The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-03-13


girl He was unlucky, like that. 1t
was the same with the farm.
Selina's heart melted in pity He
would look down at the great cal
ioused hands; up at her. One of the
charms of Pervus DeJong lay in the
things that his eyes said and his tongue
did not. Women always imagined he
was about to say what he looked, but
he never did. It made otherwise dull
conversation with him most exciting.
His was in no way shrewd mind.
His respect for Selma was almost rev.
erence. But he had this advantage:
he had married a woman, had lived
with her for two years. She had borne
him child. Selma was a girl in ex-
perience. She was a woman capable
of great deal of passion, but she did
not know that. Passion was thing
no woman possessed. much less talked
about. 1t simply did not exist, except
in men, and then it was something to
be ashamed of, like violent temper,
or weak stomach.
BY the first of March he could speak
a slow, careful and fairly grammatical
English. He could master simple
sums. BY the middle of March the les
sons would cease. There was too
much work to do about the farm
night work as well as day. She found
herself trying not to think about the
time when the lessons should cease.
70 nh 70 Anv.fl
One night, late in February, Selma
was conscious that she was trying to
control something. She was trying to
keep her eyes away from something.
She realized that she was trying not
to look at his hands. She wanted,
crafty, to touch them. She wanted to
feel them about her throat. She want
ed to put her lips on his hands-hrush
the backs Of them, slowly, moistily,
with her mouth. lingeringly. She was
| terribly frightened She thought to
| herself: 81 am going crazy. / am los
ing my mind. There is something the
matter with me. l wonder how look.
must look queer
I At half-past eight she closed her
book suddenly. Pm tired. 1 think
| it's the spring coming on" She
smiled little wavering smile. He
| rose and stretched himself, his great
arms high above his head. Selma
shivered.
"Two more weeks" he said, lis the
last lesson. Well, do you think have
done pretty good-wellw
Every well,' Selma replied evenly.
She felt very tired
| The first week in March he was Ill,
| and did not come. A rheumatic afflic.
ton to which he was subject. 1t was
the curse of the truck farmer. Selina's
evenings were free to devote to Roelf,
who glowed again. She sewed, too !
read; helped Mrs. Pool with the house
work in gust of sympathy and found
strange relief therein; made over an
old dress; studied; wrote all her let
tiers (few enough), even one to the
dried-apple aunts in Vermont She no
longer wrote to Julie Hempel. She
had heard that Julie was to be mar
! ried to Kansas man named Arnold.
| Julie herself had not written The
first week in March. passed. He did
not come. Nor did he come the fol-
lowing Tuesday or Thursday.
She was bewildered, frightened. All
that week she had curious feeling
or succession of feelings. She was
restless, listless, by turns. Period Of
| furious activity, followed by days of
inertia. 1t was the spring, Maartje
said. Selma hoped she wasn't going
to be i'll. She had never felt like that
before. She wanted to cry. She was
| irritable to the point of waspishness
with the children in the schoolroom.
On Saturday-the fourteenth of
March-he walked in at seven. Haas:
Maartje and Roelf had driven off to
| a gathering at Low Prairie, leaving
Selma with the pigtails and old Jakob.
| She had promised to make taffy for
them, and was in the midst of it when
his knock sounded at the kitchen door.
| All the blood in her body rushed to her
head; pounded there holly. He en-
tered. There slipped down over her
complete armor of calmness, of self
possession; of glib how do you do Mr..
DeJong and how are you feeling and
won't you Sit down and there's no fire
in the parlor we'll have to sit here.
He took part in the taffy pulling.
Selma wondered if Geertje and Jozina
would ever have done squealing. 1t
was half-past eight before she bundled
them off to bed with plate of clipped
taffy lozenges between them. She
heard them scuffling and scrimmaging
about in the rare freedom of their
parents absence.
Pervus DeJong and Selma sat at
the kitchen table, their books spread
out before them on the oilcloth. The
sweet, heavy scent of fruit filled
the room. Selma brought the parlor
lamp into the kitchen, the better to
see. 1t was nickel-bellied lamp,
with a yellow glass shade that cast a
mellow golden glow.
you didn't go to the meeting"
nrimlv 0NIr and Mrs Pool wont z"