The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1923-08-23
In Gods
Country
BY MARTHA WILLIAMS

v9. 1874. by Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.)
Alison Lacy danced down the long
front walk, calling eagerly to the
riders halted at the gate: Can YOU
walt two-three minutes? If you can,
III come with YOU"
"t'uliy three and a half" Joe Glenn
ent called back. But no longer. Hus-
tie, young lady, if you want to be in
our company"
Alison made a face at him, the
while she waited rather breathlessly
for Mrs. Lucy TO say something. Mrs.
Lucy was chaperon to the riding club,
also the social dictator of Providence
town. She had rather taken up Alison,
otherwise the girl would never have
dared suggest going along.
Mrs. Lucy's eyes had the faintest
cloud in them, but she said cour-
~teously, Come. Well like to have you
along" but turned at the last word to
smile her best smile upon the tall
stranger at her elbow.
If Alison had seen him as a stranger
she would never in the world nave
volunteered joining the party. He
rode Ben Lomond, Nash Turner'S best
hunter-thereby he had made himself,
to Alison, Nash Turner's self.
She made a happy sixth-there had
been a girl lacking. Joe Clement
hailed her as a SPECIAL providence. The
stranger was named to her as Captain
MOen. Lyn Douglas and Bert Rector,
the third couple, eyed him with an
approach to awe.
Alison did not understand until Joe
said in her ear: Had a million to
start with-came back from ''over
there all plastered over with crosses
and medals and things-and now Sis
ter Lucy's lookin' at him like he vas
pie with honey on it--say, don't you
call that a real fine mess O. luckY'
surely is! Oh, / hope If she really
wants him, he's as good as he looks"
Alison returned, her voice likewise
subdued. But the next minute 1t went
to flute pitch as she cried to a very
little boy perched perilOusly upon a
very big bag of corn "Howdy, Nanny
bOh you iCl JUN oihipooh pul IVY
in the hopper, along with the grist.
And tell him, If he makes you walt
till dark, 1t won't be good for him."
At her cry Captain Moen turned to
look at her-then said hushedly to
Mrs. Lucy: "What a charming voice y
"And what a charming girl" Mrs.
Lucy added smiling: "Alison makes a
pet of the child-his mother Is a
widow, with many daughters and this
one son. Small as he Is, he ought not
to 20 to mill-but Alison encourages
it-partly because he loves to ride,
and partly because she thinks boys
shouldn't eve know how to be afraid"
"She Is right-as to outside mat
ters,' Moen said refiectively. eff l
had a son I would like him to fear
only three things-a lie, deceit and a
broken word. That would be a liberal
education IL he didn't know a letter in
a book"
my husband wouldn't have agreed
with you. Books and learning were
the things he thought most worth
WHILE" Mrs. Lucy answered.
He should have known better
being your husband" Moen said sim
ply, as though stating an axiom
whereat Mrs. Lucy, coloring family,
looked away.
Soon they quilted the highway to
circle through the farmlands over
h%ard-beaten clay roads, unvexed with
VS. Ao.l m Me- a,,nChina drinnnI
through new soft f~ullleafage to fleck
the road-banks, now grassed and
starred thick with bluets, now armored
with ranks of dropping. dark green
ferns.
Repeatedly Moen drew long, deep
breaths Of the spring fragrance. After
q while he said: "No wonder we call
this land of ours Gods country. 1t
may lack much of the old worlds
charm-but, oh, its charm more than
makes up. I'd hate to crowd 1t with
those cramped, hampered people be
yond the seas, but II 1t were possible
I'd give them room to live and find
they had souls"
"Haye they souls7' Mrs. Lucy asked
with a keen look.
sRudimentary ones" said Moen,
but no by their wv fault. In the
trenches / used to feel that from the
feudaI ages downward the peasants
had lived and died In spiritual
trenches. No wonder liberty makes
them drunk-once they get an mixing
Of It."
.Yet you are going back among
themr" Mrs. Lucy questioned tenta'
lively.
Moen drew another long breath. .'l
have had some thought Of it." he said
'But what I see here makes me doubt
full. After all. my own country has
work s-plenty for me; ! begin TO fee
Il has the frst claim"
"Since when?" Mrs. Lucy asked
smiling family. turning her head.
Moen laughed outright. "Maxbe II Il
4 sudden conversion" he answered
'But IL the voice comes to o in the
wilderness you must follow it till yot
die"
"A racer" Mrs. Lucy cried. pointing