The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-02-22
The Pretenders
By JESSIE DOUGLAS

His fingers, big and brown and clum-
sly, made slow work of the berry pick
ing. He stopped a moment TO watch
his companion in labor as she stripped
the bushes with the easy skill OF ex-
perience.' From her fingers his eyes
travelled to her face and he noted the
healthy glow of color In her cheeks
and the thick mass Of chestnut hair
that was drawn back under her coarse.
wide hat.
Dan Willard summed her mp as the
typical farmers daughter-skilled In
her tasks, healthy. unthinking, happy.
Then he went back TO his own labor
ious task.
IF you'd begin at the bottom Of the
bush-so," she illustrated, "and pluck
them off-so-you'd get on fasterP
Dan looked into her pretty liquid eyes
and learned his lesson.
There was no further conversation
while they worked at varying speeds,
while the drowsy hot sound Of the
locusts came to them, and the breath
of the hayfelds. freshly cut, sweet
with a thousand blended perfumes.
They both Strengthened up at the
sound Of the horn blowing across the
fields
Dinner 20
They both stopped with relief and
the man rose stifiy.
81 guess you're not used to this,
the girl smiled. Her voice. huskily
sweet, was as pretty as her eyes, he
decided Then he lifted his pail and
hers and strobe OFF beside her.
mot berry picking" he explained,
looking down on her pink sun-bonnet
that she had tossed on to cross the
fields. I've been haying over to
Farmer Dicks, and now he's set me
to berrying."
"Oh!" said the girl. In fash she
knew he was the new hand at the
| Dicks, who tossed the hay on the
ricks and rode past to the barns while
she had been wedding in the kitchen
garden Of the farm below.
"Do you live around herer' 1t was
his turn to question.
"Over to the Mayberrys'," she an
| swered.
He remembered now this was the
same girl he had noticed hanging out
the clothes and working around the
place. Old Mayberry's daughter.
She was a pretty thing, he thought,
as he watched her swing down. the
road to the next farm. The girl, al
most as though she had read his
| thoughts, turned at the pasture to
wave to him. He waved back awk-
ward1y,, knowing that he was not used
to this, easy give and take Of farm
life, as he should be.
| But he was more disappointed than
the occasion warranted when she did
not rejoin him that afternoon at the
berry bushes. They must have needed
| her at home, but still He noticed
how tedious the work was and how
his fingers were. stiff with thorn
pricks and how hot the sun beat down
on the fields.
When his days work was over al
last and he had washed out ut the
pump with the other two hands," and
had eaten his supper Of hearty farm
food, he found that he had no desire
ms usual to throw himself out under
the stars on the cool grass and Lie
there until bedtime.
/ With his pipe between his teeth hs
walked of hazily down the road unti
he had come to the white farmhouse
cuddling down under the trees-whert
she had said she lived.
''Cissy !" he heard a voice call, and
as soon as he heard the name he knew
that no other could have suited hel
so perfectly. He was very slow at 60
ing past the house, and when he cam,
back he saw a figure out under TN,
Rose-of- Sharon bushes. and he knew 4
was she.
He ought to 60 past But he CAV
in and called, "Good EVENING" ant
she answered him In that husky, swee
voice that blended in with the nigh
sounds and came out to where b
waited in the road As she came {,
him her little Bingham dress had takel
on the glamour Of moonshine and tn
fragrance Of the roses; he knew h
was going to be sorry later. But b
found himself strolling up the roa,
and sitting on the crumbling stone
wall that shut In the Mayberry or
. chard.
II what do you do all the timer h
! asked her.
And she told him about the kitchen
| garden and the wedding and how sh
made bread and churned the butter
she told him how she drove the COW
home at night sometimes and the wa
she hunted for the eggs, and laughe
! at the funny tricks Of the hens VIII
hid them so smartly in new nook
and crannfes.
He thought she was very swee
this little farm gin. with her know
edge of the ways of all these animal
eEd ke- natural way of looking on he
: duties as so many pleasures.
2 But she shook him out OF mi
thoughts with the question. IAN
what do you do!"
"Oh, I'm just farmland, haydn
i'm season, and the chores. miIkin,
feeding the animals"
There was a pause and the gil