, 1925-04-08

three years when there came 10 her .
letter from Julie Hempel, now married.
The letter had been sent to the Klaas
Pool farm and Jozina had brought 1t
to her. Seated on her kitchen steps In
her calico dress she cad it.
Darling Selma -
Il thought 1t was s queer that you
didn't answer my letter. and now l
know that you must have thought II
queer that l did not answer yours. l
found your letter to me, written long
ago. when l was going over mothers
things last week. 1t was the letter
you must have written when l was in
Kansas City. Mother had never given
1t to me.
Mamma died three weeks ago. Last
week l was going over her things-a
trying task, you may imagine-and
there were your two letters addressed
to me-. She had never destroyed them.
Poor m -.
well, dear Selma, l suppose You
don't even know that am married. l
married Michael Arnold of Kansas
City. The Arnolds were in the pack
ing business there, you know. Michael
has gone into business with pa here In
Chicago and l suppose you have heard
of pas success. Just all of a sudden
he began to make a great deal of
money after he left the butcher bust
ness and went into the yards-the
stock yards, you know. Poor mamma
wpS ca hnnny fhnsn Lost fnu, yaura
and had everything that was beautiful.
| have two children-Eugene and
Pauline.
Il am getting to be quite a society
person. You would laugh to see me.
| air or the ladies' entertainment com
mittee of the Worlds fair. We are
supposed to entertain all the visiting
big bugs-that Is the lady bugs. There!
How is that for a joke?
II suppose you know about the In
fanta Eulalie. OF Spain, you know.
And what she did about the Potter
Palmer ball. . :"
Selma, the letter II her work.
stained hand. looked up mt across the
fields n away to where the prairie
met the sky and closed in on her; her
world. The lnfanta Eulalie of Spain.
h went back to the letter.
well, she came to Chicago for the
fair and Mrs. Potter Palmer was to
give a huge reception and ball for her.
Mrs. p. is head Of the whole commit
tee, o know, and | must say she
looks q~ueenly with her white hair so
beautifully dressed and her diamond
dog-cOllar INT her black velvet and all.
Well. at the very last minute the In
fanta refused to attend the ball be-
cause she had just heard that Mrs. p.
was an inn%keeper's wife. Imagine
The Palmer house, OF course"
Selma, holding the letter in her
hand, imagined.
1t was in the third year of Selina's
marriage that she first went into the
fields to work. Pervus had protested
miserably. though the vegetables were
spelling in the ground.
Selma had regained health and vlgor
after two ear of Indebtedness. She
felt steel-strong and even hopeful
again. sure sign of physical well-being.
Long before now she had realized that
this time must inevitably come. So
she answered briskly, Nonsense. Per-
vus. Working in the fields no harder
than washing or ironing or scrubblng
or standing over a hot stove In August.
Women's work Housework's the
hardest work in the world. That's why
men won't do it,"
She would often take the boy Dirk
with her into the fields. placing him
on "A heap Of empty sacks in the shade.
He invariably crawled Off this lowly
throne to dig and burrow In the warm.
black dirt. He ever made as though
to help his mother. pulling at the root
ed things with futile fingers, and sit
ting back with a bump when a shallow
root did Unexpectedly yield to his tug.
ging.
Look He's a farmer already" Per.
vus would say.
So two years went-three years
four. In the fourth year OF Selina's
marriage she suffered the loss OF her
one woman friend in High Prairie.
MaartJe Pool died in childbirth. as was
SO often the case in this region where
a Gampish midwife acted as obstretri-
clan. The child, too. had not lived.
Death had not been kind to Maartje
Pool. II had brought neither pence
nor youth to her face. as II often does.
Selma. looking down at the strangely
still figure that had been so active, so
bustllng, realized that for the first time
In the years she had known her she
was seeing MaartJe Pool at rest. 1t