The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-04-10
CHAPTER vII-Continued
10

Selma turned the horses heads
toward the city. you'd be surprised,
Jan, TO know Of all the things you're
going to hear of some day that you've
never heard of before Still. when
twenty years had passed and the Ford
the photograph, the radio. and the
rural mail delivery had dumped the
world ut Jams pIodding feet he liked
to tell of that momentous day when
Selma DeJong had driven off TO market
like man with wagon load Of hand
scrubbed garden truck and the boy
Dirl. perched beside her on the seat.
If. then. you had been travelling the
Halsred road, you would have seen Il
tiecrepit wagon, vegetable laden, driven
by too-thin woman, sallow, bright
eyed. IN Il shapeless black dress, hat
tered black felt hat that looked like
a mans old fedora" and probably
was. On the seat beside her you
would have seen a farm boy of nine or
thereabouts-a brown freckle-faced lad
in cOmically homemade suit of
\ clothes and a straw hat with broken
and looping brim which he was for
ever jerking off only to have ii set
firmly on again by the woman who
seemed TO fear the effects of the hot
afternoon sun on his close cropped
head.
Al their feet was the dog Pom. a
mongrel whose tail bore no relation to
his head. whose ill-assorted legs APP
peared wholly at variance with his
sturdy barrel of body. He dozed
now. for 1t had been his duty to watch
the wagon load at night, while Pervus
slept
A shabby enough little outfit, but
magnificent. too. Here was Selma De-
Jong, driving up the Halsted road
toward the city instead of sitting.
black-robed. in the farm parlor while
High Prairie came to condole. In Sc
lima. as they logged along the hot
dusty way. there welled up feeling
very like citation. More than ten years
ago she had driven with Klaas Pool up
that same road for the first time, and
In spite of the recent tragedy of her
fathers death, her youth. her loneli-
ness, tile terrifying thought of the
new home to which she was going a
stranger among strangers, she had
been conscious of warm little thrill
of elatiOn, of excitement-of adven-
ture !! That was 1t. 1.-THE whole things
just grand adventure" her father,
Simeon Peake. had said. And now the
esnsations of that day were repeating
themselves. Now. as then. she took
stock. Youth was gone, but she had
health, courage; boy of nine; twenty
1--WE acres of wornout farm land
dwelling and outhouses in bad state
of repair; and gay adventuresome
spirit that was never to die, though il
led her into curious places and she
often found, at the end, only track.
less waste from which she had to re-
trace her steps painfully. But always
to her. red and green cabbages were to
be jade and burgundy, chrysoprase and
porphyry. Life has no weapons against
a woman like that.
Down the hot dusty country road
She was serious enough now. The cost
Of the funeral to be paid. The doctors
bill. JAMS wages. All the expenses
large and small, Of the poor little farm
holding.
On down the road. Here head at 0
front room window. There a woman's
calicoed figure standing in the door
way. Mrs Wander Slide on the norch
tanning her flushed face with hel
apron; Cornella Snip in the yard pre-
tending to tie up the dropping stalks
Of the golden glow and cycling the ap
preaching team with the avid gossip'i
gaze. To these Selma waved, bowed
called.