Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1929-11-21
THE STORY

Thrush, Iowa, his motherleSs daugh-
ger EIla"Hare busy grooming" their
sister Marjory for participation In the
beauty pageant" that evening. With
Eddy Jackson. prosperous young farm
er, her escort Marjory leaves Tor the
anticipated triumph.
Continued from last weekly
Helen. who was twenty-three years
old, after two years CT training at the
normal school. had served for two
years as q teacher in neishbOring
town. Her small check coming into
the parsonage every month had meant
something almost akin to richness.
until the unaccustomed expense of
medical treatments had made such
yoraciOus demands upon Them Now
the twins also were ready to go into
the normal school for training In the
fall. Ginger felt that 1t was a real
extravaganza on the part of the fam
lily to assume the expense or educat
ing Marjory TO teach school That
money might better be saved Mar
jOry was beautiful The obvious end
of beauty is marriage to great for,
tune From her earliest childhood
in her queer. small heart, Ginger Ella
had sacredly dedicated her beautiful
sister to that high estate She would
enrich the family by marriage.
In her inexperienced youth, Ginger
divided all men broadly into three
general grOups-regulaT men romantic
figures and base pretenders Regular
men were like her father. settled ur.
bane. and immune TO sex. Like Eddy
Jackson Ginger called him regular.
Eddy Jackson had been one of their
first friends when the Tollivers came
to Red Thrush. He was farmer
Not hat Ginger called what Eddy
Jackson did farming The neighbors
did not call 1t that. either Ginger
Ella called it playing. they called
it kid-glOvins Eddy Jackson was an
agriculturist. an experimentalist lie
was of the new school, one of those
who studies the land as a mechanic
studies his tools. The neighbOrs
laughed at what they called his high
dinkuses-but the fact that he made,
in spot cash, every year, nearly twice
as much money as they did from the
same amount of land, gave him d
certain authority among them. They
said he was lucky, but they went to
him for advice.
There was q long low building on
his farm which Ginger called the
sacred shed. Eddy Jackson called 1t
the lab. And there, with microscopes
and plates and curious tubes and
queer liquids and funny little boxes
and bottles and cans Of sand and soil,
Eddy Jackson did strange things,
with soil. with seeds and sprouts.
Often, during the summer, young
men, students from the state univer-
stiles, came and stayed at the farm
which Eddy called Pay Dirt-and
hobnobbed about with him fraternally
But when Eddy told them to do any
thing, they obeyed as If they were
servants And so they were. But
not the servants of Eddy Jackson
servants of the soil, Ct the state. the
great farming state of Iowa.
So Eddy Jackson. for all his youth
and his sometimes hippant way OF
dealing with serious subjects. fitted
into Ginger's classification as regular
Just like her father. He never
waXed sentimental He never sue,
cumbed to what she bitterly termed
paving" He went about with Helen
until Professor Langley attained the
heights of monopoly in her time as
well as her affection, and then he
Obligingly transferred his attentions
to the twins, taking them inter
changeably according to the occasion
or both together, and sometimes, al
though she always protested. Ginger
herself.
Eddy did not talk nonsense. He
never stopped the car to leap Out
and pluck q wild rose to present with
a fattering word, soft look, and q
sly touching of fingers. He did moi
quote poetry. He did not sing. he
Just stroIled blithely in with an offer
ing of fruit from the farm, fresh
vegetables, or q chicken ready fol
broiling. and announced that he would
like company for ride. Regular
Just like father. That was Eddy
Jackson.
Ginger took her responsibilities te
the family with a great deal Of solem
nifty. If only she could hold them In
line, the twins, that Is. for Helen
was now irrevocably lost to her SIS
terly schemes. Still. even Ginger
found some grounds of justification
for Helen. She was getting old
nearly twenty-three. And Helen was
an even-tempered, unexcitable, unro
mantle type. Perhaps after all II was
just as well.
She regretted that they could not
afford money enough to adorn Mar.
iOry's beauty In q fitting manner