, 1925-04-22
SO BIG
By EDNA FERBER
20. Doubleday. Page q Col
WNU Service.

"How d'you do. Mrs. Wander Slide 7"
A prim reply to this salutation. Dis
approval writ large on the farm-wife's
flushed face.
Hello. Cornelia |"
A pretended start. notable for its bad
acting. "Oh, is 1t you, Mrs. DeJong!
Suns in my eyes. l couldn't think it
was you like that"
Women's eyes, hostile, cold, peering
Five o'clock. Six. The boy climbed
over the wheel, filed a tin pail with
water at a farmhouse well. They ate
and drank as they rode along, for there
was no time to lose.
The boy had started out bravely
enough in the heat of the day, sitting
up very straight beside his mother,
calling to the horses, shrieking and
waving his arms at chickens that flew
squawking across the road. Now he
began to droop.
SLEEPY, Sobig?"
mo Should say not" His lids
were heavy. She wrapped the old
black fascinator about him. In the
twilight the dust cleaned white on
weeds. and brush, and grass. The far
off mellow sonance of a cowbell.
Horses hoofs %clopping up behind them.
a wagon passing in n cloud of dust. II
curious backward glance. or a greeting
exchanged.
One of the Ooms boys, or Jakob
Boomsma. you're never going to mar
ket, Mis- DeJong!" staring with china
blu ewes at her load
Yes, / am, MI. Boomsma."
THAT amt work for a woman Mis-
DeJong. You better stay home and let
the men folks GO"
Selina's men folks looked up at her
one with the asking eyes of n child.
one with the trusting eyes of a dog.
My men folks are going" answered
Selma. But then, they had always
thought her a little queer, so 1t didn't
matter much.
She urged the horses on, refusing to
confess to herself her dread of the
destination which they were approach
ing. Lights now, in the houses along
he way. and those houses closer to-
sether. The boy slept. Night had
come On.
The figure of the woman dropped a
little now as the old wagon creaked
on toward Chicago. A very small fig
ure in the black dress and a shawl over
her shoulders. She had taken off her
old black felt hat. The breeze RULED
her hair hat was fine and soft. and 1t
made "A little halo about the white face
that cleaned almost LUMINOSITY in the
| L., -, H. ..,Nl gt 80 o,.,-I
the sky.
I'll sleep out with Sobig in the
wagon. 1t won't hurt either CT US.
1t will be warm in town, there in the
Haymarket. Twenty-Five cents-maybe
fifty for the two of us, in the rooming
house. Fifty cents just to sleep. II
takes hours of work in the fields to
make fifty cents"
She drove along in the dark. a dowdy
farm woman in shapeless garments ;
just n bundle on the rickety seat of
a decrepit truck wagon. The lights of
the city came nearer. She was think
ing clearly, If dlsconnectedly, without
bitterness, without reproach.
my father was wrong. He said that
life was a great Adventures fine
show. He said the more things that
happen to you the richer you are, ever
IL they're not pleasant things. That's
living. he said. No matter what hap
pens to you, good or bad, It's just so
much-what was that word he used?
so much-oh, yes-'velvet.' Just so
much velvet. Well, it isn't true. He
had brains, and charm, and knowledge
and he died In a gambling house, shot
while looking on ut someone else who
was to have been killed. . Now
we're on the cobblestones Will Dirk
wake up? My little SO Big. . ;. No.
he's asleep. Asleep on a pile of pc.
tato sacks because his mother thought
that life vas a grand adventure
fine show-and that you too It as II
came. A liel I've taken 1t as 1t came
and made the best of 1t. That isn't
the way. You take the best, and make
the most of II. . g.. Thlrty-ifth
street. hat was. Another hour and q
half to reach the Haymarket. . .
I'm not afraid. After all. you just sell
your vegetables for what you can get.
. Well. it's going to be different
with him. l mustn't call him Sobig any
more. He doesn't like 1t. Dirk. That's
a fine name. Dirk DeJong. No
drifting along for him. I'll see that he
starts with a plan, and follows Il.
He'll nave every chance. Every chance.
Too late for me, now. but he'll be DIFF
ferent. . . -. Twenty-second street
Twelfth. . . Look mt all
the peoplei =. I'm enjoying this.
No use denying II. I'm enjoying this.
Just rs l enjoyed driving along with
Xmas Pool that evening. years and
years g Scared. but enjoying It.
Perhaps I oughtn't to be-but that's
hypocrltlcal and sneaking. Why not,
II l really do enjoy Ill I'll wake
him. . Dirk Dirk. we're al
most ihere. Look NJ all the neonle