The Washington herald., 1922-01-22
THE FULFILLER
IF You Could Hape
Whatever You Nest Wish
for, What Would You
Ask?

IL It was Mr.. Stock who spoke;
Afterwards. when things bad happened and
passed. leaving nothing On which he could
really place his hand. Maynard liked TO
think that those words had struck him
with q peculiar sisntncancs-" But In actual
fact they passed largely unnoticed. more
Debris on the freshet Of Mrs. Stocks speech
as she stood In the doorway In the half
fugitive ranner batting one who merely
fingers for . pleasant word over her dodgers
dinner.
That word had already lasted long. but
Maynard did not repeat his previous error OF
sslxing her to stt down. That as he was
now aware, would have somehow savored
Of improprtety. Then again. IN the manner
Of the tourist on the hunt for impressions.
he was regarding her more - . type than
- an individual Standing there with apron
enfelded arns, and that outpouring Of soft
Devon accents, she seemed As purely literary
. property ~ those purple china dogs on
the mantel
One diamond paned easement was hung
back. and across the potted geraniums IN
ne window seat the June air struck with
an Undesirable wfld sweetness Above ths
scarlet blossoms came glinpses Of the dis
tant Tors, purple and bistre under the NAL
lowing Light; the vast upheaved waste Of
Dartmoor. all granite and heather. tmplac-
ably the same throughout the ages.
. So the Tolleys don't own their farmr-
he asked
You might think 50, for I've bean told
that In America 1t Is common to own" Mrs
Stock agreed. But up here to Dartymor
nobody owns, sir; it's all Duchy propertJ
hereabouts. the Duchy Of Cornwall, which
ID crown property. though It - little enough
the king knows Of what goes on. Mr.. Bras-
don. over to Tavistock. he's the agent, and
with him It's rent. rent, UP to the Duchy
Inn at Princestown each quarter day. g
cut you GO"
So, from the coign Of the respectfully opa
toor. Mrs Stock rippled ON. and In parallel
accompaniment ran Maynard's thoughts.
Dartmoor. all about him. Land In Itself.
lifted a thousand feet above the softer wales
OF the Devon coast A breeding sort Of
place. high and apart In Its seeming open
ness that was still 50 strangely hidden. To
Maynard that hiddenness. which he sensed
an about him. came a mental food, slight
~ hunsered n he was by the steriltties Of
his western college 1t was curious that
the facts Of LIFE should be so the same wher-
ever ono went This immemorial country,
beneath It's surface picturesQuesness, linked
by rent and toll with the dollar problems Of
mis- own Rockledge. Through the window
ne could see the Eanser-Down Farm Of
which they spoke. three miles away. crouch
Ing under the jagged lee of Crockern Tor.
Remembering its boulder strewn slopes, he
wondered how the woman there, bleak a.
h.- own fields, could wiring q living from
that sparse soil.
As though in answer 10 the unspoken
question, Mrs. Stock, having wrapped her
self about a fresh relay Of breath, went on
It Is this quarter day as will be the test
for Han-er-Down, sir, seeing the luck Door
,Grs. Tolley had with her pigs this spring,
and hard 1t must come to her at best. Quite
well to do they was once; there's been
but he husband was lost. horse and all. in
Fox Tor Mire one night, arhurrying home
when rae was expecting Elias. Since then
It's been scrtmp and scrape up TO Hanger
Down. ind now It is the pigs. twenty pound
worth Of 'en. adytns on her in an hour,
she left with only that Elias. as is more of
4 htndrsnce than q help. poor innocent
Unknown to herself. probably from her
sheer reiish IN It. Mrs. Stock had the art of
the born roconteuse; an incommunicable
way Of making her hearer see all these
not actually say. Maynard found himself
catching flashes back Of her words. Pigs
he had never before realized that pigs could
also Be tragedy. But he could see them now,
spread across the foreground IN a riot Of fat
death; and against them Elias lank figure
thatch Of hair. half sensitive. half silly.
wholly vistful.
All. yes-Elias," Maynard mwmured
II have noticed him."
You probably would, SIR" Mrs Stock
firmly agreed. Mot that there's mite Of
harm in him. but a bit mazedlike. There's
seine as say it was the shock Of his fathers
death afore he was born, while there's
others
Mrs. Stock paused for backward glance
of caution over her shoulder. and her tone
sank to a more thrilling contraIto.
e -
when a child Not that hold with such