The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 9, 1915, Page 14

BT e T"And though during the day many de- lightful crises were precipitated the most interesting were the expressions that devastated Polk Hayes’ and Lee Greenfleld’s faces as they came around the side of the house to see what all that hammering was about. “Caroline!” exclaimed Lee, in per- fect agony, as he beheld the lady of his ardent, though long restrained, af- - fections poised across the wheel of the | wagon tugging at the middle of a i heavy plank which Mrs. Dodd and I i were pushing up to her, while Mamie, | the mother of seven, stood firmly on top of the wagon guiding it into place. “Help!” gasped Polk, as he started i to take the ax from Jane by force. Then we all stopped while Jane quietly gurgled the molasses of the situation to them, and sent them on down the street sadder and wiser men. I thought Polk was going to cry on her shoulder before he was finally persuad- ed to go and leave us to our fate, and the expression on Lee's face as he looked up at torm, dirty, perspiring Caroline, with a smudge on her nose i and blood on her hand from an abso- A lutely insignificant scratch, was such { B8 ought to have been on Ned’'s face as he ought to have been standing by Mamije with the asafetida bottle. That's mixed up, but the five ought to catch the point. It took up all of Saturday afternoon ‘ and part of Monday morning, but we | built those tables, thereby disciplin- i ing masculine Glendale with a severity that I didn’t think could have been in us. We all rested on Sunday—that is, os- Rensiby. Jane put down all sorts of things on paper that everybody had to go on Monday and on Tuesday. Hen- rietta sat by her in a state of trance, Bnd it did me good to see Sallie out the hammock at Widegables taking &re of both the kit and the pup, la- riously assisted by panting Aunt 5 Dilsle, because Jane explained to her z) $0 beautifully that she needed a lot of Henrletta’s time, that Sallle ac- jquiesced with good natured bewilder ent. Of course Cousin Jasmine help- 1ed her some, but she was busy aiding gusin Martha to beat up some mys- rious eggs in the kitchen, with the shutters shut because it was Sunday. f At was -something that takes two days B to “set” and was to be the plece de re- { gistance, after the barbecue. : 8 Mrs. Hargrove couldn’t help Sallie at B all with the kiddies either, because she was looking through all her boxes and bundles for a letter from her son which she thought said something about fa- woring woman'’s rights, and if it is like she thinks it 13 she is going to go to ‘the barbecue and get things nice and fiot instead of having them brought to er cold. o i I had hoped to get a few minutes Bunday afternoon to myself so I could o up into the garret and look through jone of the trunks I brought from Paris Iwith me to see how many sets of things I have got left. I am going to need a itrousseau pretty soon, and I might meed it more suddenly than I expect. I don’t see any reason for people’s not marrying immediately when they make jup their minds, and y half of ours is { A made up strong enough to decidedly i influence rapidity in his. But then I ‘ .|really don't believe that the Crag fwould care very much about the high lights of a trousseau, and it was just 28 well that Nell came in to get me to fhelp her write a letter to national |beadquarters to know if she could have jany kind of assignment in the cam- /paign for the convention to alter.the constitution in Tennessee when it meets next winter. “Have you mcde up your mind fully {to_go in for public life, Nell?” I asked 3 Sy AT R S OIS SES W THE NONPARTISAN LEADE 1Ined Witli broad roads and mantled in ’| the richness of the harvest haze, “can -all those wigons full of people be com- ing to accept our invitation?” “Yes; they’re our guests,” I answer- ed, with the elation of geunerations of rally givers rising in my breast as.I saw the stream of wagons and car- riages and buggies, with now and then o motorcar, all approaching Glendale from all points of the compass. “Have we enough to feed them, Jas- per?” she turned and asked in still fur- ther alarm. “Nothing never give out in Glendale yit since we took the cover offen the pits for Old Hickory in my granddad's time,” he answered, with a trace of offense in his voice as he stood over a half tub of putter, mixing in his yarbs with mutterings that sounded like in- cantations. I drew Jane away, for I ‘omaany, W7 "ToMie of your Irlends might not iike it very much and—and”— “If you mean Polk Hayes, Hvelina,” Nell answered with the positiveness that only a very young person can get up the courage to use, “I have forgot that I was ever influenced by his nar- row minded, primitive personality at all. If I ever love and marry it will be & man who can, appreciate and fur- ther my real woman’s destiny.” “Well, then, that’s all right,” I an- swered, with such relief in my heart that it must have showed in my voice and face. I had worried about Nell since I could see plainly, though she hasn’t told me yet, and I am sure she doesn't realize it, that Jane had decid- ed Polk’s destiny. Nell is not twenty- one yet, and she will find lots of men in the world that will be fully capable of making her believe they feel that way about her destiny until they suc- ceed in tying her up-to using it for the real utilitarian purposes they are sure such a pretty woman is created for. It will take men in general another hundred years yet and lots of suffering to realize that a woman’s destiny is anything but himself and get to house- keeping with her on that basis, The Crag didn’t jog into Glendale on his rawboned old horse until 1:30 Mon- day night. I had been watching down Providence road for him from my: pil- low ever since I put out my lght at 11 because Jane had decided that it was our duty to go to bed early so as to be as fresh as possible for the rally in the ‘'morning. She had walked to the gate with Polk at 10 and hadn’t come back until 11, so, of course, she was ready to turn in. It was just fool- ish, primitive old convention that kept me from slipping on my slippers aad dressing gown—I've got the prettiest ones that ever came across the Atlan- tic, Louise de Mereton, Rue de Rivoli, Paris—and going down to the gate to see him for just a minute. That sec- ond he stood undecided in the middle of the road looking at my darkened house was agony that I'm not going to put up with very much longer. Jane and I with Henrietta were out by the old gray moss rock at the first break of day installing Jasper and Pe- tunia and a few of their confreres. Jasper had always been king of all Glendale barbecue pits, and he had had them dug the day before and filled with dry hickory fires all night, and his mien was so haughty that I trembled for the slaves under his command. Hig basket of “yarbs” was under the side of the rock in hoodoo-like shadows, and the wagons of poor, innocent, sac- rificed lambs and. turkeys and sucking pigs were backed up by the largest in- fernal pit. Petunia was already elbow deep in a cedar tub of cornmesl for the pones, and another minion was shucking late roasting ears and wash- ing the sweet potatoes to be packed down with the meat by 8 o’clock. A wagon was to collect the baked hams and sandwiches and biscuits and con- fections of all varlety and pedigree from the rest of the league at 10 o'clock. We didn’t know it then, but another wagon was already being loaded very privately in town with ice and bettles, glasses and lemons and mint and kegs and schooners. I am awfuly glad that the Equality league had forgotten all about the wetting up of the rally, be- cause I don't belleve we .would have been equal to the situation with Aunt Augusta and Jane both prohibition en- thusiasts. e “Evelina,” gasped Jame as we stood on the edge of the bluff that commands’ a view of almost all the Harpeth val- ley stretched out like the very garden of Eden itself, crossed by silver creeks, “Yes; they're our guests,” | answered. felt that 1t.was no time to disturb him, when the basting of his baked meats was just about to begin. I was glad that about all the coun- tryside had gathered, unhitched their wagons, picketed their horses and got down to the enjoyment of the day be- fore the motorcars bringing the dis- tinguished guests had even started from Bolivar. It was great to watch the farmers slap neighbors on the back, exchange news and tobacco plugs, while the rosy women folks grouped and ungrouped in radiant good cheer with children squirming and tangling over and under and around the rejoicings. “This, Eveling,” remarked Jane, with controlled emotion in her voice and a mist in her eyes behind their glasses, “is not only the bone and sinew, but also the rich red blood in the arteries. of our nation. I feel humbled and honored at being permitted to go among them.” And it was into an atmosphere of al- most hilarious enjoyment that the dis- tinguished commission arrived a few minutes before noon, just as Jasper's barbecue pits were beginning to send forth absolutely maddening aromas. Nell whirled up the hill first and turned her auto across- the, road by the bluff with that rakish skill of hers that always sends my heart into my throat. And whom did she have sit- ting at her blue embroidered linen el- bow but Richard Hall himself? Good old big, strong, dandy Dickie, how great it was to see him again, and if I had had my own heart in my breast it would have leaped with delight at the sight of him! But even the Crag’s that I had exchanged mine for, though it was -an entire stranger to Dickie, beat fast enough in sympathy. with the dance in my eyes to send the color up to my face in good fashion as I hur- ried across a lump of goldenrod to meet him. ‘“Hvelina, the lovely!” he exclaimed in his big booming voice as he took me by both shoulders and shook.me instead of shaking merely my hand. “Richard 'the royall” I answered in ing. I didn’t loek right into his eyes as I always had, however, and some- thing sent a keen pain through the our-old quartier Latin form of greet- | exchanged ,h_eart in my breast at the thought that I might be obligea to hurt the dandy old dear. But suddenly the sight of Nell’s love- liness cheered me. . She had had Dick in that car with her ever since 9 o'clock, almost three hours,” showing him the sights of that teeming heavy lush harvest countryside around Boli- var and Glendale, all over which are low roofed old country houses which brood over families that cluster around the unit that one man and a woman make in their commonwealth. eyes were sweet as she looked at him. I'll wait and see if I need to worry over him. - With the fervor I felt I bhad a right to, I then avoided the is- - sue of Richard’s eyes, put it up to God and Nell, and introduced him to Jane. And while the three of them stood waiting. for Nell to back up the auto and put her spark plug in her pocket— only Richard calmly took it and put it in his—the rest of the cars came up the hill and turned into the edge of the golidenrod. . [Ty CHAPTER XVI. The Barbecue. UNT AUGUSTA was in the first car with the chairman of the commission, whose name even would have paralyzed anybody but Aunt Augusta, and Mamie and Cousin Martha, Caroline and several more of the ladies made up the rest of the committee which had gone to es- cort the distinguished guests to the rally. The Crag was in the last car with a perfectly deliclous old gray haired edition of Dickie, and I almost fell on both their necks at once. What saved them was Polk appearing between us with three long mint topped glasses. I'm glad old Dick immediately had his eyebrows well tangled in the mint of his julep, for I got my own eyes farther down into Cousin James’' deep gray ones than I expected and it was hard to come up. I hadn’t had a plunge in them for three days and I went pretty deep. “Eve,” he said softly, as he raised his glass and smjiled across his green tuft. Yes, I know he knows that I know there is an answer to that name when he says it that way, but I'm not going to give it until I am ready and the place is romantically secluded enough ° to suit me. He just dares me when he says it to me before other people. That reminds me, the harvest moon is full tonight and rises an hour later every evening from now on. I don't want to wait another month before I propose to him. I've always chosen moonlight for that catastrophe of my life. I wonder if men have as good times planning the culmination of their suits as I am having with mine? But I had to come down quickly to a little thing like the rally and give the signal to feed all the 500 people, who by that time were nice, polite, raven- ing wolves, for Jasper had uncovered the turkey pit to keep themrfrom get- ting too brown while the lambs caught up with them. Jane was the master of ceremonies, because I balked at the last minute. I think I would be capable of managing even a natlonal convention in Chicago, that far away from the Harpeth val- ley, but I couldn’t do it with my friends of pioneer generations looking On. A man or womgn never grows up at all to the woman who has knitted baby socks for them or the man who has let them ride down the hill on the front of. his saddle. And at the head of the center table Jane asked the Crag to sit beside her, 50 that he would be in place to com- - mand attention for her when she want- ed to speak and where everybody could hear him when he did. Jane’s speech of welcome made such an impression that it is' no wonder some of the old mothers in Israel got up to iterate it as the dinner pro- gressed. She, as usual, refralned from' preju- dice _smgshing and . stones at. glass houses. throwing, and she hadn't said ten sentences before she had the whole feeding multitude with her. . (To be continued.) The farmers - of this state have . been “saved” by every body but farm- ers. Now they are organizing to save themselves and’ they will get some- where, It is rumored that for-get-me-nots are to be worn by all North Dakota politicians the Nonpartisan League ‘nips in the bud, ) Nell's | <=