Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1925-07-30


her ears, iv; ,'.,., -"
fathtr?" She was attic Selma Peake
again, and Simeon l'enke had come in,
gay, debnnair, from nights gaming.
Peryus belong was already padding
about the room in stocking feet. What
what time is it? What's the matter,
father? Why are you up? Haven't
membered.
Pervus DeJong laughed and came
toward her. Get mp. little lazy bones.
It's after four. All yesterdays work
I've got 10 do. and all today's. Break
last. title Lima. breakfasi. You are
i;utnrr's wue now.
Dirk De.Jong was born in the bed
room OFT the sill H.. room on the mr.
t,,'1,h day Of March, of bewildered'
Somewhat resenttul. but deeply inter
V>trd mother: and a proud, foolish,
:,.'! Vain@IoriouS father whose air OF
"," "yrunnt, considering the really
lit part he had played in the long.
G,"u>, and racking business, was dis
j''"n"rjouate. Tie name Dirk had
,''ond"d 10 Selma like something tall,
,t'a. t. and siim. Peryus had chosen
i. II had been his grandfather's
nauIr.
Spnl 'tines. during those months,
Selma woiild look back on her first win
Ter in High Prairie--that winter of
the icy bedroom. the chill black
drum, the schoohouse fire, the chill
blains, the Pool portland 1t seemed
a lovely dream; time of ease, of free
dom. of careless happiness.
Pervus DeJong loved. his pretty
young wife, and she him. But young
love thrives on color, warmth beauty.
1t becomes prOsaic and inarticulate
when forced to begin it's day at four
In the morning by reaching blindly,
dazedly, for limp and obscure garments
dangling from bedpost or chair, and to
end that day at nine, numb and sOdden
with WEAKNESS, after seventeen hours
of physical labor.
1t was wet summer. PervuS'
out in the hope of dry season, be-
came dragged gray specters in
waste of mre. OF fruit the field bore
one tomato the size of marble
For the resi-, the crops were moder
ately successful on the DeJOng place,
But the work necessary to make This $"
was heartbreakin@ Selma had known,
during her winter at the Pools. that
HAAS, Roelf and old .Jakob worked
early and late, but her months there
had encompassed what is really the
truck farmers leisure period She had
arrived in November. She had mar
ried in May. From May until october
it was necessary to tend the fields with
a concentration amounting to fury.
Selma had never dreamed that human
Toll was a thing she had never en-
countered until coming to High Prairie.
Now she saw her husband wrenching
living out of the earth by sheer mus
Gle, sweat, and pain. During June,
July. August. and September the good
UldCA Bull wi AlllCS was
teeming, q hOtbed OF plenty. There
was born in Selma at this time feel
ing for the land that she was never to
lose. Perhaps the child within her
had something to do with this. She
was aware of feeling of kinship with
the earth; an illusion Of splendOr. Of
fulflllment.
AS cabbages had been cabbages. and
no more, to Klaas Pool, so, to Pervus,
these carrots, beets, onions, turnips,
and radishes were just so much prod
uce, to be planted, tended, gathered,
marketed. But to Selma, during that
summer, they became a vital part in
the vast mechanism Of living world.
Pervus, earth, sun, rain, all elemental