Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-12-12

sense of ownership and physical
prowess that he had never noticed in
office work.
On the third trip to the city he no.
ticed in the Pennver Eagle dispatch
from Washington forecasting a cold
wave. The thermometer in Chicago
had reached % above. There had been
snow in Omaha and at Detroit the
weather was freezing.
"And nearly June" thought Bob in
credulously. "It'l never get that cold
in here"
When he returned from the barn
chat evening, he noticed a sharp
northwest wind bearing down through
the orchard. BY 10 O'Clock the Their
mometer had fallen TO 40 degrees: He
went to bed uneasily. yet not wishing
to alarm. his father by asking him
what, if anything, might be done. He
awoke the next morning with the
realization that he was shivering.
He jumped hastily out to the rag car
pet. The wind had settled during
the night, and a thick gray frost COW
cred the landscape.
The cold snap lasted nearly week,
raining for a day or two, then freeZ-
ing up tight, breaking the record for
many years. Throughout the northern
end of the state fruit and berry crops
were ruined. Bob's beans. sweet corn,
cucumbers and tomatoes were wiped
out. Even some of the harder vege-
tables had wilted and turned black.
Sick at heart, he tried to cheer MS
mother and keep the knowledge OF
disaster from his father, who felt
badly enough over the sudden death
OF George Good in Three Valleys and
the fact that he, one. of his best
friends, could not attend the funeral.
Laboriously Bob replanted the
stricken ground. The substitute
vegetables matured slowly. but they
grew. Finally he was ready to be-
gin garden-truck deliveries. Then
came the second blow. With an over
whelming. sense of dismay he found
he had failed to analyze his market.
His customers, with little exception,
were the smarter folk of the city,
families who seldom bought beans,
cabbages, onions, rhubarb. horse
radish. turnips, carrots, radishes, Gu
cumbers, squash, kohlrabi and few
potatoes. What they ordered were
ASPARAGUS, caulifiower, celery, egg
plant. endive, artichoke, parsley
Brussels sprouts and spinach-vege-
tables Bob's father had never raised
and which he had not thought to
plant.
1t was a bitter setback. But he
swore his mother to silence. and in
timated nothing to his father, who
still sat patiently day after day in
his darkened. room. For weeks fol-
lowing the close of the season, Bob
put off balancing the farm accounts.
But the job had to be done, and he
buckled down to it at last.
X X X X
THE result was even worse than he
had dreaded. The chickens and
the cows alone had been profitable.
though they could not begin to carry
the overburdening loss in truck, ber-
ries and fruit. Quality Farm, as a
whole, had merely managed through
alive, with nothing to show for sal
aries or surplus interest on the extra
investment.
Looks like sort of bleak winter.
mother" he gritted. But we've got
the cows and chickens to work with.
If you're game to keep it from dad,
the machine, and scrape through till
next year"
I'm willing to do anything, Rob-
ert." his mother said, simply.
There was knock on the kitchen
door. Bob answered it. On the steps
stood Squire Meek.
In Neff township there was no figure
better known than Squire Wilberforce
Meek. He was anything but meek.
Tall and straight. with a claim of
Virginia lineage. he impressed you at
first sight with a sense of trust. At
second glance. however, his mustache
and goatee seemed trimmed a trif1e
arrogantly, and his eyes set close
and narrow. And upon inquiry you
discovered that he was a parasite liv-
ing on Neff township farmers, some
times getting a strangle hold and
killing. One and all royalty hated him.
Good afternoon" greeted the squire.
He entered the room unbidden, and
withdrew several oblong papers from
a tan wallet. These are due. I be-
lieye.". He held them SO Bob could
see. They consisted of three judg-