The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-03-27


vegetables. There's always a pile by
the side of the barn; and you've been
using 1t on the quick land. All the
west sixteen isn't clay. Part Of it's
auckland. All 1t needs Is draining
and manure. With potash, too, and
phosphoric acid"
Pervus laughed great hearty laugh
that Selma found surprisingly infuriat-
ing. swell, well, we'll! School teacher
is a farmer now, huh? bet even
Widow Paarlenberg don't know as
much as my little farmer about"-he
exploded again-"about this, now, pot
ash and7what kind Of acid? Tell me,
little Lima, from where did you learn
all this about truck farming?"
"Out of a book" Selma said, almost
snappishly. 81 sent to Chicago for it.
"a book A book!" He slapped his
knee. "a vegetable farmer out of
book"
why not The man who wrote 1t
knows more about vegetable farming
than anybody in all High Prairie He
knows about new ways. You're run
ming the farm just the way your father
ran it,"
"NNhat was good enough for my IA
Their is good enough for me-"
ut isn't!" cried Selma, st isn't!
The book says clay loan is all right
for cabbages, peas, and beans. 1t tells
you how. 1t tells you howl" She was
like frantic little fly darling and
pricking him on to accelerate the stolid
sluggisllness of his slow plodding gait.
Pervus stared straight ahead down
the road between his horses ears much
as Klaas Pool had done so maddeningly
on Selina's first ride on the Halsted
road. "Fine talk. Fine talk"
at isn't talk. It's plans. You've got
to plan"
"Tine talk. Fine talk"
"Oh" Selma beat her knee with an
impotent fist.
1t was the nearest they had ever
come to quarreling. 1t would seem
that Pervus had the best of the argu-
ment, for when two years had passed
the west sixteen was still Doggy clay
mass and unprolific; and the old
house stared out shabby and painless.
at the dense willows by the roadside.
They slept that night in one of the
twenty-ive-cent rooming houses. Rath-
err, Peryus slept. The woman lay
awake, wept little, perhaps. But in
the morning Peryus might have noted
(if he had been man given to neting)
that the fine jaw-line was set as de-
terminedly as ever with an angle that
spelled inevitably paint, drainage. hui
mus, potash. phosphoric acid. and
horse team.
She rose before four with Pervus,
glad to be out of the stuffy little room
with its spotted and scaly green wall
paper, its rickety bed and chair. They
had a cup of coffee and a slice of bread
in the eating house on the first floor.
Selina waited while he tended the
horse. 1t was scarcely dawn when the
trading began Selma. watching it
from the wagon seat, thought that this
was ridiculously haphazard and peril
\ Gus method of distributing the food for
whose fruition Pervus had tOiled with
aching back and tired arms. But she,
said nothing.
. She kept. perforce, to the house that
first year, and the second. Pervus de-
clared that his woman should never
work in the fields as did many Of the
High Prairie wives and daughters.
Selma learned much that first year,
and the second, but she said little. She
kept the house in order-rough work.
and endless-and she managed. mirae-
ulously. to keep herself looking fresh
and neat. She understood now
Maartje Pools drab garments, harassed
face, heavily swift feet, never at rest.
The idea of flowers in bowls was aban-
doned by July. Had it not been for
Roelf's faithful tending. the flower
beds themselves. planted with such
hopes. would have persisted for lack of
care.
Roelf came often TO the house. He
found there tranquility and peace
never known in the Pool place, with
its hubbub and clatter. In order to
make her house attractive Selma bad
actually rifled her precious little bank
hoard-the four hundred and ninety
seven dollars left her by her father.
She still had one Of the clear white
diamonds. She kept it sewed in the
hem of an old flannel petticoat.
The can of white paint and the
brush actually did materiallze. For
weeks 1t was dangerous to sit, lean, or
tread upon any paintable thing in the
DeJong farmhouse without eliciting a
cry of warning from Selma. She
would actually have tried her hand at
the outside of the house with quart
can and a three-inch brush If Pervus
hadn't interviewed. She hemmed dimity
curtains. made slip-covers for the hid
eous parlor sofa and the ugliest of the
chairs. Subscribed for magazine
called House and Garden. Together
/. she and ROelf used to pore over this
fascinating periodical. If High Prairie
had ever overheard one of these con-