, 1925-04-08
e. And-wait a minute-humus.

using it IN 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 a great hearty laugh
that Selma found surprisingly infuriat-
ing. well, well, WELL! School teacher
is a farmer now. huh? bet even
Widow Paarlenberg don't know as
much as my little farmer about"-he
exploded agaln-"about this, now. pot
ash and-what kind OF acid? Tell me.
little Lima. from where did you learn
all this about truck farming?"
out of a book" Selma said. almost
s%nappishly. ~ sent to Chicago for it."
"A book A book - He slapped his
knee. "A vegetable farmer out of a
book"
why not! The man who wrote 1t
knows nor about vegetable farming
tina anybody in all High Prairie. He
knows about new ways. You're rum
ming the farm just the way your father
ran it,"
what was good enough for my IA
ther is good enough for me-"
1T isn't!" cried Selma, 1T isn't!
The book says clay loan Is all right
for cabbages. peas, and beans. 1t tells
you how. 1t tells you how! !" She was
like a frantic little fly darling and
pricking him on to accelerate the stolid
sluggishness Of his slow plodding gait.
Pervus stared straight ahead down
the road between his horses ears much
as klaas Pool had done so m~addeningly
on Selina's first ride on the Halsted
road. Zine talk. inc talk"
1T isn't talk. It's plans. You've got
to plan"
Zine 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 a boggy clay
mass, and unprollfic; 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-five-cent rooming houses. Rath-
er. Pervus slept. The woman lay
awake, wept a little. perhaps. But in
the morning Pervus might have noted
Of he had been a man given to noting)
that the fine jaw-line was set ms de-
terminedly as ever with an angle that
spelled inevitably paint, drainage, hu-
mus, potash, %phosphoric acid. and a
horse team.
She rose before four with Pervus,
glad to be ont of III 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.
Selma waited while he tended the
horse. 1t was scarcely dawn when the
trading began. Selma. watching 1t
from the wagon seat, thought that this
was n 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. mlrac-
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 bo>vls was aban-
doned by July. Had II not been for
Roelf's faithful tending, the flower
beds themselves, planted with such
hopes. would nave persisted for lack Of
care.
Roelf came often to the house. He
found there a tranquility and peace
never known in the Pool place. with
Its hubbub and clatter. In order to
make her house attractive Selina had
actually rified 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 p%etticoat.
The can OF white paint and the
brush actually did materiallze. For
weeks II was dangerous to sit. lean, or
tread upon any palntnble thing In the
DeJong farmhouse without ellcltlng n
cry of warning from Selma. She
would actually have tried her hand ut
the outside OF the house with a quart
can and u three-lnch brush II Pervus
hadn't interviewed. She hemmed dlmlty
curtains, made sllp-covers for the hid
eous parlor sofa and the ugllest OF the
chairs. Subscribed for u magazine
called House and Garden. Together
she and Roelf used to pore owe this
fascinating periodical. II High Prairie
had ever overheard n OF these on
versations between the farm woman
who would always be n girl and the
farm boy who had never been quite n
child. IL would have raised palms high
In nm "og hedenl !" OF horror. But
High Prairie never heard, and wouldn't
hnVp understood II II had.