to finish
Wiley Curran it was Aurelie Lind
strom. But he would not admit this.
his world still; a bit of tinsel would
hold his " and always would. Yet
he knew better than any one how des-
perately he needed the cool and sober
judgment of men and women-that was
what could make him; that was what
was making him now in his new life,
the faith, the love Of these prosy farm
folk of the midlands.
But Aurelie had written! And at
once the walls of his shop fell way to
yistas of enchantment.
I'm engaged" aid Aurelie, in her
firm. upright, high school hand. Mr.
Curran started feverishly. I'm a mu-
steal comedy n the manager says
can sing! Oh. what do you think OF
that? Not much. but enough. But Ada
Norman says my face did 1t, and I'd
never got a show IL I hadn't made Co.
hans office boy laugh. But I tell you
Mr.. Curran. we We're right up against
1t! Ada and I pawned our trunks, and
when h stacked me out In the best
clothes we could get I sailed into some
1 of these people. And I tell you Mr.
Curran, the day I got my Job we were
down to oatmeal cooked over the gas
jet in our room. But there's nothing
In q race but the finish! Oatmeal ism
sc bad"
oh, Aurelie!" groaned Mr.. Curran
and that taxi. and the dollar you gave
q bell boy over at the Metropole!!s
The letter went on: "And what dt
0 think, Mr.. Curran, I was only /,
that chorus six weeks when Cohan 6
Snitz decided to put a road show out
and they picked me out OF the New
York production to understudy tn,
comedienne. They said I was funny
I suppose I made faces and kicked u,
my heels" ooh. Rome! Oh tn
Shakespeare club" murnnured MI
Curran.-"So Tn going out on the roat
with the second Girl and the Burglar
company. We aren't SO classy as tn
New York bunch. but it gives me
chance. I like new York. You ougn
to see the clothes I've got. When w
open in Chicago on the 10th you Jus
got to come and see me act.
"P. S.-Ten all those grannies VIII
don't like me about The Girl and TIL
Burglar But don't say anything abou
the oatmeal!
"P. S.-Pretty soon TIL send you som
stuff to put in the paper.
p. 81 saw three little rabbits TN
der a bridge yesterday when the trai
Went by. With love,
"Aurelie."
The congressional candidate folde
n letter over SO that only with low,
Aurelie'' showed. He gazed at 1t. The
he sat down and tried to recall Aureli,
What h liked. and how she langhe
or rebelled-what inevitability Of Iii
had made her as 1t made all the res
Of us.
He went about the next month, /
and out Of the county, speaking whel
ever the meet took him. II was nj
until his next breathing space, tina
back in his office to pick up the ode
n ends OF work-for the task Of ge
ting out the News had fallen to Aul
Abby and his mongrel printers-he m,
Harlan. While Wiley had been on h
whirlwind campaign. Harlan had kel