Evening star., 1924-02-24

So SpectdDlG tltlEeU lie was
And his children, three sons and two
daughters. came from Unity and Lib
erty and South China and Augusta
and-this last was Lew-from Boston
to the funeral
After the services the five gathered
to settle Enoch's estate. In the other
brothers there was ingrained that
thrifty appreciation Of the value of
a. dollar which. is part of the New
England heritage. Lew laughed at
them for it: ridiculod them when, in
the appraisement of their fathers
effects, they valued the home farm
at only $4,000. In the end Lew ac-
ccpted the farm as his share of
Enochs worldly goods, sent for his
trunk from Boston, and became a
farmer.
He had left home-this Lew
1-homas-when he was eighteen years
old. He was now past thirty. Even
as a boy he was an alien spirit in
these surroundings. He and his
father had been constantly in con-
flict. Enoch was a SILENT thoughtful
and attentive man. Lew from the
first was a talker, a boaster. AS u
boy he Dragged about the fish he
canght, the partridges he shot, the
number Of potatoes he could dig in a
day, the amount of hay he could
handle alone, the other boys he had
whipped.
A stocky, broad -shouldered youth.
with the reddish brown hair of his
Welsh breed and the fair skin and
blue eyes-true to type thus physi-
Cally he was. but there was a cross
strain in him somewhere. For while
the Welsh like to talk, they are not
loud takers nor overmuch given to
Dragging.
Fraternity used to laugh at him
when he was a boy. When he an
nounced his intention of going TO
Boston to find a job they listened
with q meek patience to his noisy
boasts and took a quiet satisfaction
in assuring themselves that Lew would
find he needed more than talk to get
along in Boston. But it seemed that
he found a place at once; left it for
a better, and for better again.
Came home one summer in clothes
Enthusiastically expensive. The next
year he shipped aboard a tramp
steamer and saw the world. Home
again, he sold automobiles. At the
time of his fathers death he was
travelling for a clothing house, but
he did not like the work ana was
willing enough to try farming for
while.
Fraternity found Lew unchanged
by his friction with the world. In
Will Bisselrs store few days after
his establishment in Enoch's old
house he announced that he meant to
raise apples.
There's the way for you folks up
here to make money" he expounded.
you're too shiftless, that's the
trouble. I've got over a hundred
trees on my place already to start
with and I'm putting in moro. There's
fortune in apples up here"
They listened without comment, but
he did not thus endear himself to
them. Each man there had his small
orchard. For the most part these
trees went untended. The suckers
might be trimmed out of them, but
that was all. There were rumors
that at Winterport and Frankfort
farmers were doing well with or
chards, but no one about Fraternity
had inquired very deeply into the
matter. Lewis boast might be true
enough. The mere fact that they
originated with him made them
doubtful. The fact that he presumed
to advise them made him unpopular.
He was man Of surprising physi-
cal vitality, this Lew Thomas, and it
was remarked that he applied him
self to the work about the farm with
an energy almost ferocious. 1t was
in the spring that Enoch died. The
season for planting was just begin
ming. Lew put in a garden of vege-
tables for his own use. He planted
beets and squash and the like for
cattle food, and he set out some hun
dreds of strawberry plants at a ven
ture,
you can have ripe Strawberries up
here way into the fall" he reminded
the men in the store, when the Bos-
ton market is crazy for them, if
you'll take tho trouble to try"
If he had been content to relax into
the easy life Of his neighbors, doing
only as much farming as was neces-
sary, Fraternity might have accepted
him as one of themselves. But the
TACT that he was an alien was en-
phasised by his alien ways. He him
self impressed it upon them at every
opportunity. 1t was matter for
boasting with him, but, then, most
matters were food for his boasts.
II EW had a careless charity-wouId
go out of his way to do a kind or
courteous act Gay Hunt, a fanciful
man. one night derided Lew in the
store. Yet day or two later, when
Gays Jersey heifer broke pasture,
Lew drove her home. a mile and a
half. at sacrifice of his own time.
Most mon in Fraternity would have
penned the heifer up and sent word
to Gay to fetch her. A small thing,
but typical.
There was boldness about Lew
which might have appealed to neigh
bors of a more adventurous mold.
One day Chet McAusland stopped at
the farm. and the two men talked
together for a space. Then Lew went
into the barn and climbed to the NOW
to throw down hay for his cattle.
Chet watched from below. The barn
was an ancient. full-timbered struc-
ture. The great beams Of its skeleton
crossed this way and that. Lew
climbed to an upper loft, and when
he was done there, instead Of de-
scending by the ladder, he jumped
lightly outward down to some boards
which lay loosely across a lower
beam, and so to the foor. Get was
alarmed, and cried:
Lord. man, look out! Them boards
will break with you"