Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-07-07
THE STORY

McuCeS WOrh as grocer DOy. AL q
residence. the White House," he de-
Mvers an order marked Johnston"
There he meets girl who tells him
she and her mother are alone in the
of ths Hs
ises to try to procure household help.
Meeting Dorothy Selden, his erstwhile
sweetheart, he battles her attempts
TO discover the reason for his presence
in Peace Valley. Arrangement is made
Tor a cook to go to the Johnstons'
CHAPTER IV.-The cook being I'M
able to begin work at once, Ned visits
the White House to inform Miss John
ton to her mother. the girl, Mary" is
astonished by that ladys emotion at
the mention Of Dabbs' name. The cook
arrives STA and Mary. with Ned. goes to
the village for groceries. They are
seen by Dorothy Seldom Mrs. John
ston, worried over financial troubles.
Is nothered by Dorothy, who warns her
Ned Carter.
Continued from last weekly
To Claude's establishment and pleas
ure, Ned seemed content and happy in
helping him about the store, or run
ming the car to and fro between Glow
er Hollow and Peace Valley.
Ned, Claude observed, never spoke
voluntarily of Dorothy Selden and
made no effort to meet her. The
vexed question of his real name
slipped into the background of
Claude's mind, save for those mo-
ments when he looked upon him with
a fatherly eye and wondered what
Loren Rangeley was thinking of.
Gradually it came to pass that Ned
delivered all the Clover Hollow orders.
Claude never crossed the White house
kitchen steps, nor did he see anything
Of the Johnstons, save an occasional
glimpse of Mary going through the
village in the car, with Ned at the
wheel. Mrs Johnston never came to
Peace Valley. When Claude was hon
est with himself he admitted that this
fact was relief. If by any chance
she was the woman he feared, what
would he say to her when he saw her?
Until he was sure Of that-he would
make no move.
Ned, obeying nothing philosophical
or studied, drifted along, caught, as he
put it to himself, in the maelstrom Of
Peace Valley. He was Indifferent to
the danger of discovery which Dorothy
Dorothy was "tOO good a scout" to
give him away, and he was equally
sure that she wanted to forget him as
much as he wanted to forget her.
It never occurred to Ned that Doro-
thy was simply biding her own time,
determined that when she struck at
him the lovely Mary Johnston should
feel the blow. As a matter of fact,
Ned was doing very little thinking. He
was creating a FOOLS paradise which
one sentence from Dorothy would de-
stroy; dreaming of a place in this
peaceful little world, whose chief in
habitant was Mary. To be received
or rejected on his own merits as
Claude Dabbs' nephew, and not Loren
Rangeley's pampered and eligible son !;
surely that would be triumph worth
while. He sought diligently to make
himself popular in the store and the
village and Indispensable at the White
house.
Ned had the field practically to him.
day week-ends, when men appeared
at the hospitable Mannheim's, there
were no available SWANS.
1t was a time when cautious or
ambitious mother might we'll have
taken alarm, for Mary was indisput-
ably intrigued. She had never before
seen so much Of youth In Ned's posi-
ton. This young man had thoughts,
ideas and habits that too closely ap-
preached her own to admit of only a
country store as background.
However, being human, Mary did
not tell her mother everything. For
instance, she simply could not tell her
mother that this grocer's clerk gave
her the feeling that she, Mary, was
utterly right and charming, no matter
what she said or did. 1t was some
thing to treasure up, and remember
when she was alone.
Mrs. Johnston, like a cornered ami
NAL, was wholly taken up with one
great and pressing problem-how to
get out of her corner. Other and
lesser problems simply did not exist
for her. She disliked inaction and
hated the policy of waiting to see how
the cat jumped" yet there was moth
ing for her to do but watt Always
before this, when things became In
any way impossible, Mrs. Johnston
had simply turned her back and run
away from them. Now, without money
to run with, she must stay here In this
quiet country place which, like false
prophet, kept breathing peace,
peace" when there was no peace-for
her.
This morning, In the hope of dis
tracing her mother, Mary was urging
a ride to Hillsborough, not only az