, 1925-02-25
Ed MA FEE b
90. Doubleday. Page q Col
WNU Service.

urging him. This was In September.
High Prairie school did not open until
the first week in November. In that
region of truck farms every boy and
girl over six was busy in the fields
throughout the early autumn. Two
years of this and Selma would be
qualified for a city grade. August
Hempel indicated that he could ar
range that, too, when the time came.
Selma thought this shrewd red-faced
butcher a wonderful man, indeed.
Which he was.
At forty-seven. single-handed, he
was to establish the famous Hempel
Packing company. At fifty he was the
power in the yards. and there were
Hempel branches in Kansas City,
Omaha. Denver. At sixty you saw the
name of Hempel plastered over pack
ing sheds, factories. and canning
plants all the way from Honolulu to
Portland. You read:
Don't Say Ham: Say Hempel's."
Hempel products ranged incredibly
from pork to pineapple; from grease
to grape-juice. Something of his
character may he CLEANED from the
fact that armer who had known the
butcher at forty still addressed this
millionaire, at sixty, as Aug. At sixty
five he took up golf and beat his son
ln-law, Michael Arnold, at 1t. A mag
nificent old pirate. sailing the perllous
commercial seas of the American '90s
before commissions, Investigations,
and InQuisitive senate insisted on ap-
plying whitewash to the black flag of
trade.
Selma went about her preparations
in a singularly clear-headed fashion,
considering her youth and inexperl-
ence. She sold one of the blue-white
diamonds, and kept one. She placed
her inheritance Of four hundred and
ninety-seven dollars. complete, in the
bank. She bought stout, sensible
boots, two dresses, n a brown lady's-
cloth which she made herself, finished
with white collars and cuffs. very neat
(the cuffs to be protected by black
sateen sleeveless, of course, while
%teaching) and a wine-red cashmere
(mad, but she couldn't resist it) for
best.
She eagerly learned what she could
of his region once known as New
Holland. Its people were all ruck
gardeners, and as Dutch as the Meth
erlands from which they or their fe-
theirs had come. Many of them had
come from the town of Schoorl, or
near 1t. Others from the lowlands out
side Amsterdam. Selma pictured 1t
another Sleepy Hollow. n replica of
the quaint settlement in Washington
Irving's delightful tale. Picturing mel
low golden corn fields; crusty crullers,
crumbllng ~oly-koeks, toothsome wild
ducks, sides Of smoked beef. pumpkin
pies: country dances, apple-cheeked
farmer girls, she felt sorry for poor
Julie staying on in the dull gray corn-
monplaceness of Chicago.
The last week in October found her
on the way to High Prairie, seated be-
side Klaas Pool In the two-horse wagon
with which he brought his garden stuff
to the Chicago market. Mile after mile
of cabbage fields, jade-green against
the earth. Mile after mile of red cab
bage, a rich plummy Burgundy veined
with black. Between these, heaps Of
van Ntit BAithbP htaii,t
the horizon an occasional patch of
woods showed the last russell and
bronze of oak and maple. These things
Selma saw with her beauty-loving eye.
and she clasped her hands in their
black cotton gloves.
"Oh, Mr.. Pool 70 she cried. MIR.
Pool. How beautiful 1t is here!"
Klaas Pool. driving his team OF
horses down the muddy Halsted road,
was looking straight ahead, his eyes
fastened seemingly on an invisible spot,
between the on-horse's ears. His was
not the kind OF brain that acts quickly,
nor was his body's mechanism the sort
that quickly responds to that brains
message. His eyes were china-blue In
a round red face that was covered
with a stubble Of stin golden hair. His
round moon Of a head was set low and
solidly between his great shoulders, so
hat as he began to turn II now, slow
ly. you marveled at the process and
waited fearfully to hear n creak. He
was turning his head toward Selma,
but keeping his gnz on the spot be-
tween his horses ears. Evidently the
head and the eyes revolved by quite
distinct processes. Now he faced Sc
lima almost directly. His pale blue eyes
showed incomprehension.
"Beautiful1" he echoed. In puzzled
Interrogation. "what. Is beautifulT'
Sellna's slim arms flashed out from
the swnthlngs OF cloak. shawl, and muf-
fer and were flung wide in a gesture
,ha, arhracod tho lanbscana nm yhIch