Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-17


a good way to leara most of the
things that are happening. The post
master has chances, especially now
adays, when mo:6 people write to
their friends and relatives on bits of
cards that the postmaster can read;
but, then. people don't drop in on the
postmaster and gossip to him like
they do to the. chap who has livery
and bait.
MY name is. Ed Greensboro; I've run
the livery stahle in HonnetNilIe LOT
thirty Ave years. and l know more
about the Aarlands than any man IN
the county.
When [ got the stable from my
father Granny Harland as is now
was Mvs John Harland, ana Win
her husband. John Harland' anu heI
daughter Effie lived on the Hariand
of bonneville by the old PowertoWn
road. John Harland was the hrst OIL
those scientific farmers round here.
.pbhn Harland did things most of the
other farmers didn't do. and they
xere mostly glad they didn't when
rhe right dope. but the wheat and
corn was so used to growing in the
old ways that he couldn't twist them
around in time to make his life happy.
They say they're doing it all right
now but il seems to me John Har-
Land and a lot of others who began
that business had the same kind of
trouble that I had with the brown
mare Sally that I'm running in the
surrey She was "A ladies' hack for
eight years and was getting along
easy, like the wheat: then ] started
TO increase her efficiency. so to speak.
and she cost me seventy dollars for
hreakages and near broke my neck
>Into the bargain. The wheat and the
corn broke John Harland's heart. and
he died. leaving his wife and Effie TO
20 back to the old-style farming.
which they did. there being no one
round here who had Johns scientific
trairsu~
Fife Harland was the prettiest girl
] ever saw. excepting one other. and
that other was Effie's daughter, who
comes into this story when we get II
over a good bit of the road. Fife had
hair like corn tassels. light and soft
and silky. And her eyes were that
kind of blue that you see on the old
willow pattern plates. Lips redder
than Mrs. Annam's double dahlias.
and milk-white teeth.
A fellow told me once that if there's
gold anywhere at all in the world
it attracts some one to it in some
mysterious way. 1t can't remain hid
den. he said. and l suppose that's
why Count Raphael Cabrera came to
bonneville and hired me to take him
for a drive. He didn't know what
brought him to Honnetville. neither
did 1: but he came just ike the chapS
that land on the gold mines.
l. drove him out by the old POWER
town road and Just as he was going
by the Harland place he got thirsty
and asked me to get him drink at
the Harland well. Eftie came out OIL
the house when I was pumping
dipper full for the count. and the
count came out of the surrey when
he saw Effie. Heaved himself out on,
TO the road and bowed and bowed ana
bowed at her like one of those pig
begging Chinese ducks that Ole Man
Fortescue has on his place down py
looked from the count to Ellie:
and from Effle to the count. Both OF
them looked as surprised as Ied ana
rom Hawkins looked when they found
their aunt had cut them out of her
will. The count forgot that water
that 1 had pumped for him. and he
started to talk faster than a morse
thief who has been given a minute
and a half to make his peace VIII
talk we'll. He had to feel for his
words sometimes. like blind horse
going over a new road, but when ne
struck q stretch of words Una. ne
knew we'll he took his foot on 'ne
brake and clucked to his tongue ~
He told Fife his title and he told
ber that he was going to stay quite
some time in Honnetvllle, ana ne
didn't blush when 1 looked SURPRISED:
he having told me on the way on.
that he wanted to eaten the
going down the line.
We'll. Fife showed him the grape
arbor and the pergola whicn ner
father had built. the pergoia oeing
nothing but few cross9 new
some uprights travelling under new
name. and she introduced him 70 ner !
mother. Mrs. John Harland. VINO is
now granny Harland and VINO HVes
on the old Harland place Ihe count
was nicer to the mother imam ne M
fo Fine. which shows that he knew
nyhaf he was about. and when ne n
ally wrenched himself away. the stay
costing him 81. the team Delhs q oo
lar an hour. he was actine hhs an
old friend of the famil y. the uos hop
ming mn on his lap. and the cat rakins
bar loose hairs off against his legs.
COUNT RAPHAEL CABRERA stay
~ ed on in bonneville, and IN the
next week or two got more money OUT
~ him than I got in the nine years
that followed. ] drove him out TO tne
Harland place every day. anu "hea
he offered himself and his tue anu
his clothes to Fife she sald
fish to show her ma what she q laho-
ed. I didn't blame her. He was ds
much a novelty to her as Dave duS
ier.s automobile was to Dave.
The count went to live in the Har-
land place. and for a while ne corner
ed most of the conversation OF the
town. He did nothing except sing
in the bonneville choir. and that
didn't please everybody. He put ms
accent onto a lot Of the words IN the
hymns, and when the count saio
abide wiz me-" old Mrs. Cooper SAID
the Almighty might know Wnat ne
was saying, but she didn't see why
the Almighty should be pestered in
having it said that way Old Mrs.
Cooper has seven daughters that she
couldn't marry OF. and / suppose she
wouldn't have noticed the counts pro-
nunciation if the count had noticed
her little regiment on the day l drove
him out to the Harland place.
Then Effie Cabrera, who was not
a real countess, had a baby, and Count
Raphael Cabrera leaped back into
popularity as an after-dnner topic.
1t looked as if the coming Of that
baby had affected his brain. The
best strip of land in the Harland place
is an acre patch right alongside the
road that John Harland had used as
a potato patch and right in the center
Of this piece of land the count
planted an apple tree and put
spiked fence about four feet square
been an orange tree. but bonneville
isn't a good climate for oranges, so
he put in an apple.
why do you spoil the patch by
putting the tree in the center of the
strip and fencing it round, COUNT
oil