The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-02-27
BIG
By EDNA FERBER
20, Doubleday, Page G. Co..
WNU Service.

/ "Og Hedenl / got no time to sit
down." She was off.
Roelf slid his plane slowly, more
slowly, over the surface Of satin-smooth
oak board. He stopped, twined a curl
Of shaving about his finger. ''When l
am man, and earning, / am going to
buy my mother a silk dress like saw
in store In Chicago and she should
put it on every day, not only for Sun
day; and sit in chair and make little
fine stitches like Widow Paarlenberg."
what else are you going to do when
you grow up7" She waited, certain
that he would say something delight
full.
"Drive the team to town alone to
market"
"Oh, Roelf!"
"Sure. Already have gone FIVE times
twice with Jakob and three times
with Pop. Pretty soon, when I am
seventeen or eighteen, can go alone.
At five in the afternoon you start and
at nine you are in the Haymarket.
There all night you sleep on the wagon.
There are gas lights. The men play
dice and cards. At four in the morn
ing you are ready when they come, the
commission men and the peddlefs and
the grocery men. Oh, it's fine, tell
you'll"
Roelf!" She was bitterly disap-
pointed.
"Here. Look" He rummaged around
in dusty box in corner and, sud-
denly shy again, laid before her torn
sheet of coarse brown paper on which
he had sketched crudely, effectively,
melee Of great-haunched horses; wa
CONS piled high with garden truck;
men in overalls and corduroys; flaring
gas torches He had drawn it with
stub of pencil exactly as 1t looked to
him. The result was as startling as
that achieved by the present-day disci-
pie Of the impressionistic school.
Selma was enchanted.
Once, early in December, Selma
went into town. The trip was born Of
sudden revolt against her surround
ings and great wave Of nostalgia for
the dirt and clamor and crowds Of
Chicago. Early Saturday morning
Klaas drove her to the railway station
five miles distant She was to stay
until Sunday. A letter had been writ
ten Julie Hempel ten days before, but
there had been no answer. Once in
town she went straight to the Hempel
house. Mrs. Hempel, thin-lipped, met
her in the hall and said that Julie was
out of town. She was visiting her
friend Miss Arnold, in Kansas City.
Selma was not asked to stay to dinner.
She was not asked to sit down. When
she left the house her great fine eyes
seemed larger and more deep-set than
ever, and her jaw-line was set hard
against the invasion Of tears. Sudden
ly she hated this Chicago that wanted
none of her; that brushed past her,
humping her elbow and offering no
apology; that changed, and shrieked.
and whistled, and roared in her ears
now grown accustomed to the prairie
silence.
She spent the time between one and
three buying portable presents for the
entire Pool Observation-Disclosures ba-
nanas for Geertje and Jozina, for
whom that farinaceous fruit had the
fascination always held for the farm
child. She caught train at four thir-
ty-five and actually trudged the FIVE
miles from the station to the farm,
arriving half frozen, weary, with ach-
ing arms and nipped toes, to great
welcome of the squeals, grunts, banks,
and gutturals that formed the express
sion of the Pool household. She was
astonished to find how happy she was
to return to the kitchen stove, to the
smell Of frying pork, to her own room
with the walnut bed and the book
shelf. Even the grim drum had taken
on the dear and comforting aspect of
the accustomed.