The Western outlook., 1915-10-30
WON FROM DEFEAT
His Greatest Success Came to
Him in the Midst of Failure.
BY MAY C. RlNGWALT.

upon DlgDyS nerves like the rough
touch of sand paper. "Housework from
morning till night. Cooking a meal
eating meal, washing dishes after a
meal-that's all have in my life"
Instinctively Digby looked about the
coy living room with the bright flames
In the open fireplace, the bright flow
ers from the home garden that Letitia
had so artistically arranged in their
pretty vases-with Mildred's new
piece OF music on the open piano,
Toms violin case in the corner, Pink g
reversible doll sprawling on the sofa,
the black Dinah head uppermost.
Il might as well talk to stone wall
as to you, Digby," his wife went on
querulously. Sitting there like a
craven image staring into space and
smiling actually smiling!"
Il wasn't conscious of smiling .
apologized Digby, "but it seems so
pleasant hefe-so honey and com
Portable"
Eyes, very pleasant and comfort
able" she repeated sarcastically,
when all you have to do is to sit down
and take your ease"
Again Digby found it impossible to
put his thoughts into words, but as the
sense of WEAKNESS that he had shaken
off as he contentedly seated himself
in his arm chair swept over him once
more, his mind turned back to the
long, hard days work in his orange
grove.
''The crop won't be as large as last
spring." he said with exasperating IT.
relevance, but / never saw finer val
encias than we have this year."
Letitia's lips curled.
"And what good will it do us7" she
cried, adroitly using the turn in the
conversation for new angle of fault
finding. You'll simply put in more
trees. Spend the money in new irri-
eating ditches-new piping. I'll have
nothing to show for it."
''Letitia," he asked with q puzzled
quicker in his forehead, what are you
driving att"
I'm driving at being poked away
on a stupid ranch year in and year out
instead Of spending our winters In
town like other people!"
He understood at last-their next
door neighbors proposed fitting to
Los Angeles was responsible for Le-
titia's sudden discomfort.
my DEAR" he Numbered, pleased at
having SO reasonable an argument to
offer, "Jim Morton's position is very
different from mine. He married q
rich wife, and"
And you only penniless orphan!"
The red danger signals fiared in Le-
titia's cheeks and her black eyes
flashed. But l can tell you right now,
Digby Hollister, If / was only coun-
try school teacher when you married
me, / had more money then to spend
on myself than I've ever had since.
More good times. More-everything
And If I'd known-if only I'd known
what an endless grind married life
was, I'd have remained single to my
dying day!"
''Letitia, do you mean that?"
Eyes, / mean that-and a great
many other things that wouldn't be
pleasant for you to hear!"
And dashing down the magazine
whose leaves she had been cutting
Letitia took fight in a tempest of
anger and tears.
One day followed another, and
strangely enough the world went on as
though nothing had happened. But to
Digby the sweetness had suddenly
gone out of the meadow lark's liquid
music. No longer was there warmth
and color and beauty in the cloudless
sky, In the deepening gold Of the
oranges on his trees. And In the
house, while Letitia talked to him as
usual, perhaps a little more than
usual, while Pink still perched on his
knee, Tom discussed football with
the same enthusiasm, and Mildred
dimpled and coquetted in her woman
child way, there was deep gulf fixed
between the old happiness and the
present benumbing sense of discour
agement and failure.
Digby had other worries besides the
quarrel with his wife. A high wind
blowing and buffeting through the or
chard had kept him on tenterhooks
for twenty-four hours and left him
anxious. Few oranges had fallen.
They were too heavy, had too firm a
grip upon the tree. But the wind had
stripped off leaves, broken some of the
weaker branches. Left here, there,
everywhere. patches of fruit exposed
to frost should a cold snap set In.
And 1t was an unusual year In south
ern California The rainfall below the
average. The weather unreasonable,
changeable. SO that no one knew what
to expect next
There was q nervous tension
throughout the community. An eager
comparing of notes in regard to "of"
years. A heated discussion of prob
abilities among the weatherwise.
During all this trying time of wait
Ing and watching, Digby was very ST.
lent-"glum. Letitia called it, quietly
resentful that he did not talk over his
an1ieties.
But to Digby talking things over
with his wife was no longer possible
For it was the truth behind Letitia's
angry words that cut to the quick.
When he married he had expected
such different future for himself
than the one he had been able to real
ize. He had hoped, though, that other
things that he had not banked on then
had made up for the honors and riches