Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-02-27
DPEX EEACT1

rest, and of these the finese and the
noblest had been "Y0ung Ed Austin.
When she came home to marry.
Alaire WAS still very much Of a child,
and she still considered Ed her knight.
AS for him, he was captivated by this
splendid handsome girl, whom he re-
mcmborod only rs shy, red-hcaded
little comradc.
I As Las Palmas had been the elder
Austli's wedding gift to his son, so
Alaircs dowry from her father had
been LII Feria. grant of lands across
the Rio Grande beyond the twenty
league belt by which Mexico fatuously
strives to guard her border. And to
I.ns Palmas had come the bride and
.groom to live, to love and to rear their
children.
But rarely has there been n shorter
honeymoon, seldom Il swiftcr awaken.
Ing. Within six months young Ed'
had killed his wifc's love and had him
self became an alcoholic. Other vices
so multiplied that what few virtues
the young man had inherited were
soon clokcd TO the bride the truti
had come rs Il stunning tragedy. TIL,
wreck Of her shopcs and glad imagln
ings left her sick, bcwildered. in The
face of "the thing that couldn't"
Nor had the effect of this transfer
nation in young Ed been any less
painful TO his father. When the trutl
was borne, in upon him Enthusiastically
and the girl-wifeS remained firm in hen
refusal to divorce her husband the un
derstanding hnd been reached by
which the management of Las pnlma'
was placed absolutely in her hands.
OF course the truth became public
as it always does. "Young Ed Aus
tins life became Il scoln and hiSsln.
among his ncighbors. They were no
unduly fastdious, these neighbors anc
they knew that hot blood requires more
than Il generation to cool, but every
thing Ed did outraged them. In tryn:
to show their sympathy for his wifi
they succeeded in wounding her NOR,
deeply, and Alaire withdrew into her
self. She had changed The alteration
reached to the very bone and marrow
of her being. At first the general pit,
had wounded her then it had offended
and finally angered her. That peopl
should notice her afiliction, particu
larry when she stroye so desperately
to hide it, seemed the height of inso
lence.
The management of Las Palmas wa
almost her only relief. Having sprun
from a family of ranchers, the wor
came easy, and she grew to like lt--a
well as she could like anything wit
that ever-present pain in her breast
$ Las Palmas had prospered to admire
: ton. and La Feria would have pros
$ pered equally had 1t not been for tn
) armed unrest of the country across tn
i border. No finer stock than the "Bo
: A. was to be found anywhere. Blu
! Alairc had not confined her efforts t
cattle: she Ind Improved the breed O
!, "Hpy A. horses, too, and hand in han
with this work she had carried on
series Of agricultural experiments. Fo
! instance, she had started Il grove G
paper-shcllcd pecans which vas 500
due to bear; the ranchhousc and 1t
y clump OF palms was all but hidden ,
, forest of strange trees, which wer
reported to ripen everything frol
Z mothballs to bicycle tires. Blaze Jont
I was perhaps responsible for this n
y port, for Alaire had shown him SCI
= crul thousand eucalyptus snpings an
some ornamental rubber plants.
; "That Miz Austin is money-makll
!. piece Of furniture" he once told h
!, daughter Paloma. ''I'm no mechanics
@ ADDER count mostly on my fingers
n but her anil me calculated the profit
= on them cuchcr what's their nan
d trees?--and It. gave me splttln' hea'
" ache. She'll be a drug queen, sure
y "Why don't you follow her exar
n ple?' avkcdf Paloma. 1--WE have plent
Q Of land"
0 Blue, III truth, was embarrassed J
= the size of his holdings, but he shoe
], his head. "No, I'm too old to go raj
+ pagln' after new gods. amt got Il
d imagination to raise anything mo
G complicated than mortgage !, but