The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-31
EVENING STORY
The Maybry Swamp.
(By Ernest A. Young.

over the broad fields and slopes while
he puffed cententedly at his clay pipe.
in those hills, there was stability
shat was lacking in their owner. The
outcropping rocks were TO him the
tables of stone upon which his destiny
was divincly written
What is the use OF worryin',
Eliza ?'' he asked.
7 don't call it worryin' to stop once
in while to look matters IL the face"
his wife protested.
Mr. Maybry chuck1ed contentedly.
stuff is CROWN like smoke all over
the farm" he chirped. IT'S CROWN
while we're asleep, Eliza Then there's
the swamp. You minded what your
father said when he give you the deed
of the place the day we was married.
That swamp. after it's been dreened
and the stumps dug out and the s'ile
plcwed and harrered,' says your fath-
err, will produce bigger crops than all
the rest of the farm put together. NO
body says he, has any idea about the
amaZin' richnes of the s'ile in that ere
swamp"
Dora Maybry sighed anxiously as
she heard what her father and mother
were saying, for she knew that what
she had so long dreaded was about to
come to pass-George Carson VINO
married her sister Louise, was going to
fetch a gang of laborers from the city
and start ditching and training the
Maybry swamp.
Mr.. Maybry could never see enough
of George nor hear enough OF his DIS
course which was full of the worldly
wisdom of the town bred man. Then
George flattered the old man by never
seeming to observe how simple and
childish he was growing.
Hiram Mabry, in his day, had been
a ready man when it came to making
new things. but he had neither the
knack nor the patience to mend what
/ &c n
Uttered with one-armed and three
legged chairs and other pieces of fur
niture that were more or less manned
and crippled, while Mr.. Maybry was
forever whiting out or gluing togeth-
er clever knicknacks of his own de-
signing. In only one particular was
he uncompromisingly saving-he
would come from the most distant
field to light his pipezwitiae a splinteri
ignited at the kitchen fire rather than
use a match.
Mr.. Maybry disliked farm work, and
it was his luck to have no boys to grow
up and relieve him of the irkSome
chores. Dora was helpful, both in
doors and out, and it was owing to her
Willingness to do the milking that he
did not sell the last one of his cows.
Pressing bills, a shortage of hay and
Hiram Maybrys indifference were re-
sponsible for the disappearance of all
claimed as her own.
Yes, yes, she's your heifer, fast
enough" he told her. "Of course I
wouldn't let her go. Guess can milk
one cow"
Dora MIXED the Guernsey that
night and again the next morning. and
then Mr.. Maybry seemed to forget
that there was any milking to be
done. So, one by one, the odds and
ends of work that he had been ac-
customed to do were dropped or neg
lected, to be silently picked up and
done by Dora.
This was harder for the girl than
she confided even to her mother; but
she told John Porter everything, and
perhaps the things at home becoming
harder to endure, as they did. made
his calm sympathy sweeter than it
would have been had the journey to-
ward their wedding day been
smoother.
George Carson sent Louise and the
children out to the Maybry farm
every summer to say thru the season,
and it seemed to Dora that new girl
or boy baby was added to the flock
each year. No account of the trouble
or expense was ever taken, it being
understood that George, in his own
good time, was to superintend the
much-talked-of work of converting
the swamp into a fertile field. Many
summers passed, with much thrift in
weight and count for the Carson brood
before the work was actually begun.
George had taken a sample of the
soil to be analysed by a chemist in
town, and Mr.. Maybry cheerfully paid
the SO charge when Carson reported
that the result justified his prediction
that the swamp was as valuable as a
gold mine
All that followed came with a hurry
that was Dewildering to the slow
moving minds of the Maybrys. y gang
of laborers dug and ditched. while a
choice lot of standing timber was sold
to pay the first cost of wages and
machinery. Even Mrs. Maybry bright
ened up when so much seemed to be
accomplished from day to Gay. 1t was
at the end of the second week after
the work was started that she said to
Dora:
outright for a big sum when he gets
the ground into shape"
John Porter has no faith in it,
mother" Dora answered.
John never liked George" said
Mrs Maybry.<
TT isn't that" Dora protested
John went over the swamp a year
ago, and he says stuff doesn't grow
any better in soil that happens to be
black knew, mother, that John
l.doesn't pretend to be scientific, but he
tells me that swamp can never be
drained as long as its surface is three
feet lower than Dargie's pond He
hated to speak of it. but he said last
night he thought you ought to know
the truth before George wheedled you
into mortgaging the farm TO raise
more money. Why. mother. what is
lit ?a Dora exclaimed as Eliza Maybry
sank back in her chair. while sudden
palIor came into her face.
Dora let the face of her mother rest
against her strong young shoulder,
and by the hopeless clinging of Mrs
Maybry to her the girl was told that
| Johns warning had come too late.
| George, Louise, and the children