White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-10-28
Good News From
a Far Country
By MARTHA WILLIAMS

SiSiiCd nGuhiJ, souuSLAlA SOou HiiSht
happen for us once in a while"
"Surely. 1t not only might-it
does" daughter Frances answered
briskly. Look at that basketball the
cabbage plants we need-and half a
dozen tomatoes"
"But-no ground ready for settin'
out" her mother interrupted. II call
that an a~ggravation of providence.
Either it ought to assent somebody to
work out the garden for us-else let
the plants and things wait ontel we
were good and ready"
"Waitin' amt the way ever TO get
things ready" Frances retorted, as
she spoke grabbing her palmetto hat.
against my usln' it"
"But-the ground amt checked Off
you'll put item hills as crooked as a
dogs hind leg" Mrs. Rayley protest
ed-to thin air. Frances was skim
ming down the length of the big gar
den patch, to reach the rich moist
earth along its lower edge. The mill
road ran just outside, but with every
body so busy, planting and blowing,
passers were likely to be few. Any
way. she was past caring. 1t vas
fine to be "genteel"-her mothers
catchword-on scant fare, but not so
fine to be hungry. Besides. she had
inherited her fathers love for land
and growing things. 1t was the love
that had made him risk his small tidy
farm in reaching out for wider room.
He would have won through all right,
but for the accident-a falling tree
had crushed him just as the first big
crop needed him worst. After that
the deluge-collectors, sheriffs, the
wasting away of his vision. All that
remained to widow and daughter was
the homestead, which boosted besides
garden and paddock. a fine young Or
chard and a bit of grassland, barely
enough to pasture the COW.
Neighbors hac been sympathetic
enough through the trouble. After
things settled, though, there seemed
little room for help. That is to say,
unless the Rayleys helped themselves.
The garden had been planted for them
last spring, but 1t had gone to weeds
and grass, lacking tillage. Mrs. Ray
ley said she hadn't been raised to the
hoe" also she forbade Frances to risk
sunburn and hardened hands by ex-
p%erimenting with the implement. That
had not set very well with those round
about, not even with Jem Parsons,
who had brought the basket, and gal
Ioped away before Frances got to the
door to thank him. He was down.
right sorry for the women, said Jem,
but folks that wouldn't work couldn't
expect 10 eat-Scripture said so. He
wouldn't have troubled himself to give
them this chance of working, only he
had so many lusty stocks 1t hurt him
to think Of throwing them away.
Frances somehow sensed the fact
possibly the sensing, added to appe-
tite, had sent her out to work. She
did it valiantly, heaping the light,
fresh earth into tidy mounds, keeping
them in a row by glances at the gar
den palings and trying to make the
next row even and evenly spaced. With
a hundred hills in hand, she began
planting. Her mother had scurried
out, exclaiming querulously that it was
a crying shame-her fathers daughter
coming to that. Frances had shrugged,
saying over her shoulder: "'Stead Of
scoldin' suppose you drop plants for
me-then the shame maybe won't
burn you so bad"
Mrs. Rayley shook her head, and
stalked off angrily-but paused at the
gate, horror-stricken indeed.
For there was Frances. STOPPING to
set out the plants she had herself
dropped, bare of head and arms, with
her faded calico frock killed so high
it revealed at least ten Inches of
shapely legs-and just over the fence,
Jem Parsons turned suddenly to an
equestrian statue, calling gayly: "Say,
Miss. Frances: want a boy to help?"
"Nope-can't afford such e%xtraya-
gance. I'm no %plutocrat, in spite Of
the way I look" Frances flung back
at him saucily over her shoulder, not
even pausing to give him a look.
Don't believe a word Of 1t. Un-
less you were richer'n cream and
peaches, you'd never dare do-things
like this" Jem said in her key. Don't
you dare run away-I'm coming to
get the job" Flinging his reins over
a handy swinging limb he vaulted the
fence at It's lowest gap. At his ap-
proach. a scarlet Frances dropped
fiat, so as to hide her enchanting legs.
You go away!" she ordered; 'else
I'll lose the rest Of the ~plants-you
know the season goes so fast from
ground in. May"
mo you won't" from Jem conf
IDENTIFY. go long plantin'-I1l make
up the rest of the hills-and then
Wen finish together. Never mind how
you look-I know what workin' in the
dirt requires"
Frances rose to a STOPPING posture,
seized her planting peg, and went down
the row, no longer scarlet, but dumb
and nale-hardly able to see for the