The Green Forest tribune., 1915-09-03

with himself. It will keep me from be-
 coming pauper and-it will make mo 1 forget!"
 But adverse fortune seemed to pur-
 sue the victim it had kept tramping | the streets for several weeks looking 1 for the position he never found. He arrived at Allegan to find work at standstill and the railroad in the hands of receiver. Some two hun dred workmen had dispersed, or were dispersing about the immediate vicin- ity The farmers in the district were hilarious over this vast influx of la bor, for they needed workers in the fields, and under the exigencies of the occasion were able to bargain at their own figures.
 Harley was quite glad of the new prospect opened. He preferred farm work. Then came a new disappoint- ment. The railroad laborers had two days start of him. The labor mar ket was glutted. Every place at blow and harrow was filled.
 "Oh, we'll, shall have to strike out for a new field, that Is all," he told himself grimly, trying to fancy he was imbued with the optimism Of an en- thusiastic ambition.
 Harley tramped 1t, brave as a Tro- jan, for two days. On the morning of the third he met his first bit of en- couragement. He had come upon . desolate, starved-looking farm and hailed it's equally dismal owner water ing lean, disconsolate cattle. Tho man himself was grim-faced and dis. pirited in mien and talk.
 q might give you board and lodging for a weeks york; he said ungra- ciously.
 "I'll take that, if it's only to get my hand in,' agreed Harley cheerfully. But say, what's struck the placer"
 "A sucker!" growled the man, whose name was Evans. The sucker is me. I lost my wife and wanted a lonely life. I've got it. Traded nice vil- lage home for this-farm, they called it. Look at it!"
 Tt does look forlorn, for fact" observed Harley, but what's the main subject of Encouragement. An, see the soil," sccoping up handful of the loose, yellow dirt, scanned il closely, tasting of 1t, smelling of it. and tossing it adrift with thoughtful, "Humph! Got any loose capital?"
 What if I have?" demanded the farmer, surlily and with suspicion.
 Because, if you have, and will in- vest 1t in lime and phosphates, I'll make a cast-iron contract to do the rest that will make this place garden of Eden inside of two seasons on . basis of fifty and fifty
 Uncle wasn't SO bad, after all! many time later Harry soliloquized He threw schooling, energy and soul into his first and grand chance at sci entific farming. At the end of two years he had made a contented man of his employer and proud. happy man of himself.
 So proud and happy, 3n. fact, that one day, notwithstanding the f1s # that hs i haA put the past all behind hAm, in au lOle, NAlmSlCdl IuOOO E0 FodIuAON writing letter to Helen Wendell. He told her the simple story of his en- deavors, he told her that a wayward impulse had led him to hope that she had not forgotten their old friend ship and would be interested in know ing that small but cheering measure of success had come to him.
 He hoped for reply, but none came in the form of letter. A week went by, and one morning as he start ed for the we'll farmers rig drove up and Helen Wendell alighted.
 She was in mourning, little care worn, a little older, but the old true eyes looked as earnestly as of yore into the longing depths of his own, as he said:
 "Is this the promised response of two years ago?"
 Am I welcome?" she asked simply.
 His glowing lips. pressed to her will ing own, answered.