The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1916-08-24
At snERIFFS SALE
BY CATHERINE cRANMER.

Five years after John Morton left
Prfneville he had become successful
civil lawyer with some very big names
on the list of clients. With profess
sional success had come also social
recognition and establishment in exclu.
sive bachelor quarters. All this had
kept him so occupied that scant time
had been left to keep up friendly in.
tercourse with the Prineville people,
and since the death of his only Prime
vile relative, John Daniels, the law.
yer with whom he had first read law,
he had not been back to visit the little
county-seat town.
Seated in his book-lined office one
summer morning, John Morton was
going over his personal accounts.
Just then the postman came in and
deposited some mail on Johns desk.
There were some letters of profess
sional import, club notice of a ban.
quet for distinguished visitor to
the city. legal publication or two and
the little home paper from Prineville.
Many a copy of the Weekly Argus
had gone into the waste basket un.
opened, but on this particular morn.
Ing it was the paper that claimed
precedence over all the other mail.
over in the right-hand column of
the third page was a row Of legal no
tees, and glance over these
brought an indrawn whistle of sur.
prise from John.
The cause Of his agitation was this
notice: Pursuant to the order of the
county court, the undersigned, sher
If of Cornwall county, will on Mon.
day, June the twelfth, at the north
door of the courthouse, at ten o'clock
in the forenoon, sell at public sale
to the highest bidder for cash certain
property Of Barbara Anderson, con.
sisting of the following" Then fol.
lowed detailed description of what
John readily recognized as the old
Anderson homestead which stood on
the outskirts of Prineville, and which
he recalled as the scene of many q
lively tennis game with Barbara. With
his elbows on the desk and his head
in his hands, John sat staring at the
notice, but what he really saw was
a thousand incidents Of summers
gone by.
He also thought of the friendly cor.
respondence he had kept up with
Barbara when he first came to the
city, and he WINGED as he realized
that 1t was largely due to his negli-
gence that the correspondence had en-.
tirely died out. Other causes were
that he had been busy with his pro.
fession and Barbara had been tied
down by the invalidism of her mother
following the shock of her fathers
death in railroad accident.
He called the stenographer in and
let loose such an avalanche of rapid
dictation that she had to bend over
her notebook with flying fingers and
| alert ears to catch all he said. At ten
o'clock Monday morning.. enough of
her whirlwind notes still remained to
be transcribed to keep her busy all
day, but there was no danger of her
work being augmented, for John Nor.
ton was hundred miles away and was
at that moment alighting from his
dusty roadster in front of the old
Anderson homestead.
With the directness and determine,
ton which had in five years. time put
him on a professional plane with men
ten years his senior. John had, in five
minutes time, told Barbara that sue.
cess had brought him nothing that
took the place of their comradeship of
five years before, and he begged her
to renew it and to let him be fire.
quent visitor at the old home as be-
fore.
You'd always be welcome, John,'
she said cordially, but sadly, "but the
old home is being sold this minute at
the courthouse door. If it brings
enough to pay the mortgages and to
keep me in New York until l can quail.
ify for Office work, Ill be in luck. You
see, couldn't leave mother to earn
anything, and to give her the comfort
she needed the home was heavily
mortgaged. Perhaps you didn't know
Of her DEATH"
John was ready to begin an explana,
ton when the telephone rang.
Its the sheriff, I'm sure" said Bar.
bara nervously. "He is to call me up
to saw when and where to come to
sign the deed; but can't talk. Won't
you answer him."
John held a brief conversation over
the telephone, ending with an assur.
ance THAI they would come right down.
Barbara rose bravely and advanced
toward the door. With her hand on
the door knob, she turned to John.
"Who bought it-St. Roses parish
or the Masonic lodge?"
Neither" he answered.
But there couldn't have BEEN any
other buyers! Were there no bids
at all?" Both hope and fear were in
her surprised inquiry.
eyes, Barb, there was a buyer" John
spoke quietly, and he took Barbara's
hand from the door knob and held it
in his own. 1.-THE man who bought
was acting for another man, The price
paid was five thousand, but that other