Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1926-03-25
CHAPTER TX

SE1<AI En- IN
That was busy night on Fourteen.
The girls confessed that they had been
on the lookout for us since the first of
the month. They had even borrowed
Spoof's field glass so that they could
sweep the horizon to the eastward far
beyond Mrs. Atoms.
Hes the strangest sort of chap, is
Spool" said Jean. evil you believe
me, he hasn't been inside this house
since you left2 Used to walk over
from time to time, and see that the
pigs and the cows were living in har-
mony, and that the fuel had not given
out, but was always In a rush home
again. Never saw such a man for
work; quite different from what he
used to be-"
Jack looked his sister over with an
eye that did not reserve all its ap-
prevail for Marjorie. eve thought you
would have been an accomplished
banjoist by now" he said.
"NOt a lesson-not a single lesson
in all this time" Jean grumbled. "And
now suppose he'll be over tomorrow
to indulge us with the pent-up leisure
of two months"
jeans naivette was little greater
than mine. We had been brought up
with sound training in the rudiments
Of behavior, but with little knowledge
of its social complexities. My feeling
in the matter was 9 mixed sense of
surprise that our neighbor, usually so
friendly, had held aloof at time when
he was particularly needed, and of an
nOyance that Jean should be so OBJ
viously put out about it.
The girls had a strange treat In re-
serve for us. 1t was Jean who told
us of it, although, as it seemed to me,
her manner suggested certain lack
of frankness very unlike Jean. 1t
seemed that few days before our
return jack rabbit had Hoped up
within easy distance Of the shanty
door, where he perked himself on his
jorie took the gun down from the
wall, aimed it with great elaboration.
and fired.
: Jean declared that the rabbit was
not hit, but that he died Of fright.
Be that as it may, he furnished the
filling for a very deep and tempting
rabbit pie.
"Lnd only to think" said Jean, her
bright eyes dancing, sit would scarce
ly have kept any longer. We were
managing to freeze it little at
nights, but it would thaw out during
the day."
II don't know but it is little over
kept as it u.s." Marjorie admitted, "but
we're going to eat it tonight" And
so we sat about our little table, with
the great rabbit pie in the middle,
and great helpings Of white potatoes
and onions on our plates, and flaky
white bread and yellow homemade
butter within reach, and the light
beating down from an oil lamp on the
wall, and would not have changed
places with anyone on earth.
The next day revealed changes In
the neighborhood which we had not
had time to notice or discuss In the
evening. A number Of settlers had
come in. The girls had not seen any
of them, but could give almost as
accurate descriptions as though they
had. 1t seems Spool had come over
to Fourteen every Sunday afternoon
during our absence, and, for all the
shyness against which Jean had pro-
tested, he had managed. to regale the
girls with the gossip of the commu-
nifty, for our two little shacks were
really becoming the center of a neigh
borhood. From Spool they learned
that the Browns had landed from
England with three children and hard
ly anything else, and had built a
shack on the southwest quarter of
Four. Mr.. Brown had been a game
keeper in England His wife was a
wistful little body who seemed likely
to have plenty to wist over before her
children were raised on the living that
q gamekeeper would wiring from the
soil. On the northwest of Eighteen,
just four miles west Of us, a Scottish
shipbuilder named Smith had located.
He appeared to be unmarried. Three
miles north of US, on Thirty-four, q
Swede named Hansen had built q
shanty twelve feet square, in which
he was housed with his wife and six
children, and on Thirty-six Russian
had dug himself sort OF cave in the
bank of the gully. he, too, had a
wife and numerous offspring, but the
exact number had not yet been ascer-
tanned.
"Ay tank thar bane plenty" Ole
Hansen had said. when discussing the