Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-06-17
CHAPTER VII-Continued
10


Selma turned the horses heads
coward the city. you'd be surprised
Jan, to know Of all the things you're
going to hear Of some day that you've
never heard of before" Still, when
twenty years had passed and the Ford.
Ghe photograph, the radio, and the
rural mail delivery had dumped the
world at JAMS Flooding feet he liked
20 tell Of that momentous day when
Selma DeJong had driven off to market
ike a man with a wagon load Of hand
scrubbed garden truck and the boy
Dirk perched beside her on the seat.
IT, then, you had been travelling the
Halsted road, you would have seen a
decrepit wagon, vegetable laden, driven
by too-thin woman, sallow, bright
eyed, in a shapeless black dress, a bat
tered black felt hat that looked like
a mans old fedora" and probably
was. on the seat beside her you
would have seen a farm boy of nine or
2hereabouts--a brown freckle-faced lad
in a cOmically homemade suit of
clothes and a straw hat with a broken
and Topping brim which he was for
ever jerking off only to have it set
armly on again by the woman who
seemed to fear the effects Of the hot
afternoon sun on his close-cropped
head.
At their feet was the dog Pom, a
mongrel whose tail bore no relation to
his head whose ill-assorted legs ap-
peared wholly at variance with his
sturdy barrel Of a body. He dozed
now, for it had been his duty to watch
the wagon load at night, while Pervus
slept.
A shabby enough little outfit, but
magnificent, too. Here was Selma De
Jong, driving up the Halsted road
toward the city instead Of sitting,
black-robed, in the farm parlor while
High Prairie came to condole. In Sc
Ina, as they logged along the hot
dusty way, there welled up a feeling
very like citation. More than ten years
ago she had driven with Klaas Pool ND
shat same road for the first time, and
taA eHtAC VI TIC lNNCAAL lldSEuN Oh OeT
fathers death, her youth, her loneIi-
ness, the terrifying thought Of the
new home to which she was going. a
stranger among strangers, she had
3een conscious Of a warm little thrill
1t citation, of excitement-of adven-
sure! That was it. 1.-THE whole things
just a grand adventure" her father,
simeon Peake, had said. And now the
sensations of that day were repeating
themselves. Now, as then, she took
stock Youth was gone, but she had
health, courage; boy of nine; twenty
ave acres Of wornout farm land;
dwelling and outhouses in a bad state
of repair; and a gay adventuresome
spirit that was never to die, though it
led her into curious places and she
often found, at the end only a track
less waste from which she had to re-
trace her steps painfully But always,
So her, red and green cabbages were TO
be jade and burgundy, chrysoprase and
Porphyry. Life has no weapons against
a woman like that
Down the hot dusty country road.
She was serious enough now. The cost
OF the funeral to be paid. The doctors
bill. JAMS wages. All the expenses,
large and small, OF the poor little farm
holding.
On down the road. Here head st a
front room window. There womans
calicoed figure standing in the door
way. Mrs Wander Slide on the porch,
tanning her flushed face with her
apron; Cornelia Snip in the yard pre-
tending to tie up the dropping stalks
Of the golden glow and cycling the APP
preaching team with the avid gosslps
baze' To theSe Selma waved, bowed
sailed