The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1918-08-22

trudged through the dusty road to his
old farmhouse.
At one o'clock, as Barbara sat for a
minute after her midday meal, map
ping out on paper exactly how she
would SOW the remainder of the seeds
she had just received, there was a
knock at the door Of her shack-it was
of the portable, put-up-and-take-down
variety with only two rooms and a
species of kitchen-and Professor Os-
good appeared. Barbara invited him
of coffee, quite as If they were old
friends, and this the professor accept
ed with apparent gratitude.
"Tve come to ask advice" he began.
"You see I'm pretty ignorant about a
good many things. 1t didn't occur to
me at first that / oughtn't to keep those
girls. They want to stay and they have
worked like trojans all morning, and
they cooked the dinner and are wash
ing up the dishes now. They are a
great help. / can do the heavy work
and I'll give them short hours and I'll
put away something from the proceeds
of the garden for them every week.
They are nice girls-stupid rather and
perhaps a little dull-but splendid out
door workers. They take to it like
peasants. 1t occurred to me, however,
that one conventional doesn't do
that sort of thing. That is, wouldn't
there be something out of the way
about my keeping these girls there,
without some one to chaperone them
That's the idea, isn't it? 1t occurred
to me that maybe you could help us
out. It's all war work and l know
you are just cultivating your garden
for patriotism. Couldn't you come
over to my place and live? I'd do all
the heavy mans work and you could
sort Of keep your eye on the girls
Barbara laughed at the professor
and suggested that SO far as conven-
ton went there would be no advantage
in the way he had outlined.
Several other plans were suggested.
There wasn't room in Barbara's cot
tage for the orphans, and Barbara
didn't like the idea of staying in Pro-
fessor Osgood's house with the orphans
while he stayed In her shack. So 1t
was decided that for the time being he
would sleep in the hayloft, while the
orphans stayed alone in the house.
Perhaps within a week or so the or
phans would be tired of the experiment
or would have proved themselves poor
farmers.
But as a matter of fact just the op-
posite thing took place. They became
expert agriculturists, and when Bar
bara, at Professor OSgood'S suggestion,
asked them whether they weren't
ready to go back, they both burst into
tears, the only sign of vivid emotion
that they had expressed since their ar
rival. So the professor continued to
sleep in the hayloft without any seri-
Gus discomfort After all there was
no one in the neighborhood to criticize
the arrangement and the plan might
have worked out all summer were it
not for the expected visit of the in
Spector.
did the people at the asylum know
said Professor Osgood feeling carefully
one day as the girls were about to go
forth to hoe the first showing of beans,
"did they know was living here alone
when they sent your"
mo, sir" said one emphatically.
"They said there was Mr.. and Mrs.
Osgood, they did, and the matron said :
Mind you do what Mrs. Osgood says"
The professor suddenly became pen
sive. 1t was not the first time he had
thought in a rather concrete way of
late of the possibility of Mrs. Osgood.
After all it was not such an entirely
preposterous idea. Other men, rea-
soned the professor, had managed to
win the love of.women completely and
entirely their superiors in every way.
chance. Not to ask Barbara to marry
him would not make the intensity of
his love any less poignant. And per-
haps-. The professor left his
orphans abruptly and sauntered over
to Barbara's shack He had planned
several ways of beginning the CONVEX
sation, but Barbara was busy planting
corn and he felt that quick action was
most suitable.
Barbara will you marry me?" he
said, looking very hard at the corn in
her curved palm.
"Bless your heart" said Barbara,
dropping the grain and laughing a
little. 81 was almost afraid you
wouldn't ask me in time I thought
maybe you would sometime, but !
wanted to have it all fixed and settled
before that orphan inspector got
around. It's part of our war duty,
isn't it?''