The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-04-03

vemDer, Dut Selma IOugnI SaVaSely
for his schooling, and won.
"Sobig isn't truck farmer"
well, he will be pretty soon. Time
was fifteen was running our place"
Verbally Selma did not combat this.
But within her every force was gather
ing to fight it when the time should
come. Her Sobig truck farmer, a
slave to the soil, bent by it, beaten by
it, blasted by 1t, so that he, in time,
like the other men of High Prairie.
would take on the very look of the
rocks and earth among which they
toiled!
Dirk. at eight, was none too hand
some child, considering his father and
mother-or his father and mother as
they had been. 1t was not until he
was seventeen or eighteen that he was
to metamorphose suddenly into
graceful and aristocratic youngster
with an indefinable look about him of
distinction and actual elegance.
Selma was farm woman now, near.
ing thirty. The work rode her as it
Jong yard there was always dado of
washing. Faded overalls, shirt,
socks, boys drawers grotesquely
patched and mended. towels Of rough
sacking. She, too, rose at four, snatched
up shapeless garments, invested her
self with them. seized her great coil OF
fine cloudy hair twisted it into
utllitarian knob and skewered it with
hairpin from which the varnisll had
long departed, leaving it dull gray;
thrust her slim feet into shapeless
shoes, dabbed her face with cold water.
hurried to the kitchen stove. The work
was always at her heels, its breath hot
on her neck.
Seeing her thus one would have
thought that the Selma Peake of the
wine-red cashmere, the fun-loving dis
position, the high-spirited courage. had
departed forever. But these things
still persisted. For that matter. even
the wine-red cashmere chung to ex-
istence. So hopelessly old-fashioned
now as to be almost picturesque, 1t
hung in Selina's closet like rose
memory. Sometimes when she came
upon it in an orgy of cleaning she
would pass her rough hands over its
soft folds and by that magic process
Mrs. Pervus DeJong vanished in
pouf and in her place was the girl
Selma Peake perched a-tiptoe on
soap box in Adam Ooms' hall while all
High Prairie, open-mouthed, looked on
as the impecunious Pervus DeJong
threw ten hard-earned dollars at her
feet.
IL would be gratifying to be able to
record that in these eight or nine years
Selma had been able to work wonders
on the DeJong farm; that the house
gllttered. the crops thrived richly, the
barn housed sleek cattle. But it could
not be truthfully said. True, she had
achieved some changes, but at the cost
Of terrific effort. A less indomitable
woman would have sunk into apathy
years before. The house had coat of
paint-lead-gray because it was cheap
est. There were two horses-the Sec
ond broken-down old mare, blind in
one eye, that they had picked up for
five dollars after 1t had been turned
out to pasture for future sale as horse
carcass. A month of rest and pastur-
age restored the mare to usefulness.
Selma had made the bargain, and Per-
vus had scolded her roundly for it.
Now he drove the mare to market, saw
that she pulled more sturdlly than the
other horse, but had never retracted.
1t was no quality of meanness in him..
Pervus merely was like that.
But the west sixteen! That had
been Selina's most heroic achievement.
Her plan, spoken Of to Pervus in the
first month of her marriage, had taken
years to mature; even now was but
partial triumph. She had even de-
scended to nagging.
why don't we put in asparagus"
"Asparagus!" considered something
Of luxury, and rarely included in the
High Prairie truck farmers products.
And wait three years for crop"
Yes, but then we'd have it. And
a plantations good for ten years, once
it's started. I've been reading up on 1t.
The new way is TO plant asparagus in
rows, the way you would rhubarb or
corn. Plant six feet apart, and four
acres anyway"
He was not even sufficiently inter-
ested to be amused. "Yeh. four acres
where? In the clay land. maybe" He
did laugh then. If the short bitter
sound he made could be construed as
indicating mirth. "Out of book"
I'm the clay land" Selma urged.
crisply. "And out Of a book. That
west sixteen isn't bringing you any
thing, so what difference does it make
If l am wrong! Let me put my own
money into it. I've thought 1t all out.
Pervus. Please. Well underdrain the
clay soil. Just five or six acres. to
start. Wen manure 1t heavily-as
much as we can afford-and then for
two years well plant potatoes there.
Wen put In our asparagus plants the