Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-01-07
The Romance
of a Survey
BY HART

On Friday the familiar back pas
ture" was much as usual; the cows
grazed c%ontentedly, the little brook
talked TO itself as it had done for the
past thousand years, the scattered
trees wore the same air of permanent
cy as the surrounding hills. On Fri
day; on Saturday the scene had
terror, the brook babbled angrily even
the trees seemed indignant. The cause
of all this disturbance was the appear
ance of a number of young men in
flannel shirts and high laced shoes,
some of whom performed strange feats
with tripods and long red-and-white
poles and interminable steel tapes,
shouting and waving their arms ins a
way to brighten any self-respecting
COW into bovine Mysteries, while others
drove stakes in the ground. 1t was all
very strange, thought the cows and the
brook and the trees; no n had ever
acted that way in the back pasture be-
fore. These sentiments were echoed
by pretty Mary Langhorn when she
made her morning trip to the back pas
ture. But Mary Stared non of the
cows terror. She walked straight to
the young man who seemed to be in
charge of things and demanded of him
who he was, what he wanted there,
where he came from, what he was
doing and why he was doing it, all in
a breath. The young man took off his
haiti was q hot morning, and he was
working hard-and mopped his brow
with a %bandanna before answering. He
had a rather nice brow, thought Mary;
in fact, he was rather nice to look at,
in his rough clothes. with the upturned
sleeves showing his muscular fOrearms
and his shirt, open at the throat, re-
vealing the white skin below where
the sun had not tanned it. But she
waited for her reply without giving
any sign of this admiration. The
young man seemed apologize, and was
quite nice about 1t.
"Well, you see, Miss"
"Mary Langhorn's my name, and this
is my fathers Jonas Langhorn's farm"
Miss Langhorn, we're surveying
for a railroad line that's to run
through here. Your father was to see
our attorneys this morning. We're run
ming the preliminary now"
Mary hadn't the slightest idea what
he meant by running a preliminary"
but he really was nice, even if he was
on her fathers land; and then, the
mention of attorneys was reassuring
and business-like. So she treated the
young man to a smile, which he
seemed to appreciate to the full, and
returned to the house, where she found
her father in a state of excitement.
"What do you think, Mary-girl?'
he began. Her mother, standing be-
hind him, echoed "What do you
think?"
They're goin' to run a line O. rail-
road right through the back pastur'-I
was talkin' to their lawyer just this
minute-an' they're goin' to pay $500
an acre fer the right o way! Why, 1t
comes to more'n $4,000! It's a big
thing for us, Mary-it means school
an college fer you, fer one thing. Amt
We glade"
"Oh, Dad!" The dream of Mary's
life was to be realized at last, and she
could hardly find words to express her
happiness. Then her mother spoke.
"That young engineer-the chief O.
the gang-Andrews is his name-John
Andrews-is goin' to live here while
they put the line through. Near's |
can find out, he has to stay nearby to
tend to some job-gradin', err some
thin like that-an' the lawyer asked
could 1 put him up, a n O course l
said yes. So we'll have him around
fer awhile. Did you see him when you
was down to the back pasture this
mornin'?"
"Yes-I saw him. He-he looked
rather nice"
"Well !" Jonas Langhorn's word was
short. "Tm glad you liked his looks.
He'll come in fer dinner"
At dinner he appeared, and the
Langhorn family took to-" him at once.
He was quiet, but had a fund of hu-
NOR that kept them all laughing when
he chose to exercise it. He was hand
some, too, thought Mrs. Langhorn as
she looked at the bronzed face that
Mary had admired in the forenoon.
And he seemed to like the farm cook
ing, which was the surest way to kind
ly Mrs. Langhorn's heart. But Mary
was silent and subdued before him III
fact, through the months that followed
the waiting for materials and the
endless surveying and re~-surveying-
she grew more and more quiet. Her
father saw fit to rally her on the sub
iect, but she would make no direct re-
ply.
II wonder if the child's feelin'
well?" inquired his wife Of him one
evening in an anxious tone. But he