Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-08-11

Pool.
but how much / wan. to wipe your
face lists so streakyl'
Ned put her down and laughed.
"You ought to see what you look like
You look exactly like a mud baby"
he told her as he felt in his pocket
for a handkerchief
Gravely, Ned divided the handker-
chief and gravely Mary accepted it.
Laughter still trembled about the
corners Of her mouth, however, as she
took this opportunity. Of wringing
some of the water from her garments.
"Come." Ned commanded, 1--WE can't
stop for that. Now then, let's see
what the farmhouse holds for u.s."
81 hope 1t holds just one woman,
no matter how old or fat, because
I'm so waterlogged and mud-plastered
/ can scarcely lift one foot after the
other"
II hate to blast your hopes, but I
see approaching us an ancient man
with whiskers. He has the look Of a
hermit. No, cheer up. He's calling
Phoebe, and by all the gods, she's
young"
She was. Phoebe Sayer was four
teen, but for all that she kept house
for Uncle Nate, and miser though he
was, he loved Phoebe.
Now, though he had growled some
thing In his tattered whiskers about
having "passel Of half-drowned
rats on his clean kitchen floor,
Phoebe, who had scented excitement,
and fallen in love with Mary, ordered
him out to the barn with pair of
clean overalls for Ned. Though it cut
Uncle Nate to the heart, she made
him take with him q shirt and q pair
Of socks.
Phoebe was just fourteen, little
short, If anything, and hers were the
only feminine garments in the house.
Slowly, and with much hilarity, Mary
was indicted into 1.-The longest things
I've got"
When Ned emerged from the barn
and brought the car up to the door,
the blinds were up and Phoebe was
throwing the wet garments, whose
dainty flneness she marveled at, into
a washtub near the door. She saw
Ned and called back to the open door,
"Say, Miss Johnston, your young
mans ready for you"
Ned, wondering how Mary would
take this classification, looked with
interest at the doorway as Mary
emerged. She was clad in Phoebe's
dark blue dress, one-piece garment
that ended above her knees She had
on Phoebe's best black cotton stock
ings, which didn't quite reach those
knees, SO Mary had rolled them. She
had tied back her dark hair with a
blue ribbon and she locked like a
charming actress ready to play Alice
in-Wonderland."
Mary stopped and kissed her little
hostess and thanked her warmly,
promising to be back to visit her soon.
"Oh, If you'd do that, that would
be wonderful! Jest to have some one
come in and see me. / don't ever
want for anything" she said proudly,
for the Savers were an old family
and Phoebe never forgot it. Uncle
Mates got plenty, and he's so kind
to me. But do love company"
Uncle Nate looked up at the sky
and said: you'd better hurry home !:
there's shower coming"
Ned realized that Uncle Nate did
not wish Phoebe to know Of q certain
financial transaction, In which wear
and tear to his barn and kitchen and
the loan of dry clothing had been duly
and minutely calculated.
They said very little. They had
both been shaken out of the groove in
which they had been comfortably ex-
listing at the beginning of this drive.
Ned was no longer a merely amusing
grocer's clerk. He was q man who
had held her In his arms, who had
called her "dear" and had saved her
life. AS for Ned, there was no long
er any need for question. Mary might
be still vague about her feelings to-
ward him, but he knew now what she
meant to him. He had known 1t from
the moment he came up out Of the
water with her In his arms. She was
the one girl, the only girl for him.
Dorothy Selden, and her predecessors.
were pale shadows In the long ago.
Mary was what he had been searching
for, longing for.
He knew it now. It was wonderful.
It was romance; romance come upon
suddenly In the midst Of common.
everyday life.
There's mother, waiting" ex-
claimed Mary, who had been longing
to smooth down his hair which had
dried thoroughly. but rampantly, In
the breeze. "Oh. I do hope she's not
anxious"
(Continued)