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MAIN STREET

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NOVELS BY SINCLAIR LEWIS

Our Mr. Wrenn

The TraU of the Hawk

The Job

Free Air

Main Street

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MAIN STREET

THE STORY OF CAROL KENNICOTT

SINCLAIR LEWIS

NEW YORK

HARCOURT. BRACE AND COMPANY

1921

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First printing, October, xgso

Second printing, October, xgso

Third and fourth printings, November, igao

Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth printings, December, igse

Tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth printings, January, 19S1

Pourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth inintings, Febmarj, 1911

Seventeenth printing, March, 1921

Eighteenth printing, March, 1921

Nineteenth printing, April, 1921

BOOK MANUFACTURERS
RAHWAV NEW JIRSBV

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To
James Branch Cabell

and
Joseph Bergesheimer

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C- K. JOHNSTON

APR 2 2 1937

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V^V

This is America — a town of a few thousand, in a region of r ^ ^
wheat and com and dairies and little groves.

The town is, in our tale, called '* Gopher Prairie, Minn-
esota" But its Main Street is the continuation of Main
Streets everywhere. The story would be the same in Ohio or
Montana, in Kansas or Kentucky or Illinois, and not very
differently would it be told Up York State or in the Carolina
hOls. '

^Main Street is the climax of civilization. That this Ford
car might stand in front of the Bon Ton Store, Bannibal
invaded Rome and Erasmus wrote in Oxford cloisters. What
Ole Jenson the grocer says to Ezra Stowbody the banker is the
new law for London, Prague, and the unprofitable isles of the
sea; whatsoever Ezra does not know and sanction, that thing
is heresy, worthless for knowing and wicked to consider. *

Qur railway station is the final aspiration of architecture.
Sam Clark's annual hardware turnover is the envy of the jour
counties which constitute God's Country. In the sensitive art
of the Rosebud Movie Palace there is a Message, and humor
strictly moral.

. Such is our comfortable tradition and sure faith. Would he
not betray himself an alien cynic who should otherwise portray
Main Street, or distress the citizens by speculating whether
there may not be other faiths? *

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MAIN STREET

CHAPTER I

On a hin by the Mississqppi where Chippewas camped two
generations ago, a girl stood in relief against the comflowor
bine of Northern sky. She saw no Indians now; she saw fiour-
miUs and the blinking windows of skyscrapers in Minneapolis
and St. Paul. Nor was she thinking of squaws and portages,
and the Yankee fur-traders whose shadows were all about her.
She was meditatuig upon walnut fudge, the plays of Brieux,
the reasons why heels run over, and the fact that the chemistry
instructor had stared at the new coiffure which concealed h&
ears.

A Breeze which had crossed a thousand miles of wheat-lands
bellied her tafifeta skirt m a line so graceful, so fuQ of animation
and moving beauty, that the heart of a chance watcher on the
lower road tightened to wistfulness over her quality of sus-
pended freedom. She lifted her arms, she leaned bade against
the wind, her skirt dipped and flared, a lock blew wild. A girl
on a hilltc^; credulous, plastic, young; drinking the air as she
longed to drink life. The etenial aching comedy of expectant^
youth.

It is Carol Milford, fleeing for an hour from Blodgett College.

The days of pioneering, of lassies in sunbonnets, and bears
killed with axes in pmey dearings, are deader now than Came-
lot; and a rebellious girl is the spirit of that bewildered empire
called the American Middlewest.

Blodgett College is on the edge of Minneapolis. It is a
bulwark of sound religion. It is still combating the recent
heresies of Voltaire, Darwin, and Robert IngersoU. I Pious

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2 MAIN STREET

families in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Dakotas send their
children thither, and Blodgett protects them from the wicked-
ness of the universitiesJ But it secretes friendly girls, young
men who sing, and one lady instructress who really likes
Milton and Carlyfe. So the four years which Carol 3pent at
Blodgett were not altogether wasted. The smaHneas of the
school, the fewness bi rivals, pwmitted her to experiment with
her perilous versatility. She played tennis, gave chafing-dish
parties, took a graduate seminar in the drama, went '^ twosing,''
and joined half a dozen societies for the practise of the arts
or the tense stalking of a thing called General Culture.

In her class there were two or three prettier girls, but none
more cager« Slie ws& notipeaUe equally in the classroom grind
and at dances, tiiocii^ out of the three hundred stiideDts of
Blodgett, scores redtad more accurately and doaeis Bostoned
more smoothly. f£very cell of her body was alive — Ham. wrists,
qoiaoe^lossDm skin, iegeiitte ^es, blade hair.j

The other giris in her dormitory marvdkd at the sUg^tsess
of her body Mdhen they saw her in ^eer negligee, or dartiag out
wet from a shower-bfluth. She seemed then but half aslarge as
they iiad supposed; a fragile child who must be doak^ with
Understanding kindness. " Psychic," the girls whispered, and
" spiritual.'* I Yet so radioactive were her nerves, so adventur-
ous her tnist ia rather va^^y conceived sweetaess and li^t,
that she was more energetic than any of the hulking young
won^en who, with calves bulgiii^ in heavy-ribbed woolen stode-
ings oeneath decorous blue serge Uoomers, thuddingly gsdloped
across the floor of the '^ ^m '' in practise for the Blodgett
ladies' Basket-Ball Teami

Even when she was tired ner dark eyes were observant. She
did not yet know the immense ability of the world to be
casoally crad and proudly dull, but if Ae should ev^ learn
those dismaying powers, her eyes would never become sullen
or heavy or rheumily amorous.

For all her enthusiasms, for all the fondness and the
" crushes " which she inspired, Carol's acquaintances wore shy
of her. When she was most ardeptly singing hymns or plan-
ning deviltry she yet seemed gently aloof and critical. She was
credulous, perhaps; a born hero- worshipper; yet she cUd
question ud examine nnceadngly. Vfbatsver she mi^t be-
come die wonld never he static.

Her versatility ensnared Ikt. Bt tnms she hoped to dbcover

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MAIN STREET 3

tkH she liad an unusMl voice, a takat for the piano^ tha
abiK^ to act^ to write, to maaage orsanaaticns. Always she
was disaqppokHed, but always she e£Gervesccd aaew-— <yrer the
Sttidem Voltfliteers, irtio jnteackd to become miflsieoaries^ over
pamting scenery for the diamaitic dob, over sdicitmg adver-
tiaeflsents for the college magflane

She was on the peak that SiSKla^ afternoon when she ph^rtd
in ch^qpel. Out of the djoek her vklin took op the organ
^MuaCy and the candlc4t|^ revealed her in a stiai^ gcMew
frocky her arm arched to the bow^ her Kpa aertons. Every
man fell in love then with reUgion and CaroL

Thxon j^Kmt Senior year she amuoosiiy related all her eapcrn
meats ami partial successes to a career. Daily, on the
Iteaiy steps or in the hall of the Main BuBding, the cc^-eds
ta&eda£''Wbatdiallwedowfacnwefinid»coaege?'' Even
die i^b who knew that dicy were going to be married pre^
taided to be omsidering important bnrinesa posttioas; even
they who knew that thQr would have to work hinted about
fabaioos snitofs. As for Carol, she was an orphan; her only
near rdative was a vanilla-flavored sister married to an
optidan in St. Paul. She had used most of the money from
hiar father's estate. She was not in love — that is, not often,
■or ever Icmg at a time. She woidd earn her living.

But hoiw she was to earn it, how ^e was to conquer the
worid— almost enturdy for the world's own good— ^e dic^not
see^^Most of the girls who were not betrothed meant to be
teachers. Of these there were two sorts: careless young
women who admitted that they intended to leave the " beastly
classroom and grubby children " the minute they had a chance
to marry; and studious, sometimes bulbous-brewed and pop-
eyed aaaidenB who at cfaiss pra3rer-Hieetings requested God to
"gmde their feet along die paths of greatest usefulness.^
Neither sort tempted Ouot. The former seemed inmicere (a
favorite word of hers at this era). The earnest virgins were,
Ae fancied, as IStdy to do harm as to do good by their
faith in the value of parsing Caesar.)

At various times during Semor year Carol finally decided
Mp€fn studying hiw, writing motion-picture scenarios, i^ofes-
iioBal nnrsmg, and marrying an unidentffied hero.

llien she found a hobby in sociology.

The so ci ology iostmctor was new. He was married, and
therefore taboo, but he had come from Boston, he had lived

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among poets and socialists and Jews and millionaire uplifters
at the University Settlement in New York, and he had a
beautiful white strong neck. He led a giggling class through the
prisons, the charity bureaus, the enq)loyment agencies of Min-
neapolis and St. Paul. | Trailing at the end of the line Carol
was indignant at the prodding curiosity of the others, their
manner of staring at the poor as at a Zoo. She felt herself a

freat liberator. She put her hand to her mouth, her £ore-
nger and thumb quite painfully pinching her lower Up, and
frowned, and enjoyed being aloof4

A classmate named Stewart Snyder, a competent bulky
young man in a gray flannel shirt, a rusty bladk bow tie, and
the green-and-purple class cap, gnmibled to her as they walked
behind the others in the muck of the South St. Paul stock-
yards, "These college chumps make me tired. They*re so
top-lofty. They ought to of worked on the farm, the way I
have. These workmen put it all over them."

(" I just love common workmen," glowed Carol.
" Only you don't want to forget that common workmen don't
4 think they're common! "

" You're right! I apologize! " Carol's brows lifted in the
astonishment of emotion, in a gloty of abasement. Her eyes
mothered the world. Stewart Snyder peered at her. He
rammed his large red fists into his pockets, he jerked them
out, he resolutely got rid of them by clenching his haiuis
behind him, and he stammered:

" I know. YovL get people. Most of these darn co-eds

Say, Carol, you could do a lot for people."

" How? "

"Oh — oh well — ^you know — 8ynq)athy and everything — if
you were — say you were a lawyer's wife. You'd understand
his clients. I'm going to be a lawyer. I admit I fall down
in sympathy sometimes. I get so dog-gone impatient with people
that can't stand the gaff. You'd be good for a fellow that was
too serious. Make him more — more — you know — sympa-
thetic! "

His slightly pouting lips, his mastiff eyes, were begging her
to beg him to go on. She fled from the steam-roller of his
sentiment. She cried, "Oh, see those poor sheep — ^millions
and millions of them." She darted on.

Stewart was not interesting. He hadn't a shapely white
neck, and he had never lived among cdebrated reformers.

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MAIN STREET S

9ie wanted, just now, to have a cell in a settlement-house, like
a nun without the bother of a black robe, and be kind, and
read Banard Shaw, and enormously inq)rove a horde of grate-
ful poor.

The siq)plementary reading in sociology led her to a book
(m village-improvement — ^tree-planting, town pageants, girls'
dubs. It had pictures of greens and garden-walls in France,
New En^and, Pennsylvania. She had picked it up carelessly,
with a slight yawn which she patted down with her finger-tips
as ddicately as a cat.

She dii^>ed into the book, lounging on her window-seat,
with her ^m, lisle-stockinged legs crowed, and her knees im
under her chhi. She atrokM ^ s?*'" p'^^w while, she read.
About her was the dothy exuberance of a Blodgett College
room: cretonne-covered window-seat, photographs of girls, a
carbon print of the Coliseum, a chafing-dish, and a dozen
pillows embroidered or beaded or pyrogrs4)h€d. Shockingly
out of place was a miniature of the Dauodng Bacchante. It
was die only trace of Carol in the room. She had inherited the
rest from generations of girl students.

It was as a part of all this commonplaceness that she re-
garded the treatise on village-improvement. But she suddenly
stopped fidgeting. She strode into the book. She had fled
half-way throu^ it before the three o'clock bell called her
to die class in English history.

She sighed, " That's what 111 do after collegel 111 get my
hands on one of these prairie towns and make it beautiful.
Be an in^iration. I sijppose I'd better become a teacher then,
but— I won't be that kmd of a teacher. I won't drone. Why
should they have all the garden suburbs on Long Island? No-
body has done anything with the ugly towns here in the
Northwest except hcdd revivals and build libraries to contain the
Elsie books. Ill make 'em put in a village green, and darling
cottages, and a quaint Main Street! "

Thus she triumphed through the class, which was a
typical Blodgett contest between a dreary teacher and unwill-
ing children of twenty, won by the teacher because his
(^^XHients had to answer his questions, while their treacherous
queries he could counter by demanding, "Have you looked
diat up in the library? Well then, suppose you do I "

The history instructor was a retired minister. He was
sarcastic today. He begged of sporting young Mr. Charley

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Holmberg, '' N<»w Charles, iiH)uId it interrapt your usdoubtedly
{iscinating pursuit of that malevoleiit fly if I were to ask ycm
to tell us that you ^ not know flm^rthiog about Khkg jfoha? "
He spent three delightful minutes in assuring himsdf of the
fact that no one exactly remembered the date of Magna Charta.
Carol did not hear him. She was coBqpletii^ d^ roof of a
faalf-^timbered town hall. She had found one man in the
pcakie village who did not appreciate her picture of wiading
streets and arcftdes^ but sbe had assembled the town cotmc&l
and dramatically defeated him.

Tliou^ she was MiuBesota-bom Caiol was not an intimate
of the prairie villages. Her lather, the snuUng and shabby,
the learned and teasin^y kind, had come from Massachusetts,
and through all her chUdhood he had been a judge in Mai^kato,
which is not a prairie town, but kk its gardai-shdtered streets
and aisles of dms is white and green New En^nd reborn.
Mankato lies between clifis and the Minnesota River, hard by
Traverse des Sioux, where the £rst settlers made treaties with
tibe Indians, and the <:attle-rustlers once came galloping before
hdl-for-leatfaer posses.

As she climbed £dong the banks of the dark river Carol
listened to its fables about the wide land of yellow waters and
bleached buffalo bones to the West; the Soacithem levees and
singing darkies and palm trees toward which it was for:ever
mysteriously Riding; and she beard i^n the startled bells
and thick puffing of high-stacked river' steamers wrecked <m
sand-^eefs sixty jrears ago. Along the decks she saw mission-
aries, gamble's in tall pot hats, znd Dakota chiefs with scarlet
blankets. . . . Far off whistles at ni^t, round the tivGc bend,
plunking paddles reechoed by the pines, aad a glow on black
sliding waters.

Carol's family were self-sufficient ia their inventive life,
with Christmas a rite full of surprises and t^idemess, and
" dressing-up parties " ^>ontaneous and joyously absurd. The
beasts in the Millord hearth-mythology were not the obscene
Night Animals who jump out of doseta and eat little girls, but
beneficent and bright^eyed creatures — the tarn htab, who is
woolly and blue and lives in the bathroom, and runs rapidly to
warm small feet; the ferruginous oil stove, who purrs and

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knows stories; aod the skitamarigg^ iribo will play with chil-
dren before breakfast if th^ ^nag oitt of bed ud dose the
window at the very first line of the song about puellas which
father sings while shaving.

Judge Milford's pedagogical scheme was to let the children
read whatevar th^ pleasittiy and in his brown library Ourol
ahmrbed Balzac and Rabelais and Thoicaa and Max MiiUer.
He gravdy taught them the letters on the backs of the encyclo-
pedias, and whan poUle visitors asked aboist the mental prog-
ress of tiie '^liltk ones/' they were bonified to bear the
cbildreD earnestly repeatung A-Aad, And-Aus, Aus-BiSy Bifr-Cal,
Cal-Cha,

Carol's mother died ^d^en she was nine. Her father retired
from the judidaiy when she was eleven, and toc^ tibe f anulgr
to MinneapoUs. There he died, two years after. Her sister, a
bu^ proper advisory soul, older than herself, had become a
stranger to her even ^HkOL they lived in tl^ same house.

From those earfy brown amd silver days and from her
independoice of relatives Carol retained a willingness to be
different from brisk efficient book-if^ioring people; an instinct
to observe and wonder at their bvstte even when she was
takkkg part in it. But, she fdt approvingly, as she discovered
her career of town^danxang, she was nm? roused to being brisk
and ^fident herself.

In a month CaroPs ambition had clouded. Her hesitancy
about becpsBfl^' a teother had returned. She was not, she
wwriedrstrong enough lo endure the routine, and she coidd
not picture herself standing before grinning children and pre-
tending to be wise and decisive, ^t ^hp ^'''ft for^t!^^ ^^I?^!??.

of a beautiful town remam ed. When she encountered^an Item
*'kb6iit SHi&li-lown womei(%*ehd)S or a photograph of a strag-
^g Main Street, she was homesick for it, she felt robbed of
her work.

It was tibe advice of die professor of En^ish which led her
to stiidy professional library-work in a Chicago schooL Her
imagination carved and colored the new plan. She saw herself
persuading chOdren to read charming fairy tales, hdping young
men to find books on mechanics, being ever so courteous to
old men who were hunting for newspapers— the light of the

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library^ an authority on books^ invited to dinners with poets
and explorers, reading a paper to an association of distinguished
schola^.

The last faculty reception before commencement. In
five days they would be in the cyclone of final examina-
tions.

The house of the president had been massed with palms
suggestive of polite imdertaking parlors, and in the library, a
ten-foot room with a globe and the portraits of Whittier and
Martha Washington, the student orchestra was playing
^' Carmen " and " Madame Butterfly." Carol was diz^ with
music and the emotions of parting. She saw the palms as a
jungle, the pink-shaded electric globes as an q)aline haze, and
the eye-glared faculty as Olympians. She was melancholy at
sight of the mousey girls with whom she had '' always intended
to get acquainted," and the half dozen young men who were
ready to fall in love with her.

But it was Stewart Snyder whom she encouraged. He was
so much manlier than the others; he was an even warm brown,
like his new ready-made suit with its padded shoulders. She
sat with him, and with two cups of coffee and a chicken patty,
upon a pile of presidential overshoes in the coat-closet imder
the stairs, and as the thin music seeped in, Stewart
whispered:

" I can't st^nd it, this breaking up after four years! The
happiest years of life."

She believed it. " Oh, I know! To think that in just a few
days well be parting, and well never see some of the bunch
again! "

" Carol, you got to listen to me! You always duck when I
try to talk seriously to you, but you got to listen to me.
I'm going to be a big lawyer, maybe a jiidge, and I need you,
and I'd protect you "

His arm slid behind her shoulders. The insinuating music
drained her indq>fcndence. She said mournfully, " Would you
take care of me? " She touched his hand. It was warm,
I solid.

"You bet I would! We'd have, Lord, we'd have bully
I times in Yankton, where I'm going to settle "

" But I want to do something with life."

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" What's better than making a comfy home and bringing up
some cute kids and knowing nice homey people? "

pt was the immemorial male reply to the restless woman.)
Thus to the young Sappho spake the melon- venders; thus the
captains to Zenobia; and in the damp cave over gnawed bones
the hairy suitor thus protested to the woman advocate of
matriarchy. In the dialect of Blodgett College but with the
voice of Si^)pho was Carol's answer:

" Of course. I know. I suppose that's so. Honestly, I do
love chfldroi. But there's lots of women that can do house*
work, but([^-well, if you have got a college education, you
ought to use it for the world."

^ I know, but you can use it just as well in the hom3 And
gee, Carol, just think of a bunch of us going out on an auto
picnic, some nice spring evening."

" Yes."

" And sleigh-riding in winter, and going fishing "

BlarrrrrrrI The orchestra had craved into the " Soldiers*
Chorus "; and she was protesting, " No! No! You're a dear,
but I want to do things. I don't understand myself but I want —
everything in the world! Maybe I can't sing or write, but I
know I can be an influence in library work. Just suppose I
encouraged some boy and he became a great artist! I will!
I will do it! Stewart dear, I can't settle down to nothing but
dish- washing! "

Two minutes later — two hectic minutes — ^they were disturbed
by an embarrassed couple also seeking the idyllic seclusion of
the overshoe-closet.

After graduation she never saw Stewart Snyder again. She
wrote to him once a week — for one month.

A 3rear Carol ^nt in Chicago. Her study of library-cata-
loguing, recording, books of reference, was easy and not too
soomiferous. She reveled in the Art Institute, in synqphonies
and violin recitals and chamber music, in the theater and
classic dancing. She almost gave up library work to become one
of the young women who dance in cheese-cloth in the moonlight.
She was taken to a certified Studio Party, with beer, cigarettes,
bobbed hair, and a RtBsian Jewess who sang the Internation-
ale. It cannot be reported that Carol had anything significant

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to say to tlie Bdiemians. i Sie was awkward with tlMm, and
fdt ignorant, and she was shod^d by the free mann^B wfaidi
she bid for years desired. But she he»d and remembered
(fiscussions of Freud, Romatn RoUasd, ^mdicalismy the Con-
f^^tion G^n^le du Travail, feminism vs. barenism,
Chinese lyrics, nationafization of mines, Cfaristiaa Sdence, and
fishing in Ontariol

She went home, and that was the begimiing and end of her
Bohemian life.

The second cousin of Carol's sister's hud>aiid lived in Wia-
n^ka, and once im^ed her out to Sunday Anaer. She walked
back through Wilmette and Evanston, discov»*ed new forms of
sd[>urban architecture, and remembered her desire to recreate
vfllages. She decided that she would give tf> library work and,
by a miracle whose nature was not very clearly revealed to
her, turn a prairie town into Georgian houses and Japanese
bungalows.

! The next day in libcary class she had to read a theme on the
' use of the Cumulative Index, and she was ta^en so seriously
I in the (Escusaon that she put off her career of town-plaimix^ —
' and in the autunm sl^ was in the public library of St. Paid.

vn a

Carol was not unhappy and she was not exhilarated, in the
St. Paul Library. She dowly confessed that she was not visibly
affecting lives. She did, at first, put into her contact wrdi the
patrons a willingness which should have moved worlds;^ But
so few of these stolid worlds wanted to be moved. When she
was in charge of the magazine room the readers did not ask
for suggestions about elevated essays. They grunted, " Wanta
find the Leather Goods Gazette for last February." When d^e
was giving out books the principal query was, '" Can you^tell me
of a good, ii^t, ezdting love story to read? My husband's
going away for a week."

^ was fond of the odier librarians; proud of (beir aspira-
tions. And by the chance of propinquity she read scores q€
books unnatural to her gay white littleness: volumes of
anthropology widi ditches of foot-notes filled with heaps of
small dusty type, Parisian imagistes, Hindu recq>es for curry,
voyages to the Sdoraon Isles, tfaeoso(rfiy with modem American
improvemems, treatises upon success in the real-estate bosinesa.

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She tock walks, and was sensible about shoes and diet. And
never did she feel that she was living.

She went to dances and suppers at the houses of college
acquaintances. Sometimes she one-stepped demurely; some-
timeSy in dread of life's slipping past, she turned into a bac-
dianal, her tender eyes excited, her throat tense, as she slid
down the room.

During her three years of library work several men showed
(MBgent int^est in her — ^the treasurer of a fur-manufacturing
finn, a teadier, a newspaper rqKMrter, and a petty raihrood
official. None of them made her more than pause in thought.
For months no male emerged from the mass. Thai, at the
Marbvys', sibt met Dr. Will Komicott.

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CHAPTER n

It was a fraU and blue and lonely Carol who trotted to the
flat of the Johnson Marburys for Sunday evenmg supper. Mrs.
Marbury was a neighbor and friend of Carol's sister; Mr. Mar-
bury a traveling representative of an insurance company. They
made a q>ecialty of sandwich-salad-coffee lap siq>pers, and they
regarded Carol as their literary and artistic r^resentative.
She was the one who could be depended upon to appreciate the
Caruso phonograph record, and the Chinese lantern which Mr.
Marbury had brought back as his present from San Francisco.
Carol found the Marburys admiring and therefore admirable.

TTiis Sq)tember Sunday evening she wore a net frock with a
pale pink lining.. A nap had soothed away the faint lines of
tiredness beside her eyes. She was young, naive, stimulated
by the coolness. She flung her coat at the chair in the hall of
the flat; and exploded into the green-plush living-room. The
familiar group were trying to be conversational. She saw Mr.
Marbury, a woman teacher of gymnastics in a high school, a
chief clerk from the Great Northern Railway offices, a yoimg
lawyer. jBut there was also a stranger, a thick tall man of
thirty-six or -seven, with stolid brown hair, lips used to giving
orders, eyes which followed everything good-naturedly, and
clothes which you could never quite remember^

Mr. Marbury boomed, " Carol, come over here and meet
Doc Kennicott — ^Dr. Will Kennicott of Gc^her Prairie. He
does all our insurance-examining up in that neck of the woods,
and they do say he's some doctor! "

As she edged toward the stranger and murmured nothing in
particular, Carol remembered that Gopher Prairie was a Min-
nesota wheat-prairie town of something over three thousand
people.

" Pleased to meet yoil," stated Dr. Kennicott. His hand
was strong; the palm soft, but the back weathered, showing
golden hairs against firm red skin.

He looked at her as though she was an agreeable discovery.

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She tugged her hand free and fluttered, " I must go out to the
kitchen and hdp Mrs. Marbury." She did not speak to him
again till, after she had heated the roUs and passed the
paper napkms, Mr. Marbury captured her with a loud, " Oh,
quit fussing now. Come over here and sit down and tell us
how's tricks." He herded her to a sofa with Dr. Kennicott,
who was rather vague about the eyes, rather drooping of bulky
shoulder, as though he was wondering what he was expected to
do next. As their host left them, Kennicott awoke:

" Marbury tells me you're a high mogul in the public library.
I was surprised. Didn't hardly think you were old enou^.
I thou^t you were a girl, still in college maybe."

'' Oh, I'm dreadfully old. I expect to take to a lip-stick, and
to find a gray hair any morning now."

" Huh I You must be frightfully old— probly too old to be
my granddaughter, I guess! "

Thus in the Vale of Arcady n3rmph and satyr beguiled the
hours; precisely thus, and not in honeyed pentameters, dis-
coursed Elaine and the worn Sir Laimcelot in the pleached alley.

" How do you like your work? '* asked the doctor.

" It's pleasant, but sometimes I feel shut off from things —
the steel stacks, and the everlasting cards smeared all over with
red rubber stamps."

" Dcm't you get sick of the dty? '*

" St. Paul? Why, don't you like it? I don't know of any
lovelio' view than when you stand on Summit Avenue and
\o€k across Lower Town to the Mississippi cliffs and the upland
farms beyond."

" I know but Of course I've spent nine years around

the Twin Cities — took my B A. and M.D. over at the U., and
had my internship in a hospital in Minneapolis, but still, oh
well, you don't get to know folks here, way you do up home.
I fed I've got something to say about running Gopher Prairie,
but you take it in a big city of two-three hundred thousand,
and I'm just one flea on the dog's back. And then I like
country (hiving, and the himting in the fall. Do you know
Goiter Prairie at all? "

" No, but I hear it's a very nice town."

" Nice? Say honestly Of course I may be prejudiced,

but I've seen an awful lot of towns — one time I went to
Atlantic City for the American Medical Association meeting^
and I spent practically a week in New York I But I never saw

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14 MAIN STREET

a town that had sudi up-and-comiog peaj^ as Gqpher Frame.
Bresnahaa — ^you know — the famous auto manufacturer — he
comes from Gopher Prairie. Born and brought up there!
And it's a dam pretty town. Lots of fine m2^>les and box-
eldersy and there's two of the dandiest likes you evo: saw,
right near townl And we've got seven m3es of cement walks
already, and building more every day4 Course a lot of these
towns still put up with (dank walks, but not for us, you
bet! ''

« Really? "

(Why was she thinking of Stewart Snyder?)

'' Gopher Prairie is going to have a great future. Someof^he
best dairy and wheat land in the state right near there — some
of it selling right now at one-fifty an acre, and I bet it will
.go up to two and a quarter in ten years! "

" Is Do you like your profession? "

'^ Nothing like it. Keeps you out, and yet you have a
chance to loaf in the office for a change."

'' I don't mean that way. I mean— it^s such an opportunity
for S3ntnpathy."

Dr. Kennicott launched into a heavy, ''Oh, these Dutch
farmers don't want sympathy. All they need is a bath and a
gDod dose of salts."

Carol must have flinched, for instantly he was urging, '' What
I mean is — I don't want you to think I'm one of these old
salts-and-quinine peddlers, but I mean: so many of my pa*
tients are husky farmers that I suppose I get kind of case-
hardened."

'' It seems to me that a doctor could transform a whole
community, if he wanted to— if he saw it He's usually the
only man in the neighborhood who has any scientific training,
isn't he? "

'' Yes, that's so, but I guess most of us get rusty. We land
in a rut of obstetrics and tyjdioid and busted legs. What we
need is women like 3^u to jump on us. It'd be you that would
transform the town."

'' No, I couldn't. Too flighty. I did used to think about
doing just that, curiously enou^ but I seem to have (kifted
away from die idea. Oh, I'm a fine one to be lecturing
3«)ul " i^

*'Nol You're just the one.\ You have ideas without hav-
(ing lost feminine charm?) Say! Don't vou think ibore's a lot

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ni tese vomeii that go out for all these moveneats and so on
Ithatsaaifioe *"

After his renoarics npoa suffrage he abropdy qoestkmed iier
' about herself. His kindliness and the firmness of his per-
soKiItty aireloped her and she accepted him as one who had
a i^t to know ¥fluit she tfaou^ and wore and ate and rewL
He was positivie. He had grown from a aketcfaed-jn stranger
tea frieiKiy whose gossip was important news* She noticed the
heahhy solidity of hs diest. His nose, which had seemed
iiregidar and large, was suddenly virile.

^ was jarred out of ths serious sweetness when Marbwy
bounced over to them and with horribte publicity 3ramnieredy
^ Say, what do 3^ou two think you're doii^? Tdimg fortunes
or Buddng love? Let me warn you that the doc is a fri^y
bacbddore, Carol. Cone on now, folks, shake a leg. Let's
have some stunts or a dance or soonethin^.'^

She did not have another word with Dr. Kennicott until th^
patting^

^ Brai a great pleasure to meet 3^ott, Miss Milford. May
I soe you some tkae when I come down i^ain? I'm here qmt-e
oftfiH-taking patients to hospitals for majors, and so on."

'^Why ''

"^ What's your address? "

" You can ask Bftr. Marbury neat time you come down— tf
jm lesiSy want to knowl "

''Wanttokaow? Say, you waiti "

Of the love^nakhig of Carol and Will Kennicott there is
nodang to be toid which may not be heard on every sinnmer
evening, on every shadowy block.

They were bioh^y and mystery; their speech was slangi
pbrases and ftares of poetry; thdr sOences were c<mtentmeBt, I
or shaky crises when his arm took hec shoulder. All the I
beauty of ytmAf first discovered when it is passing— and all
the commooplaceness d a ^^ll-to-do unmarried man enoomi-
tering a pretty girl at the time when she is slightly weary of
her employment and sees no glory ahead nor 2ixy man she
is (pad to serve.

They liked each other hon«tly — they were both honest.
She was disappointed by his devotion to making money, bat

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i6 MAIN STREET

she was sure that he did not lie to patients, and that he did
keep up with the medical magazines. What aroused her to
something more than liking was his boyishness when they went
tramping.

They walked from St. Paul down the river to Mendota,
Kennicott more elastic-seeming in a cap and a soft crepe sliirt^
Carol youthful in a tam-o'-shanter of mole velvet, a blue serge
suit with an absurdly and agreeably broad turn-down linen
collar, and frivolous ankles above athletic shoes. The High
Bridge crosses the Mississippi, mounting from low banks to a'
' palisade of cliffs. Far down beneath it on the St. Paul side,
upon mud flats, is a wild settlement of chicken-infested gardens
and shanties patched together from discarded sign-boards,
sheets of corrugated iron, and planks fished out of the river.
Carol leaned over the rail of the bridge to look down at this
Yang-tse village; in delicious imaginary fear she shrieked that
she was dizzy with the height; and it was an extremely human
satisfaction to have a strong male snatch her back to safety,
instead of having a logical woman teacher or librarian sniff,
" Well, if you're scared, why don't you get away from the rail,
then? "

From the cliffs across the river Carol and Kennicott looked
back at St. Paul on its hills; an imperial sweep from the dome
of the cathedral to the dome of the state capitol.

The river road led past rocky field sieves, deep glens, woods-
flamboyant now with September, to Mendota, white walls and
a spire among trees beneath a hill, old-world in its placid ease.
And for this fresh land, the place is ancient. Here is the bold
stone house which General Sibley, the king of fur-tradere, built
in 1835, ^A plaster of river mud, and ropes of twistecl grass
for laths. It has an air of centuries. In its solid rooms- Carol
and Kennicott found prints from other days Which the house
had seen — tail-coats of robin's-egg blue, clumsy Red River carts
laden with luxurious furs, whiskered Uni6n soldiers in slant
forage caps and rattling sabers.

It suggested to them a common Amer(can past, and it was
memorable because they had discovered it together. They
talked more trustingly, more personisdly, as they trudged on.
They crossed the Minnesota River in a rowboat ferry. They
climbed the hill to the round stone tower of Fort Snelling.
They saw the junction of the Mississippi and the Minnesota,
and recalled the men who had come here eighty years ago^^

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Maine lumbenneiiy York traders, soldiers from die Maryland
hills.

" It's a good country, and I'm proud of it. Let's make it all
d)at those old boys dreamed about/' the unsentimental Kenni-
cott was moved to vow,

"Let's! "

" Come on. Come to Gopher Prairie. Show us. Make the
town— well — make it artistic. It's mighty pretty, but I'll
admit we aren't any too dam artistic. Probably the lumber-
3rard isn't as scrumptious as all these Greek ten^)les. But go
to it! Make us change! "

" I would like to. Some day! "

" Now! You'd love Gopho' Prairie. We've been doing a
lot with lawns and gardening the past few years, and it's so

homey — the big trees and And the best people on earth.

And keen. I bet Luke Dawson ''^

Carol but half listened to the names. She could not fancy \
their ever becoming important to her. *

^ I bet Luke Dawson has got more money than most of the
swells cm Summit Avenue; and Miss Sherwin in the hl^ schod
is a reguIarJwonder — ^reads Latin like I do English; and Sam
Clark, the hardware man, he's a corker — not a better man 19 the
state to go hunting with; and if you want culture, l>esides vida
Sherwin there's Reverend Warren, the Congregational preadier,
and ProfessorTMott, the superintendent of schools, and Guy
Pollock, the'la^er — they say he writes regular poetry and —
and Ra3anie Wutherspoon, he's not such an awful boob when

you get to know him, and he sings swell. And And

there's plenty of others. Lym Cass. Only of course none of
them have your finesse, you might call it. But they don't make
'em any more appreciative and so on. Come on! We're
ready for yowto boss us! "

ThQT sat on the'^ank below the parapet of the old fort,
hidden from observation. He circled her shoulder with his
ann. Relaxed after the walk, a chill nipping her throat , con-
scious of his wami]th and power, she leaned gratefully against
him.

" You know I'm in love with you, Carol ! "

She did not answer, but she touched the back of his hand
with an ei^Ioring finger.

''You say I'm so dam materialistic. How can I help it,
imless I have you to stir me up? "

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i8 MAIN STREET

Sbe did not answer. Sbt oroki not dunk.

" You say a doctor could cure a town the way he does a
person. Wdl, you core the town of yvia^tevtr aib it, if any-
thing does, and III be yonr surgical kit."

She did not follow bis words, only the burring resoluteness
of them.

She was shocked, thriBed, as he kissed her chedL and cried,
'' There's no use saying thkgs and saying things and saying
things. Dont my arms talk to yoii — now? "

" Oby please, pleasel " She wondered if she ought to be
angry, but it was a drifting thought, and she discoTored that
die was crying.

Then tlmey were sitting six indies ^xurt, pretending that they
had never been neara:, while she tried to be impersraaT:

'' I would like to— woidd like to see G^er Pmirie."

^' Trust mel Here she isl Broug^ some snapshots dowB ^
to show you." ''^

Her cheek near his sleeve, she studied a dozen vflkge pic-
tures. They were streaky; she saw only trees, shrubbery, a
porch indistinct in kafy ^dows. But she exdaimed over the
lakes^ dark water reflecting woeded bluffs, a fii^t of duda, a
fisherman in shirt sleeves and a wide straw hat, hol<U&g up a
string of croppies. One winter picture of the edge of Pk)ver
Lake had the air of an etchingiJustrotis slic^ of ice^ snow m
the crevices of a boggy bai^ the mound of a muskrat hoofie,
reeds in thin Wauck lines, arches of frosty grasses. It was an
impression of cool clear vigor.

" How'd it be to dtate there for a couple of hours, or go
zinging along on a £atst ice-boat, and skq> back home for coffee
and some hot wienies? " he demanded.

" It mi^t be— fun."

" But here's the picture. Here's whore you come in."

A photograph of a forest clearing: pathetic new furrows
straggling among stumps, a clumsy log cabin chinked with
mud and roofed with hay. In front of it a sagging woman with
tight-drawn hair, and a baby bedraggled, smeary, glcMrious^
eyed,

1" Those are the kind of folks I practise among, good share
of the time. Nds Erdstrom, fine dean young Svenska. Hell
have a corking farm in ten years, but now I operated bis
wife on a kitdien table, with my driyer giving the anesthetic.
Look at that scared baby! Needs some woman with hands

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like yours. Waiting for you! Just look at that baby's eyes,
look how he's begging "

" Don't I They hurt me. Oh, it would be sweet to help
him — so sweet."

As his arms moved toward her she answered all her doubts j
with " Sweet, so sweet.**

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CHAPTER m

Under the rolling clouds of the prairie a moving mass of
steel. An irritable clank and rattle beneath a prolonged roar.
The sharp scent of oranges cutting the soggy smell of un-
bathed people and ancient baggage.

Towns as planless as a scattering of pasteboard boxes on an
attic floor. The stretch of faded gold stubble broken only by
dumps of willows encircling white houses and red bams.
. No. 7, the way train, grumbling through Minnesota, im-
perceptibly climbing the giant tableland that slopes in a thou-
sand-mile rise from hot Mississippi bottoms to the Rockies.

It is September, hot, very dusty.

There is no smug Pullman attached to the train, and the
day coaches of the East are replaced by free chair cars, with
each seat cut into two adjustable plush chairs, the head-rests
covered with doubtful linen towels. Halfway down the car is
a semi-partition of carved oak columns, but the aisle is of
bare, splintery, grease-blackened wood. There is no porter,
no pillows, no provision for beds, but all today and all toni^t
they will ride in this long steel box — farmers with perpetually
tiral wives and diildren who seem all to be of the same age;
workmen going to new jobs; traveling salesmen with derbies
and freshly shined shoes.

They are parched and cramped, the lines of their hands filled
with grime; they go to sleep curled in distorted attitudes, heads
against the window-panes or propped on rolled coats on seat-
arms, and legs thrust into the aisle. They do not read; ap-
parently they do not think. They wait. | An early-wrinkled,
young-old mother, moving as though her joints were dry, opens
a suit-case in which are seen creased blouses, a pair of slippers
worn through at the toes, a bottle of%>atent medicine, a tia
cup, a paper-covered book about dreams which the news-
butcher has coaxed her into buying. She brings out a graham
cracker which she feeds to a baby l3dng flat on a seat and
wailing hopelesslyj Most of the crumbs drop on the red plush

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of the seat, and the woman si^ and tries to brush them
away, but they leap up impishly and fall back on the plush.

A soiled man and woman munch sandwiches and throw the
crusts on the floor. A large brick-colored Norwegian takes off
his ^oes, grunts in relief, and props his feet in their thick
gray socks against the seat in front of him.

Aq old woman whose toothless mouth shuts like a mud-
turtle's, and whose hair is not so much white as yellow like
mddy linen, with bands of pink skull apparent between the
tresses, anxiously lifts her bag, opens it, peers in, doses it, puts
k under the seat, and hastily picks it up and opens it and ludes
it all over again. The bag is full of treasures and of memo-
ries: a leather buckle, an ancient band-concert program, scraps
of ribbon, lace, satin. In the aisle beside her is an extremely
indignant parrakeet in a cage.

Two facing seats, overflowing with a Slovene iron-miner's
famity, are littered with shoes, dolls, whisky bottles, bundles
wrapped in new^apers, a sewing bag. The oldest boy takes
a mouth-organ out of his coat pocket, wipes the tobacco
crumbs off, and pla3rs " Marching through Georgia " till every
head in the car begins to ache.

The news-butcher comes through selling chocolate bars and
lonon dn^. A girl-child ceaselessly trots down to the water-
cooler and back to her seat. The stiff paper envelope which
she uses for oq) drips in the aisle as she goes, and on each trip
she stumbles over the feet of a carpenter, who grunts, '^ Ouch!
Look out! "

The dust-caked doors are open, and from the smoking-car
drifts back a visible blue line of stinging tobacco smoke, and
with it a crackle of lau^ter over the story which the young
man in tte bright blue suit and lavender tie and light yellow
shoes has just told to the squat man in garage overalls.

The smdl grows constantly thicker^ more stale.

To each of the passengers his seat was his temporary homej
and most of the pasee^ig^rs were slatternly housekeepers. Buq
one seat looked clean and deceptively cool. In it were an ob-\
vfously prosperous man and a black-haired, fine-skinned girl;
whose pumps rested on an immaculate horsehide bag.

They were Dr. Will Kennicott and his bride, Carol, '

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2a MAIN STREET f

Tbey lad bceik imirried at the end of a year .of coaversa>
tionai courtship, and th^ were ea their way to Gopher Prairie
after a wedding journey in the Cc^rado mountains.

The hordes of the way-train were not altogether new ta
I Carol. She had seen diem on trips from St Paul to Chicago.
But now that they had become her own people, to bathe a^
encourage and adorn, she had an acute and uncomfortable
interest in them. They distressed her. They were so stolid.
She had always ma^tained that there is no American peas-
antry, and she sought now to defend her faith by seeing imagi-
natioa and enterprise in the young Swedish farmers, and in au
traveling man working over his order-blanks. But the (^er
pei^k, Yankees as well as Norwegians, Germans, Finos„
Canucks, had settled into submission to poverty. They were
peasants, she groaned.

^ Isn't there any way of waking them up? What would
happen if they understood scientific agriculture? " she begged
of ELennicott, her hand groping for his.

It had been a transforming honeymoon. She had been
frightened to discover how tumultuous a feeling could be
roused in her. Will had been lordly — stalwart, )olly, ingress-
ivcly competei^ in making camp, t«Kier and understanding
through the hours when they had Iain side by side in a tent
pitched among pines Bi^ up on a lonely mountain spur.

His hand swallowed hers as he started from thoughts of
the practise to which he was returning. " These people? Wake
'em lip? What for? They're happy."

'^ But they're so provincial. No, that isn't what I mean.
They're — (A, so sunk in the mud."

^^ Lock here, Carrie. You want to get over your city idea
that because a man's pants aren't pressed, he*^ a fool. These
farmers are mi^ty keen and up-and-coming."

" I know! That's what hurts. Life seems so hard for them *
— these lonely farms and this gritty train."

"Oh, they don't mind it. Besides, things are changing.
The auto, the telephone, rural free delivery; they're bringing
the farmers in closer touch with the town. Takes time, you
know, to change a wilderness like th^ was fifty years ago.
But already, why, they can 1k^ into the Fwd or the Overland
and get in to the movies on Saturday evening quicker than you
could get down to 'em by trolley in St. Paul."

" But if it's these towns we've be^ passing that the formers

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ran to for rdief from their UeBkaess Can't you under-

fltand? Just look at tfaeml "

Kenmcott was amazed. Ever since childhood he had see^ j
these towns from traras on this same line. He grumbled, J
*^ Why, what's the matter with 'em? Good hustling burgs. It t^
would astonish you to know how much wheat and rye andf 1
com and potatoes they ship in a year." / i

" But they're so ugly." ^

" I'll admit they aren't comfy like Gophar Prairie. But
^ve 'em time,'*

" What's the use of giving them time unless some one has
desire and training enou|^ to plan them? Hundreds of fac-
tories trying to make attractive motor cars, but these towns —
left to chance. No I That can't be true. It must have taken
gmius to make them so scrawny! "

'' Oh, they're not so bad," was all he answered. He pre-
tended that his hand was the cat and hers the mouse. For
the fi gt time she tolerated him r^tfi^r tha|> encouraged hin^
She was staring out at S^oenstrom, a hamletof perhaps a hun-
dred and fifty inhabitants, at which the train was stopping.

A bearded German and Jiis pucker-mouthed wife tugged their
enormous imitation-leather satchel from under a seat and
waddled out. The station agent hoisted a dead^:i^-aboard the
baggage-car. There were no otiier 'visible activities in
Schoenstrom. In the quiet of thi^ Kn^lt, Qm-qT chvAA fag^r # hor^e
kickingJlis stall, a carpenter shingling a roof.

The business-center oT Schoenstrom took up one side of one
bbck, iadng the railroad. It was a row of one-story shops
covered with galvanized iron, or with clapboards painted red
and bilious y^w. The buildings were as ill-assorted, as tem-
porary-looking, as a mining-camp street in the motion-pictures.
The raUroad station was a one-room frame box, a mirey cattle-
pen on one side and a crimson wheat-elevator on the other.
The elevator, with its cupola on the ridge of a shingled roof,
resembled a broad-shouldered man with a small, vicious,
pointed iiead. The only habitable structures to be seen were
Ike florid xed-brick Catholic duirch and rectory at the end of
Main Street.

Carol picked at Kennicott's sleeve. '^ You wotddn't call this
a Jiot-so4)ad town, would you? "

'' These Dutch burgs ar€ kmd of slow. Still, at that

See Uiat fellow odnung but of the general store there, getting

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24 MAIN STREET

into the big car? I met him once. He owns about half the
town, besides the store. Rauskukle, his name is. He owns a
lot of mortgages, and he gambles in farm-lands. Good nut on
him, that fellow. Why, they say he's worth three or four
hundred thousand dollars I Got a dandy great big yellow
brick house with tiled walks and a garden and everything, other
«id of town-H:an't see it from here — ^IVe gone past it when
I've driven thrbug^ here. Yes sir I "

" Then, if he has all that, there's no excuse whatever for this

i place I If his three hundred thousand went back into the town,

I where it belongs, they could bum up these shacks, and build

la dream-village, a jewel I Why do the farmers and the town-

/ xpeaple let the Baron keep it? "

" I must say I don't quite get you sometimes, Carrie. Let
him? They can't help themselves I JHe's a dumm old Dutch-
man, and probably the priest can twist him aroimd his finger,
but when it comes to picking good farming land, he's a regular
wizi "I

" I see. He's their symbol of beauty. T he town ^ects him ,
i nst^d of erecting buildings ."

"Honestly, don't know what you're driving at. You're kind
of played out, after this long trip. You'll feel bettCT when you
get home and have a good bath, and put oh the blue negligee.
That's some vampire costume, you witch! "

He squeezed her arm, looked at her knowingly.

They moved on from the desert stillness of the Schoenstrom
station. The train creaked, banged, swayed. The air was
nauseatingly thick. Kennicott turned her face from the win-
dow, rested her head on his shoulder. She was coaxed from
her unhappy mood. But she came out of it unwillmgly, and
when Kennicott was satisfied that he had corrected all her wor-
ries and had opened a magazine of sa£fron detective stories,
she sat upright.

(Here — she meditated — is the newest empire of the world;
the Northern Middlewest; a land of dairy herds and exquisite
lakes, of new automobiles and tar-paper shanties and silos like
red towerst of clumsy speech and a hope that is boundless. An
e mpire which feeds a quarter of the world — ^yet its work is
me rely begun. They are pioneefg, these sweaty wayfaieis , for
all theu: telephones and bank-accounts and automatic pianos
and co-operative leagues. And for all its fat richness, theirs
is a pioneer land. What is its future? she wondered. A

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(ratiire of cities and factory smut where now are loping empty
fields? Homes universal and secure? Or pladd chateaux
ringed with sullen huts? Youth free to find knowledge and
h^ter?! Willingness to sift the sanctified lies? Ch* creamy-
skimied fat women^ smeared with grease and chalk, gorgeous in
ihe skins of beasts and the bloody feathers of slain hkds, play- ^
ing bridge with puffy pink-nailed jeweled fingers, womai whc
after much expenditure of labor and bad temper still grotesquely
resemble their own flatulent lap-dogs? The ancient stale in-
equalities, or something different in history, unlike the te-
dious maturity of other empires? What future and what
hope?|

Carol's head ached with the riddle.

She saw the prairie, flat in giant patches or rolling in long '
hammocks. The width and bigness of it, which had expanded
her spirit an hour ago> began to frighten her. It spread out
so; it went on so uncontrollably; she could never know it.
Eennicott was closeted in his detective story. With the loneli-
ness which comes most depressingly in Uie midst of many
people she tried to forget problems, to look at the prairie ol>-
jectively.

The grass beside the railroad had been burnt ovo:; it was
a smudge prickly with charred stalks of weeds. Beyond the
imdeviating barbed-wire fences were clumps of golden rod.
Onfy this thin hedge shut them off from the plains — shorn
wheat-lands of autumn, a hundred acres to a field, prickly and
gray near-by but in die blurred distance like tawny velvet
stretched oVer dipping hillocks. The long rows of wheat-
ihocks marched like soldiers in worn yellow tabards. The
newly plowed fields were black banners fallen on the distant
slope. It was a martial immensity, vigorous, a little harsh,
unsoftened by kindly gardens.

The e3q>anse was relieved by climips of oaks with (matches
of short wild grass; and every mile or two was a chain of
cobalt slews, with the flicker of blackbirds' wings across
them.

All this working land was turned into exuberiAce by the
H^t. The sunshine was dizzy on open stubble; shadows from
immense cumulus clouds were forever sliding across low
mounds; and the sky was wider and loftier and more resolutely
bhie than the sky of cities ... she declared.

^ It's a glorious country; a land to be big in," she crooned.

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26 MAIN STREET

Then Kenokott startled her by chuckUng^ " D' yon realize
the towm after the next is Gopher Prairie? Hoflocl "

That one word— home — ^it terrified her. Had she really
bound herself to live, inescapably^ in ths town called Gqsfaer
Prairie? And this thick man b^ide her^ who dared to define
her future, he was a stranger! She turned in her seat, stared
at him. Who was he? Why was he sitting with her? He
wasn't of her kindl His mck was heavy; his speech was
heavy; he was twelve or thirteen years older than she; and
about him was none of the magic of shared adventures and
eag^ness. I%e could not believe that dot had ever dept
in faJA arms. That W9& one of the dreams which you had iixt
did not officially admit.

She told herself how good he was, how dependable and
understanding. She tpudied his ear, smoothed the plane of Hs
solid jaw, and^ turning away again, amcentrated upon liking
Ins town. It wouldn't be like th^ barren settlements. It
couldn't be! Why, it had three thousand population. That
was a great many people. There would be six hundred houses
or more. And- — The lakes near it would be so lovely,
^K'd seen them in the photographs. They had looked dtarm-
ing . . . hadn't they?

As the train left Wahkeenysm she began nervously to watch
for the lakes — the entrance to aU her future life. But when
^e discovered them, to the Mi of the track, her onfy im-
pression of them was that they reseBd)led Use iidiotographs.

A mile from Gopher Prairie the tradi mounts a curving km
ridge, and she coidd see the town as a wbfAt. With a passionate
jerk she pushed up the window, looked out, the wcbed fingers
of her left hand trembling on the sill, her right hand at her
breast,

JAnd she saw that Gopher Prairie was merdy an eidargcmeni
of all the hamlets whidi they had been passing. Only to the
eyes of a'Kennicott was it exceptional.) The huddled low
wooden houses broke the plains scarcely mote than woidd a
hazel thicket. The fidds swept up to it, past it. [It was im-
protected and unprotecting; there was no dignity in it nor
any hope of greatness. Only the tall red grain-devator and a
few tinny church-steqples rose from the nuiss. It was a

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frontier camp. It ^fras not a (dace to live iB, not possSilyy
wot coix:eivab^4

Hie people — tli^'d be as drab as tbeir bouses, as flat as
their Adds. Si^ couldn't stay here. She woidd bave to
uresch hxse from this man, and flee.

She peeped at him. She 'vvas at once bdpless before bis
mature ^xity, and toocfaed by bis excitemeat as he sent his
magaritte skittering along the aisk, stooped for their bags, came
vp uriih flushed face, and g^ted, ^ Here we arel "

She smiled loyally, and kxdced away. The train was enter-
ing town. The hoises on the outskirts were dusky old red
mansiore; with wooden frills, or gannt frame shelters like grocery
boxes, or new bungalows widi concrete foundations imitatiBg
^one.

Now the tiain was passing ^ elevator, the grim storage-
tanks for oil, a creamery, a hraiber-yard, a stock-yard muddy
and trampled and stinking. Now they were stopping at a
squat red frame station, the fdatfbnn crowded with mufaavai
^rmers and with loafeis — imadventuroas people with dead^
eyes. She was here. She could not go on. It was the end —
Ak end of the world. Sie sat with dosed eyes, loi^ng to
pmsh past Krnnimtt, hide somewhere in the train, flee on
toward tiie Pacific

Something large arose in her soul and commanded, " Stop!
it! Stop bdng a ^sdiining bat^l " She stood up qnicUy; die]
said, " Isn't it wonderful to be here at last I "

He trusted her so. She would make herself like the place.
And she was going to do tremendous things-

She followed Kennicott and the bobbing ends of the two bags
which he carried. They were held back by the slow line of
disembarking passengers. She rencooded h^^f that she wis
actioUy at die dramatic mOTsent of the bride's home-coming.
She OQ^ to feel exahed. She fek nothing at all except ir-
litation at their slow progress toward the door.

Kamioott stooped to pear through the windows. He shyly
exulted:

'* Look! Look! TliCTe^ a bundi come down to welcome usi
Sam Qark and the missns and Dave Dyer and Jack Elder,
and, yes sir, Harry Haydodc and Jnanita, and a whole crowd!
I guess they see ns now. Yuh, yuh sore, they see us 1 See 'em
wavnigl '^

She obediently bent her head to look out at them. She had

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28 MAIN STREET

hold of herself. She was ready to love them. But she was
embarrassed by the heartiness of the cheering group. From
the vestibule she waved to them, but she clung a second to the
sleeve of the brakeman who helped her down before she had
the courage to dive into the cataract of hand-shaking peqple,
people whom she could not tell apart. She had the impression
that all the men had coarse voices, large damp hands, tooth-
brush mustaches, bald spots, and Masonic watch-charms.

She knew that they were welcoming her. Their hands, their
«miles, their shouts, their affectionate eyes overcame her. She
stammered, " Thank you, oh, thank youl "

One of the men was clamoring at Kennicott, '' I brought my
machine down to take you home, doc."

" Fine business, Sam! " cried Kennicott; and, to Card,
" Let's jimip in. That big Paige over there. Some boat, too,
believe mel Sam can show speed to any of these Marmons
from Minneapolis! '^

Only when she was in the motor car did she distinguish the
three people who were to accompany them. The owner, now
at the wheel, was the essence. of decent self-satisfaction; a
baldish, largish, level-eyed man, rugged of neck but sleek and
round of face — face like the back of a spoon bowl. He was
chuckling at her, " Have you got us all straight yet? ^

" Course she hasl Trust Carrie to get things strai^t and
get 'em dam quick! I bet she could tell you every date in
history! " boasted her husband.

But the man looked at her reassuringly and with a certainty
that he was a person whom she could trust she confessed,
" As a matter of fact I haven't got anybody straight."

" Course you haven't, child. Well, I'm Sam Clark, dealer
in hardware, sporting goods, cream separators, and almost any
kind of heavy junk you can think of. You can call me Sam —
anyway, I'm going to call you Carrie, seein' 's you've been
and gone and married this poor fish of a bum medic that we
keep round here." Carol smiled lavishly, and wished that she
called people by their given names more easily. "The fat
cranky lady badk: there beside you, who is pretending that ^e
can't hear me giving her away, is Mrs. Sami Clark; and this
hungry-looking squirt up here beside me is Dave Dyer, who
keeps his drug store running by not filling your hubby's pre-
scriptions right — fact you might say he's the guy that put the
^shun' in * prescription.' So! Well, leave us take the bonny

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bride home. Say, doc, 111 sell you the Candersen place fcnr
three thousand plunks. Better be thinkmg about buOding a
new home for Carrie. Prettiest Prau m G. P., if you asks met ''

Contentedly Sam Clark drove off, in the heavy traffic of
three Fords and the Miimiemashie House Free 'Bus.

"I shall like Mr. Clark ... I can't caH him *SamM
They're all so friendly." She j^anced at the houses; tried
not to see what she saw; gave way in: " Why do these stories
lie so? They alwa3rs make the bride's home-coming a bower
of roses. Complete trust in noble spouse. Lies about mar-
riage. I'm not changed. And this town — O my GodI I
can't go throu^ with it. This junk-heap! "

Her husband bent over her. " You look like you wore in
a brown study. | Scared? I don't expect you to think Gopher
Prairie is a paradise, afta: St. Paul. I don't expect you to be
crazy al>out it, at first. But youll come to like it so much —
life's so free here and best people on earth." \

She wfai^ered to him (while Mrs. Clark considerately
tamed away), " I love you for understanding. I'm just — ^I'm
beastly over-sensitive. Too many books. It's my lack of
shoulder-muscles and sense. Give me time, dear."

" You bet! All the time you want! "

She laid the back of his hand against her cheek, snuggled
near him* She was ready for her new home.

Kainicott had told her that, with his widowed mother as
housekeeper, he had occupied an old house, ^' but nice and
roomy, and well-heated, best furnace I coidd find on the
market." Hb mother had left Carol her love, and gone back
to Lac-qui-Meurt.

It would be wonderful, she exulted, not to have to live in
Other People's Houses, but to make her own shrine. She
held his hand ti^tly and stared ahead as the car swung
round a comer and stoi^>ed in the street before a prosaic
frame house in a small parched lawn.

A concrete sidewalk with a ^' parking " of grass and mud.
A square smug brown house, rather damp. A narrow concrete
walk up to it. Sickly ydlow leaves in a windrow widi dried
wings of box-elder seeds and snags of wool from the cotton-
woods. A screened porch with pillars of thin painted piQe

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30 MAIN STREET

surmounted hy scrolls and brack^s and bumps of jigsawed
wood. No sturubbcry to sbut off the public gut. A lugu-
brious bay-wuidow to the ri^ ol the porch. Window curtain
of starched cheap lace revealing a pink marble taUe with a
conch sbeU and a Family Bible.

" You'll find it old-fashioned— iriiat do you call it?— Mid-
Victorian. I left it as is, so you could make any dumges yon
felt were necessary." Kennicatt sounded doubtfid for the
first time since he had come back to his own.

" It's a real homel " She was morved 1:^ his humility. She
gaily motioned good-by to the Clarks! He unlocked the do(»r —
he was leaving the choice of a maid to her, and there was
no one in the house. She jiggled while he turned the key,
and scampered in. . . . It was i^xt day before either
of them remembered that iu their honeymoon camp they had
planned that he should carry her orer the sill.

In hallway and front park)r she was conscious of dinsinms
and lugid>riou^aess and airlessaess, but she insisted, '' ](1l make
it all joUy.'^ As she fcdlowed Kennicolt and the bags vsp to
their bedroom she quavered to herself the song of the fat
little gods of the hearth:

I have mv own home,

To do what I please with,

My den for me and my mate and my cobs,

My own!

I She was dose in her husband^ arms; she dung to him;
whatever of strangeness and slowness and insidarity she mi^
jfind in him, none of dmt mattered so long as she could slip
lier hands beneath his coat, run her fingers over the wamt
liness of the satin back of his waistcoat, seem almost to
into his body, find in him str^gth, find in the courage
"kindness of her man a shdter from the perplexing worM.
" Sweet, so sweet," she whispered.

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33
■»me

CHAPTER IV

*'The Clarks have invited some folks to their house to meet
IS, tonight/' said Kennicott, as he unpacked his suit-case.

" Oh, that is nice of them! ^

" You bet. I told you you^d like 'em. Squarest people on

earth. Uh, Carrie Would you mind if I sneaked down to

the office for an hour, just to see how things are? "

" WIqt, no. Of course not I know you're keen to get back
to work.''

" Sure you don't mind? "

" Not a biL Out of my way. Let me unpack."

But the advocate of freedom in marriage was as much dis*
afipointed as a drooping bride at the alacrity with which he
took that freedom and escaped to the world of men's affairs.
She gazed about their bedroom, and its fuU dismalness crawled
ova hisci the awkward knuckly L-shape of it; the black walnut
bed with apples and ^)otty pears carved on the headboard; the
imitation maple bureau, with pink-daubed scent-bottles and a
petticoated pin-cushion on a marble slab uncomfortably like a
gravestone; the plain pine washstand and the garlanded water-
pitcher and bowl. The scent was of horsehair and plush and
Florida Water.

" How could people ever live with things like this? " she
dmddered. |She saw the furniture as a circle of elderly judges,
coodemning her to death by smothering. The tottering bro-
cade chair squeaked, " Choke her — choke her — smother her.''
The old linen smelled of the tomb. She was alone in thii
house, this strange still house, among the shadows of dead
thoughts and haunting repressions. " I hate it I I hate it! "
she panted. "Why did I ever "t

She remembered that Kennicott's mother had brought these
family relics from the old home in Lac-qui-Meurt. " Stop itl
They're perfectly comfortable things. They're — comfortable.

Besides Oh, they're horrible t Well change them, right

away."

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30 , MAIN STREET

siirrhen, " But of course he Am» to see how things are at the
;rf6fice "

She made a pretense of busying herself with unpacking. The
/ chintz-lined, sUver-fitted bag which had seined so desirable a
luxury •in St. Paul was an extravagant vanity here. The dar-
ing black diemise of frail chi£fon and lace was a hussy at
which the deep-bosomed bed stiffened in disgust, and she
hurled it into a bureau drawer, hid it beneath a sensible linen
blouse.

She gave up unpacking. She wait to the window, with a
purely literary thought of village charm — ^hollyhocks and lanes
and apple-cheeked cottagers. What she saw was the side of
the Seventh-Day Adventist C3iurch — a plain clapboard wall
of a sour liver color; the ash-pile back of the church; an
unpainted stable; and an alley in which a Ford delivery-wagon
l^^d been stranded. This was the terraced garden below her
boudoir; this was to be her scenery for- -

" I mustn't! I mustn't! I'm nervous this afternoon. Am
I sick? . . . Good Lord, I hope it isn't that! Not now!
How people lie! How these stories lie! They say the bride
is always so blushing and proud and happy when she finds that
out, but — I'd hate it! I'd be scared to death! Some day

but Please, dear nebulous Lord, not now if Bearded sniffy

old men sitting and demanding that we bear children. If

. they had to bear them 1 I wish they did have to! Not

"^ now! Not till I've got hold of this job of liking the ash-pile out
there! ... I must shut up. I'm mildly insane. I'm
going out for a walk. I'll see the town by myself. My first
view of the entire I'm going to conquer! t

She fled from the house.

She stared with seriousness at every concrete crossing, every
hitching-post, every rake for leaves; and to each house she
devoted all her speculation. What would they come to mean?
How would they look six months from now? In which of
them would she be dining? Which of these people whom she
passed, now mere arrangements of hair and clothes, would turn
into intimates, loved or dreaded, different from all the other
people in the world?

As she came into the small business-section she inspected
a broad-beamed grocer in an alpaca coat who was bending over
the apples and celery on a slanted platform in front of his
store. Would she ever talk to him? What would he say if

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' ^ stopped and stated, ^I am Mrs. Kemikott Some
ihy I hope to omfide that a heap of extremdy dubious pump-
kins as a window-display doesn't exhilarate me much."

(The grocer was Mr. Frederick F. Ludelmeyer, whose market
is at the comer of Main Street and Lincoln Avenue. In
siq>posing that only she was obsai^ant Carol was ignorant,
misled by the in(fifference of cities. She fancied that she was
slipping through the streets invisible; | but when she had ^
passed, Mr. Ludelmeyer puffed into the store and coughed at y/^
his clerk, '' I seen a young woman, she come along the side
street. I bet she iss Doc Kennicott's new bride, Rood-looker,
nice legs, but she wore a hell of a plain suit, no style, I wonder
will she pay cash, I bet she goes to Rowland & Gould's more
as she does here, what you done with the poster for Fluffed
Oats?i>

I When Carol had walked for thirty-two minutes she had com-

pletely covered the town, east and west, north and south; and
she stood at the comer of Main Street and Washington Avenue
and de^>aired.

Main Street with its two-story brick shops, its story-and-a-
half wooden residences, its muddy expanse from concrete walk
to walk, its huddle of Fords and lumber-wagons, was too
small to ateorb her. The broad, straight, unentidng gashes
of the streets let in the grasping prairie on every side. She
realized the vastness and the emptiness of the land. The
skeleton iron windmill on the farm a few blocks away, at the
north end of Main Street, was like the ribs of a dead cow.
She thought of the coming of the Northem winter, when the
unprotected houses would crouch together in terror of storms
gaUoping out of that wild waste. (They were so small and
weak, t& little brown houses. They were shelters for spar-
rows, not homes for warm laughing people.!

She told herself that down the street the leaves were a
splendor. The maples were orange; the oaks a solid tint
of raspberry. And the lawns had been nursed with love. But
the thought would not hold. At best the trees resembled a
thinned woodlot. There was no park to rest the eyes. And
fince not Gopher Prairie but Wakamin was the county-seat,
there was no court-house with its grounds.

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34 MAIN STREET

She glanced through the fly-specked windows of the naotl
pretentious buH<Mng in sights the one place whtdi welcomed
strangers and determified their opinion of the charm and
luxury of Go{dier Prairie — the Minniemashie House. It was
a tall lean shabby structure, three stories of ydlow-streaked
wood, the comers covered with sanded pine slabs pmporth^
to symbolize stone. In the hotel o&ce ^ could see a stretch
of bare unclean floor, a line of rickety chairs with brass
cuspidors betwe»i, a writing-desk with advertisements in
mother-of-pearl letters upon the glass-covered back. The
dining-room beyond was a jungle of Gained table-doths and
catsup bottles.

She looked no more at the Minniemashie House.

A man in cuffiess shirt-sleeves with pink arm-garters, wearing
a linen collar but no tie, yawned his way from Dyer's Drug
Store across to the hotel. |He leaned against the wall, scratched
a while, sighed, and in a bored way gossiped with a man tilted
back in a chair. A lumber-wagon, its long green box fiUed
with lai^e spools of barbed-wire fencing, creaked down the
block. A Ford, in reverse, sounded as though it were shaking
to pieces, then recovered and rattled away« In the Greek
candy-store was the whine of a peanut-roaster, and the oily
smell of nuts. I

There was no other sound nor sign of life.

She wanted to run, fleeing from the encroaching prairie,
demanding the security of a great city. I Her dreams of creating
a beautiful town were lucUcrous. 0(^ng out from every
drab wall, she fdt a forbidding spirit which she could never
conquer. I

. She trailed down the street on one side, back on the other,
glancing into the cross streets. It was a private Seeing Mmm
Street tour. She was within ten minutes bdaokling not xxiy
the heart of a place called Gopher Prairie, but ten thousand
towns from Albany to Saui Diego:

Dyer's Drug Store, a corner building of regular and tmreal
blocks of artificial stone. Inside the store, a greasy marble
soda-foimtain with an electric lamp of red and green and
curdled-yellow mosaic shade. Pawed-over heaps of tootb>
brushes and combs and packages of shaviag-soap. Shelves
of soap-cartons, t«ething-rii^, garden-seeds, emd patent medi-
cmes in ydlow packages — ^nostrums for constzmption, for
^' Women's diseases " — notorious mixtures of opium and ako-

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bol, in the very shop to wfaicb her htnband sent patients for
Ae filling of prescr^jtions.

From 3 second-story wmdow the sign "W. P. Kennicott,
n^rs. k Surgeoo/^ g3t on black sand.

A snaB wooden motion-picture theater called '' The Rose-
bud Movie Palace/' Lithographs announcing a film called \
^ Patty in Love."

HoWiand & Geuld^ Grocery. In tbe display window, black,
overripe bananas and lettuce on which a cat was sleeping.
Shelves lined with red crepe paper which was now faded and
torn and concentncaliy spotted. Flat against the wall of the
second story the signs of lodges — the Knights of Pythias,
the Maccabees, the Woodmen, the Masons.

Dahl & Oleson's Meat Market — a reek of blood.

A jewelry diop with tinny-lookirtg wrist-watches for women.
In front of it, at the curb, a huge wooden clock which did not

go.

A fly-buzzing saloon with a brilliant gold and enamd whisky
^n across the fnmt. Other saloons down the block. From
A em a stiA j^Lstale beer, and thick voices b cII o ¥ ring "pi^^&
German or JroUiDg out dirty songs — vice gonft feeble and tin-
eff^^rSmgjind dull;— the delicacy of a mining-camp minus, its
vig^. In^ont of the saloons, farmwives sitting on the seats of
wagons, waiting for dieir husbands to become dnmk and ready
to start home.

A tobacco shop called " The Smoke House," filled with young
men shaking dice for cigarettes. Racks of magazpes, and pic-
tures of coy fat prostitutes in striped bathing-suits.

A clothing store with a display of " ox-blood-shade Oxfords
with bull-dog toes." Suits which looked worn and lossless
while they were ^11 new, flabbily draped on dummies like
corpses with painted cheeks.

The Bon Ton Store— Haydock & Simons^— the largest shop
in town. The first-story front of clear glass, the plates cleverly
bound at the edges with brass. The second story of pleasant

' V of excellent clothes for men, inr
loral pique which showed mauve
(Newness and an obvious notion
lydock & Simons. Haydock. She
lation; Harry Haydock; an active
eemed great to ha, now, and very
:leanl i

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36 MAIN STREET

Axel Egge's General Store^ frequented by Scandinavian
farmers. In the shallow dark window-space heaps of sleazy
sateens, badly woven galateas, canvas shoes designed for
womai with bulging ankles, steel and red glass buttons upon
cards with broken edges, a cottony blanket, a granite-ware
frying-pan reposing on a sun-faded crepe blouse.

Sam Cla|k]'s Hardware Store. An air of frankly metallic
enterprise. VjGuds and chums and barrels of nails and beautiful
shiny butcher knives.

Chester Dashaway's House Furnishing Emporium. A vista
of heavy oak rockers with leather seats, asleep in a dismal
row.

Billy's Lunch. Thick handleless cups on the wet oilcloth-
covered counter. An odor of onions and the smoke of hot
lard. In the doorway a young man audibly sucking a tooth-
pick.

The warehouse of the buyer of cream and potatoes. The
sour smell of a dairy.

The Ford Garage and the Buick Garage^ competent one-
story brick and cement buildings opposite each other. Old
and new cars on grease-blackened concrete floors. Tire ad-
vertisements. The roaring of a tested motor; a racket which
beat at the nerves. Surly yoimg men in khaki imion-ov^-
alls. The most energetic and vital places in town.

A large warehouse for agricultural implements. *An impres-
sive barricade of green and gold wheels, of shafts and sulky
seats, belonging to machinery of which Carol knew nothing —
potato-planters, manure-spreaders, silage-cutters, disk-harrows,
breaking-plows.

A feed store, its windows opaque with the dust of bran, a
patent medicine advertisement painted on its roof.

Ye Art Shq>pe, Prop. Mrs. Mary Ellen Wilks, Christian
Science Library open daily free. A touching fimible at beauty.
A one-room dianty of boards recently covered with rough
stucco. A show-window delicately rich in error: vases starting
out to imitate tree-trunks but running off into blobs of gilt —
an aluminum ash-tray labeled " Greetings from Gopher Prai-
rie " — a Christian Sdaice magazine — ^a stamped sofa-cushion
portraying a large ribbon tied to a small poppy, the corr^L
skeins of embroidery-silk lying on the pillow. Inside the iao$if.
a glimpse of bad carbon prints of bad and famous pic^ f^^
shdves of phonograph records and camera films, wooden akt m,

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and in the midst an anxious small woman sitting in a padded
rocking chair.

A barber shop and pod room. A man in shirt sleeves,
presumably Dd SnafBin the proprietor, shaving a man who had
a large Adam's apple.

Nat Hicks's Tailor Shop, on a side street ofif Main. A one-
story building. A fashion-plate showing human, pitdiforks
in garments which looked as hard as steel plate.

On another side street a raw red-brick Catholic Church with
a varnished yellow door.

The post-ofiSce— merely a partition of {^lass and brass shut-
ting ofif the rear of a mildewed room which must once have
bett a shop. A tflted writing-shdf against a wall rubbed black
and scattered with ofiScial notices and army recruiting-posters.

The damp, yellow-brick schoolbuHding in its dndery groui^

The State Bank, stucco masking wood#

The Farma^' National Bank. An Ionic temple of marble.
Pure, exquisite, solitary. A brass plate with '^ Ezra Stowbody,
Preset."

A score of similar shops and establishments.

Behind them and mixed with them, the houses, meek cottages
or large, comfortable, soundly uninteresting symbols of pros-
perity.

In an. the town not one building save the Ionic bank which
gave pleasure to Carol's eyes ;( not a dozen buildings which sug-
gested that, in the fifty years of Gopher Prairie's existence, the
citizens had realized that it was dther desirable or possible to
make this, their common home, amusing or attractive|

It was not only the unsparing unapologetic ugliness and the
rigid straightness which overwhdmed her. |It was the plan-
kssness, the flimsy temporariness of the buildings, their faded
unpleasant colors. The street was duttered with electric-
li^t poles, tdephone poles, gasoline pumps for motor cars, ^
boxes of goods. Each man had built with the most valiant
disregard of all the otha^.l Between a large new " block " of
two-story brick shops on one side, and the fire-brick Overland
garage on the other side, was a one-story cottage turned into
a mOlinery shop. The white temple of the Farmers' Bank
was elbowed back by a grocery of glaring yellow brick. One
store-building had a patcSy galvani^ iron cornice; the build- V)
7^ rag beside it was crowned with battlements and pyramids of ^
?^ btidL capped with blocks of red sandstone.^

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38 MAIN STREET

9ie escaped from Maia Street, fled home.

She wouldn't have cared, she insisted, if the people had
been comety. She had noted a young oaan loafing before a
shop, <M)e unwashed hand hddxBg the oord of an awoieg; a
middle-aged man who had a way of staring at women as
though he had been married too loag and too prosaioiHy; an
dd &rmer, solid, whoiescmie, but not clean — his face like a
potato fresh from the earth. None of them had shaved for three
days.

" If they can't build shrines, out here on the prairie, surely
there's nodiiag to prevent their bu^ng safety-razors! " she
raged.

She fought herself: '^ I must be wrong. People do live here.
It can't be as ugly as — as I know it is! I most be wroi^
But I can't do iL I can't go through with it"

She came home too seriously worried for hysteria; and when
she found Kennicott waiting for her, and csraltiag, ^ Have a
walk? Wdl, like the town? Gre at lawns and tr ees, eh? "
she was able t o say, with a self-prbtecuve maturity new to
her ^ Tit's very interestin^^^ '

The train which brought Carol to Go(Aar I^airie also
brought Miss Bea Sorenson.

Miss Bea was a stalwart, corn-colored, laughing young •
woman, and she was bored by farm-work. She desired the
excitements of dty-life, and the way to enjoy city-life was, *
she had decided, to " go get a yob as hired girl in Gopher
Prairie." Sie contentedly lu^^^ her pasteboard telescope from
the station to her cousin, Tina Malmquist, maid of all work
in the residence of Mrs. Luke Dawson.

'^ Vdl, so yovL come to town," said Tina.

"Ya. Ay get a yob," said Bea.

" VelL . . . You got a fdla now? ^'

"Ya. Yim Yacohscm."

^* Veil. I'm giat to see you. How much you vant a veek? ''

" Sex dolkr."

^ There ain't nobody pay dat. Vaitl Dr. Kennicott, I
t'ink be marry a girl from de Cities. Maybe she pay dat
Veil. You go take a valk."

"Ya." said Bea.

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So it chanced that Carol Kennicott and Bea Sorenson were
riewing Main Street at the same time.

Bea had never before been in a town largfr than Scandia
Crossing, which has sixty-seven inhabitants.

As she marched up the street she was meditating diat it
(fidn't hardly sean like it was possible there could be sa
many idks all in one place at tbt same time. .My! It
woidd take years to get acquainted with them all. And swdl
people, too! A fine big gendeman in a new pink shirt with
a diaoMmd, and not no washed-oat blue denim woridng-diirt.
A k>vdy lady in a longery dress (but it must be an awfid hard
dress to wi^). And the stores!

Not just three of than, like di^e were at Scandia Crossing,.
bmt more than four whole blocks!

The Bon T(m Store—big as four bams — ^myl it would
siDOfdy scare a person to go in there, with sevm or eig^t
deiks aU looking at you. And the men's suits, on figiffes just
like human. And Axel Egge's, like home, lots of Swedes and
Norskes in there, and a card of dandy buttons, like rubies.

A drug store with a soda fountain that was just huge, awful
long, and all lovely marble; and on it there was a great big
heap with the b^gest stsade you ever saw — all different kinds
coiared g^ass studc together; and the soda ^>outs, they were
silver, and they came right otit of the bottom of the lamp-
stand! Behind the fountain there were glass shelves, and
bottles of new kinds of soft drinks, that nobody ever heard
of. Suppose a fella took you there/

A hotel, awful high, hi^er than Oscar Tollefson's new red
bam; tlu-ee stories, one right on top of another; you had to
stick your heml back to look dear up to the top. There was
a sweU traveling man in there — probably been to Chicago, lots
of times.

Oh, the dandiest people to know here! There was a lady
8^8 ^y you wouldn't hardly say she was any older than Bea
hersdf; she wore a dandy new gray suit and black pumps.
Ste almost kxriked like she was looking over the town, too.
Bat you couldn't tell what she thou^t. Bea would like to
be that way — kind of quiet, so ndxxly would get fresh. Kind
of— oh, degant.

A Luthonan Church. Here in the dty there'd be lovely
sermons, and church twice on Sunday, every Sunday!

And a«novie show!

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40 MAIN STREET

A regtdar theater, just for movies. With the sign " Change
of bill every evening." Pictures every evening!

There w^e movies in Scandia Crossing, but only once every
two we^, and it took the Sorensons an hour to drive in —
papa was such a tightwad he wouldn't get a Ford. But here
she could put on her hat any evening, and in three minutes'
walk be to Use movies, and see lovely fellows in dress-suits
and Bill Hart and everything!

How could they have so many stores? Why! There was
one just for tobacco alone, and one (a lovely one-^the Art
Shc^py it was) for pictures and vases and stuff, with oh, the
dandiest vase made so it looked just like a tree trunk!

Bea stood on the comer of Main Street and Washington
Avenue. The roar of the city began to fri^ten her. There
were five automobuls on the street all at the same time — and
one of 'em was a great big car that must of cost two thousand
dollars — and the 'bus was starting for a train with five degant-
dre^ed fellows, and a man was pasting up red bills with lovely
pictures of washing-machines on them, and the jeweler was
laying out brackets and wrist-watches and everything on r^
vdvet.

What did she care if she got six dollars a week? Or two!
It was worth while working for nothing, to be allowed to stay
here. 'And think how it would be in the evenmg, all lighted
vtp — and not with no lamps, but with dectrics! And maybe a
gentleman friend taking you to the movies and buying you a
strawberry ice cream soda!

Bea trudged back.

" VeU? You lak it? " said Tma.

" Ya. Ay lak it. Ay t'ink maybe Ay stay here," said Bea.

The recently built house of Sam Clark, in which was given
the party to wdcome Carol, was one of die largest in Gopher
Prairie. It had a clean sweep of dapboards, a solid squareness,
a small tower, and a large screened porch. Inside, it was as
shiny, as hard, and as cheerful as a new oak upright piano.

Carol looked imploringly at Sam Clark as be rolled to the
door and shouted, "Wdcome, little lady! The keys of the
city are youm! "

B^ond him, in the hallway and the living-room, Aitting in

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a vast prim drde as though they were attending a funeral,
she saw the guests. They were waiting sol They were wait-
ing for her! The determination to be all one pretty flowerlet
of appreciation leaked away. She begged of Sam, '' I don't
dare face them I They eapect so much. They 11 swallow me
in one mouthful — glimipl — like thatl "

" Why, sister, they're going to love you — same as I would
if I didn't think the doc here would beat me up! "

" B-but I don't dare! Faces to the right of me, faces

m front of me, volley and wonder! "

She sounded hysterical to herself; she fancied that to Sam
Qark she sounded insane. But he chuckled, " Now you just
jcuddle und^ Sam's wing, and if anybody rubbers at you too
bng, m shoo 'em off. Here we go! Watch my smoke —
Saml, the ladies' delight and the bridegrooms' terror! "

His arm about her, he led her in and bawled, *^ Ladies and
worser halves, the bride! We won't introduce her roimd yet,
because shell never get your bum names straight anyway.
Now bust 1^ this star-chamber! "

They titt^ed politely, but they did not move from the social
second of their circle, and they did not cease staring.

Carol had given creative energy to dressing for the event.
Her hair was demure, low on her forehead with a parting and
a coiled braid. Now she wished that she had piled it high.
Her frock was an ingenue slip of lawn, with a wide gold sash
and a low square nedk, which gave a suggestion of tb'oat and
molded shoulders. But as they looked her over she was
certain that it was all wrong. She wished alternately that she
bad worn a spinsterish hi^-necked dress, and that she had
dared to shock them with a violent brick-red scarf which she
had bought in Chicago.

She was led about the circle. Her voice mechanically pro-
duced safe ronarks:

" Oh, I'm sure I'm going to like it here ever so much," and
"Yes, we did have the best time in Colorado— mountains,"
and " Yes, I lived in St. Paul several years. Euclid P. Tinker?
No, I don't remember meeting him, but I'm pretty sure I've
heard of him."

Kennicott took her aside and whispered, "Now 111 intro-
duce you to them, one at a time."

" Ten me about them first."
• "Wdl. the nice-looking couple over there are Harry Hay-

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42 MAIN STREET

dock and his wife, Juanita. Harry's dad owns most of the
Bon Ton, but it's Harry who runs it and gives it the pep.
He's a hustler. Next to him is Dave Dyer the druggist — ^you
met him this afternoon — mighty good duck-shot. The tall
husk beyond him is Jack Elder — ^Jackson Elder— owns the
planing-mill, and the Minniemashie House, and quite a share
in the Farmers' National Bank. Him and his wife are good
sports — ^him and Sam and I go hunting together a lot. The
old cheese there is Luke Dawson, the richest man in town.
Next to him is Nat Hicks, the tailor."

"ReaHy? A tailor?"

" Sure. Why not? Maybe we're slow, but we are democra-
tic. I go himting with Nat same as I do with Jack Eider."

" I'm glad. I've never met a tailor socially. It must be
charming to meet one and not have to think about what yoa

owe him. And do you Would you go hunting with your

barber, too? "

" No but No use running this democracy thing into the

ground. Besides, I've known Nat for years, and besides, he's

a mighty good shot and— — That's the way it is, see? Next

to Nat is Chet Dashaway. Great fellow for chinning. Hell

i talk your arm off, about religion or politics or books or any-

Ithing."

Carol gazed with a polite approximation to interest at
Mr. Dashaway, a tan person with a wide mouth. "Oh, I
know! He's the furniture-store man! " She was much pleased
with herself.

" Yump, and he's the undertaker. You'll like him. Come
shake hands with him."

** Oh no, no! He doesn't — ^he doesn't do the embalmii^
and all that — ^himself? I couldn't shake hands with an imder-
takerl "

" Why not? You'd be proud to shake hands with a greit
surgeon, just after he'd been carving up people's bellies."

She sought to regain her afternoon's calm of maturity,
" Yes. You're right. I want — oh, my dear, do you know how
much I want to like the people you like? I want to see peqple
as they are."

" Well, don 't forget to see people as other folks see them
as_diey are! They have the~stutf . Did you know that Percy
Bresnahan came from here? Bom and brought up here! "

"Bresnahan?"- %

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" Yes — ^you know— president of the Velvet Motor Conq>any
of Boston, Mass. — ^make the Velvet Twdve — biggest automo-
hac factory in New England."

"I think I've heard of him."

" Sure you have. Why, he's a nullionaire several times over!
Well, Perce comes back here for the black-bass fishing almost
every sommer, and he says if he conld get away from business,
he'd rather live here than in Boston or New York or any of
those places. He doesn't mind Chet's undertaking."

" Please! FU— 111 like everybody! I'll be the commnnity
suzd)eam! "

He led her to the Dawsons.

Luke Dawson, lender of money on mortgages, owner of
Northern cut-over Jand^was.._a. hfsitant man in unpre^ sed
soft f yay'clotl^s >..wiiirmi1^^^ eves in a milky face. His wife
haB bleached^ xh£fik3^ bitched, haur, bk^ched ypice^ and a
bl eached manner. She wore her expensive green frock, wifli
its passementeried bosom, bead tassels, and gaps between the
buttons down the back, as though die had bought it second-
hand and was afraid of meeting the former owner. They were
shy. It was " Professor " George Edwin Mott, superinten-
dent of schools, a Chinese mandarin turned brown, who held
Carol's hand and made her welcome.

' When the Dawsons and Mr. Mott had stated that they were
"pleased to meet her," there seemed to be nothing else to say,
bm the conversation went on automatically.

" Do you like Gopher Prairie? " whimpered Mrs. Dawson.

"Oh, I'm sure I'm going to be ever so happy."

"There's so many nice people." Mrs. Dawson looked to
Mr. Mott for social and intellectual aid. He lectured:

" There's a fine class of people. I don't like some of these i
retired farmers who come here to spend their last days —
especially the Germans. They hate to pay school-taxes. They \.
hate to spend a cent. But the rest are a fine class of people. |
Did you know that Percy Bresnahan came from here? Used/
to go to school right at the old building! "

"I heard he did."

" Yes. He's a prince. He and I went fishing together, last
time he was here."

The Dawsons and Mr. Mott teetered upon weary feet, and
safled at Carol with crystallized expressions. She went on:

** Tdl me, Afe. Mott: Have you ever tried any experiments

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44) MAIN STREET

with any of the new educational systems? The modem kinder-
garten methods or the Gary system? "

*' Oh. Those. Most of these would-be reformers are simply
notoriety-seekers. ] I believe in manual training, but Latin and
maUiematics sdways will be the backbone of sound American-
ism, no matter what these faddists advocate — ^heaven knows
what they do want — ^knitting, I suppose, and classes in wig-
gling the ears I '^

The Dawsons smiled their appreciation of listening to a
savant. Carol waited till Kennicott should rescue her. The
rest of the party waited for the miracle of being amused.

Harry and Juanita Haydock, Rita Simons and Dr. Terry
Gould — the young smart set of Gopher Prairie. She was led
to them. Juanita Haydock flung at her in a high, cackling,
friendly voice:

" Well, this is so nice to have you here. Well have some
good parties— dances and everything. You'll have to join the
Jolly Seventeen. We play bridge and we have a supper once
a month. You play, of course? "

"N-no, I don't."

"Really? In St. Paul?"

" I've always been such a book-worm."

" We'll have to teach you. Bridge is half the fun of life."
Juanita had become patronizing, and she glanced disre^>ect-
fully at Carol's golden sash, which she had previously admired.

Harry Haydock said politely, "How do you think you're
going to like the old burg? "

" I'm sure I shall like it tremendously."

" Best people on earth here. Great hustlers, too. Course
I've had lots of chances to go live in Minneapolis, but we
like it here. P<>a1Jifi-tnwn. ^''^ y^'l know t hat Percy Bres na-
h an came from here ?"

Carol perceived that she had been weakened in the biological
struggle by disclosing her lack of bridge. Roused to nervous
desire to regain her position she turned on Dr. Terry Gould,
the young and pool-playing competitor of her husband. Her
eyes coquetted with him while she gushed:

" 111 learn bridge. But what I really love most is the out-
doors. Can't we all get up a boating party, and fish, or
whatever you do, and have a picnic supper afterwards? "

" Now you're talking! " Dr. Gould aJE&rmed. He looked
rather too obviously at the cream-smooth slope of her shoulder.

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^Like fishing? Fishing is my middle name. Ill teach you
bridge. Like cards at all? "

" I used to be rather good at bezique."

She knew that bezique was a game of cards— or a game of
something else. Roulette, possibly. But her lie was a triumph.
Juanita's handsome, high-colored, horsey face showed doubt
Harry strcdLed his nose and said humbly, '' Bezique? Used
to be great gambling game, wasn^t it? "

While others drifted to her group, Carol snatched up the
conversation. She laughed and was frivolous and rather brittle.
She could not distinguish their eyes. Th ey were a bliur y
theater-audfence~hefore whlg~she selfconsciously enacted tJi e
conie^ o^ bcJM- the Clever XTttTe^^ride of Doc Kennicot t :

" These-here celebrated Open Spaces, that's what I'm going
out for. 1*11 never read anything but Uie sporting-page again.
WUl converted me on our Colorado trip. There were so
matQT mousey tourists who were afraid to get out of the motor
T)us that I decided to be Annie Oakley, the Wild Western
Wanq>ire, and I bought oh! a vociferous skirt which revealed
my perfectly nice ankles to the Presbyterian glare of all the
loway schoolma^ams, and I leaped from peak to peak like the

nimble champys, and You may think that Herr Doctor

Kennicott is a Nimrod, but you ou^t to have seen me daring
him to strip to his B. V. D.'s and go swimming in an icy
mountain brook."

She knew that they were thinking of becoming shocked, but
Juanita Haydock was admiring, at least. She swaggered on:

** I'm sure I'm going to ruin Will as a respectable practi- >
tioner Is he a good doctor. Dr. Gould? " !

Kennicott's rival gasped at this insult to professional ethics,
and he took an appreciable second before he recovered his
social manner. " 111 tell you, Mrs. Kennicott." He smiled '
at Kennicott, to imply that whatever he might say in the
stress of being witty was not to count against him in the
commercio-medical warfare. " There's some people in town '
that say the doc is a fair to middlin' diagnostician and pre- '
scription-writer, but let me whisper this to you — but for
heaven's sake don't tell him I said so— don't you ever go to \
him for anything more serious than a pendectomy of the left \
ear or a strabismus of the cardiograph."

No one save Kennicott knew exactly what this meant, but
they laughed, and Sam Clark*s party assumed a glittering

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46 MAIN STREET

leamKyellow coIch: of brocade panels and champagne and ttdle
and crystal chandeliers and sporting duchesses. Carol saw
that George Edwin Mott and the blandied Mr. and Mrs.
Dawson were not yet hypnotized. They looked as though they
wondered idiether they ought to look as though they dis^
proved. She concentrated on them:

'^ But I know whom I wouldn't have fkred to go to Colorado
with I Mr. Dawson there! I'm sure he's a re^ar heart*
breaker. When we were introduced he held my hand and
squeezed it fri^tfully."

" Haw! Haw! Haw! " The entire company applauded. Mr.
Dawson was beatified.. He had been called many things—
loan-shark, skinflint, tightwad, pussyfoot — but he had never
before been called a flut.

" He is wicked, isn't he, Mrs. Dawson? Don't you have to
lock him up? "

" Oh no, but maybe I better/' attempted Mrs. Dawson, a
tint on her pallid face.

For fifteen minutes Carol kept it up. (She asserted that she
was going to stage a mu»cal comedy, that she preferred cafe
parfait to beefsteak, that she hoped Dr. Kennicott would never
lose his ability to make love to charming women, and that
she had a pair of gold stockings. They gaped for more. But
she could not keep it up. She retired to a chair behind Sam
Clark's bulk. The smile-wrinkles solemnly flattened out in
the faces of all the other collaborators in having a party, and
again they stood about hoping but not expecting to be amused|

Carol listened. Sl^e discovo-ed that conversation did not
exist in Gopher Prairie. Even at this affair, which brought
out the young smart set, the hunting squirt set, the respect-
able intellectual set, and the solid financial set, they sat up
with gaiety as with a corpse.

Juanita Haydock talked a good deal in her rattling voice
but it was invariably of personalities: the rumor that Ra3rmie
Wutherspoon was going to send for a pair of patent leather
shoes with griy buttoned tops; the rheumatism of Chanq>
Perry; the state of Guy Pollock's grippe; and the dementia of
Jim Howland in painting his fence salmon-pink.

Sam Clark had been talking to Carol about motor cars,
but he felt his duties as host. While he droned, his brows
popp)cd up and down. He interrupted himself, "Mist stir
'em up." He worrie4 ^* ^ ^^^f " T^on't you think I better

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stir 'em up? " He shouldered into the center of the room, and
cried:

" Let's have some stimts, folks."
/ *" Yes, lefsl '' shrieked Juanita Haydodc.

^' Say, Dave, give us that stunt about the Norwegian catdi*
ing a hen."

"" You bet; thafs a sUck stunt; do Oat, Davel " cheered
Chet Dashaway.

Mr, Dave E^er obliged.

AU the guests' moved thdr lips m anticipation of bemg called
on for their own stunts.

*' EUa, come on and recite ' Old Sweetheart of Mine,' for
us," demanded Sam.

Miss Ella Stowbody, the spinster daughter of the Ionic bank,
scratched her dry palms and blushed. " Oh, you don't want
to hear diat dd thing again."

" Sure we do! You betl " asserted Sam.

^ My voice is in terrible shape tonight"

" Ttitl Come onl "

Sam loudly explained to Carol, '^ Ella is our shark at docut4
ing. She's had professional training. She studied singing anq
ofatory and dramatic art and shorthand for a year, in Mil4
waiikee." '

Miss Stowbody was reciting. A s encore to ^^ An Qld Sweet -

ing flfe^ gfue of smiles.

-ma^^ere four other stunts: <me Jewish, one Irish, one
juvenile, and Natt Hicks's parody of Mark Antony's funeral
oration.

During the winter Carol was to hear Dave Dyer's hen-
catdiing impersonation seven times, ^An Old Sweetheart of
Mine " nine times, the Jewi^ story and the funeral oration
twice; ibut now she was ardent and, because she did so want
to be nappy and simple-hearted, die was as disappointed as
the others when the stunts were finished, aijd the party in-
stantly sank back into coma.j

T\iy gave up trying to be festive; they began to ta&
naturally, as they did at their shojps and homes.

The men and women divided, as they had been tending to
do an evening. Carol was deserted by the men, left to a
group of matrons who steadily pattered of children, sickness,
and cooks — thdr own shop-talk. She^ was piqued. She re-

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membered visions of herself as a smart married woman in a
drawing-room, fencing with clever men. Her dejection was
rdieved by q>ecuIation as to what the men were discussing, in
the comer between the piano and the photograph. Did tney
rise from these housewifely personalities to a larger world
of abstractions and affairs?

She made her best curtsy to Mrs. Dawson; she twittered,
" I won't have my husband leaving me so sooni I'm going
over and pull the wretch's ears.'' She rose with a jeune fiUe
bow. She was self-absorbed and self-approving because she
had attained that quality of sentimentality. She proudly
dipped across the room and, to the interest and commendation
of all beholders, sat on the arm of Kennicott's chair.

He was gossiping with Sam Clark, Luke Dawson, Jackson
Elder of the plaoing-mill, Chet Dashaway, Dave Dyer, Harry
Haydock, and Ezra Stowbody, president of the Ionic bank.
Ezra Stowbody was a trogIod3^e. He had come to Gopher
Prairie in 1865. He was a distinguished bird of prey —
swooping thin nose, turtle mouth, thick brows, port-wine
cheeks, floss of white hair, contemptuous eyes. He was not
happy in the social changes of thirty years. Three decades
ago. Dr. Westlake, Julius Flickerbaugh the lawyer, Merriman
Peedy the Congregational pastor and himself had beeni the
arbiters. ^That was as it should be; the fine arts — ^medicine,
law, religion, and finance — recognized as aristocratic; four
Yankees democratically chatting with but ruling the Ohioans
, and Illini and Swedes and Germans who had ventured to
\ follow them| jBut Westlake was old, almost retired; Julius
Flickerbaugh had lost much of his practice to livelier attorneys;
Reverend (not The Reverend) Peedy was dead; and nobody
was impressed in this rotten age of automobiles by the " spank-
; ing gra3rs " which Ezra still drove. The town was as hetero-
, geneous as Chicago. Norwegians and Germans owned stores.
The social leaders were common merchants. Selling nails was
considered as sacred as banking. These upstarts — the Clarks,
the Haydocks — had no dignity. They were sound and con-
servative in politics, but they talked about motor cars and
ptmip-guns and heaven only knew what new-fangled fads. Mr.
Stowbody felt out of place with them| But his brick house
\ with the mansard roof was still the largest residence in town,
and he held his position as squire by occasionally appearing
among the younger men and reminding them by a wintry ey«

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that without the banker none of them could carry on theii
vulgar businesses.

As Carol defied decency hy sitting down with the men, Mr.
Stowbody was piping to Mr. Dawson, " Say, Luke, when ¥^as't ^
Biggins first settled in Winnebago Township? Wa'n't it in /"
1879? "

"Why no 'twaVt! " Mr. Dawson was indignant. "He
come out from Varmont in 1867 — ^no, wait, in 1868, it must
have been — and took a claim on the Rum River, quite a ways
above Anoka.''

"He did not! '' roared Mr. Stowbody. "He settled first
in Blue Earth County, him and his fatherl "

(" What's the pomt at issue? " Carol whispered to Kenni-
cott.

(" Whether this old duck Biggins had an English setter or
a LleweUjm. They've been arguing it all evening! ")

Dave Dyer interrupted to give tidings, " D' tell you that
Clara Biggins was in town couple days ago? She bought a
hot-water bottle— e]q>ensive one, too— two dollars and thirty
cents!"

" Yaaaaaahl " snarled Mr. Stowbody. " Course. She's just
like her grandad was. Never save a cent. Two dollars and
twenty — ^thirty, was it? — ^two dollars and thirty cents for a
hot-watar bottle! Brick wrapped up in a flannel petticoat just
as good, anjrway! "

" How's Ella's tonsils, Mr. Stowbody? " yawned Chet Dash-
away.

While Mr. Stowbody gave a somatic and psychic study of
them, Carol reflected, "Are th^ really so terribly interested
in EUa's tonsils, or even in Ella's esophagus? I wonder if I
could get them away from personalities? Let's risk damna-
tion and try."

"There hasn't been much labor trouble around here, has
there, Mr. Stowbody? " she asked innocently.

f*No, ma'am, thank God, we've been free from that, except
maybe with hired girls and farm-hands. Trouble enough with
th^ foreign farmers; if you don't watch these Swedes they
turn socialist or populist or some fool thing on you in a
minute. Of course, if they have loans you can make 'em
listen to reason. I just have 'em come into the bank for a
talk, and tell 'em a few things. I don't mind tiieir being
dcuKxrrats, so much, but I won't stand having socialists around^

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But thank God, we ain't got the labor trouble they have in
these cities. Even Jack Elder here gets along pretty well, in
the planing-mill, don't you, Jack? "
j " Yep. Sure. Don't need so many skilled workmen in my
/ place, and it's a lot of these cranky, wage-hogging, half-
/ baked skilled mechanics that start trouble — reading a lot of
/ this anarchist literature and union papers and all."
/ " Do you approve of union labor? " Carol inquired of Mr.

' Elder.

" Me? I should say noti It's like this: I don't mind
^ dealing with my men if they think they've got any grievances —
t" though Lord knows what's come over workmen, nowadays —
don't appreciate a good jc^. But still, if they come to me
honestly, as man to man, 111 talk things over with them.
But I'm not going to have any outsider, any of these walking
delegates, or whatever fancy names they call themselves now —
bunch of rich grafters, living on the ignorant workmen! Not
going to have any of those fellows buttmg in and telling me
how to run my business! "

Mr. Elder was growing more excited, more belligerent and
patriotic. '^ I stand for freedom and constitutional rights. If
any man don't like my shop, he dsin get up and git. Same way,
if I don't like him, he gits. And that's aU there is to it. I
simply can't imderstand all these complications and hoop-te-
doodles and government reports and wage-scales and God
knows what sdl that these fellows are balling up the labor
situation with, when it's all perfectly simple. They like what
I pay 'em, or they get out. That's all there is to it! "
" What do you think of profit-sharing? " Carol ventured.
Mr. Elder thundered his answer, while the others noddedf
solemnly and in tune, like a shop-window of flexible toys,
comic mandarins and judges and ducks and clowns, set quiver-
ing by a breeze from the open door:
I " All this profit-sharing and welfare woik and insurance and
(dd-age pension is simply poppycock. Enfeebles a workman's
ind^endence — and wastes a lot of honest profit. The half-
baked thinker that isn't dry behind the ears yet, and these
suffragettes and God knows what all buttinskis there are that
are trying to tell a business man how to run his business, and
some of these college professors are just about as bad, the
whole kit and .bilin' of 'em are nothing in God's world but
\ socialism in disguise!/ And it's my bounden duty as a pro*

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ducer to resist every attack on the integrity of American in-
dustry to fte last ditch. Yes— SIR! '*

Mr. Elder wiped his brow. /

Dave Dyer added, '' Sure! You bet! What they ought to
do is simply to hang every one of these agitators, and tiiat
would settle the whole thing right off. Don't you think so.
doc?'*

" You bet," agreed Kennicott.

The conversation was at last relieved of the plague of Carol's
intrusions and they settled down to the question of i<4iether
the justice of flat peace had sent that hobo drunk to jaO for
ten da3rs or twelve. It was a matter not readily determined.
Then Dave Dyer communicated hia carefree advratures on the
g^>sy trail:

" Yep. I get good time out of the flivver. 'Bout a week
ago I motored down to New Wurttemberg. That's forty-
three No, let's see: It's seventeen miles to Beildale, aod

'bout six and three-quarters, call it seven, to Torgenquist, and
it's a good nineteen miles from there to New Wurttemberg —
seventeen and seven and nineteen, that makes, uh, let me see:
seventeen and seven 's twenty-four, plus nineteen, well say
plus twenty, that makes forty-four, well anyway, say about
forty-three or -four miles from here to New Wurttemberg. We
got started about seven-fifteen, probly seven-twenty, ^cause
I bid to stop and fill the radiator, and we ran along, just keq>-
ing up a good steady gait "

Mr. Dyer did finaUy, for reasons and purposes admitted and
justified, attain to New Wurttemberg.

Ooce--onfy once — ^the presence of the alien Carol was recog-
nized. Chet Dashaway leaned over and said asthmatically,
^ Ssy^ uh, have you been reading this serial ' Two Out ' in
TingUng Tdesf Corking yam I Gosh, the fellow that wrote
5t certahily can sling baseball slang! "

Hbe others tried to look literary. Harry Haydock offered,]
'^Juanita is a great hand for reading high-class stuff, liker
'Mid the Magnolias' by this Sara Hetwiggin Butts, and]
'Riders of Ranch Reddess.' Books. But me," he ^anced
about importantly, as one convinced that no other hero hadl
ever been in so strange a plight, " I'm so dam b\3sy I don'^'
have much time to read."

" I never read anythmg I can't cfaecK against," said Sam
PariL

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Thus ended the literary portion of the conversation, and
for seven minutes Jackson Elder outlined reasons for believing
that the pike-fishing was better on the west shore of Lake
Minniemashie than on the east — ^though it was indeed quite
true that on the east shore Nat Hicks had caught a pike,
altogether admirable.

IThe talk went on. It did go on I Their voices were
monotonous, thick, emphatic. They were harshly pompous, like
men in the smoking-compartments of Pullman cars. They did
not bore Carol. They frightened her. She panted, "They
will be cordial to me, because my man belongs to their tribe.
God help me if I were an outsider! "

Smiling as changelessly as an ivory figurine she sat quiescent,
avoiding thought, glancing about the living-room and hall, not-
ing their betrayal of unimaginative commercial prosperity.
Kennicott said, "Dandy interior, eh? My idea of how a
place ought to be furnished. Modern." She looked polite, -;
and observed the oiled floors, hard-wood staircase, unused j,
fir^lace with tiles which resembled brown linoleum, cut-glass
vases standing upon doilies, and the barred, shut, forbidding jl
unit bookcases that were half filled with swashbuckler novels '
and imread-looking sets of Dickens, Kipling, O. Henry, and
Elbert Hubbard.

She perceived that even personalities were failing to hold
the party. The room filled with hesitancy as with a fog.
People cleared their throats, tried to choke down yawns. The
men shot their cuffs and the women stuck their combs morc^
firmly into their back hair.

Then a rattle, a daring hope in every eye, the swinging of
a door, the smell of strong coffee, Dave Dyer's mewing voic^
in a triumphant, " The eats! " They began to chatter. Th^
had something to do. They could escs^ from themselves
They fell upon the food — chicken sandwiches, maple cake,
drjg-store ice cream. Even when the food was gon^ they re-
mained cheerful. They could go home, any time now, and go
to bed!

They went, with a flutter of coats, chiffon scarfs, and good-
bys.
V Carol and Kennicott walked home.

" Did you like them? " he asked.

" They were terribly sweet to me."

**Uh, Carrie You oug^t to be more careful about

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shocking folks. (Talking about gold stockings, and about
showing your ankles to schoolteachers and all! " More
mildly: '' You gave 'em a good time, but I'd watch out for
that, 'f I ware you. Juanita Haydock is such a damn cat. I
wouldn't give her a chance to criticize mc."(

"My poor effort to lift up the party 1 Was I wrong to
try to amuse them? "

" No! No! Honey, I didn't mean You were the only

up-and-coming person in the bunch. I just mean Don'

get onto legs and aU that immoral stuff. Pretty conservative
crowd."

She was silent, raw with the shameful thought that the
attentive circle might have been criticizing her, laughing at
her.

" Don't, please don't worry! " he pleaded.

Silence.

" Gosh, I'm sorry I spoke about it. I just meant But

they were crazy about you. Sam said to me, ' That little
]a(^ of yours is the slickest thing that ever came to this
town,' he said; and Ma Dawson — ^I didn't hardly know
whether she'd like you or not, she's such a dried-up old bird,
but she said, ' Your bride is so quick and bright, I declare,
she just wzkes me up.' "

Carol liked praise, the flavor and fatness of it, but she was
so energetically being sorry for herself that she could not
taste thh commendation.

"Please! Come on! Cheer up! " His lip^ said it, his
anxious shoulder said it, his arm about her said it, as they
halted on the obscure porch of their house.

"Do you care if they think I'm flighty, Will? "

"Me? Why, I wouldn't care if the whole world thought
you were this or that or an3rthing dse. You're my — ^well,
you're my soul! "

He was an undefined mass, as solid-seeming as rock. She
found his sleeve, pinched it, cried, " I'm glad! It's sweet to
be want^! You must tolerate my frivolousness. You're all
I have! "

He lifted her, carried her into the house, and with her
arms about his neck she forgot Main Street.

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CHAPTER V

''We'll steal the whole day, and go hunting. I want you
to see the country round here," Kennicott announced at bresik-
£ast. " I'd take the car — ^want you to see how swell she runs
since I put in a new piston. But well take a team, so we can
gfst rig^t out into the fields. Not many prairie chickens left
now, but we might just happen to run onto a small covey.''

He fussed over his hunting-kit. He pulled his hip boots
out to full length and examined them for holes. He feverishly
counted his shotgim shells, lecturing her on the qualities of
> smokeless powder. He drew the new hammerless shotgun out
of its heavy tan leather case and made her peep through the
barrels to see how dazdingly free they were from rust.

The world of himting and camping-outfits and fishing-tackle
\ was imfamiliar to her, and in Kennkott's interest she found
something creative and joyous. She examined the smooth
stock, the carved hard rubber butt of the gun. The shells, with
their brass caps and sleek green bodies and hieroglyphics on
the wads, were cool and comfortably heavy in her hands.

Kennicott wore a brown canvas hunting-coat with vast
pockets lining the inside, corduroy trousers which bulged at
the wrinkles, peeled and scarred shoes, a scarecrow felt hat
In this uniform he felt virile. They clumped out to the livery
buggy, they packed the kit and the box of lunch into the back,
crying to each other that it was a magnificent day.

Kennicott had borrowed Jackson Elder's red and white
English setter, a complacent dog with a waving tail of sflver
hair which fiidcered in the sunshine. As they started, the dog
yelped, and leaped at the horses' heads, till Kennicott took
him into the buggy, where he nuzzled Carol's knees and leaned
out to sneer at farm mongrels.

The grays clattered out on the hard dirt road with a
pleasant song of hoofs: " Ta ta ta rat! Ta ta ta rat! " It
was early and fresh, the air whistling, frost bright on the
golden rod. As the sun warmed the world of stubble into a

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welter of yellow ihesy turned from the highroad, through thci
bars of a farmer's gate, into a field, slowly bumping over the
uneven earth. In a hollow of the rolling prairie they lost
si^t even of the country road. It was warm and placid.
Locusts trilled among the dry wheat-stalks, and brilliant little
flies hurtled across the buggy. A buzz of content filled the
air. Crows loitered and gossiped in the sky.

The dog had been let out and after a dance of excitement
he settled down to a steady quartering of the field, forth
and back, forth and back, his nose down.

^ Pete Rustad owns this farm, and he told me he saw a
small covesy of chickens in the west forty, last week. Maybe
well get some sport after all," Kennicott diuckled blissfully.

She watched the dog in suq>ense, breathing quickly every
time he seemed to halt. She had no desire to slaughter I
birds, but she did desire to belong to Kennicott's world. ^

The dog stepped, on the point, a forepaw held up.

'' By golly! He's hit a scent I Come on! " squealed Kenni-
cott. He leaped from the buggy, twisted the reins about the
whip-socket, swung her out, caught up his gun, slipped in two
sheDs, stalked toward the rigid dog, Carol pattering after
him. The setter crawled ahead, his tail quivering, his belly
close to the stubble. Carol was nervous. She expected clouds
of large birds to fly up instantly. Her eyes were strained with
staring. But they followed the dog for a quarter of a mile,
turning, doubling, crossing two low hills, kicking through
a swale of weeds, crawling between the strands of a barbed-
wire fence. The walking was hard on her pavement-trained
feet. The earth was lun^y, the stubble prickly and lined with
grass, thistles, abortive stumps of clover. She dragged and
floundered.

She heard Kennicott gasp, " Lookl " Three gray birds were
starting up from the stubble. They were round, dumpy, like
enormous bumble bees. Kennicott was sighting, moving the
barrel. She was agitated. Why didn't he fire? The birds
would be gone! Then a crash, another, and two birds turned
somersaults in the air, plumped down.

When he showed her the birds she had no sensation of blood.
These heap& of feathers were so soft and unbruised — ^there
was about them no hint of death. She watched her conquering
man tuck them into his inside pocket, and trudged with him
back to the buggy.

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They found no more prairie chickens that morning.

At noon they drove into her first farmyard, a private village,
a white house with no porches save a low and quite dlirty
stoop at the back, a crimson bam with white trimmings, a
glazed brick silo, an ex-carriage-shed, now the garage of a Ford,
an unpainted cow-stable, a chicken-house, a pig-pen, a corn-
crib, a granary, the galvanized-iron skeleton tower of a wind-
mill. The dooryard was of packed yellow day, treeless, barren
of grass, litter^ with rusty plowshares and wheels of dis-
carded cultivators. Hardened trampled mud, like lava, filled
the pig-pen. The doors of the house were grime-rubbed, the
comers and eaves were rusted with rain, and the child who
stared at them from iht kitchen window was smeary-faced.
But beyond the bam was a dump of scarlet geraniums; the
prairie breeze was simshine in motion; the flashing metal
blades of the windmill revolved with a livdy hum; a horse
ndg^ed, a rooster crowed, martins flew in and out of the
cow-stable.

A small spare woman with flaxen hair trotted from the
house. She was twanging a Swedish patois — ^not in monotone,
like English, but singing it, with a lyrical whine:

" Pete he say you kom pretty soon hunting, doctor. My,
dot's fine you kom. Is dis de bride? Ohhhhl Ve yoost say
las' night, ve hope maybe ve see her som day. My, soch a
pretty lady! " Mrs. Rustad was shining with wdcome. " Vdl,
veil ! Ay hope you lak dis country I Von't you stay for dinner,
doctor? "

*^ No, but I wonder- if you wouldn't like to give us a g^ass
of milk? " condescended Kennicott.

" Veil Ay should say Ay villi You vait har a second and
Ay run on de milk-house I " She nervously hastened to a tiny
r^ building beside the windmill; she came back with a pitcher
of milk from which Carol filled the thermos bottle.

As they drove off Carol admired, " She's the dearest thing
I ever saw. And she adores you. You are the Lord of the
Manor."
( '^ Oh no," much pleased, '^ but still they do ask my advice

I about thii^. Bully pec^le, these Scandinavian farmers. And
prosperous, too. Hdga Rustad, she's still scared of America,
but her kids will be doctors and lawyers and governors of the
state and any dam tlung tb^ want to."
^ I wonder " Carol was plunged back into last nif^t^

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Wdisckmen. ^' I wonder if these fanners aren't bigger than
we are? So simple and hard-working. The town lives on
them. We townies are parasites, and yet we fed superior;
to them. Last night I heard Mr. Haydock talking about . '
'hicks/ Apparently he despises the farmers because they |
haven't reached the social hdghts of selling thread and but- 1'
tons." (

'Taraaites? Us? Where'd the farmers be without the
town? Who lends them money? Who— why, we sxipply them
with everything! "

" Don't you find that some of the farmers think they pay
too much for the services of the towns? "

^' Oh, of course there's a lot of cranks among the farmers
same as there are among any dass. Listen to some of these
kiders, a feUow'd think that the farmers ought to run the
state and the whole shooting-match — probably if they had
their way they'd fill iq> the legislature with a lot of farmers
in manure-covered boots — ^yes, and they'd come tell me I was
hired on a salary now, and couldn't fix my feesl That'd be
fine for you, wouldn't it! "

" But why shouldn't they? "

"Wlty? That bunch of Tellinjg me Ob, for

heaven's sake, let's quit arguing. All this discussing may be

an ri^t at a party but Let's fcM-get it while we're

hunting."

** I know. The Wonderhist— probably it's a worse aCDiction
than the Wanderlust. I just wonda: "

She told herself that she had everything in the world.
And after each self-rebuke she stumbled again on ''I just
wonder—

They ate their sandwiches by a prairie slew: long grass
reaching iq> out of dear water, mossy bog3, red-winged black-
birds, &e scum a splash of gold-green. Kennicott smoked a
p^ while she leaned back in the buggy and let her tired ^irit
be ab«>rbei in the Nirvana of the incomparable sky.

They lurched to the highroad and awoke from their sun-
sodced drowse at the sound of the dopping hoofs. They
paused to look for partridges in a rim of woods, little woods,
very dean and shiny and gay, silver birches and poplars
with immaculate green trunks, endrcling a lake of sandy bot-
tom, a q>lashing sedusion demure in the wdter of hot prairie.

Kennicott brought down a fat red squirrd and at dusk he had

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a dramatic shot at a flight of ducks whirling down from the
uppa: air, humming the lake, instantly vax&hing.

They drove home under the sunset. Moxmds of straw, and
wheat-stacks like bee-hives, stood out in startling rose and
gold, and the green-tufted stubble glistened. As the vast
girdle of crimson darkened, the fulfilled land became autum-
nal in deq) reds and browns. The black road before the buggy
turned to a faint lavender, then was blotted to uncertain
grayness. Cattle came in a long line up to the barred gates
of the farmyards, and over the resting land was a dark glow.

Carol had found the dignity and greatness which had failed
her in Main Street.

Till they had a maid they' took noon dinner and six o'clock
supper at Mrs. Gurrey's boarding-house.

Mrs. Elisha Gurrey, relict of Deacon Gurrey the dealer in
hay and grain, was a pointed-nosed, simpering woman with
iron-gray hair drawn so tight that it resembled a soiled hand-
kerchief covering her head. But she was uneroectedly cheer-
ful, and her dimng-room, with its thin tablecloth on a long
pine table, had the decency of clean bareness.
/ In the line of imsmiling, methodically chewing guests, like
norses at a manger, Carol came to distinguish one countooance:
/the pale, long, spectacled face and sandy pompadour hair of
I Mr. Raymond P. Wutherspoon, known as "Raymie," pn>-
Ifessional bachelor, manager kndraej;^ the sales-force in the
f shoe-department of the Bon Ton^tore."""^""^"^ — '

" You will enjoy Gopher Prairie very much, Mrs. Kennicott,"
petitioned Ra3anie. His eyes were like those of a dog waiting
to be let in out of thej:old. He passed the stewed apricots
effusively. " There are^^a great many bright cultured people
here. Mrs. Wilks, the Christian Science reader, is a very
bright wom^tn — though I am not a Scientist myself, in fact I
sing in the Episcq)al choir. And Miss Sherwin of the hi^
school — she is such a pleasing, bright girl — ^I was fitting her
to a pair of tan gaiters yesterday, I declare, it really was a
pleasure."

" Gimme the butter, Carrie," was Kennicott's comment. She
defied him by encouraging Raymie:

" Do you have amateur dramatics and so on here? ^

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"Gbyesl The town's just full of talent. The Knights of
Pythias put on a dandy minstrel show last year."

" It's nice you're so enthusiastic."

'' Ohy do you really think so? Lots of folks jolly me for
trying to get up shows and so on. I tell them they have more
artistic gifts than they know. Just yesterday I was saying
to Harry Haydock: if he would read poetry, like Longfdiow,
or if he would join the band — ^I get so much pleasure out of
I>Iaying the comet, and our band-leader, Del SnafiSin, is such
a good musician, I often say he ought to give up his barbering
ai^ becon^ a professional musician, he could play the clarinet
in Minneapolis or New York or anyvrtiere, but-~but I couldn't
get Harry to see it at all and — ^I hear you and the doctor went
oat hunting yesterday. Lovely coxmtry, isn't it. And did you i
make some calls? The mercantile life isn't inspiring like
medicine. It must be wonderful to see how patients trust
you, doctor."

'' Huh. It's me that's got to do all the trusting. Be damn
sig^t DKM'e wondo^ul 'f they'd pay their bills," grumbled
Komicott and, to Carol, lie whispered something which
sounded like ** gentleman hen."

But Raymie's pale eyes were watering at her. She h^>ed
him with, " So you like to read poetry? "

'' Oh yes, so much— though to tell the truth, I don't get much

time for reading, we're alwa3rs so busy at the store and .

But we had the dandiest professional reciter at the Pythian
Sisters sociable last winter."

Carol thought she heard ^ grunt from the traveling salesman
at the end of the table, and Kennicott's jerking elbow was a
gnmt embodied. She persisted:

** Do you get to sec many plays, Mr. Wutherspoon? "

He shone at her like a dim blue ^March moon, and sighed,
" No, but I do love the movies. | I'm a real, fan. One trouble
with books is that they're not so ttorou^y safeguarded by
intdligent censors as the movies are, and ^en you drc^ into
the library and take out a book you never know what you're
wasting your time on. What I like in books is a wholesome,

really improving story, and sometimes Why, once I started

a novel by this fellow Balzac that you read about, and it
told how a lady wasn't living with her husband, I mean she
wasn't his wife. It went ^ into details, disgustingly!) And the
English was real poor. (I spoke to the library about it; and

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they took it off the shelves. I'm not narrow, but I must say
I don't see any use in this deliberatdy dragging in immoralityl
Life itself is so full of temptations that in literature one wants
only that which is pure and uplifting."!

" What's the name of that Balzac yam? Whare can I get
hold of it? " giggled the traveling salesman.

Raymie ignored him. '^ But the movies, they are mostly
dean, and their humor Don't you think that the most es-
sential quality for a parson to have is a sense of humor? "

'' I don't know. I really haven't mudi," said Carol.

He shook his finger at her. *' Now, now, you're too modest.
I'm sure we can all see that you have a perfectly corking sense
of humor. Besides, Dr. Kennicott wouldn't marry a lady that
didn't have. We all know how he loves his fun! "

'' You bet. I'm a jokey old bird. Come on, Carrie; let's
beat it," remarked Kennicott.

Raymie inqdored, '' And wb2Lt is your diief artistic interest,
Mrs. Kennicott? "

"Oh " Aware that the traveling; salesman had mur-
mured, " Dentistry," she de^>erately hazarded, " Architecture."

" That's a real nice art« I've always said— when Haydock &
Simons were finishing the new front on the Bon Ton buildiiig,
the old man came to me, you know, Harry's father, ^ D. H.,'
I always call him, and he asked me how I liked it, and I said
to him, ^ LodL here, D. H.,' I said— you see, he was going to
leave the front plain, and I said to him, * It's all very well
to have modem lighting and a big display-space,' I said» ' but
when you get that in, you want tb have some architecture, too,'
I said, and he laughed and said he guessed maybe I was ri^t,
and so he had 'em put on a cornice."

" Tin! " observed the traveling sndesman.

Raymie bared his teeth like a belligerent mouse. "Well,
what if it is tin? That's not my fault. I told D. H. to make
it polished granite. You make me tired I "

" Leave us go! Come on, Carrie, leave us go! " from
Kennicott.

Raymie waylaid them in the hall and secretly informed Card
that she musn't mind the travding salesman's coarseness —
he bdonged to the hwa pollwa.

Kennicott chuckled, " Well, child, how about it? Do yoo
prefer an artistic guy like Raymie to stiq>id boobs like Sam
Clark and me? "

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\ ^^ My dearl Let's go home, and (day pinochle^ and lauj^
imd be focdish, and slip up to bed, mi sleq> without dreaming.
It's beautiful to be just a solid dtizenessl "

m
Fh>m the Gopher Prairie Weekly Dauntless:

One of the most charming affairs of the season was held Tuesday
ercmag at the handsome new residence of Sam and Mrs. Clark,
when many of our most prominent citizens gathered to ereet the
lovely new hride of our popular local physician, Dr. Will ICennicott
All present spoke of the many charms of the bride, formerly Miss
Carol Milford of St Paul. Games and stunts were the order of die
dav, witfi merry talk and conversation. At a late hour dainty
refreshments were served, and the party broke up with many
expressions of pleasure at the pleasant affair. Among those present

were Mesdames Kennicott, Eider

* * «

Dr. Will Kennicott, for the past several years one of our most
popular and skilful physicians and surgeons, gave the town a
delict ful surprise when he returned from an extended honeymoon
tour in Colorado this week with his charming bride, nee Miss Carol
Milford of St Paul, whose family are socially prominent in
Minneapolis and Mankato. Mrs. Kennicott is a lady of manifold
charms, not only of striking charm of appearance but is also a
distingtiished graduate of a school in the East and has for the
past year been prominently connected in an important position of
responsibility with the St Paul Public Library, in which city
Dr. "Will** had the good fortune to meet her. The city of
Gopher Prairie welcomes her to our midst and prophesies for her
many happy years in the energetic city of the twin lakes and
the future. The Dr. and Mrs. Kennicott will reside for the present
at the Doctor's home on Poplar Street which his charming mother
has been keeping for him who has now returned to her own home
at Lac-qui-Meurt leaving a host of friends who regret her absence
and hope to see her soon with us again.

She knew that if she was ever to effect any of the '' reforms "
frtiich she had pictured, she must have a starting-place. What
confused her during the three or four months after her marriage
was not ladL of perception that she must be definite, but sheer
careless ha^^ness of her first home.

In the pride of being a housewife she loved every detail —
the brocade armchair with the weak back, even the brass water*

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cock on the hot-water reservoir, when she had become familiar
with it by trying to scour it to brilliance.

She found a maid — plimq> radiant Bea Sorenson from
Scandia Crossing. Bea was droU in her attempt to be at once
a respectful servant and a bosom friend. They lauded to-
gether over the fact that the stove did not draw, over the
slipperiness of fish in the pan.

Like a child pla3dng Grandma in a trailing skirt, Carol
paraded uptown for her marketing, crying greetings to house-
.^ wives along the ¥^y. Everybody bowed to her, strangers and
A all, and made her feel that they wanted her, that she belonged
/ here. In city shops she was merely A Customer — a hat, a
I voice to bore a harassed clerk. Here she was Mrs. Doc
I Kennicott, and her preferences in gra^fruit and manners were
V known and remembered and worth discussing. . . . even
if they weren't worth fulfilling.

Shopping was a delight of brisk conferences. The very mer-
chants whose droning ^e found the dullest at the two or three
parties which were given to welcome her were the pleasantest
confidants of all when th^r had something to taSk about —
lemons or cotton voile or floor-oil. With that skip-jack Dave
Dyer, the druggist, she conducted a long mock-quarrd. She
pretended that he cheats her in the price of magazines and
candy; he pretended she was a detective from the Twin Cities.
He hid behind the prescription-counter, and when she stanq>ed
her foot he came out wailing, *' Honest, I haven't done noting
crooked today — ^not yet."

She never recalled her first impression of Main Street; never
had precisely the same despair at its ugliness. By the end of
two shopping-tours everything had changed proportions. As
she never entered it, the Minniemashie House ceased to exist
for her. (Clark's Hardware Store, Dyer's Drug Store, the
groceries of Ole Jenson and Frederick Ludelmeyer and How-
kmd & Gould, the meat markets, the notions ^op— they ex-
panded, and hid all other structures. When she entered Mr.
Ludelmeyer's store and he wheezed, " Goot momin', Mrs.
Kennicott. Veil, dis iss a fine day," she did not notice the
dustiness of the shelves nor the stupidity of the girl clerk;
and she did not remember the mute colloquy with him on her
first view of Main Street(

She could not find half the kinds of food she wanted, but
that made shopping more of an adventure. When she did

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ccmtrive to get sweetbreads at Dahl & (Meson's Meat Market
the triumph was so vast that she buzzed with excitement and
admired the strong wise butcher, Mr. Dahl.

Sie appreciated the homely ease of village life. She liked
the old men, farmers, GA.R. veterans, wl^ when they gos-
^ped sometimes squatted on their heels on the sidewalk, like
resting Indians, and r^ectively spat over the curb.

She found beauty in the chUdren.

She had suspected that her married friends exaggerated their
passion f(»- children. But in her work in the library, children
had become individuals to her, citizens of the State with their
own rights and their own senses of humor. In the library
she had not had much time to give them, but now she knew
the luxury of stopping, gravely asking Bessie Clark whether
her doll had yet recover^ from its rheumatism, and agreeing
with Oscar Martinsen that it would be Good Fun to go trapping
** mushrats."

She touched the thought, ^'It would be sweet to have a

baby t)f my own. I do want one. Tiny Nol Not yet!

There's so much to do. And I'm still tired from the job.
It's in my bones."

She rested at home. She listened to the village noises com-
mon to an the world, jun^e or prairie; sounds simple and
charged with magic— ndogs barking, chickens making a gur-
^ing sound of content, children at play, a man bating a rug,
wind in the cott(mwood trees, a locust fiddling, a footstq> on
the walk, jaunty voices of Bea and a grocer's boy in the
kitchen, a clinking anvO, a piano — not too near.

Twice a week, at least, she drove into the country with
Keimicott, to hunt ducks in lakes enamded with sunset, or to
can on patients who looked up to her as the squire's lady ani
thanked h^ for toys and magazines. Evenings she went widi
her hi^band to tUe motion pictures and was boisterously greeted
by every other couple; or, till it beeame too cold, they sat on
the porch, bawling to passers-by in motors, or to neighbors who
were raking the leaves. The dust became gdlden in the low
sun; the street was filled with the fragrance of burning leaves.

But she hazily wanted some one to whom she could say
^lat she thou^t.

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On a slow afternoon when she fidgeted over sewing and
wished that the telephone would ring, Bea announced Miss
Vida Sherwin.

Despite Vida Sherwin's lively blue eyes, if you had looked
at her in detail you would have found her face slightly lined,
and not so much sallow as with the bloom rubbed off; you
would have found her chest flat, and her fingers rough from
needle and chalk and penholder; her blouses and plain cloth
skirts undistinguished; and her hat worn too far back, be-
traying a dry forehead. But you never did look at Vida
Sherwin in detail. You couldn't. Her electric activity veiled
her. She was as energetic as a chipmunk. Her fingers
fluttered; her sympathy came out in spurts; she sat on the
edge of a chair in eagerness to be near her auditor, to said
her enthusiasms and (^timism across.

She rushed into the room pouring out: " I'm afraid youTl
think the teachers have been shabby in not coming near you,
but we wanted to give you a chance to get setded. I am
Vida Sherwin, and I try to teach French and English and a
few other things in the hi^i school."

" IVe been hoping to know the teachers. You see, I was

a librarian "

I " Oh, you needn't tell me. I know all about you! Awful

/how much I know — this gossipy village. We need you so

' much here. It's a dear loyaJ town (and isn't loyalty the finest

thing in the world!) but it's a rough diamond, and we' need

you for the polishing, and we're ever so himible " She

stopped for breath and finished her compliment with a smile.

" If I could help you in any way Would I be commit*

ting the unpardonable sin if I whispered that I think Gopher
Prairie is a tiny bit ugly? "

" Of course it's ugly. Dreadfullyl Though I'm probably
the only person in town to whom you could safely say that.
(Except perhaps Guy Pollock the lawyer — ^have you met him?
— oh, you must! — ^he's simply a darling — ^intelligence and cul-
ture and so gentle.) But I don't care so much about the
ugliness. That will change. It's the ^irit that gives mc
hope. It's sound. Wholesome. But afraid. It needs live
creatures like you to awaken it. I shall slave-drive you I "

" Sfrfendid. What shall I do? I've been wondering if it
would be possible to have a good architect come here to
lecture."

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''Te-eSy but don't you think it would be better to work
irith existing agencies? Poliaps it will sound slow to you, but

I was thinking It would be lovdy if we could get you to

teach Sunday School."

Carol had the empty expression of one who finds that she
has been affectionately bowing to a complete stranger. ^* Oh
yes. But I'm afraid I wouldn't be much good at that. My
religion is so foggy."

''I know. So is mine. I don't care a bit for dogma.
Though I do stick firmly to the belief in the fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of man and the leadership of Jesus.
As you do, of course."

Du-ol looked respectable and thought about having tea.

""And that's all you need teach in Sunday School. It's
the personal influence. Then thare's the library-board. You'd
be so useful cm that. And of course there's our women's
stucfy club — the Thanatopsis Qub."

'' Are they doing anything? Or do they read papers made
oot of the Encyclopedia? "

Miss Sherwin shrugged. *^ Perhaps. But still, they are so
earnest. They will respond to your fresher interest. And
the Thanatopsis does do a good social work — iheyWe made
the dty plant ever so many trees, and th^r run the rest-room
for farmers' wives. And they do take such an interest in
refinement and culture. So — in fact, so very unique."

Carol was disai^inted-4>y nothing very tangible. She
said politely, " TU think them all over. I must have a while
to look around first."

Miss Sherwin darted to her, smoothed her hair, peered at
her. '* Ohy my dear, don't yoa siq>pose I know? These first
tender days of marriage — thQr're sacred to me. Home, and
duldren that need you, and depend on you to keq> them alive,
and tmn to you with their wrinkly little smiles. And the

hearth and " She hid her face ^om Carol as she made an

activity of patting the cushion of her chair, but she went on
with her former briskness:

" I mean, you must help us when you're ready. . . .
I'm afraid ypuH think I'm conservative. I am! So much
to conserve. (All this treasure of American ideals. Sturdiness
and democracy and opportunity. Maybe not at Palm Beach.
But, thank h^v^^^e're free. fxam^siA soeial^tinctions in
Gopher Prainc." 1 have only one good quality — overwBdmiiig

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belief in the brains and hearts of our nation, our state, our
town. It's so strong that sometimes I do have a tiny effect
on the haughty ten-thousandaires. I shake 'em up and make
'em believe in ideals — ^yes, in themselves. But I get into a
rut of teaching. I need young critical things like you to
punch me up. Tell me, what are you reading? "I

" I've been re-reading * The Damnation of Theron Ware.'
Do you know it? "

'^Yes. It was clever. But hard. Man wanted to tear
down, not build up. Cynical. Oh, I do hope I'm not a
sentimentalist. But I can't see any use in this high-art stuff
that doesn't encourage us day-laborers to plod on."

Ensued a fifteen-minute argument about the oldest topic
in the world: It's art but is it pretty? Carol, tried to be
eloquent regarding honesty of observation. Miss Sherwin stood
out for sweetness and a cautious use of the uncomfortable
properties of light. At the end Carol cried:

" I don't care how much we disagree. It's a relief to have
somebody talk something besides crops. Let's make Gopher
Prairie rock to its foundations: let's have afternoon tea in-
stead of afternoon coffee."

The delighted Bea helped her bring out the ancestral folding
sewing-table, whose yellow and black top was scarred with
dotted lines from a dressmaker's tracing-wheel, and to set it
with an embroidered lunch-cloth, and the mauve-glazed Japa-
nese tea-set which she had brought from St. Paul. Miss
Sherwin confided her latest scheme — ^moral motion pictures for
country districts, with light from a portable dynamo hitched
to a Ford engine. Bea was twice called to fill the hot-water
pitcher and to make cinnamon toast.

When Kennicott came home at five he tried to be courtly,
as befits the husband of one who has afternoon tea. Carol
suggested that Miss Sherwin stay for supper, and that Kenni-
cott invite Guy Pollock, the much-praised lawyer, the poetic
bachelor.

Yes, Pollock could come. Yes, he was over the grippe which
had prevented his going to Sam Clark's party.

Carol regretted her impulse. The man would be an (^inion-
ated politician, heavily jocular about The Bride. But at the
entrance of Guy Pollock she discovered a personality. Pcdlock
was a man of perhaps thirty-eight, slender, still, deferential.
His voice was low. " It was very good of you to want me,"

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he said, and he offered no humorous remarks, and did not
ask ho- if she didn't think Gopher Prairie was '' the livest little
burg in the state.'*

She fancied that his even g;rayness mig^t reveal a thousand
tints of lavender and blue and silver.

At su{^[>er he hinted lus love for Sir Thomas Browne,
Thoreau, Agnes Repplier, Arthur Symons, Claude Washburn,
Charles Flandrau. He presented his idols diffidently, but he
expanded in Carol's bookishness, in Miss Sherwin's voluminous
praise, in Kennicott's tolerance of any one who amused his
wife.

Card wondered why Guy Pollock wait on digging at routine I
law-cases; why he remained in Gopher Prairie. She had no
one whom she could ask. Neither Kennicott nor Vida Sherwin
would understand that there might be reasons why a Pollodc
siiould not remain in Gopher Prairie. She enjoyed the faint
mystery. She felt triumphant and rather literary. She alrea dy
had a G roup. It would be only a yAnie now before she pro-
vided the town with fanlights and a knowledge of Gals-
worthy. She was doing things! As she served the emergoicy .
dessert of cocoanut and sliced oranges, she cried to Pollocki \
** D(Hi't you think we ought to get up a dramatic dub? "

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CHAPTER VI

When the first dubious Novemb^ snow had filtered down^
shading with white the bare clods in the plowed fields, when
the first small fire had been started in the furnace, which
is the shrine of a Gk^her Prairie home, Carol began to make
the house her own. She dismissed the parlor furniture — the
gcdden oak table with brass knobs, the moldy brocade chairs,
Uie picture of '* The Doctor." She went to Minneapolis, to
sai|Q>er through department st6i^ and small Tenth Street
shqps devoted to ceramics and high thought. She had to ship
her treasures, but she wanted to brin^ them back in her arms.

Carpenters had torn out the partition between front parlor
and back parlor, thrown it into a long room on whidi she
lavished yellow and deep blue; a Japanese obi with an in-
tricacy of gold thread on stifiF ultramarine tissue, which she
hung as a p^inel against the maize wall ; a couch with pillows of
sapphire velvet and gold bands; chairs which, in Gopher Prairie,
seemed flippant. She hid the sacred family phonograph in the
dining-room, and replaced its stand with a square cabinet on
which was a squat blue jar between yellow candles.

Kennicott decided against a fireplace. ''Well have a new
house in a couple of years, an)rway."

She decorated only one room. The rest, Kennicott hinted,
shey better leave tiU he " made a ten-strike.**

The brown cube of a house stirred and awakened; it seemed
to be in motion; it wdcomed her back from shopping; it lost
its mildewed rq)ression.

The supreme verdict was Kennicott^s "Well, by golly, I

^was afraid the new junk wouldn't be so comfortable, but I

must say this divan, or whatever you call it, is a lot bettar

than that bumpy old sofa we had, and when I look around — r-

Well, it's worth all it cost, I guess."

Every one in town took an interest in the refurnishing. The
carpenters and painters who did not actually assist crossed
the lawn to peer throiigh the windows and exclaim, '^ Fine!

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LcxdLS swell I " Dave Dyer at the drug store, Harry Haydock
and Raymie Wutherspoon at the Bon Ton, repeat«4 ^^Yt
'' How's the good w(^ coming? I hear the hoyse is getting
to be real classy." *•>

Even Mrs. Bogart

Mrs. Bogart lived across the alley from the rear of Carol's
house. She was a widow, and a Prominent Baptist^ and a
Good Influence. She had so painfully reared wee sops to
be Christian gentlemen that one of them had becomesn Omaha
bartender, one a professor of Greek, and one, Cyrus N
Bogart, a boy of fourteen who was still at home, the most
braaen member of the toughest gang in Boytown.

Mrs. Bogart was not the add type of Good Influence. She
was the soft, damp, fat, sighing, indigestive, clinging, melan*
dioly, dq>ressin^ hopeful kind. There are in every large
chkken-yard a number of old and indignant hens who resemble
Mrs. Bogart, and when they are served at Sunday noon
dinner, as fricasseed chicken with thick dunq>lings, they keep
op die resemblance.

Carol had noted that Mrs. Bogart from her side window
kept an eye iq>on the house. The Kennicotts and Mrs. Bogart
did not move in the same sets — ^which meant precisely the same
in Gopher Prairie as it did on fifth Avenue or in Ma3rfair.
But the good widow came calling.

She wheezed in, sighed, gave Carol a pulpy hand, si^ed,
glanced sharply at the revdation of ankles as Carol crossed
her legs, si^ed, inq)ected the new blue diairs, smiled with a
coy sighing sound, and gave voice:

" I've wanted to call on you so long, dearie, you know we're
ndghbors, but I thought I'd wait till you got settled, you must
run in and see me, how much did that big chair cost? "

** Seventy-seven dollars! "

'' Sev Sakes alive! Well, I suppose it's all right for them

that can afford it, thou^ I do sometimes thinkr Of course

as our pasUM: said once, at Baptist Church—^ — \By the ¥^y, we
haven't seen you there yet, and of course your husband was
raised up a Biq>tist, and I do h(^ he won't drift away from
the fold, of course we all know there isn't anything, not dever-
ness or gifts of gold or aiqrthing, that can make up for humility
and the inward grace and they can say what they want to about
the P. E. church, but of course there's no church that has more
hisUnry or has stayed by the true prindples of Christianity

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better than the Baptist Church and In what chiirch were

you raised, Mrs. Kennicott? " \

" W-why, I went to G)ngregationaly as a girl in Mankato,
but my coU^;e was Universalist."

" Well But of course as the Bible says, is it the Bible,

at least I know I have heard it in church and everybody admits
it, it's prefer for the little bride to take her husband's vessd
of faithy so we all hc^ we shall see you at the Baptist Church

and As I was saying, of course I agree with Reverend

Zitterel in dunking that the great trouble with this nation
today is lack of spiritual faith — so few going to church, and
people automobiling on Sunday and heaven knows what all.
But still I do think that one trouble is this torible waste of
money, people feding that they've got to have bath-tubs and

telephones in their houses I heard you were selling the

old furniture cheap."

a Yes! »'

"Well— of course you know your own mind, but I can't
help thinking, when Will's ma was down here keeping house
. for him — she used to run in to see me, real ofteni — it was good
enough furniture for her. But there, there, I mustn't croak,
I just wanted to let you know that when you find you can't de-
pend on a lot of these gadding young folks like the Haydocks
and the Dyers — and heaven only knows how much money
Juanita Haydock blows in in a year — ^why then you may be
glad to know that slow old Atmty Bogart is always right there,

and heaven knows " A portentous sigh. " — ^I hope you and

your husband won't have any of the troubles, with sickness and
quarreling and wasting money and all that so many of these

young couples do have and But I must be running along

now, dearie. It's been such a pleasure and Just run in

and see me any time. I hope Will is well? I thought he
looked a wee mite peaked."

It was twenty minutes later when Mrs. Bogart finally oozed
out of the front door. Carol ran back into the living-room
and jerked open the windows. '* That woman has left daxa^
finger-prints in the air," she said.

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Carol was extravagant, but at least she did not try to dear
herself of blame by going about whimpering, "I know I'm
terribly extravagant but I don't seem to be able to help it."

Kennicott had never thought of giving her an allowance.
His mother had never had one! As a wage-earning spinster
Carol had asserted to her fellow librarians that when she was
married, she was going to have an allowance and be business-
like and modem. But it was too much trouble to explain to
Kennicott's kindly stubbornness that she was a practical house-
keeper as well as a flighty playmate. She bought a budget-*
plan account book and made her budgets as exact as budgets
are likely to be when they lack budgets.

For the first month it was a honeymoon jest to beg prettily,
to confess, " I haven't a cent in the house, dear," and to be
told, " You're an extravagant little rabbit." But the budget
book made her realize how inexact were her finances. She
became self-conscious; occasionally she was indignant that she
should always have to petition him for the money with which
to buy his food. She cau^t ha^elf criticizing his belief that,
since his joke about trying to keep her out of the poorhouse
had once been accepted as admirable humor, it should continue
to be his daily bon mot. It was a nuisance to have to run
down the street after him because she had forgotten to ask
him for money at breakfast.

But she couldnt "hurt his feelings," she reflected. He
liked the lordliness of giving largess.

She tried to reduce the frequency of begging by opening/
accoimts and having the bills sent to him. She had found that
staple groceries, sugar, flour, could be most cheaply purchased'
at Axel Egge's rustic general store. She said sweetly to Axel: j

" I think I'd better open a charge accotmt here."

"I don't do no business except for cash," grunted Axel.

She flared, " Do you know who I am? "

*' Yuh, sure, I know. The doc is good for it. But that's
yoost a rule I made. I make low prices. I do business for
cash."

She stared at his red impassive face, and her fingers had
the undignified desire to slap him, but her reason agreed with
him. "You're quite ri^t. You shouldn't break your rule
for me."

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72 MAIN STREET

Her rage had not been lost. It had been transferred to
her husband. She wanted ten pounds of sugar in a hurry, but
she had no money. She ran up the stairs to Kennicott^s office.
On the door was a sign advertising a headache cure and

stating, " The doctor is out, back at " Naturally, the blank

space was not filled out. She stamped her foot. She ran
down to the drug store — the doctor's club.

As she entered she heard Mrs. Dyer demanding, "Dave,
I've got to have some money."

Carol saw that her husband was there, and two other men,
all listening in amusement.

Dave Dyer snapped, " How much do you want? Dollar be
enough? "

" No, it won'tl I've got to get some underclothes for the
kids."

^' Why, good Lord, th^r got enough now to fill the closet
so I couldn't find my hunting boots, last time I wanted them."

" I don't care. They're all in rags. You got to give me
ten dollars "

Carol perceived that Mrs. Dyer was accustomed to this ui-
dignity. She perceived that the men, particularly Dave, re-
garded it as an excellent jest. She waited — she knew what
would come — it did. Dave yelped, " Where's that ten dollars
I gave you last year? " and he looked to the other men to
laugh. They laughed.

Cold and still,^ Carol walked up to Kennicott and com-
manded, " I want to see you upstairs."

" Why — something the matter? "

"Yes!"

He clumped after her, up the stairs, into his barren office.
Before he could get out a query she stated:

" Yesterday, in front of a saloon, I heard a German farm-
wife beg her husband for a quarter, to get a toy for the baby —
and he refused. Just now I've heard Mrs. Dyer going through
the same humiliation. And I — I'm in the same position! I
have to beg you for mon^r. Daily! I have just been informed
that I coiddn't have any sugar because I hadn't the money
to pay for it! "

" Who said that? By Ck)d, m kfll any "

" Tut. It wasn't his fault. It was yours. And mine. I now
humbly beg you to give me the money with which to buy meals
for you to eat. And hereafter to remember it. The next time,

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I shaVt beg. I shall simply starve. Do yaa anderstand?
I can't go on being a slave "

Her defiance, b^ enjoyment of the r^e, ran out. She
was sobbing against his overcoat, ** How can yon shame me
90? " and he was blubbering, '* Dog-gone it, I meant to give
you some, and I forgot it. I sweiu: I won't again. By golly
I won'tl "

He pressed Mty dollars upon her, and after that he re-
nmnbtfed to give her money regularly. . . . sometimes.

Daily she determined, " But I must have a stated amount-
be business-like. System. I must do something about it."|
And dai^ she didn't do anything about it.

Mrs. Bogart had, by the sinq>ering vidousness of her com-
ments on Uie new furniture, stirred Carol to economy. She
spoke judiciously to Bea about left-overs. She read the cook-
book again and, like a child with a picture-book, she studied
tl^ diagram of the beef which gallantly continues to browse
though it k divided into cuts.

But ^e was a deliberate and joyous ^>endthrift in her
preparat]<ms for her first party, the housewarming. She made
iKts on every envelope and laundry-sUp in her desk. She
sent orders to Minneapolis '' fancy grocers." She pinned pat-
terns and sewed. She was irritated when Kennicott was
jocular about '' these frightful big doings that are going on."
She regarded the affair as an attadc on Gopher Prairie's timid-
ity in pleasure. ''Ill make 'em lively, if nothing else. 111
o^e 'em stop regarding parties as committee-meetings."

lEennicott usui^y considered himself the master of the
house. At his desire, she went hunting, which was his symbol
of happiness, and she ordered porridge for breakfast, which
was Us symbol of morality. But when he came home on the
afternoon before the housewarming he found himself a slave,
an intruder, a blimderer. Carol wailed, '' Fix the furnace so
you won't have to touch it after suppa*. And for heaven's sake
t2^e that horrible old door-mat off the porch. And put on your
nice brown smd white shirt. Why did you come home so
late? Would you mind hurrying? Here it is almost suppar-
time, and those fiends are just as likely as not to come at
seven instead of eight. Please hurry! "(

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She was as unreasonable as an amateur leading woman on
a first night>,^md he was reduced to humility. When she came
down to supper, when she stood in the doorway, he gasped.
I She was in a silver sheath, the calyx of a lily, her piled hair
I like black glass; she had the fragility and costliness of a
i Viennese goblet; and her eyes were intense. He was stirred
, to rise from the table and to hold the chair for her; and all
I through supper he ate his bread. dry because he felt that she
would think him common if he said " Will you hand me the
1 butter?"

She had reached the calmness of not caring whether het
guests liked the party or not, and a state of satisfied suspense
in regard to Bea's technique in serving, before Kennicott cried
from the bay-window in the living-room, " Here comes some^
body! " and Mr. and Mrs. Luke Dawson faltered in, at a
quarter to eight. Then in a shy avalanche arrived the entire
aristocracy of Gq>her Prairie: all persons engaged in a pro-
fession, or earning more than twenty-five hundred dollars a
year, or possessed of grandparents born in America.

Even while th^r were removing their overshoes they were
peeping at the new decorations. Carol saw Dave Dyer se-
cretively turn over the gold pillows to find a price-tag, and
heard Mr. Julius Flickerbaugh, the attorney, gasp, " Wdl, 111
be switched," as he viewed the vermilion print hanging against
the Japanese obi. She was amused. But her high spirits slack-
«ied as she beheld them form in dress parade, in a long, silent,
uneasy circle clear round the living-room. She fdt that she
had been magically whisked back to her first party, at Sam
Clark's.

** Have I got to lift them, like so many pigs of iron? I
don't know that I can make them happy, but 111 make them
hectic."

A silver Same in the darkling circle, she whirled around, drew
them with her smile, and sang, '^ I want my party to be noisy
and undignified! This is the christening of my house, and
I want you to help me have a bad influence on it, so that
it will be a giddy house. For me, won't you all join in an
old-fashioned square dance? And Mr. Dyer will call."

She had a record on the phonograph; Dave Dyer was caper-
ing in the center of the floor, loose-jointed, lean, smaU, rusty-

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headed, pcnnted of nose, cli4)pmg bis hands and ahoutingy
" Swing y* pardners — alamtin lef ! "

Even the millionaire Dawsons and Ezra Stowbody and
^* Professor " George Edwin Mott danced, looking only sli^dy
focdisb; and by rushing about the room and being coy and coax-
ing to all persons ova- forty-five, Carol got them into a waltz
and a Virginia Reel. But when ^e left them to disenjoy them-
selves in their own ¥^y Harry Haydock put a one-step record
on the phonograph, the younger people took the floor, and
all the dders sneaked back to their chairs, with crystallized
smiles which meant, " Don't believe 111 try this one myself,
but I do enjoy watdiing the youngsters dance."

Half of diem were silent; half resumed the discussions of
that afternoon in the store. Ezra Stowbody hunted for some-
thing to say, hid a yawn, and offered to Lyman Cass, the
owner of the flour-mill, ^' How d' you folks like the new fur-
nace, Lym? Huh? So."

'' Oh, let them alone. Don't pester them. They must like
it, OT they wouldn't do it." Carol warned herself. But they
gazed at her so expectantly when she flickered past that she
was reconvinced that in their debauches of respectability they
had lost the power of play as well as the power of impersomJ
thought. tEven the dancers were gradu^dly crushed by the
invisible force of fifty perfectly pure and well-behaved and
negative minds; and they sat down, two by two. In twenty
minutes the party was again elevated to the decorum of a
prayer-meeting]

"We're going to do something exciting," Carol exclaimed
to har new confidante, Vida Sherwin. She saw that in the
growing quiet her voice had carried across the room. Nat
Hicks, Ella Stowbody, and Dave Dyer were abstracted, fingers
and lips slightly moving. She knew with a cold certainty that
Dave was reheasing his '^ stunt " about the Norwegian catching
the hen, Ella running over the first lines of " An Old Sweetheart
of Mine," and Nat thinking of his popular parody on Mark
Antony's oration.

" But I will not have anybody use the word * stimt ' in my
house," she whiq)ered to Miss Sherwin.

" That's good. I tell you: why not have Raymond Wuther-
spoon sing? "

" Raymie? Why, my dear, he's the most sentimental yeamer
in town! "

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^' See here, child! Your opinions on house-decorating are
sound, but your opinions of people are rotten 1 Raymie does

wag his tail. But the poor dear Longing for what he

calls ^ self-es^ression ' and no training in anything except sdling
shoes. But he can sing. And some day when he gets away
from Harry Haydock's patronage and ridicule, hell do some-
thing fine."

Carol apologized for her ^^gy^irqliyigB^ ^^ urged
Raymie, and warned the planners of " stunts," " We all want
you to sing, Mr. Wutherspoon. You're the only famous actor
I'm going to let appear on the stage tonight."

While Ra3rmie blushed and admitted, '' Oh, th^r don't want
to hear me," he was clearing his throat, pulling his dean hand-
kerchief farther out of his breast pocket, and thrusting his
fingers between the buttons of his vest.

In her affection for Ra3anie's defender, in her desire to ^^ dis-
cover artistic talent," Carol prq)ared to be delighted by the
recital.

Raymie sang " Fly as a Bird," " Thou Art My Dove," and
"When the Little Swallow Leaves Its Tiny Nest," all in a
reasonably bad offertory tenor.

Carol was shuddering with the vicarious ^me which sen-
sitive peq)le feel when they listen to an " elocutionist " being
humorous, or to a precocious child publicly doing badly what
no child ^ould do at all. She wanted to laugh at the gratified
importance in Raymie's half-shut eyes; she wanted to weep
over the meek ambitiousness which clouded like an aura his
pale face, flap ears, and sandy pompadour. She tried to look
admiring, for the benefit of Miss Sherwin, that trusting ad-
mirer of all that was or conceivably could be the good, the
true, and the beautiful.

At the end of the third ornithological lyric Miss Shaidn
roused from her attitude of inspired vision and breathed to
Carol, " My! That was sweet! Of course Ra3rm(»)d hasn't
an unusually good voice, but don't you think he puts such
a lot of feeling into it? "

Carol lied blackly and magnificently, but without originality:
** Oh yes, I do think he has so much fedmgl "

She saw that after the strain of listening in a cultured man-
ner the audience had collapsed; had giv^ up their last hope
of being amused. She cried, "Now we're gmng to play an
idiotic game which I learned in Oiicago. You will have to

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take €S your shoes, for a starterl After that you wQl probably
break your knees and shoulder-blades."

Mudi attention and incredulity. A few eyebrows indicating
a verdict that Doc Kennicott's bride was noisy and im-
prop^.

'' I shall choose the most vicious, like Juanita Haydock and
myself, as the shq>herds. The rest of you are wolves. Your
shoes are the sheqp. The wolves go out into the hall. The
shepherds scatto* the sheep through this room, then turn off
all the li^ts, and the wolves crawl in from the hall and in the
darkness they try to get the shoes away from the shepherds —
who are permitted to do an3rthing except bite and use black-
jacks. The wolves chuck the captured shoes out into the hall.
No one excused! Come onl Shoes offi "

Every one looked at every one else and waited for every
one else to begin.

Carol kicked off hex silver slippers, and ignored the universal
j^ance at her arches. The embarrassed but loyal Vida Sherwin
unbuttoned her high black shoes. Ezra Stowbody cackled,
"Well, you're a terror to old folks. You're like the gals I
Tsed to gp horseback-riding with, back in the sixties. Ain't
much accustomed to attending parties barefoot, but here goes! "
With a whoop and a gallant jerk Ezra snatdied off his elastic-
sided C(»igress shoes.

The ot&rs giggled and followed.

When the sheq> had been penned up, in the darkness the
timorous wdves crept into the living-room, squealing, halting,
thrown out of their habit of stolidity by tibe strangeness of
advancing through nothingness toward a waiting foe, a mys-
terious foe whidi e]q>anded and grew more menacing. The
wolves peered to make out landinarks, they touched gliding
arms which did not seem to be attached to a body, they
quivered with a nature of fear. Reality had vanished. A
ydping squabble suddoily rose, then Juanita Haydock's high
titter, and Guy Pollock's astonished, "Oudil Quit! You're
scalping me! "

Mrs. Luke Dawson gallq)ed backward on stiff hands and
knees into the safety of the lighted hallway, moaning, " I de-
clare, I nev' was so upset in my life! " But the propriety was
shaken out of her, and she ddi^tedly continued to ejaculate
"Nev* in my life^ as she saw the living-room door opened
by invisible hands and shoes hurling through it, as she heard

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from the darkness borond the door a squawlingi a bumping^
a r^olute " Here's a lot of shoes. Come on, you wolves. Owl
Y' would, would youl "

When Carol abnq>tly turned on the lights in the embattled
living-room, half of the company were sitting back against the
walls, where they had craftily remained throughout the en-
gagement, but in the middle of the floor Kennicott was wrest-
ling with Harry Haydock — their collars torn off, their hair in
their eyes; and the owlish Mr. Julius Flickertough was re-
treating from Juanita Haydock, and gulping with unaccustomed
laughter. Guy Pollock's discreet brown scarf hung down his
back. Young Rita Simons's net blouse had lost two buttons,
and betrayed more of her delicious plump shoulder than was
regarded as pure in Gopher Prairie. Whether by shock, dis-
gust, joy of combat, or physical activity, all the party were
freed from their years of social decorum. George Edwin Mott
giggled; Luke Dawson twisted his beard; Mrs. Clark insisted,
" I did too, Sam— I gpt a shoe— I never knew I could fig^t
so terrible 1 "

Carol was certain that she was a great reformer.

She mercifully had combs, mirrors, brushes, needle and
thread ready. She permitted them to restore the divine
decency of buttons.

The grinning Bea brought down-stairs a pUe of soft thick
sheets of paper with designs of lotos blossoms, dragons, apes,
in cobalt and crimson and gray, and patterns of purple
birds flying among sea-green trees in the valle3rs of Nowhere.

" These," Carol announced, " are real Chinese masquerade
costumes. I got them from an importing shop in Minneapolis.
You are to put them on over your clothes, and please forget
that you are Minnesotans, and turn into mandarins and coolies
and — and samurai (isn't it?), and anything else you can think
of."

While they were shyly rustling the paper costumes she dis-
appeared. Ten minutes after she gazed down from the stairs
upon grotesquely ruddy Yankee heads above Oriental robes,
and cried to them, ''The Princess Winky Poo salutes h^
court! "

As they looked up she caught their su^ense of admiration.
They saw an airy figure in trousers and coat of green brocade
edged with gold; a high gold collar under a proud chin; black
hair pierced with jade pins; a languid peacock fan in an <|(at«

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stretched hand; eyes uplifted to a vision of pagoda towers.
When she drcqjped her pose and smOed down she discovered
Kennicott apoplectic with domestic pride — and gray Guy Pol-
lock staring beseechingly. For a second she saw nothing in
all the pink and brown mass of their faces save the hunger
of the two men.

She shook oCf the qpell and ran down. ''We're going to
have a real Chinese concert. Messrs. Pollock, Kennicott, and,
well, Stowbody are drummers; the rest of us sing and play the
fife."

The fifes were combs with tissue paper; the drums were
tabourets and the sewing-table. Loren Wheeler, editor of the
Dauntless, led the orchestra, with a ruler and a totaUy in-
accurate sense of rhythm. The music was a reminiscence of
tom-toms heard at circus fortune-telling tents or at the Minne-
sota State Fair, but the whole company pounded and puffed
and whined in a sing-song, and looked rapturous.

Before they were quite tired of the concert Card led them
in a dancing procession to the dining-room, to blue bowls of
chow mein, with Lichee nuts and ginger preserved in syrup.

None of them save that dty-rounder Harry Haydock had
heard of any Chinese dish except chop sooey. With agree-
able doubt they ventured throu^ the bamboo shoots into the
golden fried noodles of the chow mein; and Dave Dyer did
a not vary humorous Chinese dance with Nat Hicks; and
there was hubbub and contentment.

Carol relaxed, and found that she was shockingly tired. She
had carried them on her thin shoulders. She could not keep
it up. She longed for her father, that artist at creating hyster-
ical parties. |She thought of smoking a cigarette, to shock ^
them, and dismissed the obscene thought before it was quite /
formed. She wondered whether they could for five minutes v
be coaxed to talk about something besides the winter top of ^

and what Al Tingley had said about
sighed, "Oh, let 'em alone. I've
sed her trousered legs, and snuggled
ucer of ginger; she caught Pollock's
and thought well of herself for having
5 pallid lawyer; repented the heretical
le save her husband existed; junq>ed
wrhisper, " Happy, my lord ? . . •

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I" Best party this town ever saw. Only Don^t cross yo«r

legs in t^t costume. Shows your knees too plain."

She was vexed. She resent^ his clumsiness. She returned
to Guy Pollock and talked of Chinese religions — ^not that she
knew anything whatever about CSiinese rdigions, but he had
read a book on the subject as, on lonely evenings in his office,
he had read at least one book on every subject in the world.
Guy's thin maturity was changing in her vision to flushed youth
and they were roaming an island in the yellow sea of chatter
when she realized that the guests were beginning that cou^
which indicated, in the universal instinctive language, that
they desired to go home and go to bed.f

While they asserted that it had been '' the nicest party
thqr'd ever seen— myl so clever and original/' she smiled tre-
m^ously, shook hands, and cried many suitable things re-
garding children, and bein^ sure to wrap up warmly, and
Raymie's singing and Juamta Haydock's prowess at games.
Then she turned wearily to Kennicott in a house filled with
quiet and crumbs and shreds of Chinese costumes.

He was gurgling, '' I tell you, Carrie, you certainly are a
wonder, and guess you're right about waking folks up. Now
you've showed 'em how, they won't go on having the same old
kind of parties and stunts and everything. H^el Don't touch
a thingi Done enougih. Pop up to bed, and 111 dear up."

His wise surgeon's-hands stroked her shoulder, and ha: ir-
ritaticMi at his dumsiness was lost in his strength.

From the Weekly Dauntless:

One of the most delightful social events of recent months was
held Wednesday evening in the honsewarming of Dr. and Mrs.
Kennicott, who have completely redecorated their charming home
on Poplar Street, and is now extremely nifty in modern color
scheme. The doctor and his bride were at home to their numerous
friends and a number of novelties in diversions were held, includins^
a Chinese orchestra in original and genuine Oriental costumes, of
which Ye Editor was leader. Dainty refreshments were served
in true Oriental style, and one and all voted a delightful time.

The week after, the Chet Dashaways gave a party. The
q[rde of mourners kept its place all evening, and Dave Dyer
did the '' stunt " of the Norwegian and the hen.

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CHAPTER Vn

Gopher Praisie was digging in for the wintar. Throi^ late
November and all December it snowed daily; the thermometer
was at zero and might drop to twenty below, or thirty. Winter
IS not a season in the North Middlewest; it is an industry.
Storm sheds were erected at every door. In every block the
housdidders, Sam Qark, the w^thy Mr. Dawson, all save
asthmatic Em Stowbody who extravagantly hired a hcty, were
seen perilously staggmng up ladders, carrying storm windows
and screwing them to second-story jambs. While Kennicott
put up his windows Carol danced inside the bednxnns and
b^ged him not to swallow the screws, which he held in his
mouth like an extraordinary set of external false teeth.

The universal sign of winter was the town handyman —
Miles B jomstam, a tall, thick, red-mustached bachelor, opinion-
ated a^ist, general-store arguer, cynical Santa Claus. Chil-
dren loved him, and he sneaked away from work to tdl them
improbable stories of sea-faring and horse-trading and bears.
fTI^ children's parents either laughed at him or hated him. He
was the one democrat in town. He called both Lyman Cass
the miller and the Finn homesteader from Lost Lake by their
first names. He was known as '* The Red Swede,'' ami con-
sidered slightly insane.!

B jomstam could do anything with his hands — solder a pan,
wdd an automobile spring, soothe a frightened filly, tinker a
dock, carve a Gloucester schooner which magically went into
a bottle. Now, for a week, he was commissioner g^eral of
Gopher Prairie. He Was the only person besides the rq>airman
at Sam Clark's who understood plimibing. Everytxxiy begged
him to look over the furnace and the water-pipes. He rushed
from house to house till after bedtime — ^ten o'clock. Icides
from burst water-pq>es hung along the skirt of his brown dog-
I skin overcoat; his plush cap, which he never toc^ off in iht

>hofQsey was a pulp of ice and coal-dust; his red hands were
cracked to rawness; he chewed the stub of a dgar.
8r

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82 MAIN STREET

But he was courtly to Carol. He stoq;>ed to examine the
furnace flues; he straightened, glanced down at her, and
hemmed, " Got to fix your fum^e, no matter what else I do."

The poorer houses of Gopher I^airie, where the services of
Miles Bjomstam were a luxury — ^which included the shanty
of Miles Bjomstam — were banked to the lower windows with
earth and manure. Along the railroad the sections of snow
fence, which had been stadced all simmier in romantic wooden
tents occupied by roving small boys, were set up to prevent
drifts from covering the track.

The farmers came into town in home-made sleighs, with bed-
quilts and hay piled in the rough boxes.

Fur coats, fur caps, fur mittens, overshoes buckling almost
to the knees, gray knitted scarfs ten feet long, thick woolen
socks, canvas jad^ets lined with AuSy yellow wool like the
plumage of ducklings, moccasins, red flannel wristlets for the
blazing chapped wrists of boys — these protections against win-
ter were busily dug out of moth-ball-sprinkled drawers and
tar-bags in closets, and all over town small boys were squeal-
ing, " Oh, there's my mittens 1 " or " Look at my shoe-padtsl **
There is so sharp a divfeion between the panting summer and
the stinging winter of the Northern plains that they redis-
covered with surprise and a feeling of h^oism this armor of
an Artie explorer.

Winter garments surpassed even personal gossip as the
topic at parties. It was good form to ask, "Put on your
heavies yet? " There were as many distinctions in wraps as in
motor cars. The lesser sort appeared in yellow and black
dogskin coats, but Kennicott was lordly in a long raccoon
ulster and a new seal cap. When the snow was too deq> for
his motor he went off on country calls in a shiny, floral, sted-
tipped cutter, only his ruddy nose and his cigar emerging from
the fur.

Carol herself stirred Main Street by a loose coat of nutria.
Her finger-tips loved the silken fur.

Her liveliest activity now was organizing outdoor sports in
the motor-paralyzed town. ^«'''^*i

The automobile and bridge-whist had not only made more
evident the social divfefons in Gopher Prairie but they had
also enfeebled the love of activity. It was so rich-looking to
sit and drive — and so easy. Skiing and sliding were " stupid *»
and " old-fashioned." In fact, the village longed for the ele-

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gance of dty recreations idmost as much as the cities longed
for village ^Kurts; and Gopher Prairie took as much pride in
negjectmg coasting as St. Paul — or New York — in going
coasting. Carol did inspire a successful skating-party in mid-
NovenAer. Plover Lake glistened in clear sweeps of gray-
green ice, ringing to the skates. On shore the ice-tippol ref^
clattered in the wind, and oak twigs with stubborn last leaves
hung against a milky sky. Harry Haydock did figure-ei^ts,
and Carol was certain that she had found the perfect life.
But when snow had ended the skating and she tried to get up
a moonlight sliding party, the matrons hesitated to stir away
from their radiators and their daily bridge-whist imitations of
the dty. She had to nag them. They scooted down a long
hill on a bob-sled, they iq)set and got snow down their necks,
they shrieked that they would do it again immediatdy — and
they did not do it again at all.

She badgered another group into going skiing. They shouted
and threw snowballs, and informed her that it was siick fun, I
and they'd have another skiing expedition right iiway, and I
they jollily returned home ai^ never thereafter left their]
manuals of bridge.

Carol was di^ouraged. She was grateful when Kennicott
invited her to go rabbit-hunting in the woods. She waded
down stilly doisters between burnt stump and icy oak, through
drifts marked with a million hierogl3^hics of rabbit and mouse
and bird. She squealed as he leaped on a pile of brush and
fired at the rabbit which ran out. iHe bdonged there, mas-
culine in reefer and sweater and high-laced boots. That night
Ae ate prodigiously of steak and fried potatoes; she produced
electric ^>arks by touching his ear with her finger-tip; she slept
twdve hours; and awoke to think how glorious was this brave
land.l

She rose to a radiance of sun on snow. Snug in her furs she
trotted up-town. Frosted shingles smoked against a sky colored

ed, ^outs of greeting
and everywhere was a
was Saturday, and the
[niar fuel. Behind walls
&wbucks stood in de-
flakes of sawdust^ 4 The
■y-red, the blades blued
ks — poplar, maple, iron-
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84 MAIN STREET

wood, birch— were marked with engraved ring^ of growth. The
bo3rs wore shoe^packs, blue flannel shirts with enormous pearl
buttons, and mackinaws of crimson, lemon yellow, and foxy
brown.

Carol cried '^ Fine day! '^ to the boys; she came in a glow
to Rowland & Gould's grocery, her collar white with frost
from her breath; she bought a can of tomatoes as though it
were Orient fruit; and returned home planning to surprise
Kennicott with an omelet Creole tor dinner.

So brilliant was the snow-glare that when she ^tered the
house she saw the docMr-knobs, the new;H>siper on the table,
every white surface as dazding mauve, and her head was dizzy
in the pyrotechnic dimness. When her eyes had recovered she
fdt expanded, drunk with health, mistress of life. The world
was so luminous that she sat down at her rickety little desk in
the living-room to make a poem. (She got no farther than
^The sl^ is bright, the sun is warm, th^e ne'er will be
another storm.")

In the mid-afternoon of this same day Kennicott was called
hito the country. It was Bea's evening out — her evening for
the Lutheran Dance. Carol was alone from three till mid-
night. She wearied of reading pure love stories in the magazines
and sat by a radiator, beginning to brood.

Thus she chanced to discover ^t she had nothing to do.

She had, she meditated, passed through the novelty of seeing
the town and meeting pec^le, of skating and sliding and
hunting. Bea was competent; there was no household labor
except sewing and darning and gossipy assistance to Bea in
bed-making. She couldn't satfefy her mgenuity in plannmg
meals. At Dahl & Oleson's Meat Market you didn't give
orders — you wofully inquired wfaeth^ there was anything
today besides steak and pork and ham. The cuts of beef were
not cuts. They were hacks. Lamb chops were as exotic as
sharks' fins. The meat-dealers shipped their best to the city,
with its higher prices,
tin all the shops there was the same lack of choice. She
could not find a glass-headed picture-nail in town; she did
not hunt for the sort of veiling she wanted — she took what
she could get; and only at Rowland & Gould's was there sudi

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a luxury as canned aq[>aragus. Routine care was all she coidd
devote to the house. Only by such fussmg as the Widow
Bogart's could she make it fidl her timet

Sbe could not have outside emplo3rment. To the viUagel
doctor's wife it was taboo. I

%e was a woman with a working brain ami no work.

There'were only three things which she coifld^SoT Have
children; start hear career of reforming; or become so definitely
a part of the town that she would be fulfilled by the activities
of church and study-dub and bridge-parties.

Children, yes, she wanted them, but She was not quite

ready. She had been embarrassed by Kennicott's frankness,
but she agreed with him that in the insane condition of civiliza-
tion, whidi made the rearing of citizens more costly and pailous
than any other crime, it was inadvisable to i^ve children till

he had made more monQT. She was sorry Perhaps he had

made all the m3^tery of love a mechanical cautiousness but

She fled from the thought with a dubious, '^ Some day."

Her '* reforms," her inq>ulses toward beauty in raw Main
Street, they had becOToe indistinct. But she would set them
going now. She would I She swore it with soft fist beating
the edges of the radiator. And at the end of all her vows
she had no notion as to when and where the crusade was to

Become an authentic part of the town? She began to think
with uqpleasant lucidity. She reflected that she did not know
whether the people liked her. She had gone to the women at
afternoon-coffees, to the merchants in their stor», with so many
outpouring comments and whimsies that she hadn't given them
a di9ce to betray their opinions of her. The mm smiled —
but did they like her? She was lively among the women —
but was she one of them? She could not reoill many times
when ^e had been admitted to the whispering of scandal
iriiich is the secret chamber of Gopher Prairie conversation.

She was poisoned with doubt, as she drooped txp to bed.

Next day, through her shewing, her mind sat back and
observed. Dave Dyer and Sam Clark were as cordial as
she had bea fancying; but wasn't there an impersonal abrupt-
ness in the '' H' are yuh? " of Chet Dashaway? Howland the
grocor was curt Was that merely his usual manner?

pit's infuriating to have to pay attention to what pec^le
ttuoL In St. Paul I didn't care. But here I'm spied oa

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They're watching me. I mustn't let it make me self-conscious/'
she coaxed herself — overstimulated by the drug of thought,
and offensively on the defensive.^

A thaw which stripped the snow from the sidewalks; a
ringing iron night when the lakes could be heard booming;
a clear roistering morning. In tam o'shanter and tweed skirt
Carol felt herself a college junior going out to play hockey.
She wanted to whoq>, her legs a(£ed to run. On the way
home from shoppmg slie yielded, as a pup would have yielded.
She gall(^>ed down a block and as she jumped from a curb
across a welter of slush, she gave a student " Yippee I "

f She saw that in a window three old women were gasping.

I Their triple glare was paralyzing. Across the street, at an-

1 other window, the curtain had secretively moved. She stopped,

Avi^ked on sedately, changed from the girl Carol into Mrs. Dr.

iKennicott.

I She never again felt quite young enough and defiant enough
and free enou^ to nm and halloo in the public streets; and
it was as a Nice Married Woman that she attended the next

i weekly bridge of the Jolly Sevente^.

The Jolly Seventeen (the membership of which ranged from
fourteen to tw<?nty-six) was the social cornice of Gopher
Prairie. It was the coimtry club, the diplomatic set, the St.
Cecilia, the Ritz oval room, the Club de Vingt. To big|ing to
it was to be " in." Though its membership partly CDindded
with that of the Thanatopsis study club, the Jolly Seventeen
as a separate entity guffawed at the Thanatopsis, and con-
sidered it middle-class and even "highbrow."

Most of the Jolly Seventeen were young married women,
with their husbands as associate members. Once a week they
had a women's afternoon-bridge; once a month the husbands
joined them for supper and evening-bridge; twice*k year they
had dances at I. O. O. F. Hall. Then the town exploded. Only
at the annual balls of the Firemen and of the Eastern, Star
was there such prodigality of chiffon scarfs and tangoing and
heart-burnings, and these rival institutions were not select —

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hired girb attended the Firemen's Ball, with section-hands
and laborers. Ella Stowbody had dnce gone to a Jolly Seven-
teen Soiree in the village hack, hitherto confined to chief
mourners at funerals; and Harry Haydock and Dr. Terry
Gould always appeared in the town's only q>eciniens of evening
dothes.

The afternoon-bridge of the Jolly Seventeen which followed
Carol's lonely doubting was held at Juanita Haydock's new
concrete bungalow, witih its door of polished oak and beveled
plate-glass, jar of ferns in the plastered hall^ and in the
living-room, a fumed oak Morris chair, sixteen color-prints,
and a square varnished table with a mat made of cigar-ribbons
on whidi was one niustrated Gift Edition and one pack of
cards in a burnt-leather case.

Ckrol stepped into a sirocco of furnace heat. They were
already playing. De^ite h^ flabby resolves she had not yet
learned bridge. She was winningly apologetic about it to
Juanita, and ashamed that she should have to go on being
apologetic.

Mrs. Dave Dyer, a sallow woman with a thin prettiness,
devoted to experiments in religious cults, illnesses, and scandal-
bearing, shook her finger at Carol and trilled, "You're a
naughty one! I don't believe you appreciate the honor, when
you got into the Jolly Seventeen so easy! "

Mrs. Chet Dashaway nudged her neighbor at the second
table. But Carol kept up the appealing bridal manner so far
as possible. She twittered, " You're perfectly right. I'm a
lazy thing. I'll make Will start teaching me this very evening."''
Her application had all the sound of birdies in the nest, and
EasiS diurch-bells, and frosted Christmas cards. Internally
she siStrled, " That ought to be saccharine enough." She sat
!#^the smallest rocking-chair, a model of Victorian modesty.
But" she ^w (»' she imagined that the women who had gurgled ^
at her so wdcomingly when she had first come to Q^her
Prairie were nodding at her brusquely. \

During the pause after the first game she petitioned Mrs.
Jackson Elder, ''Don't you think we ought to get up another
bob-sled party soon? "

"It's so cdd when you get dumped in the snow," said
M». Elder, indiff^oitly.

**^I hate snow down my neck," volunteered Mrs. Dave Djicr,
with an unpleasant look at Carol and turm'ng her back, ahe

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bid)bled at Rita Simons, " Dearie, won't you run in this eve-
ning? I've got the lovdiest new ButteridL pattern I want to
show you."

Carol crept back to her chair. In the fervcn* of discussing
the game they ignored her. She was not used to being a
wallflower. She struggled to keep from oversensitiveness, from
becoming unp(q)ular by the sure method of bdieving that she
was ui^pular; but she hadn't much resarve of patience, and
at the end of the second game, when Ella Stowbody sniffily
asked her, '^ Are you going to send to Minneapolis for your
dress for the next soiree— heard you were," Carol said '' Don't
know yet " with unnecessary sharpness.

She was relieved by the admiration with which the jeune fiUe
Rita Simons looked at the steel buckles on her pmnps; but
she resented Mrs. Rowland's tart demand, " Don't you find
that new couch of yours is too broad to be practical? " She
nodded, then shook her head, and touchOy left Mrs. Rowland
to get out of it any meaning she desired. Immediatdy ^le
wanted to make peace. She was close to sinq)ering in the
sweetness with which she addressed Mrs. Rowland: ^' I think
that is the prettiest di^lay of beef-tea your husband has in
his store."

" Oh yes, Gopher Prairie isn't so much behind the times,"
gibed Mrs. Rowland. Some one giggled.

Their rebuffs made her haughty; her haughtiness irritated
them to franker rebuffs; they were working up to a state of
painfully righteous war when they were saved by the coming
of food.

Though Juanita Raydock was hig^y advanced in the mat-
ters of finger-bowls, doilies, and bath-mats, her '^ refreshments "
were typiod of all the afternoon-coffees. Juanita's best friends,
Mrs. Dyer and Mrs. Dashaway, passed large dinner plates,
each with a ^)oon, a fork, and a coffee cup without saucer.
They apologized and disclosed the afternoon's game as they
passed through the thicket of women's feet, lien they dis-
tributed hot buttered rolls, coffee poured from an enamel-ware
I)ot, stuffed olives, potato salad, and angel's-food cake. There
was, even in the most strictly conforming Gopher Prairie
circles, a certain option as to collations. The olives need not
be stuffed. Doughnuts were in some houses well thought of as
a substitute for the hot buttered roUs. But there was in all
the town no heretic save Carol who omitted angel's-food.

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They ate enormously. Carol had a suspicion that the
thriftier housewives made the afternoon treat do for evening
STq>per.

She tried to get back into the current. She edged over to
Mrs. McGanunu Chunky, amfttble, young Mrs. McGanum,
with her breast and arms of a milkmaid, and her loud delayed
lau^ which burst startlingly from a sober face, was the
dau^ter of old Dr. Westlake, and the wife of Westlake's
partner, Dr. McGanum. Kennicott asserted that Westlake and
McGanum and their contaminated families were tricky, but
Carol had found them gradous. She asked for friendliness by
crying to Mrs. McGanum, ^ How is the baby's throat now? "
and ^e was attentive while Mrs. McGanum rodced and knitted
and placidly described symptoms.

Vida Sherwin came in after school, with Miss Ethel Villets^
the town librarian. Miss Sherwin's optimistic presence gave
Cu-ol nuNre confidence. She talked. She informed the circle,
^ I drove almost down to Wahkeenyan with Will, a few days
ago. Isn't the country lovely! And I do admire the Scan-
dmavian farmers down there so: their big red bams and silos
and milking-machines and everjrthing. Do you all know that
lonely Lutheran church, with the tin-covered spire, that stands
out alone on a hill? It's so bleak; somehow it seems so brave.
I do thinkjAfi^^Scandinavians kre the hardiest and best

-- " 0!l,"^o you tkink so? ** protested Mrs. Jackson Elder.
** My husband says the Svenskas that work in die planing-mfll
are perfectly terrible — so silent and cranky, and so selfish, the
way they keq> demanding raises. If they had their way they'd
simply ruin the business."

"Yes, and they're simply ghastly hired girls I " wailed Mrs.
Dave Dyer. " I swear, I work myself to skin and bone trying
to please my hked girls — ^when I can get themi I do every-
tbing in the world for them. They can have their gentleman
ftiends call on them in the kitchen any time, and they get I
just the same to eat as we do, if there's any left over, and I ^
{»3Ctically never jump on them."

Juanita HaydodL rattled, " T hey'r e unjayatefiJj all that class
of peopj g. I do think the domestic problem is siniply becoming
awiul. I dcm't know what the country's coming to, with these
Scandahoofian clodhoppers demanding every cent you can save,
aod so ignorant and impertinent, and on my word, demanding

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hath-tubs and everything— as if they wcr^'t mij^ty good and
^.^cky at home if th^ gotTa bath in the wash-iiib.^

Th^ were off^ ruEng hard. Carol thought of Bea and way-
laid them:

" But isn't it possibly the fault of the mistresses if the maids
are ungrateful? For generations we've given than the leavings
of foody and holes to live in. I don't want to boast, but I
mtist say I don't have much trouble with Bea. She's so
friendly. The Scandinavians are sturdy and honest "

Mrs. Dave Dya: snapped, '' Honest? Do you call it honest
to hold us up for every cent of pay th^ can get? I can't
say that I've had any of them steal anything (though you
might call it stealing to eat so much that a roast of beef hardly
lasts three days), but just the same I don't intend to let them
think they can put anything over on me! I always make them
pack and uiq>ack their trunks down-stairs, ri^t under n^
eyes, and then I know they aroi't being tempted to dishonesty
by any slackness on my part! "

'' How much do the maids get here? " Carol ventured.

Mrs. B. J. Gougerling, wife of the banker, stated in a shocked
manner, " Any place from three-fifty to five-fiftj^ a weekl I
know positively that Mrs. Qark, after sweanng that she
wouldn't weaken and encourage them in their outrageous de-
mands, went and paid five-fifty — think of iti practically a
dollar a day for unskilled work and, of course, her food and
^ room and a chance to do her own washing ri^t in with the
rest of the wash. How muck do you pay, Mrs. Kenmcottt "

'' Yes! How much do you pay? " insisted half a dozen.

" W-why, I pay six a week," she feebly confessed.

They gasped. Juanita protested, '^ Don't you think it's hard

<m the rest of us whai you pay so much? " Juanita's danand

was re-inforced by the univeisal glower.

• i Carol was angry. '' I don't care! A maid has one of the

I hardest jobs on earth. She works from ten to eighteen hours

I a day. She has to wash slimy dish» and dirty dothes. She

I tends the children and runs to the door with wet chapped

\ hands and "

Mrs. Dave Dyer broke into Carol's peroration with a furious,
'' That's all very wdl, but believe me, I do those things mysdf
when I'm without a maid— and that's a good share of the time
for a person that isn't willing to yield and pay exorbitant
wages! "

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Card was retorting, ** But a maid does it for strangers, and
an she gets out of it is the pay **

Their eyes were hostile. Four of them were talking at once.
\^da Sherwin's dictatorial voice cut through, took control of
the revolution:

"Tut, tut, tut, tut I What angry passions — and what an
idiotic discus^on! All of you getting too serious. Stop it I
Carol Kennicott, you're probably right, but you're too much
ahead of the times. Juanita, quit looking so belligerent. What
is this, a card party or a hen fig^t? {Carol, you stop admiring
yoursdf as the Joan of Arc of the hired girk, or 111 spank
you. You come over h^e and talk libraries with Ethel Villets.
Booooool If there's any more pecking, 111 take charge of
the hen roost myself 1 "| •

They all lauded artificially, and Carol obediently '' talked
Hbraries."

(A small-town bungalow, the wives of a village doctor and
a village dry-goods merclumt, a provincial teachor, a colloquial
brawl over paying a servant a dollar more a week. Yet this
insignificance echoed cellar-plots and cabinet meetings and
labor conferences in Persia and Prussia, Rome and Boston, ai uiAN
the orators who deemed themselves international leaders were >3^
but the raised voices of a billion Juanitas denouncing a million
Carols, with a hundred thousand Vida Sherwins trying to shoo
away the storm)

Ou-ol felt guilty. She devoted herself to admiring the
spuKsterish Mi^ Villets — ^and immediately committed another
offense against the laws of decency.

"We haven't seen you at the library yet," Miss Villets
reproved.

" Tve wanted to run in so much but I've been getting settled

and- ni probably come in so often youll get tired of

mcl I hear you have such a nice library."

" There are many who like it. We have two thousand more
hocks than Wakamin."

"Isn't that fine. I'm sure you are largely responsible.
IVe had some experience, in St. Paul."

"So I have been informed. Not that I entirely approve
of library methods in these large cities. So careless, letting
tramps and all sorts of dirty persons practically sleep in the
reading-rooms."

" I know, but the poor souls Well, I'm sure you will

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agree with me in one thing: The chief task of a librarian is to
get people to read."

''You fed so? My feeling, Mrs. Kennicott, and I am
merely quoting the librarian of a vety large college, is that the
first duty of the conscientious librarian is to preserve the
books."

" OhI " Carol repented her " Oh." Miss Vfflets stiffened,
and attacked:

'' It may be all very well in dties, where they have unlimited
funds, to let nasty children ruin books and just deliberate^
tear them up, and fresh young men take more books out
than they are entitled to by the regulations, but I'm neva:
going to permit it in this libraryl "

"What if some children are destructive? They learn tc
^read. Bo<^ are ches4>er than minds."

'' Nothing is cheaper than the minds of some of these chndreo
t hat ^ me in and bother me si mp^v because their mothers
dcm't keq)Them home where they, bdong. tSome librarians
may choose to be so wTshy-wa^y and turn their libraries into
nursing-homes and kindergartens, but as long as I'm in charge,
the Gq>her Prairie library is going to be quiet and decoEit, imd
the bo(^ well kepti "t

Carol saw that the others were listening, waiting for ho
to be objectionable. She flinched before their dislike. She
hastened to smile in agreement with Miss Villets, to ^^cc
publidy at her wrist-watch, to warble that it was '' so late-
have to hurry home — husband — such nice party — ^maybe yov
were right about maids, prejudiced because Bea so nice — sudi
perfectly divine angel's-food, Mrs. HaydodL must give me thi
recipe — good-by, such happy party "

She walked home. She rdSlected, '' It was my fault. I wac

touchy. And I exposed them so much. Only I can't!

I can't be one of them if I must damn all the maids toilinf
in filth3( kitchens, all the ragged hungry children. And thes4
women are to be my arbiters, the rest of my lifel "

She ignored Bea's call from the kitchen; she ran up-stain
to the unfrequented guest-room; she wept in terror, her bod^
a pale arc as she kndt beside a cumbrous black-¥^dnut bed
b^de a puffy mattress covo'ed with a red quilt, in a shuttered
and airless room.

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CHAPTER Vm

''Don't I^ in looking for things to do, show that I'm not
attoitive enough to WUI? Am I inq[>re^ed enough by his
woik? I will be. Oh, I will be. If I can't be one of the
town, if I must be an outcast "

When Kennicott came home she bustled, " Dear, you must
ten me a lot more about your cases. I want to know. I want
to miderstand."

" Sure. You bet." And he went down to fix the furnace.

At supper she asked, ''For instance, what did you do
today?"

" Do today? How do you mean? "

" Medically. I want to understand "

"Today? Oh, there wasn't much of anjrthing: couple
chunq)S with bdlyaches, and a sprained wrist, and a fool
woman that thinks she wants to kUl herself because her hus-
band doesn't like her and Just routine work."

" But the unhappy woman doesn't sound routine I "

" Her? Just case of nerves. You can't do much with these
marriage miz-iq;>s."

" But dear, please, will you tell me about the next case
that you do think is interesting? "

" Sure. You bet. Tell you about an3rthing that Say,

that's pretty good salmon. Get it at Howland's? "

Four days after the Jolly Seventeen debacle Vida Sherwin
called and casually blew Carol's world to pieces.

" May I come in and gossip a while? " she said, with such
excess of bri^t innocence that Carol was uneasy. Vida took
off her furs with a bounce, she sat down as thou^ it were
a gymnasium exercise, she flung out:

" Fed disgracefully good, this weather I Raymond Wuther-
^oon says if he had my energy he'd be a grand opera singer.

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I always think this climate is the finest in the world, and my

friends are the dearest people in the world, and my work is

the most essential thing in die world. Probably I fool myself.

I But I know one thing for certain: You're the pluckiest little

I idiot in the world."

''And so you are about to flay me alive." Carol was
cheerful about it.

" Am I? Perhaps. IVe he&a wondering— I know that the
third party to a squabble is often the most to blame: the one
who runs between A and B having a beautiful time telling each
of them what the other has said. But I want you to take a

big part in vitalizing Gc^her Prairie and so Such a very

unique opportunity and Am I silly? "

" I kiu)w what you mean. I was too abrupt at the Jolly
Seventeen."

'' It isn't that. Matter of fact, I'm glad you told them some
wholesome truths about servants. (Thou^ perhaps you were
just a bit tactless.) It's bigger than that. I wonder if you
understand that in a secluded community like this every new-
comer is on test? People cordial to her but watching her all
the time. I remember when a Latin teacher came here from
Wellesley, they resented her broad A. Were sure it was
a&ected. Of course they have discussed you "

" Have they ta&ed about me much? "

" My dearl "

" I always feel as though I walked around in a doud, looking
out at others but not being seen. I fed so incon^icuous and
so normal — so normal that there's nothing about me to discuss.
I can't realize that Mr. and Mrs. Haydock must gossip about
me." Carol was working up a small passion of distaste. '' And
I don't like it. It makes me crawly to think of their daring
to talk over all I do and say. Pawing me over! I resent it.
I hate "

'' Wait, child! Perhaps they resent some things in you. I
want you to try and be impersonal. They'd paw over any-
body who came in new. Didn't you, with newcomers in
CoUege? "

" Yes."

"Well then! Will you be impersonal? I'm paying you the
5 compliment of supposing that you can be. I want you to

be big enough to help me make this town worth while."

" I'll be as impersonal as cold boiled potatoes. (Not that

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I shall ever be able to help you * make the town worth while.')
What do they say about me? Really. I want to know."

" Of course the illiterate ones resent your references to any- \ ■
thing farther away than Minneapolis. They're so suspicious — i
that's it, suspicious. And some think you dress too well." 1

'' Oh, they do, do theyl Shall I dress in gunny-sacking to
suit them? "

" Hease! Are you going to be a baby? '*

"ra be good," sulkfly.

" You certainly will, or I won't tell you <me single thing.
You must understand this: I'm not asking you to change your-
self. Just want you to know what they think. You must
do that, no matter how absurd their prejudices are, if you're
going to handle them. Is it your ambition to make this a
better town, or isn't it? "

" I don't know whether it is or not! "

" Why— why Tut, tut, now, of course it isl Why, I

iepeod on you. You're a bcM-n reformer."

" I am not — not any morel "

"Of course you are."

"Oh, if I really could help So they thmk I'm af-
fected? "

" My lamb, they do! Now don't say they're nervy. After
all, ^Gopher Prairie standards, are as reasonable to Gopher
Prairie as Lake Sfiore Drive standards are to Chicago. And
there% more Gopher Prairies thannfliefe afg taiigg(g.~^ Or
L oni^as T^Ahd— — llTl tell you the whole story: They think
youYF^^owing off when you say 'American' instead of
' Ammurrican.' They think you're too frivolous. Life's so
serious to them that they can't imagine any kind of laughter
except Juanita's snortling. Ethel Villets was sure you were
patronizing her when "I

" Oh, I was not! "

" ^you talked about encouraging reading; and Mrs. Elder

thought you were patronizing when you said she had 'such
a pretty little car.' She thinks it's an enormous car! And
some of the merchants say you're too flip when you talk to
them in the store and "

" Poor me, when I was trying to be friendly I "

" e very housewife in town is doubtful about your being
so chummy with your Bea. All rigjit to be kind, but they say ^
you act as though she were your cousin. (Wait now! There's '

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plenty more.) And they think you were eccentric in fur-
nishing this room — ^they think the broad couch and that Japa-
nese dingus are absurd. (WaitI I know they're silly.) And
I guess I've heard a dozen criticize you because you don't
go to church oftener and "

" I can't stand it — ^I can't bear to realize that they Ve been
saying all these things while I've be^n going about so happily
and liking them. I wonder if you ou^t to have told me? It
wiU make me sdf-consdous."

'' I wonder the same thing. Only answer I can get is the
old saw about knowledge being power. And some day youll
see how absorbing it is to have power, even here; to control

the town Oh, I'm a crank. But I do like to see things

moving."

''It hurts. It makes these people seem so beastly and
treacherous, when I've been perfectly natural with them. But
let's have it all. What did they say about my Chinese house-
warming party? "

"Why, uh "

" Go on. Or 111 make up worse things than anything you
can tell me."

" They did enjoy it. But I guess some of them felt you
were showing off-pretending that your husband is richer than
he is."

" I can't Their meanness of mind is beyond any horrors

I could imagine. They really thought that I And you

want to ' reform ' people like that when dynamite is so chei^?
Who dared to say that? The rich or the poor? "
1 " Fairly well assorted."

"Can't they at least understand me well enough to see
that though I mi^t be affected and culturine, at least I simply
couldn't commit that other kind of vulgarity? If they must
know, you may tell them, with my compliments, that Will
makes about four thousand a year, and the party cost half of
what they probably thought it did. Chiiiese things are not
very expensive, and I made my own costume "

" St<^ iti Stop beating me! I know all that. What they
meant was: they felt you were starting dangerous competition
by giving a party such as most people here can't afford. Four
thousand is a pretty big income for this town."

" I never thought of starting competition. Will you bdievc
that it was in all love and friendliness that I tried to give

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than the gayest party I cotdd? It was foolish; it was childish
and noisy. But I dM mean it so well."

^ I know, of course. And it certainly is unfair of them to
make fun of your having that Chinese food — chow men, was
it? — and to laug^ about your wearing those pretty trou-

Carol ^rang up, ^rtumpering^ ^'Oh^ they didn't do that!
They didn't poke fun at my feast, that I ordered so carefully
for them! Aod my little Qiinese costume that I was so happy
making — ^I made it secretly, to surprise them. And they've
been ridiculing it, all this while! "

She was hiuldled on the couch.

Vida was stroking her hair, muttering, " I shouldn't *'

Shrouded in shame, Carol did not know when Vida slipped
away. The clock's beU, at half past five, aroused ha. '^ I
must get hold of mysdf before Will comes. I hope he never
knows ^R^t a fool his wife is. . • . Frozen, sneering,
horrible hearts."

Like a very smaD, very lonely girl she trudged iq>-stairs,|
slow step by step, her feet dragging, her hand on Uie raO.;
It was not her husband to whom Ae wanted to run for pro-
tection — ^it was her father, her smiling understanding father,
dead these twelve years.

Kennicott was yawning, stretched in the largest chair, be-
tween the radiator and a small kerosene stove.

Cautiously, '^ Will dear, I wcmder if the people here don't
cdtidze me sometimes? They must. I mean: if they ever do,
yon mustn't let it bother you."

^ Criticize you? Lord, I should say not. They all keep
telling me you're the swdlest girl they ever saw."

" Well, I've just fancied The merchants probably think

I'm too fussy about shopping. I'm afraid I bore Mr. Dash-
away and Mr. Rowland wd Mr. Luddmeyer."

"" I can tell you how that is. I didn't want to speak of it,
bttt since you've brought it up: Chet Dashaway probably
resents the fact that you got this new furniture down in the
Cities instead of here. I didn't want to raise any objection at

the time but After all, I make my money here aiui they

naturally expect me to ^)end it here."

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^' If Mr. Dashaway will kindly tell me how any civilized per-*
son can furnish a room out of the mortuary pieces that he
calls " She remembered. She said me^y, " But I under-
stand."

" And Rowland and Luddmcyer Oh, you've probably

handed 'em a few roasts for the bum stocks they carry, when

you just meant to jolly 'em. But rats, what do we care!

' This is an independent town, not lik^ these Eastern holes

where you have to watch your step all the time, and live up

to fool demands and social customs, and a lot of old tabbies

always busy criticizing. Everybod y's fre^ here to d o what he

^ wants to." He said it with a flourish, and C^ntl pArrAiwvi

"^ that he Relieve d' it. S h^Jumedhpr hrpath of fury into a

yawn.

"By the way, Carrie, while we're talking of this: Of course
I like to ke^ independent, and I don't believe in this business
of binding yourself to trade with the man that trades with
you unless you really want to, but same time: I'd be just
as glad if you dealt with Jenson or Luddmeyer as much as
you can, instead of Rowland & Gould, who go to Dr. Gould
every last time, and the whole tribe of 'em the same way.
I don't see why I should be paying out my good money for
groceries and having them pass it on to Terry Gould! "

" I've gone to Rowland & Gould because they're better, and
deaner."

"I know. I don't mean cut them out entirdy. Course
Jenson is tricky — give you short weight — and Ludelmeyer is
a shiftless old Dutch hog. But same time, I mean let's keep
the trade in the family whenever it is convenient, see how I
mean? "

" I see."

" Well, guess it's about time to turn in."

He yawned, went out to look at the thermometer, slanmied
the door, patted her head, unbuttoned his waistcoat, yawned,
wound the dock, went down to look at the furnace, yavmed,
and clumped up-stairs to bed, casually scratching his thick
woolen undershirt.

Till he bawled, " Aren't you ever coming vp to bed? " she
sat unmoving.

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CHAPTER DC

jShe had tripped into the meadow to teach the lambs a pretty
educational dance and found that the lambs were wolves.
Tli^re was no way out between their pressing gray shoulders. /
She was surrounded by fangs and. sneering eyes. /

She could jaot-gp on enduring 4he hiddmi derision. She ^
wantedlo flee. She wanted to hide in the generous indifference
of cities. ^le practised saying.. tn Kennicotti " Think perhaps ,
m run down to St^Paul Jqr a few days." But she could
not trust bo^t "to say it cardessly; could not abide his
certain questioning.

Reform the town? All she wanted was to be tolerated!

She could not look directly at people. She flushed and
winced before citizens who a wedL ago had been amusing
objects of study, and in their good-mornings she heard a cruel
sniggering.

She encountered Juanita Haydock at Ole Jenson's grocery.
She besought, " Oh, how do you dol Heavens, what beautiful
cdery that isl "

^' Yes, doesn't it look fresh. Harry singly has to have his
celery on Sunday, drat the mani "

C^ol hastened out of the shop exulting, ^^ She didn't make
fun of me. . . . Did she? "

In a week she had recovered from consciousness of in-
security, of shame and whispering notoriety, but she kept her
haibit of avoiding people. She walked the streets with her head
down. When she spied Mrs. McGanum or Mrs. Dyer ahead
she crossed over with an elaborate pretense of looking at a
billboard. Always she was acting, for the benefit of every one
she saw — and for the benefit of the ambushed leering eyes
which she did not see.

, She parcaved that Vida Sherwin had told the truth. Whether
Ae entered a store, or swq>t the back porch, or stood at the
bay-wiodow in the living-room, the village peq>ed at her.
Once she had swung along the street triun^hant in making

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lit.
m

a home. Now she glanced at each house^ and fdt, when she
was safely home, that she had won past a thousand enemies
armed with ridictde. She told herself that her sensitiveness
was preposterous, but daily she was thrown into panic. She
saw curtains dide back into innocent smoothness. Old women
who had been entering their houses slipped out again to stare
at her— in the wintry quiet she could hear them tiptoeing
on their porches. When she had for a blessed hour forgottra
the searchlight, when she was scanq>ering through a chill dusk,
happy in ydlow windows against gray ni^t, her heart checked
as ^e realized that a head covered with a shawl was thrust
up over a snow-tipped bush to watch her.

She admitted that she was taking herself too seriously; that
villagers gape at every one. She became placid, and thought
vfell of her philosophy. But next morning she had a shock
of shame as she entered Luddmeyer's. The grocer, his derk,
and neurotic Mrs. Dave Dyer had been g^ggl^g about s(Hne-
thing. They halted, looked embarrassed, babbled about onions.
Carol fdt guilty. That evening when Kennicott took her to
call on the crochety Lyman Casses, thdr hosts seemed flustered
at their arrival. Kennicott jovially hooted, '^ What makes you
so hang-dog, Ljrm? " The Casses tittered feebly.

(Except Dave Dyer, Sam Clark, and Raymie Wutho^xwn,
there were no merchants of whose wdcome Carol was catain.
Stie knew that she read mockery into greetings but she could
not control her suspidon, could not rise from her psychic col-
lapse.' She altematdy raged and flinched at the superiority of
the merchants. I They did not know that they were bdng rude,
but they meant to have it understood that they were prosperous
and " not scared of no doctor's wife." They often said^" One
man's as good as another — and a dam sig^t better."! This
motto, however, they did not commend to farmer customers
who had had crop failures, t The Yankee merchants wore
crabbed; and Ole Jenson, Ludelmeyer, and Gus Dahl, from the
"Old Country," wished to be taken for Yankees. James
Madison Howland, bom in New Hampshire, and Ole Jenscm,
bom in Sweden, both proved that they were free American
citizens by grunting, " I don't know whether I got any or not,"
or " Well, you can't expect me to get it ddivered by nopn."l

It was good form for the customers to fight back. Juanita
Haydock cheerfully jabbered, " You have it there by twelve or
I'D snatch that fresh ddivery-boy bald-headed." But Card

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loi

had never been able to play the game of friendly rudeness;
and now she was cartain that she never would learn it. She
formed the cowardly habit of going to Axel Egge's.

Axel was not respectable and rude. He was still a f ordgner,
and he expected to remain one. His manner was heavy and
uninterrogative. His establishm^t was more fantastic than
any cross-roads store. No one save Axel himself could find
anything. A part of the assortment of children's stockings
was under a blanket on a shelf, a part in a tin ginger-snap box,
the rest heaped like a nest of black-cotton sna^ iq>on a flour-
barrd which was surrounded by brooms, Norwegian Bibles,
dried cod for ludfisk, boxes of apricots, and a pair and a half
(A hnnbermen's rubber-footed boots. jfThe place was crowded
with Scandinavian farmwives, standing aloof in shawls and
andent fawn-oolored leg o' mutton jackets, awaiting the return
of their lords. They q^e Norwegian or Swedish, and looked
at Carol uncomprehending^y. They were a relief to her —
they were not whispering that she was a poseur .)

But what she tdd hersdf was that Axd Egge's was '' so
picturesque and romantic."

It was in the matter of dothes that she was most self-
consdous.

When she dared to go sho[^ing in her new checked suit with
the black-embroidered sulfdiur collar, she had as good as in-
vited all of Gopher Prairie (which interested itself in nothing
so intlmatdy as in new dothes and the cost thereof) to in-
vestigate her. It was a smart suit with Imes unfamiliar to the
dragging yellow and pink frocks of the town. The Widow
Bogart's stare, frcHU her porch, indicated, " Well I never saw
anything like that before! " Mrs. McGanum stopped Carol
at the notions shop to hint, " My, that's a nice suit — ^wasn't
it terribly e^)ensive? " The gang of bo)rs in front of the
drug store conmiented, "Hey, Pudgie, play you a game of
checkers on that dress." Carol could not endure it. She
drew her fur coat over the suit and hastily fastened the buttons,
while the boys snickered.

No group angered her quite so much as these staring young
roufe.
She had tried to convince herself that the village, with its

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I02 MAIN STREET

fresh air, its lakes for fishing and swimming, was healthier than
the artificial city. But she was sickened by glimpses of the
gang of boys from fourteen to twenty who loafed before Dyer's
Drug Store, smoking cigarettes, displaying " fancy " shoes and
purple ties and coats of diamond-shaped buttons, whistling
the^ Hoochi-Koochi and catcalling, " Oh, you baby-doU " at
every passing girl.

She saw them pla3dng pool in the stinking room behind Del
SnafOin's barber shop, and shaking dice in '* The Smoke House,"
and gathered in a snickering biot to listen to the ^' juicy
stories" of Bert Tybee, the bartender of the Minniemashie
House. She heard them smacking moist lips over every love-
scene at the Rosebud Movie Palace. At the counter of the
Greek Confectionery Parlor, while they ate dreadful messes
of decayed bananas, acid cherries, whipped cream, and gelat**
inous ice-cream, they screamed to one another, " Hey, lemme
lone," " Quit dog-gone you, looka what you went and done,
you almost spilled my glass swater," " Like hell I did," " Hey,
gol dam your hide, don't you go sticking your coffin nail in
my i-scream," " Oh you Batty, how juh like dancing with Tillic
McGuire, last night? Some squeezing, heh, kid? "
] By diligent consultation of American fiction she discovered
*.that this was the only virile and amusing manner in which
jboys could function; that boys who were not compounded oi
I the gutter and the mining-camp were mollycoddles and un-
Ihappy. She had taken this for granted. She had studied the
Iboys pityingly, but impersonally. It had not occurred to h&
pat they might touch her.

Now she was aware that they knew all about her; that th^
were waiting for some affectation over which they could gu£faw
No schoolgirl passed their observation-posts more flushingl};
than did Mrs. Dr. Kennicott. In shame she knew that the>
glanced appraisingly at her snowy overshoes, speculating about
her legs. iTheirs were not young eyes — there was no youtli
in all the town, she agonized. They were bom old, grim anc
old and spying and censorious.^

She cried again that their youth was senile and cmd on th<
day when she overheard Cy Bogart and Earl Haydock.

Cyrus N. Bogart, son of the righteous widow who live<
across the alley, was at this time a boy of fourteen or fifteen
Carol had already seen quite enough of Cy Bogart. On he
first evening in Gopher Prairie Cy had appeared at the hea<

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of a '' charivari," banging immensely upon a discarded auto-
mobile fender. His companions were ye^ing in imitation of
coyotes. Kennicott had felt rather complimented; had gone
out and distributed a dollar. But Cy was a c^italist in
charivaris. He returned with an entirely new group, and this
time there were three automobile fenders and a carnival rattle.
When ELennicott again interrupted his shaving, Cy piped,
" Naw, you got to give us two dollars," and he got it. A week
later Cy rig^ a tic-tac to a window of the living-room, and
the tattoo out of the darkness frightened Carol into screaming.
Since then, in four months, she had beheld Cy hanging a cat,
stealing melons, throwing tomatoes at the Kennicott house, and
making ski-tracks across the lawn, and had heard him ex-
plaining the mysteries of generation, with great audibility and
dismaying knowledge. I He was/ in fact, a museum specimen
of what a small town, a well-disdplined public school, a tra-
dition of hearty humor, and a pious mother could oroduce from
the material of a courageous and ingenious mind/

Carol was afraid of him. Far from protesting when he set
his mongrel on a kitten, she worked hard at not seeing him.

The Kennicott garage was a shed littered widi paint-cans,
tools, a lawn-mower, and ancient wisps of hay. Above it was
a loft which Cy Bogart and Eari Haydock, young brother of
Harry, used as a den, for smoking, hiding from whippings,
and planning secret societies. They climbed to it by a ladder
on the alley side of the shed.

ITiis morning of late January, two or three weeks after
Vida's revelations, Carol had gone into the stable-garage to
find a hammer. Snow softened her step. She heard voices
in the loft above her:

"Ah gee, lez — oh, lez go down the lake and swipe some
mushrats out of somebody's traps," Cy was yawning.

" And get our ears beat off! " gnunbled Earl Haydock.

" Gosh, these cigarettes are dandy. 'Member when we were
just kids, and used to smoke corn-silk and ha3rseed? "

" Yup. Gosh! "

Spit. Silence.

" Say Earl, ma says if you chew tobacco you get consun^
tion."

" Aw rats, your old lady is a crank."

" Yuh, that's so." Pause. " But she sa)rs she knows a fdia
that did."

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*' Aw, gee whiz, didn't Doc Kennicott used to chew tobacco
all the time before he married this-here girl from the Cities?

He used to ^it Gee! Some shot! He cotild hit a tree

ten feet off."

This was news to the girl from the Cities.

" Say, how is she? " continued Earl.

" Huh? How's who? "

"You know who I mean, smarty."

A tussle, a thumping of loose boards, sHence, weary nar-
ration from Cy:

" Mrs. Kennicott? Oh, she's all rig^t, I guess." Relief to
Carol, below. ^' She gimme a hunk o' cake, one time. But
Ma says she's stuck-up as hell. Ma's always talking about
her. Ma sa3rs if Mrs. Kennicott thought as much about the
doc as she does about her dothes, the doc wouldn't look so
peaked."

Spit. Siknce.

" Yuh. Juanita's alwa)rs talking about her, too," from Earl.
^'She says Mrs. Kennicott thinks she knows it all. Juanita
says she has to laug^ till she almost busts every time she
sees Mrs. Kennicott peerading along the street with that ' take
a look — ^I'm a swell skirt ' way she's got. But gosh, I don't
pay no attention to Juanita. She's meaner 'n a crab."

" Ma was telling somebody that she heard that Mrs. Ken-
nicott claimed she made forty dqllars a week when she was
on some job in the Cities, and Ma says she knows
posolutdy diat she never made but ei^teen a week — Ma says
that when she's lived here a while she won't go round making
a fool of hersdf, pulling that big^ead stiiff on folks that know
a whole lot more than ^e does. Tliey're all laughing vp thdr
deeves at her."

" Say, jever notice how Mrs. Kennicott fusses around the
house? Other evening when I was coming over here, she'd
forgot to pull down the curtain, and I watched her for ten
minutes. Jeeze, you'd 'a' died laughing. She was there all
alone, and she must 'a' spent five minutes getting a picture
strai^t. It was funny as hdl the way she'd stick out her fingar
to strai^ten the picture — deedle-dee, see my tunnin' 'ittie
finger, oh my, ain't I cute, what a fine long tail my cat's got! "

" But say. Earl, she's some good-looker, just the same, and
O Ignatz! the glad rags she must of bought for her wedding.
Jever notice these low-cut dresses and these thin shimmy-shirts

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she wears? I had a good squint at 'em when they were out
on the line with the wash. And some ankles she's got, heh? "

Then Carol fled.

In her innocence she had not known that the whole town y
could discuss even her garments, her body. She felt that she
was being dragged naked down Main Street.

The moment it was dusk she pulled'down the window-shades,
an the shades, flush with the sill, but beyond them she felt
moist fleering eyes.

She remembered, and tried to forget, and remembered more
sharply the vulgar detail of her husband's having observed the
ancient customs of the land by chewing tobacco. She would
have preferred a prettier vice — gambling or a mistress. For
these she mig^t have found a luxury of forgiveness. She could
not ronember any fascinatingly wicked hero of fiction wfaa
chewed tobacco. She asserted that it proved him to be a man
of the bold free West. She tried to align him with the haiiy-
diested heroes of the motion-pictures. She curled on the coudi,
a pallid softness in the twflig^t, and fou^t herself, and lost the
battle, fitting did not identify him with rangers riding the
buttesj it merely bound him to Gopher Prairie— to Nat Hicks
the tailor and Bert lybee the bartender.

'' But he gave it up for me.' Oh, what does it matter! We're
an filthy in some things. I think of m3rself as so superior,
but I do eat and digest, I do wash my dirty paws and scratch.
I'm not a cool slim goddess on a column. There aren't any!
He gave it up for me. He stands by me, bdieving that every
<me loves me. He's the Rock of Ages — ^in a storm of meanness
that's driving me mad. ... it wiU drive me mad."

AU evening she sang Scotch ballads to Kennicott, and when
she noticed that he was chewing an unlig^ted cigar she smiled
matonaUy at his secret.

She could not escape asking (in the exact words and mental
intonations idiich a thousand million women, dairy wencfies
and mischief-making queens, had used before her, and which
a milli<m million women wQl know hereafter), '^Was it an
a horrible mistake, my marrying him? " She quieted the
<feubt — ^without answering it.

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Kennicott had taken her north to Lac-qui-Meurt, in the Big
Woods. It was the entrance to a Chippewa Indian reservation^
a sandy settlement among Norway pines on the shore of a
huge snow-glaring lake. She had her first sight of his mother,
except the glimpse at the wedding. Mrs. Kennicott had a
hushed and delicate breeding which dignified her woodeny over-
scrubbed cottage with its worn hard cushions in heavy rockers.
She had never lost the child's miraculous power of wonder.
She asked questions about books and cities. She murmured:

'' Will is a dear hard-working boy but he's inclined to be too
serious, and you've taught him how to play. Last night I
heard you both laughing about the old IncUan basket-seller,
and I just lay in bed and enjoyed your happiness."

Carol forgot her misery-hunting in this solidarity of famfly
life. She could depend upon them; she was not battling alone.
Watching Mrs. Kennicott flit about the kitchen she was better
able to translate Kennicott himself. He was matter-of-fact,
yes, and incurably mature. He didn't reaUy play; he let Carol
play with him. But he had his mother's genius for trusting,
her disdain for prying, her sure integrity.

From the two days at Lac-qui-Meurt Carol drew confidence
in herself, and she returned to Gopher Prairie in a throbbing
calm like those golden drugged seconds when, because he is
for an instant free from pain, a sick man revels in living.

A bright hard winter day, the wind shrill, black and silver
douds booming across the sky, ever3rtlung in panid^r nootion
during the brief light. They struggled against the surf of wind,
through deep snow. Kennicott was dieerful. He hailed Loren
Wheder, " Behave yoursdf while I been away? " The editor
bellowed, ^' B' gosh you stayed so long that all your patients
have got well! " and impc^tantly took notes for the Dauntless
about their journey. JacksonElder cried, ^ Hey, folks! How's
tricks up North? " Mrs. McGanum waved to them from her
porch.

" They're glad to see us. We mean something here. These
people are satisfied. Why can't I be?. But can I sit back
all my life and be satisfied with * Hey, folks '? They want
shouts on Main Street, and I want violins in a panded roooi.
hVhy ?"

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Vida Sherwin ran in after school a dozen times. She was*
tactM, torrentially anecdotal. She had scuttled about town
and plucked complim^ts: Mrs. Dr. Westlake had pronounced
Carol a "very sweet, bri^t, cultured young woman/' and
Brad Bemis, the tinsmith at Clark's Hardware Store, had de-
clared that she was ''easy to work for and awful easy to
look at."

But Carol could not yet take her in. She resented this
outsider's knowledge of her diame. Vida was not too long
tolerant. She hinted, '' You're a great brooder, child. Buck iq>
now. The town's quit critidzing you, almost entirely. Come
with me to the Thanatopsis Club. They have some of the
best papers, and current-events discussions — so interesting."

In Vida's demands Carol felt a compulsion, but she was too
listless to obey.

It was Bea Sorenson who was really her confidante.

However charitable toward the Lower Classes she may have
thought herself, Carol had been reared to assume that servants
belong to a distinct and inferior i^)ecies. But she discovered
that Bea was extraordinarily like girls she had loved in college,
axKl as a companion altogether superior to the young matrons
of the Jolly Seventeen. Daily they became more frankly two
girb playing at housework. Bea artlessly considered Carol
the most beautiful and accomplished lady in the coimtry; she
was alwajrs shrieking, " My, dot's a swell hat! " or, " Ay t'ink
an dese ladies yoost die when dey see how elegant you do
your hair! " ^"t Jt.y' "^^ ^^^ ^""^NfTlffi^ of ^ servant , nor
the hypocri^ of a^ lay e; it was the admiration of Freshman
for JtlfiiSF;

They made out the day's menus together. Though they
began with propriety, Carol sitting by the kitchen table and
Bea at the sink or blacking the stove, the conference was
likely to «Ki with both of them by the table, while Bea gurgled
over the ice-man's attempt to kiss her, or Carol admitted,
" Everybody knows that the doctor is lots more clever than
Dr. McGanum." When Carol came in from marketing, Bea
plimged into the hall to take off her coat, rub her frostfd
hands, and ask, " Vos dere lots of folks up-town today? "

This was the welcome upon which Carol depended.

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Through her weeks of cowering there was no change in
her surface life. No one save Vida was aware of her agonizing.
On her most de^)airing days she chatted to women on the
street, in stores. But without the protection of Kennicott's
presence she did not go to the Jolly Seventeen; she delivered
herself to the judgment of the town only when she went shop-
ping and on the ritualistic occasions of formal afternoon calk,
when Mrs. Lyman Cass or Mrs. George Edwin Mott, with
clean gloves and minute handkerchiefs and sealskin card-cases
and countenances of frozen approbation, sat on the edges of
chairs and inquired, ** Do you find Gopher Prairie pleasing? ''
When they q>ent evenings of social profit-and-loss at the Hay-
docks' or the Dyers' she hid behind Kennicott, playing the
simple bride.

Now she was unprotected. Kennicott had taken a patient
to Rochester for an (^>eration. He would be away for two
or three days. She had not minded; she would loosoi the
matrimonid tension and be a fanciful girl for a time. But
now that he was gone the house was listeningly empty. Bea
was out this afternoon — ^presumably drinking coffee and talk-
ing about " fellows " with her cousin Tina. It was the day
for the monthly siq>per and evening-bridge of the Jolly Seven-
teen, but Carol dared not go.

She sat alone.

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CHAPTER X

The house was haunted, long before evening. Shadows slipped
down the walls and waited behind every chair.

Did that door move?

No. She wouldn't go to the Jolly Seventeen. She hadn't
energy enouj^ to caper before them, to smile blandly at
Juanita's rudeness. Not today. But she did want a party.
Now! If some one would come in this aftemooa, some one
who liked her — ^Vida or Mrs. Sam Clark or old Mrs. Champ
Perry or gentle Mrs. Dr. Westlake. Or Guy Pollock! She'd
telephone

No. That wouldn't be it. They must come of themselves.

Perhaps they would.

Why not?

She'd have tea ready, an3rway. If they came — splendid.
If not — yrbat did she care? She wasn't going to 3deld to the |
village and let down; she was going to keep up a belief in the i
rite of tea, to which she had always looked forward as the !
S3rmbol of a Idsurely fine existence. And it would be just |
as much fun, even if it was so babyish, to have tea by herself \
and pretend that she was entertaining clever men. It m
would!

She turned the shining thought into action. She bustled to
the kitchen, stoked the wood-range, sang Schumann while she
boiled the kettle, warmed up raisin cookies on a newspaper
^read on the rack in the oven. She scampered up-stairs to
bring down her filmiest tea-cloth. She arranged a silver tray.
She proudly carried it into the living-room and set it on the
long cherrywood table, pushing aside a hoop of emhroidery,
a volume of Conrad from the library, copies of the Saturday
Evemng Post, the Ltaerary Digest, and Kennicott's National
Geographic Magazine,

She moved the tray back and forth and regarded the effect.
She shook her head. She busily imfolded the sewing-table,
set it in the bay-window, patted the tea-cloth to smoothness,

109

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noved the tray. '' Some time 111 have a mahogany tea-table/'
^e said happily.

She had brought in two cups, two plates. For herself, a
straight chair, but for the guest the big wing-chair^ which she
)antingly tugged to the table.

She had finished all the preparations she could think of. She
^t and waited. She listened for the door-bell, the telq>hone.
ler eagerness was stilled. Her hands dro<^)ed.

Surely Vida Sherwin would hear the summons.

She glanced through the bay-window. Snow was sifting over
he ridge of the Rowland house like sprays of water from a
lose. The wide yards across the street were gray with moving
Kldies. The black trees shivered. The roadway was gashed
nth ruts of ice.

She looked at the extra cup and plate. She looked at
he wing-chair. It was so empty.

The tea was cold in the pot. With wearily dij^ing fijigo:-
ip she tested it. Yes. Quite cold. She couldn't wait any
onger.

The cup across from her was idly dean, glisteningly en^>ty.

Simply absurd to wait. She poured her own cup of tea. She
at and stared at it. What was it she was going to do now?
)h yes; how idiotic; take a lump of sugar.

She didn't want the beastly tea.

She was springing up. She was on the couch, sobbing.

She was thinking more sharply than she had for weeks.

She reverted to her resolution to change the town — ^awaken
t, prod it, " reform " it. What if they were wolves instead
if lambs? I They'd eat her all the sooner if she was meek to
hem. Fight or be eaten. It was easier to change the town
ompletely than to conciliate it! She could not take their point
if view; it was a negative thing; an intellectual squalor; a
wamp of prejudices and fears. She would have to make them
ake hers. She was not a Vincent de Paul, to govern and
nold a people! What of that? The tiniest change in thdr
listrust of beauty would be the beginning of the end; a seed
sprout and some day with thickening roots to crack their
^all of mediocrity. If she could not, as she desired, do a
jesLt thing nobly and with laughter, yet she need not be con-

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tent with village nothingness. She would plant one seed in the
blank wall.

Was she just? Was it merely a blank wall, this town which
to three thousand and more people was the center of the
universe? Hadn't she, returning from Lac-qui-Meurt, felt the
heartiness of their greetings? No. I The ten thousand Gopher
Prairies had no monopoly of greetings and friendly hands. Sam
Qark was no more loyal than girl librarians she knew in St.
Paul, the people she had met in Chicago. And those others
had so much that Gopher Prairie complacently lacked — ^the
world of gaiety and adventure, of music and the integrity of
bionze, of remembered mists from tropic isles and Paris nights
and the walk of Bagdad, of industrial justice .and a God who
^>ake not in doggerel h3rmns4

One seed. Which seed it was did not matter. All knowl-
edge and freedom were one. But she had delayed so long in
fiikling that seed. Could she do something with this Thana-
topsis Club? Or should she make her house so charming that
it would be an influence? She'd make Kennicott like poetry.
That was it, for a beginningl She conceived so clear a picture
of their bending over large fair pages by the fire (in a non-
eidstent fireplace) that the spectrd presences slipped away.
Doors no longer moved; curtains were not creeping shadows
but lovely dark masses in the dusk; and when Bea came home
Carol was singing at the piano which she had not touched for
many days.

Their stq)per was the feast of two girls. Carol was in the
dining-room, in a frock of black satin edged with gold, and
Bea, in blue gingham and an apron, dined in the kitdien; but
the door was open between, and Carol was inquiring, " Did
you see any ducks in Dahl's window? " and Bea chanting,
" No, ma'am. Say, ve have a svell time, dis afternoon. Tina
she have coffee and kndckebrod, and her fella vos dere, and
ve yoost laughed and lauded, and her fella say he vos president
' t queen of Finland, and Ay stick a

ly Ay bane going to go to var — oh,

laugh sol "

i piano again she did not think of

book-drugged hermit, Guy Pollock.

irould come calling,
him, he'd creep out of his den and

as literate as Guy, or Guy were as

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executive as WH, I think I could oidure even G(^her Prairie

<< It's so hard to mother Will. I could be maternal witi

Guy. Is that what I want, something to mother, a man oi

a baby or a town? I wUl have a baby. Some day. But tc

have him isolated here all his receptive years

'' And so to bed.

'' Have I found my real level in Bea and kitchen-gossipr
" Oh, I do miss you, Will. But it will be pleasant to tun
over in bed as often as I want to, without worrying about
waking you up.

" Am I really this settied thing called a ' married woman '1
I feel so unmarried tonight. So free. To think that there
was once a Mrs. Kennicott who let herself worry over a towi
called Gopher Prairie when there was a whole world outside
iti

<< Of course Will is going to like poetry.''
I

A black February day. Clouds hewn of ponderous timbei
weighing down on the earth; an irresolute dropping of soom
specks upon the trampled wastes. Gloom but no veiling oi
angularity. The lines of roofs and sidewalks sharp and in-
escapable.

The second day of Kennicott's absence.

She fled from the creepy house for a walk. It was thirty
below zero; too cold to exhilarate her. In the spaces betweeE
houses the wind caught her. It stung, it gnawed at nose and
ears and aching cheeks, and she hastened from shelter tc
shelter, catching her breath in the lee of a bam, grateful f(H
the protection of a billboard covered with ragged posters show-
ing layer under layer of paste-smeared green and streaky red

The grove of oaks at the end of the street suggested Indians
hunting, snow-shoes, and she struggled past the earth-banked
cottages to the open country, to a farm and a low hill
corrugated with hard snow. In her loose nutria coat, seal
toque, virginal cheeks unmarked by lines of village jealousies
she was as out of place on this dreary hillside as a scarlei
tanager on an ice-floe. She looked down on Gopher Prairie
The snow, stretching without break from streets to devouring
prairie beyond, wiped out the town's pretense of being a shelter
The houses were black specks on a white sheet. Her Beul

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shivered with that still loneliness as her body shiv^ed with
the wind.

She ran back into the huddle of streets, all the while pro-
testing that she wanted a city's yellow glare of shop-windows
and restaurants, or the primitive forest with hooded furs and
a rifle, or a baniyard warm and steamy, noisy with hens and
cattle, certainly not these dun houses, these yards choked with
winter ash-piles, these roads of dirty snow and dotted frozen
mud. iThe zest of winter was gone. Three months more, till
May, the cold udf^t drag on, with the snow ever filthier, the
weakened body less resistent She wondered why the good
citizens insisted on adding the chill of prejudice, why they
did not make the houses of their spirits more warm and frivo-
lous, like the wise chatterers of Stockholm and Moscow.f

She cirqled the outskirts of the town and viewed the slum
of " Swede Hdlow.'' Wherever as many as three houses are
gathered there will be a slum of at least one house. In
Gopher Prairie, the Sam Clarks boasted, '* you don't get any of
this poverty that you find in cities— ^ways plenty of work —
no need of charity — ^man got to be blame shiftless if he don't
get ahead." But now that the summer mask of leaves and
grass was gone, Card discovered misery and dead hope. In
a shack of thin boards covered with tar-paper she saw the
washerwoman, Mrs. Stdnhof , working in gray steam. Outside,
her six-year-old boy chopped wood. He had a torn jacket,
muffler of a blue like skinuned milk. His hands were covered
with red mittens through which protruded his chapped raw
knuckles. He halted to blow on them, to cry disinterestedly.

A family of recently arrived Finns were camped in an aban-
doned stable. A man of eighty was picking tq> lun^ of coal
along the raikoad.

She did not know what to do about it. She felt that these
independent citizens, who had been taught that they belonged
to a democracy, would resent her tiyiag to play Lady
Bountiful.

She lost her loneliness in the activity of the village indus-
tries---tbe raHroad-yards with a freight-train switching, the
wheat-elevator, oil-tanks, a slaughter-house with blood-marks
on the snow, tiie creamery with the sleds of farmers and piles
of milk-cans, an unexplained stone hut labeled '* Danger —
Powder Stored Here." The jolly tombstone-yard, where a
utilitarian sculptor in a red calfskin overcoat whistled as he

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^mered the shiniest of granite headstones. Jackson Elder'i
small planing-mill, with the smell of fresh pine shavings an<
the burr of circular saws. Most important, the Gopher Prairi
Flour and Milling Company, Lyman Cass president. Its win
dows were blanketed with flour-dust, but it was the mos
stirring spot in town. Workmen were wheeling barrels of flou
into a box-car; a farmer sitting on sacks of wheat in a bob
sled argued with the wheat-buyer; machinery within the mil
boomed and whined; water gurgled in the ice-freed mill-race

The clatter was a relief to Carol after months of smu]
houses. She wished that she could work in the mill; tha
she did not belong to the caste of professional-man's-wife.

She started for home, throuj^ the small slum. Before ;
tar-paper shack, at a gateless gate, a man in rough browi
dogskin coat and black plush cap with lappets was watchin;
her. His square face was confident, his foxy mustache wa
picaresque. He stood erect, his hands in his side-pockets, hi
pipe puffing slowly. He was forty-five or -six, perh24>s.

" How do, Mrs. Kennicott," he drawled.

She recalled him — the town handyman, who had rcpaire
their furnace at the beginning of winter.

" Oh, how do you do," she fluttered.

" My name 's B jomstam. * The Red Swede ' they call mc
Remember? Always diou^t I'd kind of like to say howd;
to you again."

" Ye — ^yes I've been exploring the outskirts of town."

"Yump. Fine mess. No sewage, no street cleaning, an<
the Lutheran minister and the priest represent the arts an«
sciences. Well, thunder, we submerged tenth down here ii
Swede Hollow are no worse ofiF than you folks. Thank God
we don't have to go and purr at Juanity Haydq^at th
Jdly Old Seventeen." -i*=«f

The Carol who regarded herself as completely adaptabl
was uncomfortable at being chosen as comrade by a pipe
leeking odd- job man. Probably he was one of her husband
patients. But she must keep her dignity.
il "Yes, even the Jolly Seventeen isn't always so exciting

j| It's very cold again today, isn't it. Well "

jl Bjomstam was not respectfully valedictory. He showed n

signs of pulling a forelock. His eyebrows moved as thoug
y I they had a life of their own. With a subgrin he went on:

U "Maybe I hadn't oueht to talk about Mrs. Haydeck ?n

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her Solemcboly Seventeen in that fresh way. I suppose I'd(
be tickled to death if I was invited to sit in with that gang.j
I'm what they call a pariah, I guess. I'm the town badmana
Mrs. Kennicott: town atheist, and I suppose I must be ann
anarchist, too. Everybody who doesn't love the bankers andH )(
the Grand Old Republican Party is an anarchist." ^

Carol had unconsciously slipped from her attitude of de-
parture into an attitude of listening, her face full toward him,
her muff lowered. She fumbled:

*' Yes, I suppose so." Her own grudges came in a flood. " I
don't see why you shouldn't criticize the Jolly Seventeen if
you want to. They aren't sacred."

** Oh yes, they are! The dollar-sign has chased the crucifix I
dean off the map. But then, I've got no kick. I do what
I please, and I suppose I ou^t to let them do the same." '

" What do you mean by saying you're a pariah? "

" I'm poor, and yet I don't decently envy the rich. I'm an j
old bach. I make enou^ money for a stake, and then I sit I
" "te hands with m3rself, and have a
id I don't contribute to the wealth I

read a good deal."
» way. m jeU your I'm a lone
w wood, and work in lumber-camps
'. Always wished I could go to

is person, Mr. "

[istam. Half Yank and half Swede. '
Q lazy big-mouthed calamity-howler
way we nm things.' No, I ain't
curious — ^whatever you mean by thatl I'm just a bookworm.
Pkt^bly too much reading for the amount of digestion I've
got. Probably half-baked. I'm going to get in ^ half-baked '
first, and beat you to it, because it's dead sure to be handed
to a radical that wears jeansl "
They grinned together. She demanded:
'^ You say that £be Jolly Seventeen is stupid. What makes
you think so? "

^'Oh, trust us borers into the foundation to know about
your leisure class. Fact. Mrs. Kennicott, 111 say that far as
I can make out, the only people in this man's town that do

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have any brains — ^I don't mean ledger-keeping brains or dud
hunting brains or baby-spanking brains, but real imaginati^
brains — are you and me and Guy Pollock and the foreman a
the flour-mill. He's a socialist, the foreman. (Don't te
Lym Cass thati Lym would fire a socialist quicker than b
would a horse-thief!) "

"" Indeed no, I sha'n't tell him."

''This foreman and I have some great set-to's. He's i
regular old-line party-member. Too dogmatic. Expects t
reform everything from deforestration to nosebleed by sayin
phrases like 'surplus value.' Like reading the prayer-bool
But same time, he's a Plato J. Aristotie compared with pec^l
like Ezry Stowbody or Professor Mott or Julius Flickerbaug^.

" It's interesting to hear about him."

He dug his toe into a drift, like a schoolboy. " Rats. Yoi
mean I talk too much. Well, I do, when I get hold of some
body like you. You probably want to run along and keq
your nose from freezing."

" Yes, I must go, I siq)po8e. But tell me: Why did ya
leave Miss Sherwin, of the Mf^ school, out of your list of tb
town intelligentsia? "

" I guess maybe she does belong in it. From all I can hea
she's in everything and behind everything that looks like i
reform — ^lot more than most folks realize. She lets Mn
Reverend Warren, the president of this-here Thanatopsis Qui
think she's running the works, but Miss Sherwin is the secre
boss, and nags all the easy-soing dames into doing somethinf

But way I figure it out (You see, I'm not interested in thes

dinky reforms. Miss Sherwin's trying to repair the holes i
this barnacle-covered ship of a town by kea>ing busy bailin
out the water. And Pollock tries to repair it by reading poetr
to the crewl Me, I want to yank it up on the ways, and fii
the poor bum of a shoemaker that built it so it sails crookec
and have it rebuilt right, from the keel iq>."|

" Yes — that— that would be better. But I must run hcun
My poor nose is nearly frozen."

" Say, you better come in and get warm, and see what a
old bach's shack is like."

She looked doubtfully at him, at the low shanty, the y^
that was littered with cord-wood, moldy planks, a hoople
wash-tub. She was disquieted, but Bjomstam did not give lu
the opportunity to be delicate. He flung out his hand in

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wdcoming gesture wbkh assumed that she was her own coun-
sdor, that sdbe was not a Respectable Married Woman but f id^
a human being. With a shaky, ^'Well, just a moment, to
warm my nose/' she j^anced down the street to make sure
that she was not spied on, and bolted toward the shanty.

She remained for one hour, and never had she known a more
considerate host than the Red Swede.

He had but one room: bare pine floor, small work-bench,
wall bunk with amazingly neat bed, frymg-pan and ash-
stippled coffee-pot on the shelf behind the pot-bellied cannon-
-ball stove, backwoods chairs^-one constructed from half a
barrd, one from a tilted plank— and a row of books incredibly
assorted; Byrcm and Tem^son and Stevenson, a manual <rf
gas-^gines, a book by ThcNrstdn Veblen, and a spotty treatise
00 '^The Care, Feedmg, Diseases, and Breeding of Poultry
and Cattle/'

Tliere was but one picture— a magazine color-plate of a
steep-roofed village in the Harz Mountains which suggested
kobokb and maidens with golden hair.

B jomstam did not fuss over her. He suggested, ^ Mig^t
throw open your coat and put your feet iq> on the box in front
of the stove.'' He tossed his dogpkin coat into the bunk,
lowered himself into the barrel chair, and droned on:
f '^ Yeh, I'm probably a yahoo, but by gum I do keep my
independence by doing odd jobs, and that's more "n these polite
cusses like the clerks in the banks do. When I'm rude to some
slob, it may be partly because I don't know better (ami God
knows I'm not no authority on trick forks and ndiat pants you
wear with a Prince Albert), but mostly it's because I mean
something. I'm about the only man in Johnson County that
remembeiB the joker in the Declaration of Indq>endence about
Americans being supposed to have the right to ' life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.'l

" I meet old Ezra Stowbo^ on the street. He looks at
me like he wants me to remember he's a highmuckamuck and
worth' two hundred thousand dollars, and be says, ' Uh^ Bjom-
quist '

" 'Bj(Mrnstam's my name, Ezra,' I says. He knows my name,
an ris^tee.

^ ' Wen, whatever your name is,' he says, ' I understand you
bave a gasoline saw. I want you to come around and saw
op four axds of maple for me,' he says.

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" * So you like my looks, eh? ' I sajrs, kind of innocent.

" * What difference does that make? Want you to saw tibat
wood before Saturday,' he says, real sharp. Common work-
man going and getting fresh with a fifth of a million dollars
^ all walking around in a hand-me-down fur coat I

" * Here's the difference it makes/ I says, just to devil him,
' How do you know I like your looks? ' Maybe he didn't look
sore! * Nope,' I says, ' thinking it all over, I don't like your
application for a loan. Take it to another bank, only Uiere
ain't any,' I sajrs, and I walks off on him.

I" Sure. Probably I was surly — and foolish. But I figured
there had to be one man in town independent enou^ to sass
the banker! "

He hitched out of his chair, made coffee, gave Carol a
cup, and talked on, half defiant and half apologetic, half wist-
ful for friendliness and half amused by her surprise at the
discovery that there was a proletarian philosophy.

At the door, she hinted:

"Mr. Bjomstam, if you were I, would you worry when
people thought you were affected? "

" Huh? Kick 'em in the face! Say, if I were a sea-gull,
and all over silver, think I'd care what a pack of dirty seab
thought about my flying? "

It was not the wind at her back, it was the thrust of Bjom-
stam's scorn which carried her throuR:h town. She faced
Juanita Haydock, cocked her head at Maud Dyer's brief nod,
and came home to Bea radiant. She telephoned Vida Sherwin
to " run over this evening." She lustily played Tschaikowsky —
the virile chords an echo of the red lauding philosopher of
the tar-paper shack. *

(When she hinted to Vida, "Isn't there a man here who
amuses himself by being irreverent to the village gods — Bjom-
stam, some such a name? " the reform-leader said " Bjomstam?
Oh yes. Fixes things. He's awfully impertinent.")

Kennicott had returned at midnii^^t. At breakfast he said
four several times that he had missed her every mome

On her way to market Sam Clark hailed her, " The top o' ft
momin' to yez! Going to stop and pass the time of day
Saml? Wamw, eh? What'd the doc's thermometer sayj

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was? Say, you fcdks better come round and visit with us,
one of these evenings. Don't be so dog-gone proud, staying by
yoursdves,"

Chanq> Perry the pioneer, wheat-buyer at the elevator,
st(^^;)ed her in the post-(ffice, held her hand in his withered
paws, peered at her with faded eyes, and chuckled, '' You are
so fresh and blooming, my dear. Mother was saying t'oth^ day
that a sight of you was better 'n a dose of medicine."

In the Bon Ton Store she found Guy Pollock tentatively
buying a modest gray scarf. "We haven't seen you for so
IcHig," she said. " Wouldn't you like to come in and play crib-
bage, some evening? " As though he meant it, Pollock begged,
« May I, really? "

While she was purchasing two yards of malines the vocal
Raymie Wutherspoon tiptop up to her, his long sallow face
bobbing, and he besought, " You've just got to come back to
my department and see a pair of patent leather slippers I set
aside for you."

In a manner of more than sacerdotal reverence he un-
laced her boots, tucked her skirt about her ankles, slid on the
slim)ers. ^e took them.

"You're a good salesman," she said.

" I'm not a salesman at all! I just like elegant things. All
this is so inartistic." He indicated with a forlornly waving
hand the shelves of shoe-boxes, the seat of thin wood per-
forated in rosettes, the display of shoe-trees and tin boxes of
blacking, the lithograph of a smirking young woman with cherry
cheeks who proclaimed in the exalted poetry of advertising,
" My tootsies never got hep to what pedal perfection was tiU
I got a pair of clever classy Qeopatra Shoes."

" But sometimes," Raymie sighed, " there is a pair of dainty
little shoes like these, and I set them aside for some one who
will appreciate. When I saw these I said right away, * Wouldn't
it be nice if they fitted Mrs. Kennicott,' and I meant to speak
to you first chance I had. I haven't forgotten our jolly talks
at Mrs. Gu^ey'sl "

That evening Guy Pollock came in and, though Kennicott
Instantly impressed him into a cribbage game, Carol was
happy again.

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She did not, in recovering something of her buoyancy, foi^
her determination to begin the liberalizing of G^her Prairie
by the easy and agreeable propaganda of teaching Kennicott to
enj^y reading poetry in the lamplight. The campaign was
delayed. Twice he suggested that they call on nei^bors;
once he was in the country. The fourtfi evening he yawned
pleasantly, stretched, and inquired, "Well, whatll we do^
tosi^t? Shall we go to the movies? "

" I know exactly what we're going to do. Now don't ask
questions! Come and sit down by the table. Th&'e, are
you comfy? Lean back and forget you're a practical man,
and listen to me."

It may be that she had been influenced by the managerial
Vida Sherwin; certainly she sounded as though slK^7a3 sell«
ing culttu-e. But she dropped it when she sat on the &ucb, her
chin in her hands, a volume of Yeats on her knees, and read
aloud.

Instantly she was released from the homely comfort of a
prairie town. She was in the world of lonely things — ^the flutter
of twilight linnets, the aching call of gulls along a shore
to which the netted foam crq>t out of darkness, the island
of Aengus and the dder gods and the eternal glories that
never were, tall kings and women girdled with crusted gold,
the woful incessant chanting and the

" Heh-cha-chal " coughed Dr. Kennicott. She stopped. 9ie
rememb^ed that he was the sort of person who chewed tobacco.
She glared, while he uneasily petitioned, " That's great stuff.
Study it in college? I like poetry fine — ^James Whitcomb
RilQT and some of Longfellow — ^this ' Hiawatha.' Gosh, I wish
I could appreciate that highbrow art stuff. But I guess I'm
too old a dog to learn new tricks."

I With pity for his bewflderment, and a certam desire to
I giggle, she consoled him, " Then let's try some Teniqrson.
You've read him? "
I "Tennyson? You bet Read him in school. There's that:

I And let there be no (what b it?) of farewdl
\ When I put out to sea,
i But let the

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Wen, I don't remember all of it but Oh, sure! And

Acre's that * I met a litde country boy who——' I don't
remembor exactly how it goes, but the chorus ends up, ' We
arc seven,'"

«Ycs. WeD Shan*wc try 'The Idylls of the King?'

They're so full of color,"

'' Go to it. Shoot." But he hastened to shelter himself
j)ehind a cigar.

She was not transported to Camelot. She read with an
eye cocked on him, and when she saw how much he was
suffering she. ran to him, kissed his forehead, cried, ** You poor
forced tube-rose that wants to be a decent turnip! "

"Lock here now, that ain't "

" Anyway, I sha'n't torture you any longer."
She could not quite give up. She r^ Kipling, with a great
deal of emphasis:

There's a REGIMENT apCOMlNG down the
GRAND Trunk ROAD.

He tapped his foot to the rh3rthm; he looked normal and
reassured. But when he con^limented her, '' That was fine.
I don't know but what you can elocute just as good as ESQa
Stowbody," she banged die book and suggested that they were*
not too late for the nine o'clock show at the movies.

That was l)er last effort to. harvest the April wind, to teadi '
divine unhappiness by a correq>ondence course, to buy the
lilies of Avalon and the sunsets of Cockaif^^^c in tin cans at
Ole Jenson's Grocery.

But the fact is that at the motion-pictures she discovered
lierself laughing as heartily as Kennicott at the humor of an
actor who stuffed spaghetti down a woman's evening frock.
For a second she loathed her lau^ter; mourned for the day
when on her hill|by the Mississippi she had walked the battle-
ments with queens. But Ac celebrated cinema jester's con-
ceit of dropping toads into a soup-plate flung her into unwiB-
ing tittering, auod the afterg^ faded, the dead queens fled
throi^ darkness.

She went to the JoUy Seventeen's afternoon bridge. She
had learned the dethents of the game from ihe Sam Clarks.

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She played quietly and reasonably badly. She had no opinions
on anyUimg more polemic than wod^ union-suits^ a topic on
which Mrs. Rowland dislJbursed for five minutes. She ^uled
frequently, and was the complete canary-bird in her manner
of thanking the hostess, Mrs. Dave Dyer.

Her only anxious period was during the conference on hus-
bands.

The young matrons discussed the intimacies of domesticity
with a frankness and a minuteness which disnayed Carol.
Juanita Haydock communicated Harry's method of shaving,
and his interest in deer-shooting;. Mrs. Gougerling reported
fully, and with some irritation, her husband's inappredation
of liver and bacon. Maud Dyer chronicled Dave's digestive
disorders; quoted a recent bedtime controversy with him in
regard to Qiristian Science, socks and the sewing of buttons
upon vests; announced that she '^ simply wasn't going to stand
his always pawing girls when he went and got crazy- jealous if
a man just danced with her "; and rather more than sketched
Dave's varieties of kisses.

So meekly did Carol give attention, so obviously was she at
last desirous of being one of them, that they looked cm h^
fondly, and encouraged her to give such details of her honey-
moon as might be of interest. She was embarrassed rather
than resentful. She deliberately misunderstood. She talked of
Kennicott's overshoes and medical ideals till they were
thoroughly bored. They regarded her as agreeable but green.

Till the end she labored to satisfy the inquisition. She
bubbled at Juanita, the president of the club, that she wanted
to entertain them. " Only," she said, " I don't know that I
can give you any refreshments as nice as Mrs. Dyer's salad,
or that singly delicious angd's-food we had at your house,
dear"

" Fine! We need a hostess for the seventeenth of March.
Wouldn't it be awfully original if you made it a St. Patrick's
Day bridge! I'll be tickled to death to help you with it.
I'm glad you've learned to play bridge. |At first I didn't hardly
know if you were going to like Gopher Prairie. Isn't it danc^
that you've settled down to being homey with us! Maybe
we aren't as highbrow as the Cities, but we do have the daisiest
times and— oh, we go swimming in summer, and dances and —
j-oh, lots of good times. If folks will just take us as we are,
/ think we're a pretty good bunch! "I

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*^ Tm ilire of it. Thank you so much for the idea about
having a St. Patrick's Day bridge.''

''Oh, that's nothing. I always think the Jolly Seventeen
are so ^)od at original ideas. If you knew these otl^r towns,
Wakamin and Jontlemon and aU, you'd find out and realize
that G. P. is the liveliest, smartest town in the estate. Did
you know that Percy Bresnahan, the famous auto manufac-
ture:, came from here and— — Yes, I think that a St. Patrick's
Day party would be awfully cunning and original, and yet not
too queer ox frealqr or anything."

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CHAPTER XI

She had often been ii^vited to the weekly meetings of the
ThanatqpsiSy the women's *study dub, but she had put it ofiF.
The Thanatopsis was, Vida Sherwin promised, " such a cozy
group, and yet it puts you in t«uch with all the intdlectud
thou^ts that are going on everywhere.''
i Early in March Mrs. Westlake, wife of the veteran ph3rsician,
inarched into Carol's living-room like an amiable old pussy
and suggested, '^My dear, you really must come to the
Thanatopsis this afternoon. Mrs. Dawson is going to be leader
and the poor soul is frightened to death. She wanted me to
get you to come. She says she's sure you will brighten up
the meeting with your knowledge of books and writings.
(English poetry is our topic today.) So shoo! Put on youi
coat! "

" En^ish poetry? Really? I'd love to go. I didn't realize
you were reading poetry."

" Oh, we're not so slow! "

Mrs. Luke Dawson, wife of the richest man in town, gaped
at them piteously when they appeaxed. Her expensive frock
of beaver-colored satin with rows, plasters, and pendants of
solemn brown beads was intended for a woman twice her size
She stood wringing her hands in front of nineteen foldinj
chairs, in her front parlor with its faded photogn^h of Minne-
haha Falls in 1890, its '^ colored enlargement " of Mr. Dawson
its bulbous lamp painted with sepia cows and mountains anc
standing on a mortuary marble column.

She creaked, " O Mrs. Kennicott, I'm in such a fix. I'm
supposed to lead the discussion, and I wondered would 3^01
come and help? "

" What poet do you take up today? " demanded Carol, ii
her library tone of " What book do you wish to take out? "

" Why, the En^ish ones."

"Not aU of them?"

'^W-why yes. We're learning all of European Literatnrt

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this jrear. The dub gets such a nke magazine, Cidiure Hints,
and we foUow its programs. Last year our subject was Men
and Women of the Bible, and next year well probably take
up Fumishinsp and China. My, it does make a body hustle
to keq> up with all these new culture subjects, but it is im-
proving. So will you help us with the discussion today? ''

On her way over Carol had decided to use the Thanatopsis
as the tool with which to liberalize the towii. She had im-
mediately conceived enormous enthusiasm; she had chanted,
" These are the real people. When the hoiisewives, who bear
the burdens, are interested in poetry, it means something. IH
work with them — for them — anythbig! "

Her enthusiasm had become watay even before thirteen
women resolutely removed Uieir overshoes, sat down meatfly,
ate peppermints, dusted their fingers, folded their hands, com-
posed ihek lower thoughts, and invited the naked muse of
poetry to deliver her most improving message. They had
greeted Carol affectionately, and she tried to be a dauj^ter
to them. But she felt ii^ecure. Her chair was out in the
open, exposed to their gaze, and it was a hard-slatted, quivery,
dq)pery church-parlor chair, likely to collapse publidy and
without warning. It was impossible to sit on it without folding
the hands and Ustening pioiBly.

She wanted to kick the duur and run. It would make a
magnificent clatter.

Soe saw that Vida Sberwin was watchini^ her. She pinched
her wrist, as though she were a noisy child in church, and
when she was decent and cramped again, she listened.

Mrs. Dawson opened the meeting by sighing, ''I'm sure
Fhi g^ to see you all here today, wd I umierstand that the
UKlies have prepared a number of very interesting papers, this
is such an interesting subject, the poets, they have beoi an
faispiration for higher thought, in fact wasn't it Reverend Ben-
lick ^o said that some of the po6ts have been as much an
inspiratimi as a good many of the ministers, and so we shall
be s^ to hear *"

llie poor lady smiled neuralgically, panted with fright,
scrabbled about the small oak table to find her eye-^a^,
and continued, ''We will first have the pleasure of hearing
Mrs. Jenson on the sid>ject ' Shake^>eare and Milton.' "

Mrs. Ole Jenson said that Shakespeare was bom m 1564
and died z6i6. He lived in Ixmdon, England, and in Stratford-
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on-Avon, lAdda. numy American tourists loved to visit, a lovely
town wiUi many curios and old houses well wertb examinatxHi.
Many people bdieved that Shake4>eare was the greatest play^
wris^t who ever lived, also a fine poet. Not much was knovni
about his life, but after all that did not r&dly make so much
difference, because they loved to read his numerous plays,
several of the best known of which she would now criticize.

Perhaps the best known of his plays was " The Merchant of
Venice,'' having a beautiful love story and a fine appreciation
of a woman's brains, which a woman's club, even those who
did not care to commit themsdves on the question of suffrage,
ought to appreciate. (Lau^ter.) Mrs. Jenson was sure that
she, for one, would love to be like Portia. The play was
about a Jew named Shylock, and he didn't want his dau^ter
to marry a Venice gendeman named Antonio

Mrs. Leonard Warren, a slender, gray, nervous woman,
pre^dent of the Thanatopsis and wife of the Congregational
pastor, reported the birth and death dates of Byron, Scott,
Moore, Bums; and wound iq>:

I '^ Bums was quite a poor boy and he did not enjoy the
advantages we enjoy today, except for the advantages of the
fine old Scotch kirk where he heard the Word of God preached
more fearlessly than even in the finest big brick churches in
the big and so-called advanced cities of today, but he did not
have our educational advantages and Latin and the other
treasures of the mind so richly strewn before the, alas, too
ofttimes inattentive feet of our youth who do not always
sufficiently {^predate the privileges freely granted to every
American boy rich or poor.f Burns had to work hard and was
sometimes led by evil companionship into low habits. But
it is morally instructive to know that he was a good student
smd educated himself, in striking contrast to the loose ways
and so-called aristocratic society-life of Lord Byron, on lAddtk
I have just spoken. And tertainly though the lords and earls
of his day may have looked down tq)on Bums as a humble
person, many of us have greatly enjoyed his pieces about the
mouse and other rustic subjects, with their message of humble
beauty — ^I am so sorry I have not got the time to quote some
of them."

Mrs. George Edwin Mott gave tea minutes to Tennyson
and Browning.

Mrs. Nat Hicks, a wry-faced, curiously sweet woman^ so

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swed by her betters that Carol wanted to kiss her, completed
the day's grim task by a paper on '* Other Poets." The other
poets worthy of consideration were Coleridge, Wordsworth,
Shdley, C^y, Mrs. Hemans, and Kipling.

Miss EUa Stowbody obliged with a recital of '^ The Reces-
sional " and extracts from '* Lalla Rookh.'' By request, Ae
gave " An Old Sweetheart of Mine '' as encore.

Gopher Prairie had finished the poets. It was ready for
the next week's labor: English Fiction and Essays.

Mrs. Daws(m besought, '^ Now we will have a discussion of
the papers, and I am sure we shall all enjoy hearing from one
who we hc^ to have as a new member, Mrs. Kennicott, who
with her spl^did literary training and all should be able to
give us many pointers and — ^many helpful pointers."

Carol had warned herself not to be so "beastly super-
cilious." She had insisted that in the belated quest of these
work-stained women was an aspiration which ou^t to stir her
tears. "But they're so self-satisfied. They think they're
dcHUg Bums a favor. They don't believe they have a * belated
quest' They're sure that they have culture salted and hung
up." It was out of this stiqx>r of doubt that Mrs. I^wson's
summons roused her. She was in a panic How could she
speak without hurting them?

Mrs. Champ Perry leaned over to strdie her hand and
whisper, " You look tired, dearie. Don't you talk unless you
want to."

Affection flooded Carol; she was on her feet, searching for
words and courtesies:

*^ The only thing in the way of suggestion I know

3roa are following a definite program, but I do wish that now
jrou've had such a ^lendid introduction, instead of going on
with some other subject next year you coidd return and take up
the poets more in detail. £^>ecially actual quotations— even
though their lives are so interesting and, as Mrs. Warren said,
so morally instructive. And perhaps there are several poets
not mentioned today whom it might be worth while considering
— ^Keats, for instance, and Matthew Arnold and Rossetti and
Swinburne. Swinburne would be such a — ^wdl, that is, such
a contrast to life as we all enjoy it in our beautiful Middle-
west ''

She saw that Mrs. Leonard Warren was not with her. She
captured her by innocently continuing:

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^ Unless perhaps Swinburne tends to be, nh, more outqx>ken
than you, than we really like. What do you think, Mrs.
Warren? "

The pastor's wife decided, "Why, youVe cau^it my very
thoughts, Mrs. Kennicott. Of course I have never read Swin-
burne, but years ago, when he was in vogue, I remember Mr.
Warren saying that Swinburne (or was it Oscar Wilde? but
anyway:) he said that though many so-called intellectual
people posed and pretended to find beauty in Swinburne, there
cjh never be genuine beauty without the message from the
heart. But at the same time I do think you have an excellent
idea, and though we have talked about Furnishings and China
as the probable subject for next year, I believe that it would
be nice if the program committee would try to work in another
day entirely devoted to English poetiyl In fact, Madame
Cluurman, I so move you."

When Mrs. Dawson's coffee and angel's-food had helped than
to recover from the depression caused by thoughts of Shake-
speare's death they all told Carol that it was a pleasure to
have her with them. The membership committee retired to
the sitting-room for three minutes and dected her a membar.

And she stopped being patronizing.

She wanted to be one of them. They were so loyal and
kind. It was they who would carry out her aspu^tion. Her
campaign against vOlage sloth was actually begun I On what
q>edfic reform should she first loose her army? During the
gossip after the meeting Mrs. George Edwin Mott remarked
that the city hall seemal inadequate for the splendid modem
Gopher Prairie. Mrs. Nat IScks timidly ^rished that the
young people could have free dances there — the lodge dances
were so exclusive. The city hall. That was it! Carol hurried
home.

She had not realized that Gopher Prairie was a dty. From
Kennicott she discovered that it was legally organized with a
mayor and dty-council and wards. She was delighted by the
sin4>lidty of voting one's self a metropolis. Why not?

Sbe was a proud and patriotic dtizen, all evening.

She examined the dty hall, next morning,
manbered it oidy as a bleak inconspicuousness.

She had re-
She found it

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a liver-cdored frame ox^ half a block from Main Street. The
front was an unrelieved wall of clapboards and dirty windows.
It had an miobstructed view of a vacant lot and Nat Hidcs's
tailor shop. It was larg^ than the carpenter shop beside it,
but not so well buflt.

No one was about. She walked into the corridor. On one
side was the municipal court, like a country school; on the
other, the room of the volunteer &e conq>any, with a Ford
hose-cart and the ornamental helmets used in parades; at
the end of the hall, a filthy two-cell jail, now empty but smell-
ing of ammonia and ancient sweat. The whole second story
was a large unfinished room littered with piles of folding
, chairs, a lime-crusted mortar-mixing box, and the skeletons of
Fourth of July floats cova'ed with decomposing plaster diields
and faded red, white, and blue bunting. At the end was an
abortive stage. The room was large enough for the community
dances which Mrs. Nat Hicks advocated. But Carol was after
something bigger than dances.

In the afternoon she scampered to the public library.

The library was open three afternoons and four evenings a
wedu It was housed in an old dwelling, sufficient but un-
attractive. Carol caught ha^elf picturing pleasanter reading-
F9(Hns, chairs for children, an art collection, a librarian young
eoDUgh to experiment.

She berated hersdf, ''Stop this fever of reforming every-
' thingl IivUlhe satisfied with the libraryl The city hall is
exkouf^ for a beginning. And it's really an excellent library.
It*s — ^it isn't so bad. . . . Is it possible that I am tol
find dishonesties and sti;)idity in every human activity I en-l
counter? In schools and business and government and evay-l
thing? Is there never any contentment, never any rest? "

Ste shook her head as though she were shaking off water,
and hastened into .the library, a young, light, amiable presence,
modest in unbuttoned fur coat, blue suit, fresh organdy collar,
aiMl tan boots roughened from scutBing snow. Miss Villets
stared at her, and Carol purred, ** I was so sorry not to see
you at the Thanatopsis yesterday. Vida said you might come."

" Oh, You went to the Thanatopsis. Did you enjoy it? "

'' So much. Such good papers on the poets." Carol lied
resdutel^. '' But I did think they should have had you give
one of the papers on poetry! "

^* Wdl Of course I'm not one of the bunch that seem to

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e tbe time to take and run the dub, and if they prefi
have papers on literature by other ladies who have i
:ary training — after all, why should I complain? Wlu
I but a city employee! "
You're not! You're the one person that does — ^that does-

you do so much. Tell me, is there, uh Who are tl

pie who control the club? "

fiss Villets emphatically stamped a date in the front (
rank on the Lower Mississippi'' for a small flaxen bo]
frered at him as though she were stamping a warning o
brain, and sighed:

I wouldn't put myself forward or criticize any one for th
Id, and Vida is one of my best friends, and such a ^lendi
lier, and there is no one in town more advanced and if
sted in all movements, but I must say that no matte
I the president or the committees are, Vida Sherwin seean
i>e bdiind them all the time, and tliouf2;h she is alwa>
ng me about what she is pleased to call my 'fine wor
be library,' I notice that I'm not often called on for paper
igh Mrs. Lyman Cass once volunteered and told me ths
thought my paper on ' The Cathedrals of England ' wa
most interesting paper we had, the year we took up Englis

French travel and architecture. But And of coma

;. Mott and Mrs. Warren are very important in the cf id
irou mi^t expect of the wives of the superintendent c
)ols and the Congregational pastor, and indeed they ar

1 very cultured, but No, you may regard me as en

[y unimportant. I'm sure what I say doesn't matter a bit I
You're much too modest, and I'm going to tell Vida sc
, uh, I wonder if you can give me just a teeny bit of you
^ and show me where the magazine files are kept? "
be had won. She was profusely escorted to a room like i
idmother's attic, where she discovered periodicals devote
lOUse-decoration and town-planning, with a six-year file g
National Geographic. Miss Villets blessedly left her alon
nming, fluttering pages with delighted fingers, Carol sa
s-legged on the floor, the magazines in heaps about hei
lie found pictures of New England streets: Uie dignity o
nouth, the charm of Concord, Stockbridge and FarmingtCM
Hillhouse Avenue. The fairy-'tx)ok suburb of Forest Hill
Long Island. Devonshire cottages and Essex manors an
orkshire High Street and Port Sunlight. The Arab viDag

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tff Djeddab—an intricately chased jewd-box. A town in Cali-
fornia which had changed itsdfj from the barren brick fronts
and sUtttemly frame sheds of a* Main Street to a way which
led the eye down a vista of arcades and gardens.

Assured that she was not quite mad in her belief that a
small American town mij^t be lovely, as well as iiseful in
buying wheat and selling plows, she sat brooding, her thin
fingers pla3ang a tattoo on her cheeks. ^She saw in Gq>her
Prairie a Georgian city hall: warm brick walls ^th white
shutters, a fanlight, a wide hall and curving stair. ^She saw it
the common home and in^iration not only of the town but
of the country about. It should contain the court-room (she
f couldn't get hersdf to put in a jail), public library, a collection
of , excellent prints, rest-room and model kitchen for farmwives,
theater, lecture room, free community ballroom, farm-bureau,
gymnasium. Forming about it and influenced by it, as
mediaeval villages gathered about the castle, she saw a new
Georgian town as graceful and bdoved as Annapolis or that

Ibc^ery Alexandria to which Washington rode.
All this the Thanatopsis Club was to accon^lish with no
difficulty whatever, since its several husbands were the con-
trollers of business and politics. She was proud of herself for
tUfi practical view.

Sbe had taken only half an hour to change a wire-fenced
potaito-plot into a walled rose-garden. She hurried out to ap-
prizle Mrs. Leonard Warren, as president of the Thanatopsis,
of the mirade which had been worked.

At a quarter to three Carol had left liome; at half-past four
d>e had created the Georgian town; at a quarter to five she
was in the dignified poverty of the Congregational parsonage,
her enthusiasm pattering ^^)on Mrs. Leonard Warren like sirai-
mer rain upon an old gray roof; at two minutes to five a town
of demure courtyards and welcoming dormer windows had
been erected; and at two minutes past five the entire town
was as flat as Babylon.

Erect in a black William and Mary chair against gray and
BpecUy-brown volumes of sermons and Biblical commentaries
and Palestine geogr^hies upon long pine sbdves, her neat
Uack shoes firm on a rag-rug, lierself as correct and low-toned

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as her background, Mrs. Warren listened without comment ti
Carol was quite through, then answered delicately:

" Yes, I think you draw a very nice picture of what mi0]
easily come to pass — some day. I have no doubt that sue
\illages will be found on the prairie — some day. But if I migk
make just the least little criticism: | it seems to me that yo

e wrong in supposing either that Uie dty hall would be tb
^proper start, or that Sie Thanatopsis would be the right ii
stnunent. After all, it's the churches, isn't it, that are ib
real heart of the community. As you may possibly know, m
husband is prominent in Congr^ational drdes all through tli
state for his advocacy of chur(£-union| He hopes to see a
the evangelical denominations joined in one strong body, 0{
posing Catholicism and Christian Science, and properly guidia
all movements that make for morality and prohibition. Her
the combined churches could afford a splendid dub-hous
maybe a stucco and half-timber building with gargoyles an
all sorts of pleasing decorations on it, which, it seems to mi
would be lots better to impress the ordinary class of peopl
than just a plain old-fashioned colonial house, such as yo
describe. And that would be the proper center for all educs
tional and pleasurable activities, instead of letting them f^
into the hands of the politicians."

^'I don't suppose it will take more than thirty or fd
years for the churdies to get together? " Carol said
cently.

" Hardly that long even; things are moving so rabidly,
it would be a mistake to make any other plans."

Carol did not recover her zeal till two days after, when sfa
tried Mrs. George Edwin Mott, wife of the superintendent o
schools.

Mrs. Mott commented, " Personally, I am terribly busy wit]
dressmaking and having the seamstress in the house and al
but it would be splendid to have the other members of th
Thanatopsis take up the question. £xcq>t for one thing: Fin
and foremost, we must have a new schoolbuilding. Mr. Mol
sa3rs they are terribly cramped."

Carol went to view the old building. The grades and tl
high school were combined in a damp ydlow-brick stmctui
with the narrow windows of an antiquated jafl — ^a hulk whic
expressed hatred and compulsory training. She conceded Mi
Mott's demand so violently that for two days she drcqpped b

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jewii campaign. Then she buOt the school and city hall to-
.gether, as the center of the reborn town.

She ventured to the lead-<oIored dweUinjo^ of Mrs. Dave Dyer.
Behind the mask of winter-stripped vines and a wide porch
.only a foot above the ground, the cottage was so impersoiud
ithat Carol could never visualize it. Nor could she remembo:
ng that was inside it. But Mrs. Dya* was perscmal
11^. With Carol, Mrs. Howland, Mrs. McGanum, and
Sherwin she was a link between the Jolly Seventeen and
serious Thanatopsis (in contrast to Juanita Haydock, who
sirily boasted of being a "lowbrow" and publicly
ited that she would '^ see herself in jail before she'd write
darned old club papers '')• ^^^ "Dyer was sl^)erfeminine
the kimono in whidi she received Carol. Her skin was fine,
le, soft, suggesting a weak voluptuousness. At aftemoon-
offees she had been rude but now she addressed Carol as
'dear/' and insisted on being called Maud. Carol did not
|mte know why she was uncomfortable in this talcimi-powder
re, but she hastoied to get into the fresh air of her

Maud Dyer granted that the city hall wasn't " so very nice,"
et, as Dave said, there was no use doing anything about it
they received an appropriation from the state and com-
bined a new city hall with a national guard armory. Dave
had given verdict, " What these mouthy youngsters that hang
around the pool-room need is universal military training. Make
men of 'em."

Mrs. Dyer removed the new schoolbuilding from the dty
haU:

" Oh, so Mrs. Mott has got you going on her school crazel
She's been dinging at that till everybody's sick and tired. What
she really wants is a big office for her dear bald-headed Gawge
to sdt around and look important in. Of course I admire
Mrs. Mott, and I'm very fond of her, she's so brainy, evai
if she does try to butt in and nm the Thanatopsis, but I must
say we're sick, of her nagging. The old building was good
enough for us when we were kids I I hate these would-be^
vomen politicians, don't you? "

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The first wedc of March had fovea promise of spring and
stirred Carol with a thousand desires for lakes and fidds and
roads. The snow was gone except for filthy woolly patdies
under trees; the thermometer leaped in a day from wind-bitten
chill to itchy warmth. As soon as Carol was convinced that
even in this imprisoned North, ^ring could exist again, the
snow came down as abruptly as a paper storm in a theater;
the northwest gale flimg it iq> in a half-blizzard; and with
her hope of a glorified town went hope of summer meadows.

But a week later, though the snow was everywhere in slushy
heaps, the promise was unmistakable. By the invisible hints
in air and sky and earth which had aroused her every year
through ten diousand generations she knew that ^ring was
coming. It was not a scorching, hard, dusty day like the
treacherous intruder of a week before, but soaked with languor,
softened with a milky light. Rivulets were hurr3dng in each
alley; a calling robin appeared by magic on the crab-apple
tree in the Rowlands' yard. Everybody chuckled, "Looks
like winter is going," and " This 11 bring the frost out of the
roads — ^have the autos out pretty soon now — ^wonder what kind
of bass-fishing we'll get this stmimer — ought to be good crops
this year."

Each evening Kennicott repeated, " We better not take off
our Heavy Underwear or the storm windows too soon — ^might
be "nother spell of cold — got to be careful Iwut catching cold —
wonder if the coal will last through? "

The expanding forces of life within her choked the desire
for reforming. She trotted through the house, planning the
^ring cleaning with Bea. When she attended her second
meeting of. the Thanatopsis she said nothing about remaking
the town. |She listened respectably to statistics on Dickens,
Thackeray, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Scott, Hardy, Lamb,
De Quincey, and Mrs. Humphty Ward, who, it seemed, con-
stituted the writers of English Fiction and Essays4

Not till she inspected the rest-room did she again become
a fanatic. She had often glanced at the store-building which
had been turned into a refuge in which farmwives coidd wait
while their husbands transacted business. She had heard Vida
Sherwin and Mrs. Warren caress the virtue of the Thanatopsis
in establishing the rest-room and in sharing with the' city

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council the expense of maintaining it. But she had nevo: en-
tered it till this March day.

She went in impukivdy; nodded at the matron, a plunq>
worthy widow named Noddquist, and at a coiq)le of farm-
women who were meekly rodung. The rest-room resembled
a second-hand store. It was furnished with discarded patent
rockers, lopsided reed chairs, a scratched pine table, a gritty
straw mat, old sted engravings of milkmaids being morally
amorous under willow-trees, faded chromos of roses and fish,
and a kerosene stove for warming lunches. The front window
was darkened by torn net curtains and by a mound of geran-
iums and rubber-plants.

While she was listening to Mrs. Nodelquist's accotmt of how
many thousands of farmers' wives used the rest-room every
jrear, and how much they "appreciated the kindness of the
ladies in providing them with this lovely place, and all free,"
she thou^t, " Kindness nothing! The kind-ladies' husbands
get the farmers' trade. This is mere commercial accommoda-
tion. And it's horrible. It ought to be the most charming
room in town, to comfort women sick of prairie kitchens.
CertainV it ought to have a dear window, so that they can
see the metropolitan life go by. Some day I'm going to make
a better rest-room — a, club-room. Why I I've already planned
that as part of my Georgian town hdl! "

So it chanced that she was plotting against the peace, of the
Thanatopsis at her third meeting (which covered Scandinavian,
Russian, and Polish Literature, with remarks by Mrs. Leonard
Warren on the sinful paganism of the Russian so-called
church). Even before the entrance of the coffee and hot rolls
Carol sdzed on Mrs. Champ Perry, the kind and anq)le-
bosomed pioneer woman who gave historic dignity to the
modem matrons of the Thanatopsis. She poured out her
plans. Mrs. Perry nodded and stroked Carol's hand, but at
the end she sighed:

" I wish I could agree with you, dearie. I'm sure you're
<me of the Lord's anointed (even if we don't see you at the
B^tist Church as often as we'd like to) I But I'm afraid
you're too tender-hearted. When Champ and I came here
we teamed-it with an ox-cart from Sauk Centre to Gopher
Prairie, and there was nothing here then but a stockade and
a ieyr soldiers and some log cabins. When we wanted salt pork
%sid gaogfifwdeCy we sent out a man on horseback, and prol]ably

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he was shot dead by the Injims before he got back. W
ladies— of course we were all fanners at first — ^we didn't expec
any rest-room in those days. My^ we'd have thought the on
they have now was singly elegant! My house was roofe
with hay and it leaked something terrible when it rained-
only dry place was imder a shelf.

"And when the town grew up we thought the new dt

hall was real fine. And I don't see any need for dance-halL

Dancing isn't what it was, anyway. We used to dance modesi

and we had just as much fun as all these young folks d

now with their terrible Turkey Trots and hugging and al

I But if they must neglect the Lord's injunction that young girl

ought to be modest, then I guess they manage pretty well a

the K. P. Hall and the Oddfellows', even if some of Ae lodge

don't always welcome a lot of tfiese foreigners and hira

help to all their dances. And I certainly don't see an^

\ neeid of a farm-bureau or this domestic science demonstratio

%^^ you talk about. In my day the boys learned to farm by hones

^ sweating, and every gal could cook, or her ma learned he

how across her knee! Besides, ain't there a county agent a

Wakamin? He comes here once a fortnight, maybe. That'

enough monkeying with this scientific farming— Champ say

there's nothing to it anyway^

" And as for a lecture hall — ^haven't we got the churches

Good deal better to listen to a good old-fashioned sermon tha

a lot of geography and books and things that nobody need

to know — more 'n enough heathen learning right here in th

i , Thanatopsis.^' And as for trying to make a whole town in thi

l^ " Colonial architecture you talk about I do love nice things

to this day I run ribbons into my petticoats, even if C3iam
Perry does laugh at me,^''the old villain! f But just the sani
I don't believe any of us old-timers would like to see the tow
"^ that we worked so hard to build being tore down to make

place that wouldn't look like nothing but some Dutch storj
book and not a bit like the place we loved.| And don't yx)u thin
it's sweet now? All the trees and lawns? And such comf
houses, and hot-water heat and electric lights and telq>honi
and cement walks and everything? Why, I thou^t ever}
body from the Twin Cities always said it was such a beautifi
town! "

Carol forswore herself; declared that Gopher Prairie ha
the color of Algiers and the gaiety of Mardi Gras,

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Yet tlie next afternoon she was pouncing on Mrs. Lyman
Cass, the hook-nosed consort of the owner of the flour-mill.

Mrs. Cass's parlor belonged to the crammed-Victorian school,
as Mrs. Luke Dawson's belonged to the bare-Victorian. It was
furnished on two principles: First, everything must resemble
scHDething else. A rocker had a back like a lyre, a near-leather
seat unitating tufted doth, and arms like Scotch Presb3rterian
Ikmqs; with knobs, scrolls, shields, and q>ear-points on un-
expected portions of the chair. Tie second principle of the
crammed-Victorian school was that every indh of the interim
must be filled with useless objects.

The waDs of Mrs. Cass's parlor were plastered with ^ hand-
painted " pictures, " buckeye " pictures, of birch-trees, news-
boys, puppies, and church-steeples on Christmas Eve; with a
plaque dq>icting the Ejq>osition Bmlding in Minneapolis, burnt-
wood portraits of Indian chiefs of no tribe in particular, a
pansy-decked poetic motto, a Yard of Roses, and the bannos of
the educational institutions attended by the Casses' two sons —
Chicopee Falls Business College and McGillicuddy University.
One small square table contained a card-receiver of painted
diina with a rim of wrou^t and gilded lead, a FamOy Bible,
Grant's Memoirs, the latest novel by Mrs. Gene Stratton
P<vter, a wooden model of a Swiss dialet widdx was also a bank
for dimes, a polished abalone shell holding one black-headed
pin and one empty spool, a velvet pin-cushion in a gilded
metal slipper with " Souvenir of Troy, N. Y." stamped on the
toe, and an unexplained red glass di^ which had warts.

Mrs. Cass's first remark was« ''I must show you all my
pretty things and art objects."

She piped, after Carol's appeal:

'^ I see. You think the New England villages and Colonial
houses are so much more cunning than these Middlewestem
towns. I'm glad you feel that way. Youll be interested to
blow I was bom in Vermont."

"And don't you think we ought to try to make Gopher
Prai "

" My gracious no! We can't afford it. Taxes are much too |
hi^ as it is. We ought to retrench, and not let the city council

^)^ another cent. Uh Don't you think that was a grand

paper Mrs. Westlake read about Tobtoy? I was so glad
she pointed out how all his silly socialistic ideas failed."

What Mrs. Cass said was what Kennicott said, that evening.

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Not in twenty years would the council prcfpoae or Gopher
Prairie vote the funds for a new dty halL

Carol had avoided exposing her plans to Vida Sherwin. She
was shy of the big-sisto: manner; Vida would either laugh
at her or snatch the idea and chan^ise it to suit hersdf. But
there was no other hi^. When Vida came in to tea Carol
sketched her Utopia.

Vida was soothing but decisive:

'' My dear, you're all off. I would like to see it: a real
gardeny place to shut out the gales. But it can't be done.
What could the clubwomen accompli^? "

"Their husbands are ibe most important men in town.
They are the town! " '

" But the town as a separate unit is not the husband of the
Thanatopsis. If you knew the trouble we had in getting the
dty coundl to spend the money and cover the pumping-station
with vines! Whatever you may think of Gopher Prairie
women, they're twice as progressive as the men."

" But can't the men see the ugliness? "

" They don't think it's ugly. And how can you prove it?
Matter of taste. Why should they like what a Boston architect
likes? "

" What they like is to sdl prunes! "

" Well, why not? An)rway, the point is that you have to
work from the inside, with what we have, rather than from
the outside, with foreign ideas. The shell ought not to be
forced on the spirit. It can't be! The bright shell has to
grow out of the spirit, and express it. That means waiting,
jlf we keep after the dty council for another ten years they may
vote the bonds for a new school."

" I refuse to believe that if they saw it the big men would
be too tight-fisted to spend a few dollars each for a building —
think! — dancing and lectures and plays, all done co-(^era-
tively! "

" You mention the word ' co-operative ' to the merchants and
they'll lynch you! The one thing they fear more than mail-
order houses is that farmers' co-ojerative movements may get
started."

" The secret trails that lead to scared pocket-books! Always.

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in evoything! And I don't have any of the fine melodrama
of fiction: the dictagraphs and speeches by torchlight. I'm
merely blocked by stupidity, ^h, I know I'm a fool. I dream
of Venice, and I live in Archangel and scold because the
Northern seas aren't t^der-colored. But at least they sha'n't

keep me from loving Venice, and sometime I'll run away

All right. No more."
She flong out her hancb in a gesture of renunciation.

Early May; wheat springing up in blades like grass; com
and potatoes being planted; the land humming. For two days
there had been steady rain. Even in town die roads were a
furrowed welter of mud, hideous to view and difficult to cross.
Main Street was a black swamp from curb to ciurb ; on residence
streets the grass parking beside the walks oozed gray water.
It was prickly hot, yet the town was barren under the bleak
sky. Softened neither by snow nor by waving boughs the
bouses squatted and scowled, revealed in their unkenqi>t harsh-

As she dragged homeward Carol looked with distaste at her
clay-loaded rubbers, the smeared hem of her skirt. She passed
Lyman Cass's pinnacled, dark-red, hulking house. She waded
a streaky yellow pool. This morass was not her home, she
insisted. Her home, and her beautiful town, existed in her
mind. They had already been created. The task was done.
What she really had been questing was some one to share them
with her. Vida would not; Kennicott could not.

Some one to sAiare her refuge.

Suddenly she was thinking of Guy Pollock.

She dismissed him. He was too cautious. She needed a
spirit as young and unreasonable as her own. Md she would
never find it. Youth would never come singing. She was
beaten.

Yet that same evening she had an idea which solved the
rebuilding of Gopher Prairie.

Within ten minutes she was jarking the old-fashioned bell-
^ pull of Luke Dawson. Mrs. Dawson opened the door and
\ peered doubtfully about the edge of it. Carol kissed her
^checfk, and frisked into the lugubrious sitting-room.

^* Wdl, well, you're a sight for sore eyes! " chuckled Mr.

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Dawson, dropping his new^)aper, pushing his spectacles back
on his forehead.

" You seem so excited," sighed Mrs. Dawson.

" I ami Mr. Dawson, aren't you a millionaire? "

He cocked his head, and Mi^ed, '^ Well, I guess if I cashed
in on all my securities and larm-holdings and my interests in
iron on the Mesaba and in Northern timber and cut-over lands,
I could push two mUlion dollars pretty close, and I've made
every cent of it by hard work and having the sense to not go
out and spend every "

" I think I want most of it from you! "

The Dawsons glanced at each other in appreciation of the
jest; and he chirped, /' You're worse than Reverend Benlickl
He don't hardly ever strike me for more than ten dollais—
at a timet "

" I'm not joking. I mean it I Your children in the Cities are
grown-up and well-tCHdo, You don't want^ to die and leave
your name unknown, fwhy not do a big, original thing? Why
not rebuild the whole^wn? Get a great architect, and have
him plan a town that would be suitable to the prairie. Perhaps
he'd create some entirely new form of architecture. Then tear
down all these shambling buildings "

Mr. Dawson had decided that she really did mean it. He
wailed, '' Why, that would cost at least three <»: four million
dollars! "

^' But you alone, just one man, have two of those millionsl "

'^ Me? Spend all my hard-earned cash on building houses
for a lot of^^ftless beggars that never had the sense to save
their moneyj Not that I've ever been mean. Mama could
always ha^^rt hired girl to do the work — ^when we could find
one. But her and I have worked our fingers to the bone and—
spend it on a lot of these rascals ? "

" Please! Don't be angry! I just mean — ^I mean Oh,

not spend all of it, of course, but if you led off the list, and
the others came in, and if they heard you talk about a more
attractive town "

"Why now, child, jrou've got a lot of notions. Besides,
what's the matter with the town? Looks good to me. I've
had people that have traveled all over the world tell me time
and again that Gopher Prairie is the prettiest place in the
Middlewest. Good enou^ for anybody. Certainly good
enough for Mama and me. Besides! Mama and me are plan-

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mng to go out to Pasadena ^nd buy a bungalow and live
there."

She had met Miles B jornstam <m the street. For the second
of welcome encounter this workman with the bandit mustache
and the muddy overalls seemed nearer than any one else to
the credulous youth which she was seeking to fi^t beside her,
and she told him, as a cheerful anecdote, a little of her story.

He grunted, *|I never thought I'd be agreeing with Old Man
Dawson, the penny-pmching old land-thief — ^and a fine briber
he is, too. But you got the wrong slant. You aren't one of
the pec^le — ^yet. You want to do something for the town. I
don't! I want the town to do something for itself. We don't
want old Dawson's money — ^not if it's a gift, with a string.
Well take it away from him, because it belongs to us. You
got to get more iron and cussedness into you. Come join us
cheerful bums, and some day — ^when we educate ourselves and
quit being bums — well take things and run 'em straight."!
' He had changed from her friend to a cynical man in over-
alls. She could not relish the autocracy of '' cheerful bums."

She forgot him as ^e tramped the outskirts of town.

She had replaced the city hall project by an entirely new I
and highly esdiilarating thought of how little was done tar
these unpicturesque poor.

vni

Tie spring of the plains is not a reluctant virgin but brazen
and 0oon away. The mud roads of a few days ago are powdery
dust and the puddles beside them have harden^ into lozenges
of bladL sleek earth like cracked patent leather.

C^td was panting as she crept to the meeting of the Thana-
topsis program committee whidi was to decide the subject for
next fsdl and winter.

Madam Chairman (Miss Ella Stowbody in an oyster-
colcred blouse) asked if there was any new business.

Carol rose. She suggested that the Thanatopsis ought to
help the poor of the town. She was ever so correct and modem.
Sbe did not, she said, want charity for them, but a chance of
self-help; an en^loyment bureau, direction in washing babies

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[g pleasing stews, possibly a municipal fund for home-
^' What do you think of my plans, Mrs. Warren? "
ided.

g judiciously, as one related to the church by mar-
i. Warren gave verdict:

jre we're all heartily in accord with Mrs. Kennicott
that wherever genuine poverty is encountered, it is
loblesse oblige but a joy to fulfil our duty to the less
ones. iBut I must say it seems to me we should
hole pomt of the thing by not regarding it as charity.
t's the chief adornment of the true Christian and the
The Bible has laid it down for our guidance. ' Faith,
1 Charity' it says, and, * The poor ye have with ye
7hich indicates that there never can be anything ta
ailed scientific schemes for abolishing charity, never H
it better so? I should hate to think of a world in
were deprived of all die pleasure of giving. Besides,
[liftless folks realize they're getting charity, and not
; to which they have a ri^t, they're so much more

es," snorted Miss Ella Stowbody, " they've been fool-
Mrs. Kennicott. There isn't any real poverty here.
: Mrs. Steinhof you speak of: I send her our washing
there's too much for our hired girl — ^I must have
Ml dollars' worth the past year alone! I'm sure Papa
rer approve of a city home-building fund. Papa sa}^
Ls are fakers. Especially all these tenant fanners
ind they have so much trouble getting seed and ma-
Papa says they simply won't pay their debts. He
sure he hates to foreclose mortgages, but it's the only
ake them respect the law." •

then think of all the clothes we give these peoplel "
Jackson Elder.

Atruded again. " Oh yes. The dothes. I was going
of that. Don't you diink that when we give clothes
or, if we do give them old ones, we ou^t to mend
t and make them as presentable as we can? Next
; when the Thanatopsis makes its distribution,
It be jolly if we got together and sewed on the dothes,

aed hiats, and made them "

ens and earth, they have more time than we have!
;ht to be mighty good and grateful to get an3rthing,

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no matter what shape it's in. I know I'm not going to sit
and sew for that lazy Mrs. Vopni, with all I've got to do! "
sa2^)ped EUa Stowbody.

They were g^ng at Carol. She reflected that Mrs. Vopni,
whose husband had been killed by a train, had ten children.

But Mrs. Mary Ellen Wilks was smiling. Mrs. Wilks was
the proprietor of Ye Art Shoppe and Magazine and Book Store,
and the reader of the small Christian Science church. She
Blade it all clear:

''If this class of people had an understanding of Science and
tbat we are the children of God and nothing can harm us,
fliey wouldn't be in error and poverty."

Mrs. Jackson Elda: confirmed, '' Besides, it strikes me the
dub is already doing enough, with tree-planting and the anti-
fly campaign and the responsibility for the rest-room-7>to say
nothing of the fact that we've talked of tr3dng to get the
lailroad to put in a park at the station! "

"I think so tool " said Madam Chairman. She glanced
nneasOy at Miss Sherwin. '' But what do you think, Vida? "

Vida smled tactfuUy at each of the committee, and an-
nounced, "Wdl, I don't believe we'd better start anything
more ri^t now. But it's been a privilege to hear Carol's dear
generous ideas, hasn't it! Oh! There is one thing we must
decide on at once. We must get together and oppose any move
on the part of the Minneapolis dubs to elect another State
Federation president from the Twin Cities. And this Mrs.
Edgar Potbury they're putting forward — ^I know there are
people who think ^e's a bri^t interesting speaker, but I
regard her as very shallow. What do you say to my writing
to the Lake Ojibawasha Qub, telling them that if their district
will support Mrs. Warren for sea»id vice-presidait, well sup-
port ihdr Mrs. Hagdton (and such a dear, lovely, cultivated
woman, too) for president."

''Yes! We ought to show up those Minneapolis folks! "
EDa Stowbody said acidly. " And oh, by the way, we must
oppose this movement of Mrs. Potbury's to have the state dubs
come out definitdy in ^favor of woman suffrage. Women
haven't sjxy place in politics. They would lose all theur dainti-
ness and chmn if they became involved in these horried plots
nski log-rolling and all this awful political stuff about scandal
and personalities and so on."

AD— save one— nodded. They interrupted the formal

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bosiness-meeting to discuss Mrs. Edgar Potbury's husband^
Mrs. Potbury's income^ Mrs. Potbury's sedan, Mrs. Potbury's
residence, Mrs. Potbury's oratorical style, Mrs. Potbury's man-
darin evening coat, Mrs. Potbury's coiffiure, and Mrs. Potbury's
altogether reprehensible influence on the State Federation of
Women's Qubs.

Before the program committee adjourned they took three
minutes to decide which of the subjects suggested by the
magazine Culture Hints, Furnishings and China, or The Bible
as Literature, would be better for the coming year. There
was one annoying incident. Mrs. Dr. Kennicott interfered
and showed ofif again. She commented, ^^ Don't you think
that we already get enough of the Bible in our churches and
Sunday Schools? "

Mrs. Leonard Warren, somewhat out of order but much
more out of temper, cried, "WeU iqK)n my word I I didn't
suppose there was any. one who felt that we could get enough
of the Bible I I guess if the Grand Old Book has withstood
the attacks of infidels for these two thousand years it is worth
our slight consideration! "

" Oh, I didn't mean " Carol begged. Inasmuch as she

did mean, it was hard to be extremely lucid. '^ But I wish,
instead of limiting ourselves either to the Bible, or to anecdotes
about the Brothers Adam's wigs, which Culture Hints seems
to regard as the significant point about furniture, we could
study some of the really stirring ideas that are springing up
today — ^whether it's chemistry or anthropology or labor pr(d>-
lems — the things that are going to mean so terribly much."

Everybody deared her polite throat

Madam Chairman inquired, '^ Is there any other discussion?
Will some one make a motion to adopt the suggestion of Vida
Sherwin — to take up Furnishings and China? "

It was adopted, unanimously.

'' Checkmate! " murmured Carol, as she held up her hand.

Had she actually believed that she could plant a seed of
liberalism in the blank wall of mediocrity? How had she
fallen into the folly of trying to plant anything whatever in a
wall so smooth and sun-£^azed, and so satisfying to the happy
sleq)ers within?

E;l

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CHAPTER Xn

One week of authentic spring, one rare sweet week of May,
<Mie tranquil moment between the blast of winter and the charge
of summer. Daily Carol walked from town into flashing
country hysteric with new life.

One em^anted hour when she returned to youth and a
belief in the possibility of beauty.

She had walked northward toward the upper shore of Plover
Lake, taking to the raihroad track, whose directness and dry-
ness make it the natural highway for pedestrians on the
plains. She stepped from tie to tie, in long strides. At each
road-crossing she had to crawl over a cattle-guard of sharpened
timbers. She walked the rafls, balancing with arms extended,
cautious hed before toe. As she lost balance her body bent
over, her arms revolved wildly, and when she toppled she
laug^ied aloud.

'nie thick grass beside the track, coarse and prickly with
many burnings, hid canary-yellow buttercups and the mauve
petals and woolly sage-green coats of the pasque flowers. The
branches of the kinnikinic brush were red and smooth as
lacquer on a saki bowl.

She ran down the gravelly embankment, smiled at children
gathering flowers in a little basket, thrust a handful of the
soft pasque flowers into the bosom of her white blouse. Fields
of ^;>ringing wheat drew her from the straight propriety of the
railroad and she crawled through the rusty barbed-wire fence.
9ie followed a furrow between low ^eat blades and a field of
jye which showed silver lights as it flowed before the wind.
9ie found a pasture by the lake. So sprinkled was the pasture
with rag-baby blossoms and the cottony herb of Indian tobacco
that it spread out like a rare old Persian carpet of cream
and rose and delicate green. Under her feet the rough grass
made a pleasant crunching. Sweet winds blew from the sunny
lake beside her, and small waves sputtered on the meadowy
shore. She leaped a tiny creek bowered in pussy-willow buds.

145

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She was nearing a frivolous grove of birch and poplar and
wild plum trees.

The pcq>lar foliage had the downiness of a Cprot arbor;
the green and silver trunks were as candid as the birches, as
slender and lustrous as the limbs of a Pierrot. The cloudy
white blossoms of the plum trees filled the grove with a
springtime mistiness which gave an illusion of distance.

She ran mto the wood, crying out for joy of freedom regained
after winter. Choke-cherry blossoms lured her from the outer
sun-warmed spaces to depths of green stillness, where a svh-
marine light came through the young leaves. She walked
pensively along an abandoned road. She found a nKKxasin-
flower beside a lichen-covered log. At the end of the road
she saw the open acres — dipping rolling fields bright with
wheat.

" I believe! The woodland gods still live! And out there,
the great land. It's beautiful as the mountains. What do
I care for Thanatopsises? "

She came out on the prairie, spacious under an arch of boldly
cut clouds. Small pools glittered. Above a marsh red-winged
blackbirds chased a crow in a swift melodrama of the air.
On a hill was silhouetted a man following a drag. Hb horse
bent its neck and plodded, content.

A path took her to the Corinth road, leading back to town.
Dandelions glowed in patches amidst the wild grass by the
way. A stream goUoped through a concrete culvert beneath
the road. She trudged in healthy weariness.

A man in a bumping Ford rattled up beside her, hailed^
" Give you a lift, Mrs. Kennicott? "

" Thank you. It's awfully good of you, but I'm enjoying the
walk."

" Great day, by golly. I seen some wheat that must of
been five inches high. Well, so long."

~ She hadn't the dimmest notion who he was, but his gpreeting
warmed her. This countryman gave her a companionship
which she had never (whether by her fault or theirs or neither)
been able to find in the matrons and commercial lords of the
town.

Half a mile from town, in a hollow between hazelnut bushes
and a brook, she discovered a gipsy encampment: a covered
wagon, a tent, a bunch of pegged-out horses. .A broad-
shouldered man was squatted on his heels, holding a frying-

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pan over a caiiq>-fire. He looked toward her. He was Miles
Bjomstam.

^' WeU, well, what you domg out here? '' he roared. '' Come
have a hunk 0' bacon. Pete! Hey, Petel '*

A tousled person came from behind the cov^ed wagon.

" Pete, here's the one honest-to-God lady in my bum town«
Come on, crawl in and set a couple minutes, Mrs. Kennicott.
I'm hiking off for all summer."

Tlie Red Swede staggered up, rubbed his cramped knees,
lumbered to the wire fence, held the strands apart for her.
She unconsciously smiled at him as she went through. Her
skirt caught on a barb; he carefully freed it.

Beside this man in blue flannel sUrt, baRRy khaki trousers,
uneven su^>enderSy and vile felt hat, she was small and
exquisite.

The surly Pete set out an upturned bucket for her. She
lounged on it, her elbows on her knees. "Where are you
going? " she asked.

" Just starting off for the summa:, horse-trading." Bjom-
stam chuckled. His red mustache caught the sun. " Regular
hdx)es and public benefactors we are. Take a hike like this
every once in a while. Sharks on horses. Buy 'em from
formers and sell 'em to others. We're honest — ^frequently.
Great time. Camp along the road. I was wishing I had a

chance to say good-by to you before I ducked out but

Say, you better come along with us."

"I'd like to."
* " While you're playing mumblety-peg with Mrs. Ljrm Cass,
Pete and me wiU be rambling across Dakota, through the
Bad Lands, into the butte country, and when fall comes,
we'll be crossing ovec a pass of the Big Horn Moimtains,
maybe, and camp in a snow-storm, quarter of a mile right
straight up above a lake. Then in the morning we'll lie snug
in our blankets and look up through the pines at an eagle.
How'd it strike you? Heh? Eagle soaring and soaring all
day — big wide sky "

" DontI Or I will go with you, and I'm afraid there might
be some slight scandal. Perhaps some day 111 do it. Good-by."

Her hand disappeared in his blackened leather glove. From
Hoe turn in the road she waved at him. She walkwi on more
soberly now, and she was lonely.

But the wheat and grass were sleek velvet under the sun-

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148 • MAIN STREET

let; the prairie clouds were tawiQr gold; and she swung happily
into Main Street.

Through the first days of June she drove with Kennicott on
his calls. She identified him with the virile land; she admired
him as she saw with what re^>ect the farmers obeyed him.
She was out in the early chill, after a hasty cup of cofifee,
reaching open country as the fresh sun came up in that
unspoiled w^ld. Meadow larks called from the tops of thin
^lit fence-posts. The wOd roses smelled clean.

As they returned in late afternoon the low sun was a
solemnity of radial bands, like a heavenly fan of beaten gold;
the limiUess circle of the grain was a green sea rimmed with
fog, and the willow wind-breaks were palmy isles.

Before July the dose heat blanketed them. The tortured
earth cracked. Farmers panted through corn-fields behind
cultivators and the sweating flanks of horses. While she waited
for Kennicott in the car, before a farmhouse, the seat burned
her fingers and her head ached with the glare on f^ders and
hood.

A black thunder-shower was followed by a dust storm which
turned the sky yellow with the hint of a coming tornado.
Impalpable black dust far-borne from Dakota covered the
inner sills of the closed windows.

The July heat was ever more stifling. They crawled along
Main Street by day ; they found it hard to sleep at night. They
brought mattresses down to the living-room, and thrashed and
turned by the open window. Ten times a night they talked of
going out to soak themselves with the hose and wade through
the dew, but they were too listless to take the trouble. On
cool evenings, when they tried to go walking, the gnats ap-
peared in swarms which peppered their faces and cau^t in
their throats.

She wanted the Northern pines, the Eastern sea, but Eenni^
cott declared that it would be " kind of hard to get away, just
now/' The Health and Improvement Committee of the
Thanatopsis asked her to take part in the anti-fly campaign,
and she toiled about town persuading householders to use the
fly-traps furnished by the dub, or giving out money prizes to
fly-swatting children. She was loyil enough but not ardent,

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and without eV6f quite intending to^ she begah to neglect the
task as heat sucked at her stren^.

Kennicott and she motored North and spent a wedL with
his mother — ^that is, Carol spoit it with his mother^ while he
fished for bass.

The great event was their purchase of a summer cottage^
down on Lake Minniemashie.

Perhaps the most amiable feature of life in Gq>her Prairie
was the summer cottages. They were merely two-room
shanties, with a seepage of broken-down chairs, peeUng veneered
tables, diromos pasted on wooden walls, and inefiKcient kerosene
stoves. They were so thin-walled and so close together that
you could — and did — ^hear a baby being spanked in the fifth
cottage off. But they were set among elms and lindens on a
bluff which looked across the lake to fields of ripened wheat
slewing up to green woods.

Here the matrons forgot social jealousies, and sat gossiping
in gingham; or, in old bathing-suits, surrounded by hysterical
children, they paddled for hotu*s. Carol joined them; she
ducked shrieldng small boys, and helped babies construct sand-
basins for unfortunate minnows. She liked Juanita Haydock
and Maud Dyer when she helped them make picnic-supper
for the men, who came motoring out from town each evening.
She was easier and more natural with them. In the debate
as to whether there should be veal loaf or poached egg on hash,
she had no chance to be heretical and oversensitive.

They danced sometimes, in the evening; they had a minstrel
show, with Kennicott surprisingly good as <*nd-man; always
they were encircled by children wise in the lore of woodchucis
and gophers and rafts and willow whistles.

If they could have continued this normal barbaric life Carol
would have been the most enthusiastic citizen of Gopher
Prairie. She was relieved to be assured that she did not want
bookish conversation alone; that she did not expect the town
to become a Bohemia. She was content now. She did not '
criticize.

But in September, when the year was at its richest, custom
dictated that it was time to return to town; to remove the
children from the waste occupation of learning the earth, and
send them back to lessons about the number of potatoes which
(in a delightful world untroubled by commission-houses or
^shortages in freight-cars) William sold to John. The women

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wbo had cheerfuUy gone bathing all summer looked dotftitfnl
when Carol begged, " Let's keep up an outdoor life this winter,
let's slide and skate." Their hearts shut again till spring, and
the nine months of cliques and radiators and dainty rdresb-
ments began all over.

Carol had started a salon.

Since Kennicott, Vida Sherwin, and Guy Pollock were her
only lions, and since Kennicott would have preferred Sam
Clark to all the poets and radicate in the entire world, her
private and self-defensive clique did not get beyond one
evening dinner for Vida and Guy, on her first wedding an-
niversary; and that dinner did not get beyond a controvorsy
regarding Raymie Wutherspoon's yearnings.

Guy Pollock was the gentlest person ^e had found here.
He spoke of her new jade and crean frock naturally, not
jocosely; he held her chair for her as they sat down to dinner;
and he did not, like Kennicott, interrupt her to shout, ^' Oh
say, speaking of that, I heard a good story today." But Guy
was incurably hermit. He sat late and talked hard, and did
not come again.

Then she met Champ Perry in the post-office — and decided
that in the history of the pioneers was the panacea for Gopher
Prairie, for all of America. We have lost their sturdiness, she
told herself. We must restore the last of the veterans to power
and follow them on the backward path to the integrity of
Lincoln, to the gaiety of settlers dancing in a saw-mill.

She read in the records of the Minnesota Territorial Pio-
neers that only sixty years ago, not so far back as the birth
of her own father, four cabins had con^)osed Gopher Prairie.
The log stockade which Mrs. Champ Perry was to find when
she trekked in was built afterward by the soldiers as a defense
against the Sioux. The four cabins were inhabited by Maine
Yankees who had come up the Mississippi to St. Paul and
driven north over virgin prairie into virgin woods. They
ground their own com; the men-folks shot ducks and pigeons
and prairie chickens; the new breakings yielded the turnip-
like rutabagas, which they ate raw and boiled and baked and
raw ag^in. For treat they had wild plums and crab-aiq)les and
tiny wild strawberries.

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Grasshoppers came darkening the sky^ and in an hoar ate
the farmwife's garden and the lanner's coat, precious horses^
painfully brou^t from niinots, were drowned in bogs or
stampeded by the fear of blizzards. Snow blew through the
chinks of new-made cabins, and Eastern diildren, with flowery
muslin dresses, shivered all winter and in summa: were red.
and black with mosquito bites. Indians were everywhere; they
canq>ed in dooryards, stalked into kitchens to donand dou^-
nuts, came with rifles across their backs into schoolhouses and
begged to see the pictures in the geognq>hies. Packs of timber-
wdves treed the difldren; and the settlers foimd dens of rattle-
snakes, killed fifty, a hundred, in a day.

Yet it was a buoyant life. Carol read enviously in the
admirable Minnesota chronicles called '^ Old Rail Fence Coi-
ners " the reminiscence of Mrs. Mahlon Black, who settled in
Stillwater m 1848:

'' There was nothing to parade over in those days. We took
it as it came and had happy lives. . . . We would all
gather together and in about two minutes would be having
a good time — ^playing cards or dancing. . . . We used to
waltz and dance contra dances. None of these new jigs and
not wear any clothes to ^eak of. We covered our hides in
those days; no tight skirts like now. You could take three or
four steps inside our skirts and then not reach the edge. One
of the boys would fiddle a while and then some one would
spell him and he could get a dance. Sometimes they would
dance and fiddle too."

She reflected that if she could not have ballrooms of gray
and rose and crystal, she wanted to be swinging across a
puncheon-floor with a dancing fiddler. This smug in-between
town, which had exchanged " Money Musk " for phonographs
grindmg out ragtime, it was neither the heroic old nor the
sophisticated new. Couldn't she somehow, some yet un-
imagined how, turn it back to simplicity?

She herself knew two of the pioneers: the Penys. Champ
Perry was the buya" at the grain-elevator. He weighed wagons
of lAeat on a rou^ platform-scale, in the cracks of which the
kernds grouted every spring. Between times he n{^>ped in
the dusty peace of hb office.

She cidled an the Perrys at their rooms above Rowland St
Grald's groceiy.

When they were already dd thqr had lost the money,.

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which they had invested in an elevator. They had given vp
their beloved yellow bride house and moved into tb^ rooms
over a store, which were the Gopher Prairie equivalent of a
Sat. A broad stairway led from the street to the vppa hall,
along which were the doors of a lawyer's office, a dentist's,
a photographer's ''studio/' the lodge-rooms of the Affiliate
Order of Spartans and, at the back, the Ferrys' apartment

They received her (their first caller in a month) with aged
fluttering tenderness. Mrs. Ferry confided, '' My, it's a shsunc
we got to entertain you in such a cramped place. And there
ain't any water except that ole iron sink outside in the haH,
but still, as I say to Champ, beggars can't be choosers. 'Sides,
the brick house was too big for me to sweep, and it was wa}
out, and it's nice to be living down here among folks. Ye^

we're glad to be here. But Some day, maybe we can

have a house of our own again. We're saving up Oh

dear, if we could have our own home! But these rooms are
real nice, ain't they I "

I As old people will, the world over, th^r had moved as mud
as possible of their familiar furniture into this small space
Carol had none of the superiority she felt toward Mrs. Lymai
Cass's plutocratic parlor. She was at home here. She notec
with tenderness all the makeshifts: the darned chair-arms, thi
I patent rocker covered with sleazy cretonne, the pasted strqx
~ paper mending the birch-bark napkin-rings labeled " Papa '
and " Mama."

She hinted of ha: new enthusiasm. To find one of th(
" young folks " who took them seriously, heartened the Perrys
and she easily drew from them the prindples by which Gq>hG
Prairie should be bom again— should again become amusini
to live in.

^This was their philosophy complete . . . in the era o
s^eroplanes and syndicalism:

The Baptist Church (and, somewhat less, the Methodist
Congregational, and Presbyterian C3iurches) is the perfect, thi
divinely ordained standard in music, oratory, philanthropy, an
ethics. *^ We don't need all this new-fangled sdence, or thi
terrible Higher Criticism that's ruining our yoimg men ii
colleges. What we need is to get back to the true Word
God, and a good sound belief in hell, like we used to hav
it preached to us."

The Republican Party, the Grand Old Party of Blaine am

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McKinley, b the agent of the Lord and of the Baptist Oiurch
in temporal affairs.

All socialists ought to be hanged.

" Harold Bell Wright is a lovely writer, and he teaches such
good morals in his novels, and folks say he's made prett' near
a million dollars out of 'em."

People who make more than ten thousand a year or 1^
than eij^t hundred are wicked.

£urq>eans are still wickeder.

It doesn't hurt any to drink a glass of beer on a warm day,
but anybody who touches wine is headed straight for hell.

Virgins are not so virginal as they used to be.

Nobody needs drug-store ice cream; pie is good enough for
anybody.

The farmers want too much for their wheat.

The owners of the elevator-company expect too much for the
salaries they pay.

There wotdd be no more trouble or discontent in the world
if everybody worked as hard as Pa did when he cleared out
first fann|

Carol's hero-worship dwindled to polite nodding, and the
nodding dwindled to a desire to escape, and she went home
with a headache.

Next day she saw Miles Bjomstam on the street. .

** Just back from Montana. Great summer. Punq>ed my '
Im^ chuck-full of Rocky Mountain air. Now for another
whirl at sassing the bosses of Gopher Prairie." She smiled at .
him, and the Perrys faded, the pioneers faded, till they were •
but daguerreotypes in a black walnut aq>board.

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CHAPTER Xm

She tried, more from loyalty than from desire, to call upon
the Penys on a November evening when Kennicott was away.
They were not at home.

Like a child who has no one to play with she loito^ through
the dark hall. She saw a light under an office door, ^e
knocked. To the person who q>ened she murmured, " Do you
happen to know where the Perrys are? " She realized that
it was Guy Pollock.

" I'm awfully sorry, Mrs. Kennicott, but I don't know.
Won't you come in and wait for them? "

" W-why " she observed, as she reflected that in Gophei

Prairie it is not decent to call on a man; as she decided that
no, really, she wouldn't go in; and as she went in.

" I didn't know your office was up here."

" Yes, office, town-house, and chateau in Picardy. But jrot
can't see the chateau and town-house (next to the Duke oj
Sutherland's). They're beyond that inner door. They are a
cot and a wash-stand and my other suit and the blue crq>e tic
you said you liked."

" You remember my saying that? "

" Of course. I always shall. Please try this chair.**

She glanced about the rusty office — gaunt stove, shelve
of tan law-books, desk-chair filled with newspapers so lon(
sat upon that they were in holes and smudged to grayness
There were only two things which suggested Guy Pollock. Oi
the green felt of the table-desk, between legal blanks and s
clotted inkwell, was a cloisson6 vase. On a swing shelf was i
row of books unfamiliar to Gopher Prairie: Mosher edition
of the poets, black and red Geriinan novels^ a Charles Lamb b
crushed levant.

Guy did not sit down. He quartered the office, a grayhoun^
on the scent; a grayhound with glasses tilted forward on hi
thin nose, and a silky indecisive brown mustache. I He had J
golf jacket of jersey, worn through at the creases in the sleeves
She noted that he did not apologize for it, as Kennicott woolc
have done.^

154

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He made conversation: " I didn't know you were a bosom
friend of the Perrys. Champ is the salt of the earth but some-
bow I can't imagine him joining you in symbolic dancing, or '
making improvements on the Diesel engine."

" No. He's a dear soul, bless him, but he belongs in the
National Museum, along with General Grant's sword, and

I'm Oh, I suppose I'm seeking for a go^ that will

evangelize Gopher Prairie."

" Really? Evangelize it to vrtiat? ."

" To anything that's definite. Seriousness or frivolousness or
both. I wouldn't care whether it was a laboratory or a carni-
val. But it's merely safe. Tell me, Mr. Pollock, what is the
matter with Gopher Prairie? "

" Is anything the matter with it? Isn't there perhaps some-
thing the matter with you and me? (May I join you in the
hoDOT of having something the matter?) "

« (Yes, thanks.) No, I thmk it's the town."

" Because they enjoy skating more than biology? "

" But I'm not only more interested in biology than the Jolly
Seventeen, but also in skating! Ill skate with them, or
slide, or throw snowballs, just as ^adly as talk with you."

(" Oh nol ")

(" Yes! ) But they want to stay home and embroider.'*

" Perhaps. I'm not defending the town. It's merely /

I'm a confirmed doubter of mvsdf. (Probably I'm conceited \
about my ladL of conceit!) | Anyway, (jopher Prairie isn't
particularly bad. It's like all villages in all countries. Most
{daces that have lost the smell of earth but not yet acquired
the smell of patchouli— or of factory-smoke — are just as sus-
picious and righteous. I wonder if the small town isn't, with ^
some lovely exceptions, a social appendix? Some day these
dull market-towns may be as obsolete as monasteries.! |l can
imagine the farmer and his local store-manager going by
monorail, at the end of the day, into a city more charming \y'
than any William Morris Utopia — music, a university, clubs /^x
for loafers like me. (Lord, how I'd like to have a real club 1 ) "|

She asked impulsivdy, " You, why do you stay here? "

" I have the Village Virus."

^It sounds dangerous."

" It is. More dangerous than the cancer that will certainly
get me at fifty unless I stop this smoking. The Village Virus
is die genn which — ^it's extraordinarily like the hook-worm — it

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; infects ambitioas peoide wbo stay too loog in the provinces.
YooV find it cptdenuc among lawyera and doctors and ministers
and coU^e-bred merchants— aU these peoide who have had a
l^impse of the world that thinks and lao^bs, but have returned
to their swamp. I'm a perfect example. But I sha'n't pester
you with my ddors."
I ^' You won't. And do sit down, so I can see you.''

He dropped into the shriddng desk-chair. He kxdLed
squarely at her; she was conscious of the pupils of his Qres; of
the fact that he was a man, and londy. They were anbarrassed.
Th^ elaboratdy glanced away, and were relieved as he went
on:

*^ The diagnosis of my Village \^rus is simple enou^. I
was bom in an Ohio town about the same size as Gopher
Prairie, and much less friendly, llt'd had more generations in
which to form an oligarchy of req;>ectability. Here, a stranger
is taken in if he is correct, if he likes hunting and motoring and
God and our Senator. Iliere, we didn't take in even our own
till we had contemptuously got used to them4 It was a red-
bride Ohio town, and the trees made it damp, and it smelled of
rotten apples. The country wasn't like our lakes and prairie.
There were small stuffy corn-fields and bride-yards and greasy
oil-wells.

'^ I went to a denominational collet and learned that since
dictating the Bible, and hiring a perfect race of ministers to
explain it, God has never done much but creq> around and try
to catch us disobeying it. From college I went to New York,
to the Columbia Law School. And for four years I lived.
Oh, I won't rhapsodize about New York. It was dirty and
noisy and breathless and ghastly expensive. But compared with

the moldy academy in which I had been smothered 1 I

went to symphonies twice a week. I saw Irving and Terry
and Duse and Bernhardt, from the top gallery. I walked in
Gramercy Park. And I read, oh, eveiything.

'' Through a cousin I learned that Julius Flickerbaugh was
sick and needed a partner. I came here. Julius got w^. He
didn't like my way of loafing five hours and then doing my
work (really not so badly) in one. We parted.

" When I first came here I swore I'd ' keep up my interests.'
Very lofty! I read Browning, and went to Minneapolis for the
theaters. I thought I was 'keeping up.' But I guess the
Village Virus had me ahready. I was reading four copies of

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dieap fictkm-miM^azhies to one poem. I'd pnt off the Min-
neapolis trips till I mmply had to go there on a lot of legal
matters.

" A few years ago I was talking to a patent lawyer from f

ChicagOy and I realized that I'd always felt so superior 'r

to people like Julius FUckerbauj^, but I saw that I was as i
provincial and behind-the-times as Julius. (Worsel Julius |
plows through the Literary Digest and the Outlook faithfully, |
while I'm turning over pages of a book by Charles Flandrau !
that I already know by heart.) I

''I decided to leave here. Stem resolution. Grasp the >
wcN-ld. JThen I found that the Village Virus had me, ab^lute/
I didn't want to face new streets and younger men — real com-
petition. It was too easy to go on making out convesrances
and arguing ditching cases Jjf So-- — That's. all of the biography
of a living dead man, excq>t the diverting last chapter, the lies
about my having been * a tower of strength and legal wisdom '
which some day a preacher will spin over my lean dry body."

He looked down at his table-desk, fingering the starry
enameled vase.

She could not comment. 9ie pictured herself running across
the room to pat his hair. She saw that his lips were firm,
under his soft faded mustache. She sat still, and maundered,
" I know. The ViUage Virus. Perhaps it will get me. Some

day I'm going Oh, no matter. At least, I am making you

talk! Usually you have to be polite to my gamilousness, but
now I'm sitting at your feet."

'' It would be rather nice to have you literally sitting at my
feet, by a fire."

" Would you have a fireplace for me? "

" Naturally I Please don't snub me now I Let the old man
rave. How old are you. Card? "

"Twenty-six, Guy."

" Twenty-six! I was just leaving New York, at twenty-six.
I heard Patti sing, at twenty-six. And now I'm forty-sev«i, I
fed like a child, yet I'm old enough to be your father. So it's
decently paternal to imagine you curled at my feet. ... Of
course I hope it isn't, but well reflect the morals of Gopher
Prairie by ofBcially announcing that it is! . . . These stand-
ards that yovL and I live up to! | There's one thing that's the
matter with Gopher Prairie, at least with the ruling-dass
(there is a ruling-dass, despite all our professions of democ*

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racy). And the penalty we tribal rulers pay is that our sub-
jects watch us every minute. We can't get ^olesomdy drunk
and relax. We have to be so correct about sex morals, and
incon^icuous clothes, and doing our commercial trickery only
in the traditional ways, that none of us can live up to it, and we
become horribly hypocritical. Unavoidably. The widow-rob-
bing deacon of fiction can't help being hypocritiod. The
widows themselves demand it! I They admire his unctuousness.
And look at me. Suppose I did dare to make love to— some
exquisite married woman. I wouldn't admit it to m3rself. I
giggle with the most revolting salaciousness over La Vie Paris-
ienne, when I get hold of one in Chicago, yet I shouldn't even
try to hold your hand. I'm broken. It's the historical Anglo-
Saxon way of making life miserable. . . . Oh, my dear, I
haven't talked to anybody about myself and all our selves for
years."

" Guy I Can't we do something with the town? Really? "

" No, we can't 1 " He disposed of it like a judge ruling out
an improper objection; returned to matters less uncomfortably
energetic: "Curious. Most troubles are unnecessary. We
have Nature beaten ; we can make her grow wheat ; we can keep
warm when she sends blizzards. So we raise the devil just*
for pleasure — ^wars, politics, race-hatreds, labor-dilutes. Here*
in Gopher Prairie we've cleared the fields, and become soft,
so we make ourselves unhappy artificially, at great expense and
exertion: Methodists disliking Episcopalians, the man with
the Hudson laughing at the man with the flivver. | The worst
is the commercial hatred — the grocer feeling that any man who
doesn't deal with him is robbing him. What hurts me is that
f\it applies to lawyers and doctors (and decidedly to their wives! )
ias much as to grocers. The doctors — ^you know about that —
^ow your husband and Westlake and Gotdd dislike one
another."!
* "No! I won't admit it!*'

He grinned.

" Oh, maybe once or twice, when Will has positivdy kn6wn
of a case where Doctor — ^where one of the others has con-
tinued' to call on patients longer than necessary, he has
lauded about it, but "

He still grinned.

" No, really/ And when you say the wives of the doctors
share these jealousies— Mrs. McGanum and I haven't any

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particular crush on each other; she's so stolid. But her
mother, Mrs- Wcstlake— nobody could be sweeter."

" Yes, I'm sure she's very bland. But I wouldn't tell her myi
heart's secrets if I were you, my dear. I insist that there's}
only (me professional-man's wife in this town who doesn'tl
plot, and Uiat is you, you blessed, credidous outsider I " '

" I won't 4)e cajoled I I won't believe that medicine, the
priesthood of healing, can be turned into a penny-picking
business."

'' See here: Hasn't Eennicott ever hinted to you that you'd
better be nice to some old woman because she tells her friends
which doctor to call in? But I ou^tn't to—"

Sie remembered certain remarks which Kennicott had of-
fered regarding the Widow Bogart. She flinchal, looked at
<5uy beseechingly.

He sprang iq>, strode to ha* with a nervous step, smoothed
her hand. She wondered if she ought to be offended by his
caress. Then she wondered if he liked her hat, the new
Oriental turban of rose and silver brocade.

He dropped her hand. His elbow brushed her shoulder. He
flitted over to the desk-chair, his thin back stooped. He
picked up the cloisonn6 vase. Across it he peered at her
with such loneliness that she was startled. But his eyes faded
into impersonality as he talked of the jealousies of Gopher
Prairie. He stopped himself with a sharp, '' Good Lord,
Carol, you're not a jury. You are within your legal rights
in refusing to be subjected to this summing-up. I'm a tedious
dd fool analyzing the obvious, while you're the spirit of re-
bellion. Tell me your side. What is Gopher Prairie to you? "

« A borel "

« Can I help? "

** How cotdd you? **

'^ I don't know. Perhaps by listening. I haven't done that

tonig^L But ncHinally Can't I be the confidant of

the old French plays, the tiring-maid with the mirror and the
loyal ears? "

^ Oh, what is there to confide? The people are savcn-less
and proud of it. And even if I liked you tremendously, I
couldn't talk to you without twenty old hexes watching, whis-
pering."

'' But you will come talk to me, once in a while? "

** I'm not sure that I shall. I'm trying to develop my own

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large capacity for duUness and contentment. I've failed at
every positive thing IVe tried. I'd better 'settle down/ as
they call it, and be satisfied to be — ^nothing.''

'' Don't be C3mical. It hurts me, in you. It's like blood on
the wing of a humming-bird."

''I'm not a humming-bird. I'm a hawk; a tiny leashed
hawk, pecked to death by these large, white, flabby, wormy
hens. But I am grateful to you for confirming me in the faith.
And I'm going homel"

" Please stay and have some coffee with me."

" I'd like to. But thQr've succeeded in terrori;dng me. I'm
afraid of what people might say."

" I'm not afraid of that. I'm only afraid of what you might
say I " He stalked to her; took her unresponsive hand.
" Carol I You have been h£^py here tonight? (Yes. I'm
beggingi) "

She squeezed his hand quickly, then snatched hers away.
She had but little of the curiosity of the flirt, and none of the
intrigante's joy in furtiveness. If she was the naive girl, Guy
PoIIoJl was Ae clumsy boy. He raced about the office; he
rammed his fists into his pockets. He stammered, " I — ^I — ^I

Oh, the devil! Why do I awaken from smooth dustiness

to this jagged rawness? Ill make I'm going to trot

down the hall and bring in the Dillons, and we'll aJl have coffee
or something."

" The Dfllons? "

" Yes. Really quite a decent young pair— Harvey Dillon
and his wife. He's a dentist, just come to town. They live in a
room behind his office, same as I do here. They dcm't know
much of anybody "

" I've heard of them. And I've never t^ou^t to call. I'm
horribly ashamed. Do bring them "

She stopped, for no very dear reason, but his expression
said, her faltering admitted, that they wished they had never
mentioned the Dillons. With spurious enthusiasm he said,
" Splendid! I will." From the door he glanced at her, curled
in the peeled leather chair. He slipped out, came back with
Dr. and Mrs. Dillon.

The four of them drank rather bad coffee which Pollock
made on a kerosene burner. They lauded, and ^>oke ct
Minneapolis, and were tremendously tactful; and Curd
started for home, through the November wind.

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CHAPTER XIV

She was marching home.

^' No. I couldn't fall in love with him. I like him, very
much. But he's too much of a recluse. Could I kiss him?

No! No!. Guy Pollock at twenty-six I could have kissed

him then, maybe, even if I were married to some one else, and
probably I'd have been glib in persuading mysdf that ' it wasn't
really wrong.'

" The amazing thing is that I'm aot more amazed at my-
sdf. I, the virtuous young matron. Am I to be trusted?
If the Prince Charming came

" A Gopher Prairie housewife, married a year, and yearning
for a ' Prince Charming ' like a bachfisch of sixteen! Th^
say that marriage is a magic change. But I'm not changed.
But

" Noi I wouldn't want to fall in love, even if the Prince did
come. I wouldn't want to hurt Will. I am fond of Will. I
ami He doesn't stir me, not any longer. But I dq>end on
him. He is home and diildren.

''I wonder when we will begin to have children? I do
want than.

"I wcmder whether I remembered to tell Bea to have
hominy tomorrow, instead of oatmeal? She will have gone to
bed by now. Perhaps 111 be iq> early enough

^^ Ever .so fondL^ Will. I wouldn't hurt him, even if I had
to lose the madNoHkr If the Prince came I'd look once at him,
and run. Dam fast! (%, Carol, you are not heroic nor
fine. You are the immutable vulgar young female.

'^ But I'm not the faithless wife who enjoys confiding that
she's ' misimderstood.' Oh^ I'm not, I'm not!

" Am I?

" At least I didn't whisper to Guy about Will's faults and
his blindness to my remarkable soul. I didn't! Matter of
fact, Will probably understands me perfectly! If only— if
he would just back me up in rousing the town.

" How many, how incredibly many wives there must be who
tingle ova* the first Guy Pollock who smiles at them. No! I

i6i

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will not be one of that herd of yearaersi The coy virgin
brides. Yet probably if the Prince were young and dared to
face life

"I'hi not half as well oriented as that Mrs. Dillon. So
obviously adoring her dentistl And seeing Guy only as an
eccentric fogy.

"They weren't silk, Mrs. Dillon's stockings. They were
lisle. Her legs are nice and slim. But no nicer than mine. I
hate cotton tops on silk stockings. . . . Are my ankles get-
ting fat? I will not have fat anklesi

" No. I am fond of Will. His work — one farmer he pulls
through diphtheria is worth all niy yammering for a castle in
Spain. A castle with baths.

" This hat is so tight. I must stretch it. Guy liked it.

" There's the house. I'm awfully chilly. Time to get out the
fur coat. I wonder if 111 ever have a beaver coat? Nutria is
not the same thing I Beaver — glossy. Like to run my fingers
over it. Guy's mustache like b^ver. How utterly absurd!

" I am, I aiH fond of Will, and- — Can't I ever find another
word than ' fond '?

"He's home. Hell think I was out late.

" Why can't he ever remember to pull down the shades? Cy
Bogart and all the beastly boys peq>ing in. But the poor
dear, he's absent-minded about minute — ^minush — ^whatever the
word is. He has so much worry and work, while I do nothing
but jabber to Bea.

" I mustn't forget the hominy "

She was fl5ang into the hall. Kennicott looked up from the
Journal of the American Medical AssockOi&n*

" Hello! What time did you get backZiJshe cried.

" About nine. You been gadding. He4n% past devenl '*
Good-natured yet not quite approving.

"Did it feel neglected?"

" Well, you didn't remember to dose the lower draft in the
furnace."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. But I don't often forget things like
that, do I? "

She dropped into his lap and (after he had jerked back his
head to save his eye-giasses, and removed the glasses, and
settled her in a position less cramping to his legs, and casually
cleared his throat) he kissed her amiably, and remarked:

" Nope, I must say you're fairly good about things like ^t.

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I wa^'t kicking. I just meant I wouldn't want the fire to go
out on us. Leave that draft open and the fire might bup iq>
and go out on us. And the nights are beginning to get pretty
cold again. Pretty cold on my drive. I put the side-curtains
vpf it was so diilly. But the generator is working all right
now."

" Yes. It is diiBy. But I fed fine after my walk."

"Go walking?"

" I went iq> to see the Perrys." By a definite act of will she
added the truth: ** Th^r wcrai't in. And I saw Guy Pollock.
Dn^ped into his office."

"Why, you haven't been sitting and chinning with him
tin deven o'dock? "

"Of course there were some other people there and

Willi What do you think of Dr. Westlake? "

"Westlake? Why?"

" I noticed him on the street today."

"Was he limping? If the poor fish would have his teeth
X-rayed, 111 bet nine and a half cents he'd find an abscess
there. ' Rheumatism ' he calls it. Rheumatism, hell! He's
behind the times. Wonder he doesn't bleed himself I Wellllllll

" A profound and serious 3rawn. " I hate to break up the

party*, but it's getting late, and a doctor never knows when
hell get routed out before morning." (She remembered that
he had given this e^q^lanation, in these words, not less than
thirty times in the year.) " I guess we better be trotting up
to bed. I've wound the dock and look^ at the furnace. Did
you lock the front door when you came in? "

They trailed ^MItoP^> ^ter he had turned out the lights and
twice tested ti^^^Rnt door to make sure it was fast.
While they talked they were preparing for bed. Carol still
sought to maintain privacy by undressing behind the screen
of the doset door. Kennicott was not so reticent. Tonight, as
every ni^t, she was irritated by having to push the old plush
chair out of the way before she could open the doset door.
Every time she opened the door she shoved the chair. Ten
times an hour. But Kennicott liked to have the chair in the
room, and there was no place for it except in front of the
doset.

She pushed it, fdt angry, hid her anger. Kennicott was
yawning, more portentously. The room smelled stale. She
shrugg^ and became diatty: ^

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"You were speaking of Dr. Westlake. Tell me— you've
never summed him up: Is he really a good doctor? "

" Oh yes, he's a wise old coot."

(" There! You see there is no medical rivalry. Not in my
house! " she said triumphantly to Guy Pollock.)

She hung her silk petticoat on a closet hook, and went on,
" Dr. WesUake is so gentle and scholarly "

" Well, I don't know as I'd say he was such a whale of a
scholar. I've always had a suspicion he did a good deal of
four-flushing about that. He likes to have peq>le think be
keeps up his French and Greek and Lord knows what all; and
he's always got an old Dago book lying around the sitting-room,
but I've got a hunch he reads detective stories 'bout lOce the
rest of us. And I don't know where he'd eva: learn so dog-
gone many languages anyway I He kind of lets people assume
he went to Harvard or BerUn or Oxford or somMSwhere, but I
looked him iq> ill the medical directory, and he graduated from
a hick college in Pennsylvania, 'way bade in 1861 1 "

'^ But this is the in^rtant thing; Is he an honest doctor? "

''How do you mean 'honest'? Depends on what yoo
mean."

" Suppose you were sick. Would you call him in? Would
you let me call him in? "

" Not if I were well enough to cuss and bite, I wouldn't!
No, sirf I wouldn't have the old fake in the house. Makes
me tiled, his ev^Iasting palavering and soft-soaping. He's
all right for an ordinary bellyache or holding some fool woman's
hand, but I wouldn't call him in for an honest-to-God illness,
not much I wouldn't, no-sir! You know I (^||t do much back-
biting, but same time 111 tell yoU|0Hh'ie: I've never

got over being sore at Westlake for the way he treated Mrs.
Jonderquist. Nothing the matter with her, what she really
needed was a rest, but Westlake kept calling on her and calling
on her for weeks, almost every day, and he sent her a good
big fat bill, too, you can bet! I never did forgive him for that
Nice decent hard-working people like the JonderquistsI "

In her batiste nightgown she was standing at the bureau en-
gaged in the invariable rites of wishing that she had a real
dressing-table with a triple mirror, of bending toward the
streaky glass and raising her chin to inspect a pin-head mde
on her throat, and finally of brushing her hair. In rl^thm to
the strokes she went on:

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^ But, Wm^ there isn't any of what you mq^t caH financial
rivalry between 3rou and the partners— Westlake and Mc-
Ganim>— is there? *'

He fliiq>ed into bed with a solemn back-somersaiilt and a
ludicrous kick of his heels as he tucked his legs under the
blankets. He snorted, ^ Lord not I never begrudge any man
a nickel he can get away from me — ^fairly."

""Butis Westlakefair? Isn't he sly?"

^ Sly is the word. He's a fox, that boyl **

She saw Guy Pollock's grin in the mirror. She flushed.

Kennicott, with his arms bdiind his head, was yawning:

'' Yump. He's smooth, too smooth. But I bet I make prett'
near as much as Westlake and McGanum both together, though
Fve never wanted to grab more than my just share. If any-
body wants to go to die partners instead of to me, that's Us
bushiess. Though I must say it makes me tired when West-
lake gets hold of the Dawsons. Here Luke Dawson had been
coming to me for every toeache and headache and a lot of
fittle thmgs that just wasted my time, and then when his
granddhiM was here last summer and had summer-complaint, I
sqppose, or something like that, probably— you know, the time
jTOu and I drove up to Lac-qui-Meurt — ^why, Westlake got hold
of Ma Dawson, and scared her to death, and made her think
the kid had ai^)endidtis, and, by golly, if he and McGanum
didn't <^>erate, and holler their heads off about the terrible
adhesions they found, and what a regular Charley and Will
Mayo they were for classy surgery. They let on that if they'd
waited two hours more the kid would have developed peritonitis,
and God knows what all; and then they collected a nice fat
hundred and fiflp'^kUars. And probably they'd have charged
three hundred, if they hadn't been afraid of mel I'm no hog,
but I certainly do hate to give old Luke ten dollars' worth of
advice for a dollar and a half, and then see a hundred and
fifty go glimmering. And if I can't do a better 'pendectomy
tbsoi either Westlake or McGanum, 111 eat my hatl "

As she crept into bed she was dazzled by Guy's blazing
grin. She e3q>erimented:

" But Westlake is cleverer than his son-in-law, don't you
think? ''

" Yes, Westlake may be old-fashioned and all that, but
he's got a certain amount of intuition, while McGanum goes
into everything bull-headed, and butts his way through like

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a damn yahoo, and tries to argue his patiaoits into having
iNdiatever he diagnoses them as havingl About the best thing
Mac can do is to stick to baby-snatching. He's just about
on a par with this bone-pounding chiropractor female, Mrs.
Mattie Gooch."

'' Mrs. Westlake and Mrs. McGanum, though — thqr're nice.
They've been awfully cordial to me."

''Well, no reason why they shouldn't be, is there? (%,
they're nice enough — though you can bet your bottom dollar
they're both plugging for their husbands all the time, trying
to get the business. And I don't know as I call it so damn
cordial in Mrs. McGanum when I holler at her on the street
and she nods back like she had a sore neck. Still, she's all
right. It's Ma Westlake that makes the mischief, pussyfooting
around all the time. But I wouldn't trust any Westkke out
of the whole lot, and while Mrs. McGanum seems square
enough, you don't never want to forget that she's Westlake's
dau^ter. You bet I "

'' What about Dr. Gould? iJ)on't you think he's worse than
either Westlake or McGanum? He's so cheap— drinking, and
playing pool, and always smoking cigars in such a cocky
way "

" That's all right nowl Terry Gould is a good deal of a tin-
horn sport, but he knows a lot about medicine, and don't you
forget it for one second! "

She stared down Guy's grin, and asked mote cheerfully, *' Is
he honest, too? "

" Oooooooooool Gosh I'm sleepy! " He burrowed beneath
the bedclothes in a luxurious stretch, and came up like a diver,
shaking his head, as he complained, "How'| that? Who?
Terry Gould honest? Don't start me laughing — I'm too nice
and sleepy! I didn't say he was honest. I said he had savvy
enough to find the index in * Gray's Anatomy,' which is more
than McGanum can do! But I didn't say anything about his
being honest. He isn't. Terry is crooked as a dog's hind 1^.
He's done me more than one dirty trick. He told Mrs.
Glorbach, seventeen miles out, that I wasn't up-to-date in
obstetrics. Fat lot of good it did him! She came rig^t in
and told mel And Terry's lazy. He'd let a pneumonia patient
choke rather than interrupt a pok^ game."

"Oh no. I can't believe "

"Well now, I'm teUing you! "

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"Does he play much poker? Dr. Dillon told me that Dr.
^GouW wanted him to play "

" Dillon told you what? Where'd you meet Dillon? He's
just come to town."

" He and his wife were at Mr. Pollock's tonirfit."

" Say, uh, what'd you think of them? Didn't Dillon strike
you as pretty light-waisted? "

" Why no. He seemed intelligent. I'm sure he's much more
wide-a^i^e than our dentist."

"Well now, the old man is a good dentist. He knows his

business. And Dillon I wouldn't cuddle up to the Dillons

too close, if I were you. All ri^t for Pollock, and that's none

of our business, but we I think I'd just give the Dillons

the ^ad hand and pass 'em up."

" But why? He isn't a rival."

"That's — all — right I " Kennicott was aggressively awake
now. "Hell work right in with Westlake and McGanum.
Matter of fact, I suspect they were largely responsible for his
locating here. They'll be sending ^im patients, and hell senc
all that he can get hold of to them. I don't trust anybody
that's too much hand-in-glove with Westlake. You give Dillon
a shot at some fellow that's just bought a farm here and drifts
into town to get his teeth looked at, and after -Dillon gets
through with him, you'll see him edging around to Westlake
and McGanum, every time! "

Carol reached for her blouse, which hung on a chair by
the bed. She draped it about her shoulders, and sat up study-
ing Kennicott, her chin in her hands. In the gray light from
the small electric bulb down the hall she could see that he was
frowning.

" Will, this is — I must get this straight. Some one said to
me the other day that in towns like this, even more than in
dties, all the doctors hate each other, because of the
money "

"Who said that?"

"It doesn't matter."

" 111 bet a hat it was your Vida Sherwin. She's a bramy
woman, but she'd be a damn si^t brainier if she kept her
mouth shut and didn't let so much of her brains ooze out
that way."

"Willi O WiD! That's horriblel Aside from the vul-
garity Some ways, Vida is my best friend. Even if

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she kad said it. Which, as a matter of fact, she didn't.''

He reared up his thick shoulders, in absurd pink and green
flannelette pajamas. He sat strai^t, and irritatin^y snaK>ed
his fingers, and growled:

'' Well, if she didn't say it, let's forget her. Doesn't make
any differ^ice who said it, anyway. The point is that you
believe it. Godl To think you don't understand me nay
better than thatl Money! "

C' This is the first red quarrd we've ever had," she was
agoniaang.)

He thrust out his long arm and snatched his wrinkly vest
from a chau*. He took out a cigar, a match. He tossed the
vest on the floor. He lighted the cigar and puffed savagdy.
He broke up the match and snapped the fragments at the foot-
board.

She suddenly saw the foot-board of the bed as the foot-
stone of the grave of love.

The room was drab-colored and ill-ventilated — ^Kennicott
did not '' believe in opening the windows so dam wide that you
heat all outdoors." The stale air seemed never to change. In
the light from the hall they were two lumps of bedclothes
with Moulders and tousled heads attached.

She begged, " I didn't mean to wake you up, dear. And
please don't smoke. You've been smoking so much. Please
go back to sleep. I'm sorry."

" Being sorry 's all right, but I'm gomg to tell you one or
two things. This falling for anybody's say-so about medical
jealousy and competition is simply part and parcel of your
usual willingness to think the worst you possibly can of us
poor dubs in Gopher Prairie. Trouble with women like you
is, you always want to argue. Can't take things the way they
are. Got to argue. Well, I'm not going to argue about this
in any way, shape, manner, or form. Trouble with you is,
you don't make any effort to appreciate us. You're so damned
superior, and think the city is such a hell of a lot finer place,
and you want us to do what you want, all the time "

" That's not true I It's I who make the effort. It's they—
it's you — ^who stand back and criticize. I have to come ov»
to the town's opinion; I have to devote m)rself to their in-
terests. They can't even see my interests, to say nothing of
adopting them. I get ever so excited about their old l^c
Minniemashie and the cottages, but they sinq)ly gu&tw (in

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that lovdy friendly way you advertise so much) if I speak
d wanting to see Taormina also."

'' Sure, Tormina, whatever that is — some nice expensive
millicmaire colony, I suppose. Sure; that's the idea; duunpagne
taste and beer income; and make sure that we never will have
more than a beer income, tool "

" Are you by any chance implying that I am not econom-
ical?''

"Well, I hadn't intended to, but since you bring it up
yoarseU, I don't mind saying the grocery bills are about twice
what they oug^t to be."

" Yes, they probably are. I'm not economical. I can't be.
Thanks to you! "

"Where d' you get that * thanks to you 7 "

" Please don't be quite so colloquial— or shall I say vidgarf "

" 111 be as damn colloquial as I want to. How do you get
that ' thanks to you '? Here about a year ago you jump me
for not ronembering to give you money. Wdl, I'm reasonable.
I didn't blame you, and I said I was to blame. But have
I ever forgotten it since — practically? "

"No. You haven't— practically I But that isn't it. I
ou^t to have an allowance. I will, too! I must have an
agreement for a regular stated amount, every month."

" Fine idea! Of cotirse a doctor gets a regular stated
amount! Stire! A thousand one month — and lucky if he
makes a hundred the next."

"Very well theti, a percentage. Or something else. No
matt^ how much you vary, you can make a rough average
for "

" But what's the idea? What are you trying to get at?
Mean to say I'm unreasonable? Think I'm so unreliable and
tightwad that you've got to tie me down with a contract?
By God, that hurts! I thou^t I'd been pretty generous and
decent, and I took a lot of pleasure — thinks I, * shell be tickled
when I hand her over this twenty '—or fifty, or whatever it
was; and now seems you been wanting to make it a kind of
alimony. Me, like a poor fool, thinking I was liberal all the
while, and you "

" Please stop pitying yourself! You're having a beautiful
time feeling injured. I admit all jrou say. Certainly. You've
given me money both freely and amiably. Quite as if I were
your mistress! " ,

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"Carrie!"

" I mean it I What was a magnificent spectacle of generosiQr
to you was humiliation to me. You gave me money — gave it
to your mistress, if she was complaisant, and then you "

" Camel "

" (Don't mtemipt me!) — then you felt you'd discharged
all obligation. Well, hereafter 111 refuse your money, as a gift.
Either I'm your partner, in charge of the household depaitment
of our business, with a regular budget for it, or else I'm
nothmg. If I'm to be a mistress, I shall choose my lovers. Oh,
I hate it — I hate it — this smirking and hoping for money — and
then not even spending it on jewels as a mistress has a right
to, but spending it on double-boilers and sodks for you!
Yes indeed! You're generous! You give me a dollar, right
out — ^the only proviso is that I must ^>end it on a tie fen- you!
And you give it when and as you wish. How can I be any-
thing but uneconomical? "

" Oh well, of course, looking at it that way "

" I can't shop around, can't buy in large quantities, have
to stick to stores where I have a charge account, good deal
of the time, can't plan because I don't know how much money
I can depend on. That's what I pay for your charming sen-
timentalities about giving so generously. You make me "

" Wait! Wait! You know you're exaggerating. You never
thought about that mistress stuff till just this minute! Matter
of fact, you never have ' smirked and hoped for money.' But
all the same, you may be right. You ought to rim the house-
hold as a business. I'll figure out a d^nite plan tomorrow,
and hereafter you'll be on a regular amount ox percentage, with
your own checking account."

" Oh, that is decent of you! " She turned toward him,
trying to be affectionate. But his eyes were pink and unlovely
in the flare of t}ie match with which he lighted his dead and
malodorous cigar. His head drooped, and a ridge of flesh
scattered with pale small bristles bulged out unda: his dun.

She sat in abeyance till he croaked:

"No. Tisn't especially decent. It's just fau-. And God
knows I want to be fair. But I expect others to be fair, too.
And you're so high and mighty about people. Take Sam
Clark; best soul that eva: lived, honest and loyal and a dans
good fellow "

(" Yes, and a good shot at ducks, don't forget that! ")

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('' Wdl, and lie is a good shot, tool ) Sam drops around in
the evening to sit and visit, and by golly just because he
takes a diy smoke and rolls his cigar around in his mouth, and
maybe ^its a few times, you look at him as if he was a hog.
Ob, you didn't know I was onto you, and I certainly hope
Sam hasn't noticed it, but I never miss it."

" I have felt that way. Spitting — u^I But I'm sorry you
caught my thou^ts. I tried to be nice; I tried to hide them."

^^ Maybe I catch a whole lot more than you think I do! "

" Yes, perhaps you do."

'' And d' you know why Sam doesn't li^t his cigar when
he's here? "

"Why?"

" He's so dam afraid youll be offended if he smokes. You
scare him. Every time he spe^ks of the weather you jump
him because he ain't talking about poetry or Gertie — Goethe?
—or some other hi^brow junk. You've got him so leery he
scarcely dares to come here."

" Oh, I am sorry. (Thouj^ I'm sure it's you who are exag-
gerating now.")

" Well now, I don't know as I ami And I can tdl you one
thing: if you keep on you'll manage to drive away every friend
IVe got."

" lliat would be horrible of me. You know I don't mean

to Will, what is it about me that frij^tens Sam — ^if I

do frighten him."

" Oh, you do, all right 1 'Stead of putting his legs up on
another chair, and unbuttoning his vest, and telling a good
story or maybe kidding me about something, he sits on the
edge of his chair and tries to make conversation about politics,
and he doesn't even cuss, and Sam's never real comfortable
unless he can cuss a littlel "

" In other words, he isn't comfortable unless he can behave
like a peasant in a mud hut! "

" Now thatll be about enou^ of that! You want to know
how you scare him? First you ddiberately fire some question
at him that you know dam well he can't answer — any fool
could see you were experimenting with him — ^and then you
shock him by talking of mistresses or something, like you were
doing just now "

''Of course the pure Samuel never speaks of such erring
ladies in his private conversations! "

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'' Not when there's ladies around 1 You can bet yov life
n thatl "

" So the impurity lies in failing to pretend that "

'^ Now we won't go into all that — eugenics or whatever damn
ad you choose to call it. As I say, first you shock him, and
ben you become so dam flighty that nobody can follow you.
Either you want to dance, or you bang the piano, or else you
et moody as the devil and don't want to talk or anything
Ise. If you must be temperamental, why can't you be that
^y by yourself? "

" My dear man, there's nothing I'd like better than to be
>y m3^f occasionally! To have a room of my own I I
uppose you e:q>ect me to sit here and dream delicately and
atisfy my ' ten^ramentality ' while you wander in from the
•athroom with lather all over your face, and shout, ' Seen my
Town pants? ' "

'^ Huhl " He did not soimd impressed. He made no an-
wer. He turned out of bed, his feet making one solid thud
n the floor. He marched from the room, a grotesque figure
a baggy union-pajamas. She heard him drawing a drink of
rater at the bathroom tap. She was furious at the con-
emptuousness of his exit. She snuggled down in bed, and
ooked away from him as he returned. He ignored ho*. As
te flumped into bed he yawned, and casually stated:

" WeU, you'll have plenty of privacy ^dien we build a new
louse."

"When!"

*' Oh, 111 build it all right, don't you fret! But of course

don't expect any credit for it."

Now it was she who grunted " Huhl " and igncu-ed him,
nd felt independent and masterful as she shot up out of bed,
urned her back on him, fished a lone and petrified chocolate
>ut of her glove-box in the top ri^t-hand drawer of the
(ureau, gnawed at it, found that it had cocoanut filling, said
' Damn! " wished that she had not said it, so that she mi^t
»e superior to his colloquialism, and hurled the chocolate into
he wastebasket, where it made an evil and mocking datter
mong the debris of torn linen collars and toothpaste box.
Then, in great dignity and self-dramatization, she returned to
>ed.

All this time he had been talking on, embroidering his as-
ertion that he " didn't expect any credit." She was reflecting

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tiiat he was a rustic, tbat she hated him, that she had been
insane to marry him, that she had married him only because
she was tired of work, that she must get her long gloves
cleaned, that she would never do anything more for him, and
that she mustn't forget his hominy for breakfast. She was
roused to attention by his storming:

'^ I'm a fool to think about a new house. By the time I
get it built youll probably have succeeded in your plan to get
me completely in Dutch with every friend and every patient
rve got"

She sat up with a bounce. She said coldly, '^ Thank you
very much for revealing your real q)inion of me. If that's the
way you feel, if I'm such a hindrance to you, I can't stay
under this roof another minute. And I am perfectly well able
to earn my own living. I will go at once, and you may get a
divorce at your pleasure! What you want is a nice sweet cow
«rf a woman who wUl enjoy having your dear friends talk about
fte weather and spit on the floor I "

" Tut! Don't be a fool! "

" You will very soon find out whether I'm a fool or not!
I mean it! Do you think I'd stay here one second after I
found out that I was injuring you? At least I have enough
sense of justice not to do that."

** Please stop fi3ang off at tangents, Carrie. This "

" Tangents? Tangents! Let me tell you "

" isn't a theater-play; it's a serious effort to have us

get together on fundamenteds. We've both been cranky, and
said a lot of things we didn't mean. I wish we were a couple o'
bloojnin' poets and just talked about roses and moonshine, but
we're human. All ri^t. Let's cut out jabbing at each other.
Let's admit we both do fool things. See here: You know you
fed superior to folks. You're not as bad as I say, but you're
not as good as you say — ^not by a long shot! What's the reason
you're so superior? Why can't you take folks as they are? "

Her preparations for stalking out of the Doll's House were
no£ yet visible. She mused:

*^ I think perhaps it's my childhood." She halted. When
she went on her voice had an artificial sound, her words the
boddsh quality of emotional meditation. '^ My father was the
tinulerest man in the world, but he did feel superior to ordinary

people. Well, he was! And the Minnesota Valley I used

to sit there on the cliffs above Mankato for hours at a time,

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my chin in my hand, looking way down the valley, wanting to
write poems. The shiny tflted roofs below me, and the rivor,
and beyond it the level fields in the mist, and the rim of

palisades across It hdd my thoughts in. I lived, in the

valley. But the prairie — all my thou^ts go flying off into the
big space. Do you think it mig^t be that? "

"Um, well, maybe, but Carrie, you always talk so

much about getting all you can out of life, and not letting
the years slip by, and here you deliberately go and deprive
yourself of a lot of real good home pleasure by not enjoying
people unless they wear frock coats and trot out "

(" Morning clothes. Oh. Sorry. Didn't mean t' interrupt
you.")

" to a lot of tea-parties. Take Jack Elder. You think

Jack hasn't got any ideas about anything but manufacturing
and the tariff on lumber. But do you know that Jack is
nutty about music? Hell put a grand-opera record on the

phonograph and sit and listen to it and close his eyes Or

you take Lym Cass. Ever realize what a well-informed man
he is? "

" But is he? Gopher Prairie calls anybody * well-informed '
who's be^ through the State Capitol and heard about Glad-
stone."

" Now I'm telling you! Lym reads a lot — solid stuff — ^his-
tory. Or take Mart Mahoney, the garageman. He's got a lot
of Perry prints of famous pictures in h£ office. Or old Bing-
ham Playfair, that died here 'bout a year ago — lived seven miles
out. He was a captain in the Civil War, and knew General
Sherman, and they say he was a miner in Nevada right along-
side of Mark Twain. Youll find these characters in all these
small towns, and a pile of savvy in every single one of them,
if you just dig for it."

"I know. And I do love them. Especially people like
Champ Perry. But I can't be so very enthusiastic over the
smug cits like Jack Elder."

" Then I'm a smug cit, too, whatever that is."

" No, you're a scientist. Oh, I will try and get the music
out of Mr. Elder. Only, why can't he let it come out, instead
of being ashamed of it, and always talking about hunting dogs?
But I will try. Is it all right now? "

" Sure. But there's one other thing. You mi^t give me
some attention, tool "

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** Tliat's unjustl You have everything I ami "

"No, I havwi't. You think you respect me — ^you alwa}rs
hand out some spiel about my being so ' useful.' But you
never think of me as having ambitions, just as much as you
havel"

" Perhaps not. I think of you as being perfectly satisfied."

" Well, I'm not, not by a long shotl I don't want to be
a plug general practitioner all my life, like Westlake, and die
in harness because I can't get out of it, and have 'em say,
•* He was a good fellow, but he couldn't save a cent.' Not that
I care a whoop what they say, after I've kicked in and can't
hear 'em, but I want to put enough money away so you and
I can be independent some day, and not have to work unless
I fed like it, and I want to have a good house — by golly, 111
have as good a house as anybody in this town! — and if we
want to travel and see your Tormina or whatever it is, why
we can do it, with enough money in our jeans so we won't
have to take anything oS anybody, or fret about our old age.
You never worry about what might happen if we got sick and
didn't have a good fat wad salt^ away, do youl "

"I don't suppose I do."

" Well then, I have to do it for you. And if you think for
one moment I want to be stuck in this burg all my life, and
not have a chance to travel and see the different points of
interest and all that, then you simply don't get me. I want
to have a squint at the world, much's you do. Only, I'm prac-
tical about it. First place, I'm going to make the money —
I'm investing in good safe farndands. Do you understand
why now? "

"Yes."

" Will you try and see if you can't think of me as something
more than just a dollar-chasing roughneck? "

"Oh, my dear, I haven't been just! I am difficile. And
I won't call on the Dillons! And if Dr. Dillon is working ^
for Westlake and McGanum, I hate him! "

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CHAPTER XV

That December she was in love with her husband.

She romanticized herself not as a Rreat reformer but as the
wife of a country phj^ician. The realities of the doctor's house-
hold were colored by her pride.

Late at nig^t, a step on the wooden porch, heard through
her confusion of sleep; the storm-door opened; fumbling over
the inner door-panels; the buzz of the electric bell. Kennicott
muttering ** Gol dam it/' but patientiy creeping out of bed,
remembering to draw the covers up to keep h^ warm, feding
for slippers and bathrobe, clumping down-stairs.

From below, half-heard in her drowsiness, a colloquy in tiie
pidgin-German of the farmers who have forgotten the Old
Country language without learning the new:

" Hello, Barney, wass wUlst du? "

" Morgen, doctOT. Die Frau ist ja awtvl Ack. Allnig^tshe
been having an awful pain in de belly."

" How long she been this way? Wie lang, eh? "

" I dunno, maybe two daj^."

" Why didn't you come for me yesterday, instead of waking
me up out of a sound sleep? Here it is two o'clock! Sospat^^
warum, eh? "

*' Nun aber, I know it, but she got soch a lot vorse last eve-
ning. I t'ou^t maybe all de time it go avay, but it got a kyt
vorse."

" Any fever? "

" Veil }a, I t'ink she got fever."

" Which side is the pain on? "

" Huh? "

" Das Schmertz—die TT^A— which side is it on? Here? '*

"So. Right here it is."

" Any rigidity tiicre? "

"Huh?"

" Is it rigid— stiff— I mean, does the belly fed hard to the
fingers? "

176

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" I dimno. She ain't said yet"

''What she been eating? "

" Veil, I t'ink about vot ve alwis eat, maybe com beef and
cabbage and sausage, und so wetter. Doc, sie weint immer, all
the time she hoUer like hell. I vish you come.''

'' Well, all ri^t, but you call me earlier, next time. Look
here, Barney, you better install a 'phone — telephone haben.
Some of you Dutchmen will be dying one of these days before
you can fetch the doctor."

The door dosing. Barney's wagon — the wheeb sOent in the
snow, but the wagon-body rattling. Kennicott dicking the
recdvtf-hook to rouse the night tdephone-operator, giving a
number, waitmg, cursing mildly, waiting again, and at last
growling, '' Hdlo, Gus, this is Uie doctor. Say, uh, send me
q> a team. Guess snow's too thick for a machine. Going
e^t mOes south. All right. Huh? The hell I will! Don't
you go back to deep. Huh? Well, that's all rig^t now, you
didn't wait so very dam long. All right, Gus^ shoot her
along. Byl "

Hb step on the stairs; his quiet moving about the frigid
wm while he dressed; his abstracted and meaningless coug^.
She was suppoised to be asleep; she was too exquisitely drowsy
to break the charm by speaking. On a slip of paper laid on
the bureau — she could hear the pendl grinding against the
marble slab — he wrote his destination. He went out, hungry,
dtilly, unprotesdng; and she, before she fell adeep again, loved
him for his sturdLess, and saw the drama of his ridLog by
nigjit to the frightened household on the distant farm; pictured
ddldren standing at a window, waiting for him. He suddenly
had in her eyes the haroism of a wirdess operator on a ship
in a collision; of an explorer, fever-dawed, deserted by his
bearers, but going on — ^jungle — going

At six, when the light fsdtered in as through ground glass
and bleakly identified the chairs as gray rectangles, she heard
his step on the porch; heard him at the furnace: the rattle
of shaUng the grate, the slow grinding removal of ashes, the
shovd thrust into the coal-bin, the abrupt datter of the coal
as it flew into the fire-box, the fussy regulation of drafts — the
daily sounds of a Gopher Prairie life, now first appealing to
her as something brave and enduring, many-colored and free.
She visioned the fire-box: flames turned to lemon and metallic
gdd as the coal-dust sifted over them; thin twisty flutters of

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purple, g^ost flames which gave no U^, slii^ing up between
the dark banked coals.

It was luxurious in bed, and the house would be warm for
her when she rose, she reflected. What a worthless cat she
was! What were her aspirations beside his capability?

She awoke again as he dropped into bed.

'^ Seems just a few minutes ago that you started out I "

" IVe been away four hours. I've q>erated a woman lor
appendicitis, in a Dutch kitchen. Came awful close to losing
her, too, but I pulled her through all right. Close squeak.
Barney sa3rs he shot ten rabbits last Sunday.''

He was instantly asleq) — one hour of rest before he had to
be up and ready for the farmers who came in early. She
marveled that in what was to her but a night-blurred moment,
he should have been in a distant place, have taken charge of a
strange house, have sliced a woman, saved a life.

What wonder he detested the lazy Westlake and McGanumI
How could the easy Guy Pollock understand this skOl and
endurance?

Then Kennicott was grumbling, '^ Seven-fifteen I Arai't you
ever gomg to get up for breakfast? '' and he was not a hero-
sdentist but a rather irritable and commonplace man who
needed a shave. They had coffee, griddle-cakes, and sausages,
and talked about Mrs. McGanum's atrocious alligator-Ude
belt. Nig^t witchery and morning disillusion w^e alike
forgotten in the march of realities and days.

Familiar to the doctor's wife was the man with an injured
leg, driven in from the country on a Sunday afternoon and
brought to the house. He sat in a rocker in the badi of a
lumber-wagon, his face pale from the anguish of the jolting.
His leg was thrust out before him, resting on a starch-bCT ai^
covered with a leather-bound hcHse-blanket. His drab cou-
rageous wife drove the wagon, and she helped Kennicott sup-
port him as he hobbled up the steps, into the house.

" Fdlow cut his leg with an ax— pretty bad gash — Halvor
Nelson, nine miles out," Kennicott observed.

Carol fluttered at the back of the room, chOdishly exdted
when she was sent to fetch towels and a basin of water.
Kennicott lifted the farmer into a chair and chuckled, ** Tliere

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we are, Halvorl Well have you out fixing fences and druJung
eqmvU in a month." The fannwife sat on the couch, ej^es-
suMoless, bulky in a man's dogskin coat and unplumbed layers
of jadLets. The fkywery silk handkerchief which she had worn
over her head now hung about her seamed neck. Her white
wool gloves lay in her lap.

Eemiicott drew from the injured leg the thick red ** German
sock," the innumerous other sotks of gray and white wool, then
the spiral bandage. The leg was of an unwholesome dead
white, with the black hairs feeble and thin and flattened, and
(he scar a puckered line of crimson. Surely, Carol shuddered,
this was not human flesh, the rosy shining tissue of the amorous
poets.

Kennicott examined the scar, smiled at Halvor and his wife,
dianted, " Fine, b' gosh! Couldn't be better! ''

The Nelsons look^ dq;>recating. The farmer nodded a cue
to his wife and she mourned:

" Veil, how much ve gping to owe you, doctor? "

" I guess itTl be Let's see: one drive out and two calls.

I guess itil be about eleven dollars in all, Lena."

" I dunno ve can pay you yoost a little w'ile, doctor."

Eennicott lumbered over to her, patted her shoulder, roared,
"Why, Lord love you, sister, I won't worry if I never get it!
You pay me next fall, when you get your crop. . . .
Carrie! Suppose you or Bea could shake up a cup of coffee
and some cold lamb for the Nelsons? They got a long cold
drive ahead."

He had been gone since morning; her eyes ached with read-
ing; Vida Sherwin could not come to tea. She wandered
through the house, enq>ty as the bleary street without. The
problon of " Will the doctor be home in time for stq)per, or
shall I sit down without hun? " was important in the house-
hold. Six was the rigid, the canonical supper-hour, but at
half-past six he had not come. Much speculation with Bea:
Had the obstetrical case taken lon^^er than he had expected?
Had he been called somewhere else? Was the snow much
heavier out in the countsy, so that he should have taken a
buggy, or even a cutter, instead of the car? Here in town it
had melted a lot, but still

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A honking, a shout, the motor engine raced before it was
shut off.

She hurried to the window. The car was a monster at rest
after furious adventures. The headlif^ts blazed on the dots
of ice in the road so that the tiniest lumps gave mountainous
shadows, and the taillight cast a circle of ruby on the snow
behind. Kennicott was opening the door, crying, ^' Here we
are, old girl! Got stuck couple times, but we made it, by goDy,
we made it, and here we bel Come onl Foodl Eatin'sl "

She rushed to him, patted his fur coat, the long hairs smooth
but chilly to her Qngcrs. She jojrously sununoned Bea, ^ AD
rightl He's harel Well sit right downl "

There were, to inform the doctor's wife of his successes, no
clapping audiences nor book-reviews nor honorary degrees.
But there was a letter written by a German farmer recenUy
moved from Minnesota to Saskatchewan:

Dear sor, as you haf bin treading mee for a fue Weaks dis
Somer and seen wat is rong wit mee so in Regarding to dat i wont
to tank you. the Doctor heir say wat shot bee rong wit mee and
day giVe mee som Madsin but it diten halp mee like wat you dit
Now day glaim dat i Woten Neet aney Madsin ad all wat you
tink?

Well i haven ben tacking aney ting for about one &}/i Mont bat
1 dont get better so i like to heir Wat you tink about it i feel hTce
dis Disconfebil feeling around the Stomac after eating and dat
Pain around Heard and down the arm and about 3 to 3^ Hour
after Eating i feel weeak like and dissy and a dull Hadig. Now
you gust iett mee know Wat you tink about mee, i do Wat you say.

She encountored Guy Pollock at the drug store. He looked
at her as though he had a ri^t to; he spoke softly. "I
haven't see you, the last few days."

" No. I've been out in the country with Will several times.

He's so Do you know that people like you and me can

never imderstand people like him? We're a pair of hyper-
critical loafers, you and I, while he quietly goes and does
things."

She nodded and smiled and was very busy about purchasing
boric acid. He stared after her, and slipped away..

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When she found that he was gone she was sUghdy dts*
ooDcerted.

Sbe could— at times— agree with Eennicott that the shaving-
and-corsets familiarity of married life was not dreary vulgarity
but a wholesome frankness; that artificial reticences might
merely be irritating. She was not much disturbed when for
hours he sat about the living-room in his honest socks. But
she would not listen to hb theory that ^ all this romance stuff
is sinq>ly moonshine— degant when you're courting, but no
use busting yourself keeping it up all your life."

She thou^t of surprises, games, to vary the days. She
knitted an astounding purple scarf, idiich she hid under hb
sapper plate. (When he discovered it he looked embarrassed,
and gapped, ^' Is today an anniversary or something? Gosh,
I'd forgotten it! ")

Once she filled a thermos bottle with hot coffee, a corn-flakes
box with cookies just baked by Bea, and bustled to his office
at three in the afternoon. She hid her bundles in the haU and
peeped in.

The office was shabby. Kennicott had inherited it from a
medical predecessor, and changed it only by adding a white
enameled operating-table, a sterilizer, a Roentgen-ray ap-
paratus, and a small portable typewriter. It was a suite of
two rooms: a waiting-room witli straight chairs, shaky pine
table, and those coverless and unknown magazines which are
found only in the offices of dentists and doctors. The room
beyond, looking on Main Street, was business-office, consulting-
room, operating-room, and, in an alcove, bacteriological and
chemical laboratory. The wooden floors of both rooms were
bare; the furniture was brown and scaly.

Waiting for the doctor were two women, as still as though
th^ were paralyzed, and a man in a railroad brakeman's
imifonn, holding his bandaged right hand with his tanned left.
They stared at Carol. She sat modestly in a stiff chair, feeling
frivolous and out of place.

K^anicott ai^>eared at the inner door, ushering out
a bleached man with a trickle of wan beard, and consoling him,
"All right, Dad. Be careful about the sugar, and mind the
diet I gave you. Get the prescription filled, and come in and

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see me next week« Say, uh, better, uh, better not drink too

much beer. All right, Dad."

His voice was artificially hearty. He looked absently at
Carol. He was a medical machine now, not a domestic machine.
" What is it, Carrie? " he droned.

" No hurry. Just wanted to say hello.*'

"Well »

Self-pity because he did not divine that this was a surprise
party rendered her sad and interesting to hersdf , and she had
the pleasure of the martyrs in saying bravely to him, ^' It's
nothing fecial. If you're busy long 111 trot home."

While ^e waited ^e ceased to pity and began to mock her-
self. For the first time she obsa^edthe waiting-room. Oh
yes, the doctor's family had to have obi panels and a wide
couch and an electric percolator, but any hole was good enough
for sick tired common people who were nothing but the one
means and excxise for the doctor's existing! No. She couldn't
blame Kennicott. |He was satisfied by the shabby diairs. He
put up with them as his patients did. It was her ne^ected
province — she who had been going about talking of rebuQding
the whole town! j

When the patients were gone she brought in hec bundles.

" What's those? " wondered Kennicott.

" Turn your back! Look out of the windowl "

He obeyed — ^not very much bored. When she cried " Nowl "
a feast of cookies and small hard candies and hot coffee was
spread on the roll-top desk in the inner room.

His broad face listened. " That's a new one on mel Nev»
was more surprised in my life! And, by golly, I believe I am
hungry. Say, this is fine."

When the first exhilaration of the surprise had declined
she demanded, '^Willl I'm going to refurnish your waiting-
room! "

" What's the matter with it? It's all right."

"It is not! It's hideous. We can aififord to give your
patients a better place. And it would be good business.'* She
felt tremendously politic.

" Rats! I don't worry about the business. You ]odk here

now: As I told you Just because I like to tudk a few

dollars away, 111 be switched if 111 stand for yom thinking
I'm nothing but a dollar-chasing "

''Stop it! Quick! I'm not hurting your fedingsl I^mnot

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eritidzteg) I'm the adc^ing least one of thy har^n. I jmt

Two days later, with pictures, wicker ch a i r s, a rug, she had
made the waiting-room habitable; and Kennicott admitted,
^ Does look a lot better. Never thought much about it. Guess
I need bdng bullied."

She was convinced that she y93S gloriously content in her
career as doctor's-wife.

She tried to free herself from the peculation and disfllusion-
ment which Imd been twitching at her; sought to dismiss all the
vpinionation of an insurgent era. She wanted to shine upon
the veal-faced bristly-bearded Lyman Cass as much as upon
Miles Bjomstam or Guy Pollock. She gave a reception for the
Thanatc^is Club. But her real acquiring of merit was in call-
ing upon that Mrs. Bogart whose gossipy good opinion was so
valuable to a doctor.

Though the Bogart house was next door she had entered
it but three times. Now she put on her new moleskin cap,
iriiich made her face small and innocent, she rubbed off the
traces of a lip-stick — and fled across the alley before her adr
mirable resolution should sneak away.

The age of houses, like the age of men, has small relation
to their years. The dull-green cottage of the good Widow
Bogart was twenty years old, but it Imd the antiquity of Cheops^
and the smell of mummy-dust. Its neatness rebuked the
street. The two stones by the path were painted yellow; the
outhouse was so ovei-modestly masked with vines and lattice
that it was not concealed at all; the last iron dog remaining
in Gopher Prairie stood among whitewashed conch-shells upon
the lawn. The hallway was dSmaymgly scrubbed; the kitchen
was an exercise in mathematics, with problems worked out in
equidistant chairs.

The parlor was kq)t for visitors. Carol suggested, " Let's
sit in the kitchen. Please don't trouble to light the parlor
stove."

'' No trouble at all I My gracious, and you coming so seldom
and all, and the kitchen is a perfect si^t, I try to keep it
dean, but Cy will track mud all over it, I've spoken to
him about it a hundred times if I've spoken once, no, you

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sit right there^ dearie, and 111 make a fire, no trouble at all,
practically no trouble at all."

Mrs. Bogart groaned, rubbed her joints, and repeatedly
dusted her hands while she made the fire, and fdien Carol tried
to help she lamented, " Oh, it doesn't matta:; guess I ain't
good for much but toil and workin' an3rway; seems as though
that's wbsLt a lot of folks think."

The parlor was distinguished by an expanse of rag carpet
from which, as they ent^ed, Mrs. Bogart hastily picked one
sad dead fly. In the center of the carpet was a rug depicting
a red Newfoundland dog, reclining in a green and yellow daisy
field and labeled *^ Our Friend." The parlor organ, tall and
thin, was adorned with a mirror partly circular, partly square,
and partly diamond-sh24)ed, and with brackets holding a pot
of geraniums, a mouth-(N:gan, and a cc^y of ^'The Oldtime
Hymnal." On the center table was a Sears-Rod>uck mail-orda:
catalogue, a silver frame with photographs of the B2q[)tist
Chur(£ and of an elderly clergyman, and an aluminum tray
containing a rattlesnake's rattle and a broken spectade-lens.

Mrs. Bogart spoke of the eloquence of the Reverend Mr.
Zitterd, the coldness of cold days, the price of poplar wood,
Dave Dyer's new hair-cut, and Cy Bogart's essential piety.
^' As I said to his Sunday School teacher, Cy may be a little
wild, but that's because he's got so much bett^ brains than a
lot of these boys, and this farmer that claims he caught Cy
stealing 'beggies, is a liar, and I ought to have the kiw on
him."

Mrs. Bogart went thoroughly into the rumor that the girl
waiter at Billy's Lunch was not all she mij^t be— or, rather,
was quite all she mi^t be.

" My lands, what can you expect when evoybody knows
what her mother was? And if these traveling salesmen would
let her alone she would be all right, though I certainly don't
bdieve she ought to be allowed to think she can pull the. wotl
over our eyes. The sooner she's sent to the school for inc^njg-

ible girls down at Sauk Centre, the better for all and

Won't you just have a cup of coffee, Cai^l dearie, I'm sure
you won't mind old Aunty Bogart calling you by your fiist
name when you think how long I've known Will, and I was
such a friend of his dear lovely motha: when she lived here

and— was that fur cap e]q[>ensive? But Don't ypu think

it's awful, the way folks talk in this town? "

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Mrs. Bogart hitched her chair nearer. Her large face, with
its disturbing collection of moles and lone black hairs, wrinkled
cunningly. She showed her decayed teeth in a reproving smile,
and in the confidential voice of one who scents stale bedroom
scandal she breathed:

^* I just don't see how folks can talk and act like they do.
You don't know the things that go on under cover. This
town— why it's only the rdigious training I've given Cy that's

kept him so innocent of — things. Just the other day

I never pay no attention to stories, but I heard it mighty good
and strai^t that Harry Haydock is carrying on with a girl
that clerks in a store down in Minneapolis, and poor Juanita
not knowing anjrthing about it — ^though maybe it's the judg-
ment of God, because before she married Harry she acted up

with more than one bo}^ Well, I don't like to say it, and

maybe I ain't up-to-date, like Cy says, but I always believed
a lady shouldn't even give names to all sorts of dreadful things,,
but just the same I know there was at least one case where
Juanita and a boy — ^well, they were just dreadful. And —

and Then there's that Ole Jenson the grocer, that thinks

he's so plaguey smart, and I know he made up to a farmer's
wife and- — And this awful man 6 jomstam that does chores,
and Nat Hicks and "

There was, it seemed, no person in town who was not living a
life of shame except Mrs. Bogart, and naturally she resented
it

She knew. She had always happened to be there. Once,
she whi^>ered, she was going by when an indiscreet window-
shade had been left up a couple of inches. Once she had
noticed a man and woman holding hands, and right at a
Methodist sociable 1

" Another thing Heaven knows I never want to start

trouble, but I can't help what I see from my back steps,
and I notice your hired girl Bea carrying on with the grocery
boys and all '*

" Mrs. BogartI I'd trust Bea as I would myself 1 "

"Oh, dearie, you don't understand me! I'm sure she's a
good girl. I mean she's green, and I hope that none of these
horrid young men that there are around town will get her into
trouble I It's their parents' fault, letting them run wild and
bear evfl things. If I had my way there wouldn't be none of
them, not boys nor girls neither^ allowed to know anything

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186 MAIN STREET

about— about things till th^ was married. It's terrible the
bald way that some folks talk. It just shows and gives awsqr
yAait awful thoughts they got inside them, and there's nothing
can cure them except coming right to God and kneeling down
like I do at prayer-meeting every Wednesday evening, and
saying, ' O God, I would be a miserable sinner ezcq>t for thy
grace.'

" I'd make every last one of these brats go to Sunday School
and learn to think about nice thin^ 'stead of about cigarettes
and goings-on — ^and these dances they have at the lodges are
the worst thing that ever happened to this town, lot of young

men squeezing girls and finding out Oh, it's dr^dful.

I've told the mayor he ought to put a stop to them and

There was one boy in this town, I don't want to be suspicious
or uncharitable but "

,It was half an hour before Carol escaped.
)be stopped on her own porch and thought viciously:

'^' If that woman is on the side of the angels, then I have
no choice; I must be on the side of the devil. But — isnt she
like me? She too wants to * reform the town ' 1 She too
criticizes everybody I She too thinks the men are vulgar and
limitedl Am I like kerf This is {^tlyl "

That evening she did not merely consent to play cribbage
with Kennicott; she urged him to play; and she worked up
a hectic interest in land-deals and Sam Clark.

vin

In courtship days Kennicott had shown her a photograph of
Nels Erdstrom's haby and log cabin, but she had never seen
the Erdstroms. They had become merely '^patients of the
doctor." Kennicott telephoned her on a mid-Dec«nber aft^-
noon, *'W^nt to throw your coat on and drive out to Erd-
strom's with me? Fairly warm. Nels got the jaimdice."

'^ Oh yesl " She hastened to put on woden stoddngs, hig^
boots, sweater, mufiSa*, cap, mittens.

The snow was too thidc and the ruts frozen too hard for
the motor. They drove out in a dimisy hi^ carriage. Tucked
over them was a blue woolen cover, prickly to her wrists, and
outside of it a buffalo robe, hiunble and moth-eaten now, useA
ever since the bison herds had streaked the prairie a few miles
to the west. •

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Tlie scattered booses between wbicb they passed in town
w^e smaQ and desolate in contrast to the expanse of huge
snowy yards and wide street. They crossed the raibroad tracks,
and instantly were in the farm country. The big piebald
horses snorted douds of steam, and started to trot. The
carriage squeaked in rh3rthm. Kennicott drove with ducks
of '* lliere boy, take it easyl " He was thinking. He paid no
attention to Carol. Yet it was he who commented, " Pretty
nice, over there/' as they approached an oak-grove where
shifty winta: sunlight quivered in the hollow between two
snow-drifts.

They drove from the natural prairie to a deared district
which twenty years ago had been forest. The cotmtry seemed
to stretch unchanging to the North Pole: low hill, brush-
scraggly bottom, reedy creek, muskrat mound, fields with
frozen brown dods thrust up throu^ the snow.

Her ears and nose were pinched; her breath frosted her
wllar; her fingers ached.

** Getting colder," she said.

"Yup."

That was all their conva^don for three^ miles. Yet she
was happy.

They reached Nels Erdstrom's at four, and with a throb
she recogm'zed the courageous venture which had lured her
to Gopher Prairie: the deared fields, furrows among stumps,
a log cabin chinked with mud and roofed with dry hay. But
Neb had prospered. He used the log cabin as a bam; and
a new house reared up, a proud, imwise, Gq>her Prairie house,
tbe more naked and ungraceful in its ^ossy white paint and
pink trimmings. Every tree had been cut down. The house
was so unsheltered, so battered by the wind, so bleakly thrust
out into the harsh dearing, that Carol shivered. But they
were welcomed warmly enough in the kitchen, with its cri^
new plaster, its black and nickel range, its cream separator
in a comer.

Afrs. Erdstrom begged her to sit in the parlor, where there
was a phonograph and an oak and leather davenport, die
prairie farmer's proofs of social progress, but she dropped down
by the kitchen stove and insisted, '^ Please don't mind me."
When Mrs. Erdstrom had followed the doctor out of the room
Carol glanced in a friendly way at the grained pine cupboard,
the fnuned Lutheran Konfirmations Attest, the traces of fried

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eggs and sausages on the dining table against the waD, and a
jewel among odendars, presenting not only a lithognqihic
young woman with cherry lips, and a Swedish advertisemoit
of Axel Egge's grocery, but also a thermometer and a match-
holder.

She saw that a boy of four or five was staring at her from
the hall; a boy in gin^m shirt and faded corduroy trousers,
but large-eyed, firm-mouthed, wide-browed. He vanished, then
peeped in again, biting his knuckles, turning his shoulder toward
her in sh3mess.

Didn't she remember — ^what was it? — ^Kennicott sitting be-
side her at Fort Snellii\g, urging, ^' See how scared that baby
is. Needs some woman like you."

Magic had fiutt^ed about her then — magic of sunset and
cool air and the curiosity of lovers. She held out her hands as
much to that sanctity as to the boy.

He edged into the room, doubtfully sucking his thumb.

" Hello," she said. " What's your name? "

« Hee, hee, hee! "

"You're quite right. I agree with you. Silly people like
me always ask children their names."

" Hee, hee, hee! "

" Come here and I'D tell you the story of— wdl, I don't
know what it will be about, but it will have a slim heroine
and a Prince Charming."

He stood stoically while she spun nonsense. His giggling
ceased. She was winning him. Then the telq)hone bdl — two
long rings, one short.

Mrs. Erdstrom galloped into the room, shrieked into the
transmitter, " Veil? Yes, yes, dis is Erdstrom's placel Hdi?
Oh, you vant de doctor? "

Eennicott appeared, growled into the telq>hone:

" Well, what do you want? Oh, hello Dave; what do you
want? Which Morgenroth's? Adolph's? All right. Am-
putation? Yuh, I see. Say, Dave, get Gus to harness up and
take my surgical kit down there— 4nd have him take some
chloroform. Ill go straight down from here. May not get
hometoni^t. You can get me at Adolph's. Huh? No, Oairic
can give the anesthetic, I guess. G'-by. Huh? No; tell me
about that tomorrow — too damn many people always listening
in on this farmers' line."

He turned to Carol. " Adolph Morgenroth, farmer ten miles

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southwest of town, got his arm crushed — ^fixing his cow-shed
and a post caved in on him — smashed him up pretty bad —
may have to amputate, Dave Dyer says. Afraid well have
to go ri^t from here. Dam sorry to drag you dear down
there with me "

" Please do. Don't mind me a bit."

^ Think you could give the anesthetic? Usually have my
driver do it."

" If youTl ten me how."

** All right. Say, did you hear me putting one over on these
goats that are always rubbering in on party-wires? I hope
they heard me! Well. . . . Now, Bessie, don't you worry
abrat Nels. He's getting along all right. Tomorrow you or
one of the neighbors drive in and get this prescription filled
at Dyer's. Give him a teaspoonful every four hours. Good-
by. Hd-lo! Here's the little fdlowl My Lord, Bessie, it
ain't possible this is the fellow that used to be so sickly? Why,
say, he's a great big strapping Svenska now — going to be bigger
*ii his daddyl "

Kennicott's bluffness made the chfld squirm with a ddi^t ,
wbkh Carol could not evoke. It was a humble wife who 1
followed the busy doctor out to the carriage, and her and)ition '
was not to play Rachmaninoff better, nor to build town halls, j
but to chudde at babies.

The sunset was merdy a flush of rose on a dome of silver,
with oak twigs and thin poplar branches against it, but a sflo
on the horizon changed from a red tank to a tower of violet
misted over with gray. The purple road vanished, and without
lights, in the darkness of a world destroyed, they swayed on —
toward nothing.

It was a bumpy cold way to the Morgenroth farm, and
she was asleep when they arrived.

Here was no glaring new house with a proud phonograph,
but a low wfaitewadied kitchen smelling of cream and cabbage.
Adolph Morgenroth was lying on a couch in the rarely used
dining-room. His heavy work-scarred wife was shaking her
hands in anxiety.

Carol fdt that Eennicott would do something magnificent
and startling. But he was casual. He greeted the man, " Well,
wdl, Adolph, have to fix you up, eh? " Quietly, to the wife,
^Hat die drug store my scfnvartze bag hier gesckkkt? So —
schon. Wie viel Ukr ist 's? Sieben? Nun, lessen uns dn

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wenig supper zuerst haben. Got any of that good beer lef t—-
g^bt'snochBierf'

He had supped in foiur minutes. His coat off, his sleeves
rolled up, he was scrubbing his hands in a tin basin in the
sink, using the bar of yellow kitchen soap.

Carol had not dared to look into the farther room while
she labored over the supper of be», rye bread, moist corn-
beef and cabbage, set on the kitchen table. The man in there
was groaning. In her one glance she had seen that his blue
flannel shirt was open at a corded tobacco-brown neck, the
hollows of which were sprinkled with thin black and gray hairs.
He was a)vered with a sheet, like a corpse, and outside the
sheet was his right arm, wrapped in towels stained with blood.

But Kennicott strode into the other room gaily, and she
followed him. With surprising delicacy in his large fingers
he unwrapped the towels and revealed an arm which, below
the elbow, was a mass of blood and raw flesh. The man bel-
lowed. The room grew thick about her; she was very seasick;
she fled to a chair in the kitchen. Through the haze of nausea
she heard Kennicott grumbling, " Afraid it will have to come
off, Adolph. What did you do? Fall on a reapo: blade?
Well fix it right up. Carriel Carol! "

She couldn't~-6he couldn't get up. Th^ she was up, her
knees like water, her stomach revolving a thousand times a
second, her eyes filmed, her ears full of roaring. She couldn't
reach the dining-room. She was going to faint. Thai she
was in the dining-room, leaning against the wall, trying to
smile, flushing hot and cold along her chest and sides, while
Kennicott mumbled, "Say, help Mrs. Morgenroth and me
carry him in on the kitchen table. No, first go out and shove
those two tables together, and put a blai^et on them and a
dean sheet."

It was salvation to push the heavy tables, to scrub than,
to be exact in placing the sheet. Her head cleared; she was
able to look calmly in at her husband and the farmwife while
they undressed the wailing man, got him into a clean nightgown,
and washed his arm. Kennicott came to lay out his instru-
ments. She realized that, with no hospital facilities, yet with
DO worry about it, her husband — her husband — ^was going to
perform a surgical q>eration, that miraculous boldness of whid^
one read in stories about famous surgeons.

She helped them to move Adolph into the kitchen. The

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ttian was in such a funk that he would not use his l^eath« j
was heavy, and smdled of sweat and the stable. But sh«rere||
her ann aJx>ut his waist, her sleek head by his dhest;^
tagged at him; she clicked her tongue in imitation of KAes.
cott's cheerful noises. ff

When Addph was on the table Kennicott laid a hemi^heri^
steel and cotton frame on his face; suggested to Oanol^ *^ Now
joa ^t here at his head and keep the ether dripping— about
this fast, see? Ill watch his breathing. Look fdio's herel
Real anesthetist 1 Ochsner hasn't got a better one! Class,
di? . . . Now, now, Adolph, take it easy. This won't hurt
you a bit. Put you all nice and asleep and it won't hurt a
bit Sckweig' malt Bald scUaft man grot wie ein Kind. So!
Sof Bald geht's besserl "

As she let the ether drip, nervously trying to keep the
dqrthm that Kennicott had indicated, Ourol stai^ at her hus-
band with the abandon of haro-worship.

He shook his head. <' Bad light— bad lif^t. Here, Mrs.
Morgenroth, you stand right here and hold this lamp. Bier,
wid dieses— dieses lamp kalten — sot '*

By that streaky glimmer he worked, swiftly, at ease. The
room was still. Carol tried to look at him, yet not look at the
seeping blood, the crimson slash, the vicious scalpel. The
ether fumes were sweet, choking. Her head seemed to be
floating away from her body. Her arm was feeble.

It was not the blood but the grating of the surgical saw on
the living bone that broke her, and she knew that she had
been fitting ofif nausea, that ^e was beaten. She was lost
in dizziness. She heard Kennicott's voice:

"Sick? Trot outdoors couple minutes. Adolph will stay
under now.**

She was fumbling at a door-knob which whirled in insulting
drdes; she was on the stoop, gaspmg, forcing air into her
chest, her head clearing. As ^e returned she caught the scene
as a whole: the cavernous kitchen, two milk-cans a leaden
patch by the wall, hams dangling from a beam, bars of li^t
at the stove door, and in the center, illuminated by a small
8^ lamp held by a frightened stout woman. Dr. Kennicott
bending ov^ a body which was humped under a sheet — ^tbe
surgeon, his bare arms daubed with blood, his hands, in pale-
yeDow rubber gloves, loosening the tourniquet, his face without
^notion save when he threw up his head and clucked at the

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wefiig srde, " Hold that light steady just a second more — noch
giebt 'rdn wemg/'

He Sie speaks a vulgar, common, incorrect German of life

rolled death and birth and the soil. I read the French and

^ksrman of sentimental lovers and Christmas garlands. And

/ thought that it was I who had the culturel " she worshiped

8^as she returned to her place.

After a time he snapped, " That's enougjli. Don't give him
any more eth^ ." He was concentrated on tying an artery.
His griifTness seemed heroic to her.

As he shaped the flap of flesh she murmured, '' Oh, you are
wonderful! "
He was surprised. " Why, this is a dnch. Now if it had

/ been like last week Get me some more water. Now last

'* week I had a case with an ooze in the peritoneal cavity, aiul
by golly if it wasn't a stomach ulcer that I hadn't su^>ected

and There. Say, I certainly am sleepy. Let's turn in

ha-e. Too late to drive home. And tastes to me like a storm
coming."

They slq>t on a feather bed with their fur coats over them;
in the morning th^r broke ice in the pitcher — the vast flowed
and gilt pitcher.

Eennicott's storm had not come. When thQr set out it was
hazy and growing warmer. After a mile she saw that he was
stud3ring a dark cloud in the north. He urged the horses to
the run. But she forgot his unusual haste in wonder at the
tragic landscape. The pale snow, the prickles of old stubble,
and the clumps of rag^ brush faded into a gray obscurity.
Under the hillocks were cold shadows. The willows about a
farmhouse were agitated by the rising wind, and the patches of
bare wood where the bark had peeled away were white as the
flesh of a Iqper. The snowy slews were of a harsh flatness.
The whole land was cruel, and a climbing doud of slate-edged
blackness dominated the sky.

" Guess we're about in for a blizzard," speculated K^micott
" We can make Ben McGonegal's, anjrway."

" Blizzard? Really? Why But still we used to thint

I they were fun when I was a girl. Daddy had to stay home
from court, and we'd stand at the window and watch the

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'* Not much fun on the prairie. Get lost. Freeze to death* j
Take no chances." He chirruped at the ]u)rses. They were||
flying now, the carriage rocking on the hard ruts.

The whole air suddenly crystallized into large damp flakes.
The horses and the buffalo robe were covered with snow; her
face was wet; the thin butt of the whip held a white ridge.
The air became colder. The snowflakes were harder; they
shot in level lines, clawing at her face.

She could not see a hundred feet ahead.

Kennicott was stem. He bent forward, the reins firm in his
coonskin gauntlets. She was certain that he would get through-
He always got through things.

Save for his presence, the world and all ncmnal living disap-
peared. They were lost in the boiling snow. He leaned close
to bawl, '' Letting the horses have their heads. Theyll get us
home."

With a tarifying bun^ th^ were ofif the road, slanting with
two wheels in the ditch, but instantly they were jeriLed back
as the horses fled on. She gasped. She tried to, and did not,
fed l)rave as she pulled the woolen robe up about her chin.

They were passing something like a dark waU on the ri^t
''I know that baml " he yelped. He pulled at the reins.
Peeping from the covers she saw his teeth pinch his lower lip,
saw him scowl as he sladiened and sawed and jerked sharply
again at the racing horses.

They stopped.

*^ Farmhouse there. Put robe around you and come on," he
cried.

It was like diving into icy water to climb out of the carriage,
but on the grotmd ^e smiled at him, her face little and diildish
and pink above the buffalo robe over her shoulders. In a
swirl of flakes which scratched at their eyes like a maniac
da^ness, he unbuckled the harness. He turned and plodded
back, a pond^ous furry figure, holding the horses' bridles,
Carol's hand dragging at his sleeve.

They came to the cloudy bulk of a bam whose outer wall was
directly upon the road. Feeling along it, he found a gate, led
them into a yard, into the bam. The interior was warm. It
stunned them with its languid quiet.

He carefully drove the horses into stalls.

Her toes were coab of pain. " Let's run for the house/* she
said.

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<' Can't. Not yet. Mij^t never find it. Might get lost ten
feet away from it. Sit over in this stall, near the horses.
Well rudi for the house when the blizzard lifts."

" I'm so stiff! I can't walkl "

He carried her into the staU» stripped off her overshoes and
boots, stopping to blow on his purple fingers as he fmnbled
at her laces. He rubbed her feet, and covered her with the
buffalo robe and horse-blankets from the pile on the feed-box.
She was drowsy, hemmed in by the storm. She sighed:

'^ You're so strong and yet so skilful and not afraid of
blood or storm or "

'^ Used to it. Only thing that's bothered me was the chance
the ether fimies mi^t e]q)lode9 last night."

" I don't understand."

'^ Why, Dave, the dam fool, sent me ether, instead of diloro-
form like I told him, and you know ether fumes are mig^^
inflammable, eq}ecially with that hxnp ri^t by the table. But
I had to operate, of course — ^wound chuck-full of bariQ^ard
filth that way."

" You knew all the time that Both you and I mi^t

have been blown up? You knew it while you were operating? "

" Sure. Didn't you? Why, what's the matter? "

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CHAPTER XVI

Kennicx>tt was neavily pleased by her Christinas presents,
and he gave her a diamond bar-pin. But she could not persuade
herself that he was much int^ested in tike rites of the mom-
ingy in the tree she had decorated, the three stockings she had
hung, the ribbons and gOt seals and hidden messages. He
said only:

^ Nice way to fix things, all right. What do you say we
go down to Jack Elder's and have a game of five hundred this
afternoon? "

She remembered her father's Christmas fantasies: the sacred :
old rag doll at the top of the tree, the score of dieap presents, \
the punch and carols, the roast chestnuts by the fire, and the
gravity with which the judge (^>ened the children's scrawly
notes and took cognizance of demands for sled-rides, for opin-
ions upon the existence of Santa Qaus. She remembered him
reading out a long indictment of himself for being a sentimental-
ist, against the peace and dignity of the State of Minnesota.
She remembered his thin legs twinkling before their sled

She muttered unsteadily, '^ Must run up and put on my shoes
— slippers so cold." In the not very romantic solitude of the
lock^ bathroom she sat on the slippery edge of the tub and
wq>t.

Kennicott had five hobbies: medicine, land-investm^t, Carol,
motoring, and hunting. It is not certain in what order he
fureferred them. Solid though his enthusiasms were in the mat-
ter of medicine — his admiration of this city surgeon, his
condemnation of that for tricky ways of persuading country
l»actitioners to bring in surgical patients, his indignation about
fee-qplitting, his pride in a new X-ray apparatus — ^none of
these beatified him as did motoring.

He nursed his two-yearrold Buick even in winter, when it

195

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was stored in the stable-garage behind the house. He filled
the grease-cups, varnished a fender, removed from beneath the
back seat the debris of gloves, copper washers, crumpled maps,
dust, and greasy rags. Winter noons he wandered out and
stared owlishly at the car. He became excited over a fabulous
" trip we might take next summer." He galloped to the sta-
tion, brought home railway maps, and traced motor-routes from
Gopher Prairie to Winnipeg or Des Moines or Grand Marais,
thinking aloud and expecting her to be effusive about such
academic questions as "Now I wonder if we could stq> at
Baraboo and break the jump from La Crosse to Chicago? "

To him motoring was a faith not to be questioned, a high-
church cult, with electric sparks for candles, and piston-rings
possessing the sanctity of altar-vessels. His liturgy was com-
posed of intoned and metrical road-comments: ''They say
there's a pretty good hike from Duluth to International Falls/'

Hunting was equally a devotion, full of metaphysical con-
cepts veiled from Carol. All winter he read sporting-cata-
logues, and thought about remarkable past shots: '' 'Member
that time when I got two ducks on a long chance, just at
sunset? " At least once a month he drew his favorite rq>eat-
ing shotgun, his ''pump gun," from its wrapper of greased
canton flannel; he oiled the trigger, and ^)ent silent ecstatic
moments aiming at the ceiling. Sunday mornings Carol heard
him trudging up to the attic and there, an hour later, she
found him turning over boots, wooden duck-decoys, luncfa-
boxes, or reflectivdy squinting at old shells, rubbing their
brass caps with his ^eeve and shaking his head as he Uioug^t
about their usdessness.

He kept the loading-tools he had nised as a boy: a capper
for shot-gun shells, a mold for lead bullets. When once, in a
housewifely frenzy for getting rid of things, she raged, " Why
don't you give tiiese away? " he solemnly defended them,
"Well, you can't tell; they might a)me in handy some day."

She flushed. She wondered if he was thinking of the ddld
they would have when, as he put it, th^ were "sure they
coidd afford one."

Mysteriously aching, nebulously sad, she slipped away, half-
convinced but only half-convinced that it was horrible and un-
natural, this postponement of release of moUier-affection, thb
sacrifice to her opinionation and to his cautious desire for
prosperity.

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''But it would be worse if he were like Sam Clark — in-
sisted on having children/' she considered; then, ''If Will
were the Prince, wouldn't I demand his child? "

Kennicott's land-deals were both financial advancement and
favorite game. Driving through the country, he noticed ndiich
forms had good crops; he heard the news about the restless
farmer who was " thinking about selling out here and pulling
his freight for Alberta." He asked the veterinarian about the
value of different breeds of stock; he iiK)uired of L3anan Cass
whether or not Einar G3rseldson really had had a yidd of forty
bu^els of wheat to the acre. He was always consulting Julius
Flickerbaugh, who handled more real estate than law, and more
law than justice. He studied township maps, and read notices
of auctions.

Thus he vras able to buy a quarter-section of land for one
hundred and fifty dollars an acre, and to sell it in a year or
two, after installing a cement floor in the bam and rimning
water in the house, for one hundred and eighty or even two
hundred.

He spoke of these details to Sam Clark. . . . rather
often.

In aU his games, cars and guns and land, he eaq>ected Carol
to take an interest. But he did not give ha: the facts which
ttdf^t have created interest. He talk^ only of the obvious and
tedious a^>ects; never of his a^irations in finance, nor of the
mechanical principles of motors.

This month of romance she was eager to understand his
hobbies. She shivered in the garage while he spent half an hour
in deciding whether to put alcohol or patent non-freezing liquid
into the radiator, or to drain out the water entirely. " O no,
then I wouldn't vrant to take her out if it turned warm —
still, of course, I could fill the radiator again — ^wouldn't take
80 awful long— just take a few pails of vmter — still, if it turned

cold on me again before I drained it Course there's some

people that put in kerosene, but they say it rots the hose-con-
nections and Where did I put that lug-wrench? "

It was at this point that she gave up being a motorist and
retired to the house.

In their new intimacy he was more communicative about his
imu:tise; he informed her, with the invariable warning not to
tell, that Mrs. Sunderquist had another baby coming, that the
^ hired girl at Howland's v^as in trouble." But vriien she asked

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technical questions he did not know how to answer; when she
inquired, '^ Exactly what is the method of taking out the ton-
sils? " he yawned, " Tonsilectomy? Why you just If

there's pus, you operate. Just tAe 'em out. Seen the news-
paper? What the devil did Bea do with it? "
She did not try again.

They had gone to the " movies." The movies were almost
as vital to Kennicott and the other solid citizens of Gopher
Prairie as land-speculation and guns and automobiles.

The feature film portrayed a brave young Yankee who con-
quered a South American republic. He turned the natives from
dieir barbarous habits of singing and laughing to the vigorous
Rftnity^ the Pep ai^d P"«^h ^and Go. of the North; he taught
them to work in factories, to wear kiassy kouege jUothes, and
to shout, " Oh, you baby doll, watch me gather in the mazuma.*'
He changed nature itself. A mountain which had borne noth-
ing but lilies and cedars and loafing clouds was by his Hmtle
so inspirited that it broke out in long wooden sheds, and piles
-of iron ore to be converted into steamers to carry iron ore
jto be converted into steamers to carry iron ore.

The intellectual tension induced by the master film was re-
lieved by a livelier, more lyric and less philosophical drama:
Mack Schnarken and the Bathing Suit Babes in a comedy of
manners entitled '' Right on the Coco." Mr. Schnarken was at
various high moments a cook, a life-guard, a burlesque actor,
and a sculptor. There was a hotel hallway up which policemen
charged, only to be sttumed by plaster busts hurled upon them
from the innumerous doors. If the plot lacked lucidity, the
dual motif of legs and pie was dear and sure. Bathing and
modeling were equally sound occasions for legs; the wedding-
scene was but an approach to the thunderous dimax when Mr.
Schnarken slipped a piece of custard pie into the dorgsonan's
rear pocket.

The audience in the Rosebud Movie Palace squealed and
vriped their eyes; they scrambled under the seats for over-
shoes, mittens, and muCQers, while the screen announced that
next week Mr. Schnarken might be seen in a new, riproaring,
extra-special superfeature of the Qean Comedy Corporatum
entitled, " Under Mollie's Bed."

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'' I'm glad/' said Carol to Kennicott as they stooped before
ibt porthwest gale which was torturing the barren street, ^^ that
thb is a moral country. We don't aUow any of these beastly
frank novels."

" Yump. Vice Society and Postal Department won't stand
for them. The American people don't like filth."

*^ Yes. It's fine. I'm glad we have such dainty romances as
*Ri^t on the Coco' instead."

" Say what in htck do you think you're trying to do? Kid
me?"

He was silent. She awaited his anger. She meditated iq)on
his gutter patois, the Bceotian dialect characteristic of Gopher
Prairie. He laughed puzzlingly. When they came into the
g^ow of the house he laughed again. He condescended:

"I've got to hand it to you. You're consistent, all right.
I'd of thought that after getting this look-in at a lot of ^od
dec^t farmoSy you'd get over this high-art stuff, but you
hang right on."

"Wdl '* To herself; " He takes advantage of my try-
ing to be good.'*

"Tell you, Carrie: There's just three 1 classes of people:)
folks that haven't got any ideas at all; and cranks that
about everything; and R^ular Guys, the fellows with
tuitiveness, that boost and get the world's work done.'^

"Then I'm probably a crank." She smiled negligently.

"No. I won't admit it. You do like to talk, but at a
show-down you'd prefer Sam Clark to any damn long-haired
artist."

« Oh— well ''

" Oh well! " mockingly. " My, we're just going to change
eveiything, aren't we I Going to tell fellows that have beai
maldng movies for ten years bow to direct 'em; and tell archi*
tects how to buQd towns; and make the magazines publish
nothing but a lot of highbrow stories about old maids, and
about wives that don't know what they want. Oh, we're
a terror I . . . Come on now, Carrie; come out of it;
wake up! You've got a fine nerve, kicking about a movie be-
cause it shows a few legs! Why, you're idways touting these
(ketk dancers, or whatever they are, that don't even wear a
shimmyl "

" But, dear, the trouble with that film— it wasn't that it
got in 80 many legs, but that it giggled coyly and promised

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200 MAIN STREET

to show more of them, and then didn't keep the promise. It
was Peeping Tom's idea of hmnor."

" I don't get you. Look here now ^

She lay awake, while he rmnbled with sleep.

'* I must go on. My ' crank ideas/ he calls them. I thouj^t
that adoring him, watching him operate, would be oioug^ It
isn't. Not after the first thriU.

^'I don't want to hurt him. But I must go on.

'' It isn't enough, to stand by while he fills an automobfle
radiator and chucks me bits of information.

'^ If I stood by and admired him long enou^, I would be
content. I would become a * nice little woman.' The Village

Virus. Ahready I'm not reading an3rthing. I havoi't

touched the piano for a week. I'm letting the days drown in
worship of ' a good deal, ten plunks nu»:e per acre.' I won't!
I won't succumb!

I "How? I've failed at everything: the Thanatopsis, par-
ties, pioneers, city hall, Guy and Vida. But It doesn't

I matterl I'm not trying to * reform the town^' now. I'm not
i trying to organize Browning Clubs, and sit in clean white
kids yearning, up at lecturos with ribbony eye^asses. I am
trying to save my soul.

" Will Kennicott, asleq> there, trusting me, thinking he holds
me. And I'm leaving him. All of me left him when he laughed
at me. It wasn't enough for him that I admired him; I must
change myself and grow like him. He takes advantage. No
more. It's finished. I will go on."

Her violin lay on top of the upright piano. She picked it
up. Since she had last touched it the dried strings had snappedf
^and upon it lay a gold and crimson dgar-bsmd.

She longed to see Guy Pollock, for the confirming of the
brethren in the faith. But Kennicott's dominance was heavy
upon her. She could not determine whether ^e was checked
by fear or him, or by inertia — ^by dislike of the emotional labor
of the " scenes " which would be involved in asserting inde-
pendence. I She was like the revoIuti<mist at fifty: not afraul

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of deatliy but bored by the probability of bad steaks and bad
breaths and sitting up all nig^t on windy barricadesi

The second evening after the movies she inq>ulsively sum-
moned \^da Sherwin ami Guy to the house for pop-corn and
cider. In the living-room Vida and Kennicott debated " the
value of manual training in grades below the eighth," while
Caixol sat beside Guy at the dining table, buttering pq>-com«
She was quickaied by the q>eculation in his ^es. She
nnumuredr

" Guy, do you want to help me? **

"My dear! How?"

"I don't know!"

He waited.

" I think I want you to help me find out what has made the
darkness of the women. Gray darkness and shadowy trees.
We're all in it, ten million women, young married women with
good proq>erous husbands, and bt^iness women in linen collars,
and grandmothers that gad out to teas, and wives of under-
paid miners, and farmwives who really like to make butter and
go to church. What is it we want — and need? Will Kennicott
there would say that we need lots of children and hard work.
But it isn't tiiat. There's the same discontent in women with
eij^t children and one more coming — always one more coming!
And you fiml it in stenographers and wives who scrub, just
as much as in girl college-graduates who wonder how they can
escape thcdr kind parents. What do we want? "

"Essentially, I think, you are like myself, Carol; you want
to go back to an age of tranquillity and diarming manners.
You want to enthrone good taste again." ^

"Just good taste? Fastidious people? Oh — ^nol I be-^
Beve all of us want the same things — ^we're all together,*
the industrial workers and the women and the farmers and the
negro race and the Asiatic colonies, and even a few of the
Re^)ectables.'''It's all the same revolt, in all the classes that
have waited and taken advice. ( I think perhaps we want a
more conscious life. We're tired of drudging and sleeping and
dying. We're tired of seeing^ just a few people able to be in-
dividualists. We're tired of always deferring hope till the next
generation. yC^e're tired of hearing the politicians and priests
and cautious reformers (and the husbands!) coax us, ^ Be
calm! Be patient! Wait! We have the plans for a Utc^ia
aheady made; just give us a bit more time and well produce

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it; trust us; we're wiser than you.*! For ten thousand years
th^Ve said that. We want our Utopia now — and we're going
to try our hands at it. )AU we want is — everything for aJl of
usl For every housewife and every longshoreman and every
Hindu nationalist and every teacher. We want everything.
We sha'n't get it. So we sha'n't ever be content "\

She wond^ed why he was wincing. He broke in:

" See here, my dear, I certainly hope you don't class your-
self with a lot of trouble-making labor-leaders! f Democracy
is all right theoretically, and 111 admit there are industrial in-
justices, but I'd rather have them than see the world reduced
to a dead level of mediocrity. I refuse to believe that you
have anything in common with a lot of laboring men rowing
for biggo" wages so that they can buy wretched flivvers and
hideous player-pianos and "(

At this second, in Buenos A)rres, a newspaper editor broke

his routine of being bored by exchanges to assert, '' Any in-

j justice is better than seeing the world reduced to a gray levd

of scientific dullness." At this second a derk standing at

the bar of a New York saloon stepped milling his secret fear

A of his nagging office-manager long enough to growl at the

^ chauffeur beside him, " Aw, you socialists make me sickl I'm

an individualist. I ain't going to be nagged by no bureaus

and take orders off labor-leaders. And mean to say a hobo's

; as good as you and me? "

At this second Carol realized that for alFGuy's love of dead
elegances his timidity was as depressing to her as the bulkiness
of Sam Clark. She realized that he was not a mystery, as she
had excitedly believed; not a romantic messenger from the
World Outside on whom she could count for escape. He be-
longed to Gopher Prairie, absolutely. She was snatched bade
from a dream of far countries, and found hei^f on Main
Street.

He was completing his protest, ''You don't want to be
mixed up in all this orgy of meaningless discontent? "

She soothed him. "No, I don't. I'm not heroic. Tm
scared by all the fighting that's going on in the world. I
want nobility and adventure, but perhs^s I want still more to
curl on the hearth with some one I love."

"Would you "

He did not finish it. He picked up a handful of pop-corn,
let it ruQ through his fingers, looked at her wistfully.

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Wiih the londiness of one who has put away a possible love
Carol saw that he was a stran^^. Sbe saw. that he had never
been anything but a frame on which she had hung shining gar-
ments. If she had let him diffidently make love to her, it was
not because she cared, but because she did not care, because
it did not matter.

She smiled at him with the exasperating tactfulness of a
woman checking a flirtation; a smile like an airy pat on the
arm. She sighed, " You're a dear to let me tell you my imagi-
naiy troubles.'' Sbe bounced up, and trilled, " Shall we take
the pq>-com in to them now? "

Guy looked after her desolately.

Wbile she teased Vida and Kennicott she was repeating, '' I
must go on."

Miles Bjomstam, the pariah "Red Swede,** had brought
bis circular saw and portable gasoline engine to the house, to
cut the cords of poplar for the kitchen range. Kennicott had
given the order; Carol knew nothing of it till she heard the
ringing of the saw, and glanced out to see Bjomstam, in
black leather jacket and enormous ragged purple mittens, press-
ing sticks against the whirling blade, and flinging the stove-
Jengths to one side. The red irritable motor kept up a red
irritable " tip-tip-tip-tip-tip-tip." The whine of the saw rose
till it simulated the shriek of a fire-alarm whistle at ni^^t,
but always at the end it gave a lively metallic clang, and in
iSae stillness she heard the flump of the cut stick falling on the
pOe.

She threw a motor robe over her, ran out. Bjomstam wel-
onned her, " Well, well, weUI Here's old Miles, fresh as ever.
Wdl say, that's all right; he ain't even begun to be cheeky yet;
next summer he's going to take you out on his horse-trading
trip, clear into Idaho."
" Yes, and I may gol "
" How's tricks? Crazy about the town yet? "
"No, but I probably shall be, some day."
" Don't let 'em get you. Kick 'em in the face! "
He shouted at her while he worked. The pile of stove-
wood grew astonishingly. The pale bark of the poplar sticks
was mottled with lichens of sage-green and dusty gray; the
newly sawed ends were fresh-colored, with the agreeable

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roughness of a woolen muffler. To the st^e winter air the
wood gave a scent of March sap.

(Kennicott telephoned that he was going into the country.
I Bjomstam had not finished his work at noon, and she invited
J him to have dinner with Bea in the kitchen. She wished that
^Bhe were independent enough to dine with these her guests.
She considered their friendliness, she sneered at '^ social dis-
tinctions," she raged at her own taboos — and she continued to
regard them as retainers and hersdf as a lady. She sat in
the dining-room and listened through the door to Bjornstam's
booming and ^ea's giggles. She was the more absurd to her-
self in that, after the rite of dining alone, she could gp out to
the kitchen, lean against the sink, and talk to them|

They were attracted to each other; a Swedish Othello and
Desdemona, more useful and amiable than their prototypes.
Bjomstam told his scapes: selling horses in a Montana min-
ing-camp, breaking a log-jam, being impertinent to a ^' two-
fisted " millionaire lumberman. Bea gurgled ^' Oh my! " and
kept his coffee ciq> filled.

He took a long time to finish the wood. He had frequently
to go into the kitchen to get warm. Carol heard him con-
fiding to Bea, ''You're a dam nice Swede girl. I guess if
I had a woman like you I wouldn't be such a sorehead. Gosh,
your kitchen is clean; makes an old bach fed sloppy. Say,
that's nice hair you got. Huh? Me fresh? Saaaay, girl, if
I ever do get fresh, youll know it. IWhy, I could pidc you vp
with one finger, and hold you in the air long enou^ to read
Robert J. Ingersoll dean through. Ingersoll? Oh, he's a
religious writer. Sure. You'd like him fine.'!

When he drove oS he waved to Bea; and Carol, londy at the
window above, was envious of their pastoral.

"And I But I will go on."

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CHAPTER XVn

They were driving down the lake to the cottages that moonlit
January night, twenty of them in the bob-sled. They sang
•" Toy Land " and " Seeing Nelly Home "; th^ leaped from the
low back of the sled to race over the slippery snow ruts; and
when they were tired they climbed on the runners for a lift-
The moon-tipped flakes kicked iq> by the horses settled over the
revelers and dripped down their necks, but they laughed, yelped,
beat their leather mittens against their chests. The harness
rattled, the sleigh-bells were frantic, Jack Elder's setter sprang
beside the horses, barking.

For a time Carol raced vrith them. The cold air gave
fictive power. She felt that she could run on all ni^t, leap
twenty feet at a stride. But the excess of energy tired her, and
she was g^ to snuggle mider the comforters which covered the
hay in the sled-boz.

In the midst of the babel she found enchanted quietude.

Along the road the shadows from oak-branches were inked
on the snow like bars of music Then the sled came out on the
siffface of Lake Minniemashie. Across the thick ice was a
veritable road, a short-cut for farmers. On the glaring ex-
panse of the lake— levels of hard crust, flashes of green ice
blown dear, chains of drifts ribbed like the sea-beach — the
moonlight was overwhelming. It stormed on the snow, it
tamed the woods ashore mto crystals of fire. The night was
tropical and voluptuous. In that drugged magic there was no
difference between heavy heat and insinuating cold.

Carol was dream-strayed. The turbulent voices, even Guy
Pollock being connotative beside her, were nothing. She re-
peated:

Deep on the convent-roof the snows
Are sparkling to the moon.

The words and the light blurred into one vast indefinite
happiness, and she believed that some great thing was coming

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to her. She withdrew from the clamor into a worship of in-
comprehensible gods. The nig^t expanded, she was consdoua
of the mii verse, and all m3rsterie8 stooped down to her.

She was jarred out of her ecstasy as the bob-sled bumped up
the steep road to the bluff where stood the cottages.

Hiey dismounted at Jack Elder's shack. The interior walls
of unpaintied boards, which had been grateful in August, were
forbidding in the chill. In fur coats and mufflers tied over
caps they were a strange company, bears and walruses talk-
ing. Jadk Elder lighted the shavings waiting in the belly of a
cast-iron stove which was like an enlarged bean-pot. Hiey
piled their wraps high on a rocker, and cheered the rocker as
it solemnly tipped over backward.

Mrs. Eldnr and Mrs. Sam Clark made coffee in an enormous
blackened tin pot; Vida Sherwin and Mrs. McGanum tmpacked
doughnuts and gingerbread; Mrs. Dave Dyer warmed up " hot
dogs " — frankfurters in rolls; Dr. Terry Gould, after announc-
ing, ''Ladies and gents, prepare to be shocked; shock line
forms on the right," produced a bottle of bourbon whisky.

The othfin danced, muttering " Ouch I " as their frosted feet
struck the pine planks. Carol had lost her dream. Harry
Haydock lifted her by Uie waist and swung her. She laughed.
The gravity of the people who stood apart and talked made
her the more impatient for frolic.

Kennicott, Sam Clark, Jackson Elder, young Dr. McGanum,
and James Madison Howland, teetering on their toes near the
stove, conversed with the sedate pomposity of the commercialist.
In details the men were unlike, yet they said the same things
in the same hearty monotonous voices. You had to look at
them to see which was speaking.

" Well, we made pret^ good time coming up," from one —
any one.

" Yump, we hit it up after we struck the good going on the
k.ke."

" Seems kind of slow though, afta* driving an auto."

" Yump, it does, at that. Say, how'd you make out with
that Sphinx tire you got? "

" Seems to hold out fine. Still, I don't know's I like it any
better than the Roadeater Cord."

" Yump, nothing better than a Roadeater. E^)eciaIIy the
cord. The cord's lots better than the fabric."

" Yump, you said something Roadeater's a good tire,"

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^ Say, how'd you come out with Pete Garsheim on his pay*
ments? "

'' He's paying iq> pretty good. That's a nice piece of land
he's got."

<< Yump, that's a dandy farm.^

" Yump, Pete's got a good place there."
IThey glided from these serious topics into the jocose insults
wnich are the wit of Main Street. Sam Clark was particularly
apt at themjf '^ What's this wild-eyed sale of stunmer caps
you think 3rou're trying to pull off? " he clamored at Hairy
Haydock. " Did you steal 'em, or are you just overcharging us,
as usual? ... Oh say, speaking about caps, d'l ever tell
you the good one I've got on Will? The doc thinks he's a
pretty good driver, fact, he thinks he's almost got human in-
tdligence, but one time he had his machine out in the rain^
and the poor fish, he hadn't put on chains, and thinks I "

Carol had heard the story rather often. She fled back
to the dancers, and at Dave Dyer's masterstroke of dropping an
icicle down Mrs. McGanum's back she applauded hysterically.

They sat on the floor, devoming the food. The men giggled
amiably as they passed the whisky bottle, and laughed,
" There's a real sporti " when Juanita Haydock took a sip.
Carol tried to follow; she believed that she desired to be drunk
and riotous; but the whisky choked her and as she saw Kenni-
cott frown she handed the bottle on repentantly. Somewhat
too late she remembered that she had given up dom^tidty and
repentance.

" Let's play charades I " said Raymie Wutherspoon.

** Oh yes, do let us," said Ella Stowbody.

" That's the caper," sanctioned Harry Haydock.

They interpreted ihe word " making " as May and King.
Tte crown was a red flannel mitten cocked on Sam Qark's
broad pink bald head. They forgot they were respectable.
They made-believe. Carol was stimulated to cry:

'' Let's form a dramatic dub and give a play I Shall we?
It's been so much fun tonightl "

They looked affable.

" Sure," observed Sam Clark loyally.

"Oh, do let us I I think it would be lovely to present
* Romeo and Juliet 'I " yearned Ella Stowbody.

" Be a whale of a lot of fun," Dr. Terry Gould granted.

" But if we did," Carol cautioned* " it would be awfully

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silly to have amateur theatricals. We oni^t to paint our own
scenery and everything, and really do something fine. There'd
be a lot of hard work. Would you — would we all be punctual
at rehearsals, do you 8Ui^)ose? "

"You bet!" "Sure." " That's the idea." "FeUow ought
to be pronq)t at rehearsals/' they all agreed.

" Then let's meet next wedc and form the Gopher Prairie
Dramatic Association! " Carol sanR.

( She drove home loving these friends who raced through moon-
lit sxkGw^ had Bohemian parties, and were about to create beauty
in the theater. Everything was solved. She would be an au-
thentic part of the town, yet escape the coma of the Village
Virus. ... She would be free of Kennicott again, without
Jiurting him, without his knowing.
I She had triumphed.
I The moon was small and hi^ now, and unheeding.

Though they had all been certain that they longed for the
privilege of attending committee meetings ai^ rehearsals, the
dramatic association as definitely formed consisted only of
Kennicott, Carol, Guy Pdlock, Vida Sherwin, Ella Stowbody,
the Harry Ha3rdocks, the Dave Dyers, Raymie Wutherqxxm,
Dr. Terry Gould, and four new candidates: flirtatious Rita Sim-
ons, Dr. and Mrs. Harvey Dillon and Myrtle Cass, an uncomely
but intense girl of nineteen. Of these fifteen only seven came
to the first dieeting. The rest tdq>honed their ui^)arallded
regrets and engagements and illnesses, and aimounced that
they would be present at all other meetings through eternity.

Carol was made president and director.

She had added the Dillons. Despite Kennicott's apprdien-
sion the dentist and his wife had not been taken up by the
Westlakes but had remained as definitely outside resdly smart
sodety as Willis Woodford, who was teller, bookkeeper, and
janitor in Stowbody's bank. | Carol had noted Mrs. Dilloo
dragging past the house during a bridge of the Jolly Seventeen,
looking in with pathetic lips at the splendor of the accepted.
She inq)ulsively invited the Dillons to the dramatic associa-
tion meeting, and when Kennicott was brusque to them she was
unusually cordial, and felt virtuous^

That sdf-i^[^roval halancfd her disappointment at the anall-

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ness of the meeting, and her embarrassment duriiig Rasrmie
Wutherspoon's repetitions of " The stage needs uplifting/' and
'' I believe that there are great lessons in some plays.''

Ella Stowbody, who was a professi(»ial, having studied elo-
cution in Milwaukee, disai^roved of Carol's enthusiasm for
recent plays. Miss Stowbody expressed the fundamental prind-
I^ of the American drama: the only way to be artistic is to
present Shakespeare. As no one listened to her she sat back
and looked like Lady Macbeth.

. The Little Theaters, which were to give piquancy to Ameri-
can drama three or four years later, were only in embryo. But
of this fast coming revolt Carol haid premonitions. She knew
from some lost magazine article that in Dublin were innovators
called The Irish Players. She knew confusedly that a man
named Gordon Craig had painted scenery — or had he written
pla3rs? She felt that in the turbulence of the drann she was
discovering a history m<M-e important than ihe commonplace
chronicles vfinch dealt with senators and their pompous puerili-
ties. She had a sensation of familiarity; a dream of sitting
in a Brussels cafe and going afterward to a tiny gay theater
under a cathedral wall.

The advertisement in the Minneapolis paper leaped from
the page to her eyts:

The Cosmos School of Music, Oratmy, and
Dramatic Art announces a program of four
one-act plays by Sdmitzlery Shaw, Yeats, and
Lord Dunsany.

She had to be therel She begged Eennicott to ^' run down
to the Cities •' with her.

" Well, I don't know. I ^^ fim *Qj^^^ ^'" ^ ^ show, but wh y
the deuce do you want fe see those dam foreign nlavs. given
by a lot Of kmatetursr Why don't you wait for a regidar play,
later on? There's going to be some corkers coming: ^ Lottie
of Two-Gun Rancho,' and 'Cops and Crooks' — ^real Broad-
way stuff, with the New York casts. What's this junk you
want to see? Hm. ' How He lied to Her Husband.' That
doesn't Hsten so bad. Sounds racy. And. uh, well, I could

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go to tbe motor show, I siqqpose. I'd like to see this new
Hup roadster. Well " \

^e never knew which attraction made him decide.

She had four days of delightful wony— over the hole in
her one good silk petticoat, the loss of a string of beads from
her chiffon and brown velvet frock, the catsup stain on her best
georgette crepe blouse. She wailed, '^ I haven't a single solitary
thing that's fit to be seen in/' and enjoyed hersdf very mudi
indeed.

Kennieott went about casually letting people know that he
was '' going to run down to the Cities and see some shows."

As the train plodded through the gray prairie, on a windless
day with the smoke from the engine clinging to the fields in
giant cotton-rolk, in a low and writhing wall which shut off
the snowy fields, she did not look out of the window. She
closed her eyes and hummed, and did not know that she was
humming.

She was the young poet attacking fame and Paris.

In the Minneapolis station the crowd of lumberjacks,
farmers, and Swedish families with innumerous children and
grandparents and paper parcels, their foggy cro'v^ding and their
clamor confused her. |She fdt rustic in this once familiar dty,
after a year and a half of Gopher Prairie. She was certain
that Kennicott was taking the wrong trolley-car. By dusk, the
liquor warehouses, Hebraic clothing-shops, and lodging-
houses on lower Hennepin Avenue were smoky, hideous, iU-
tempered. She was battered by the noise and buttling of tbe
rush-hour traffic. When a clerk in an overcoat too closely
fitted at the waist stared at her, she moved nearer to Kennicott^
arm. The derk was flippant and urban. He was a siq>erior
person, used to this tumult. Was he laughii^ at her?

For a moment she wanted the secure quiet of Gopher
Prairie.l

In the hotd-lobby she was sdf-consdous. She was not
used to hotels; she remembered with jealousy how often
Juanita Haydock talked of the famous hotels in Chicago. She
could not face the traveling salesmen, baronial in large leather
chairs. She wanted people to believe that her husband and
fihe were accustomed to luxury and diill degance; she was
[faintly angry at him for the vulgar w^y in which, after sign-
ing the register " Dr. W. P. Kennicott & wife," he bellowed at
) the derk, '' Got a nice room with bath for us, old man? "

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She gazed about haughtily^ but as she discovered that no one
was interested in her she fdt foolish, and ashamed of her
irritation.

She asserted, ^' This silly lobby is too florid," and simultan-
eously she admired it: the onyx columns with gilt capitals, the
aown-embroidered velvet curtains at the restaurant door, the
silk-roped alcove where pretty girls perpeti^y waited for
mysterious men, the two-pound boxes of candy and the variety
of magazines at the news-stand. The hidden orchestra was
Uvdy. She saw a man who looked like a European dq>lomat,
in a loose top-coat and a Homburg hat. A woman vritb a
broadtail coat, a heavy lace veil, pearl earrings, and a dose
black hat entered the restaurant. ''Heavens I That's the
first really smart woman I've seen in a year! " Carol exulted.
She fdt metrc^litan.

But as she followed Eennicott to the elevator the coat-
check girl, a confident young woman, with cheeks powdered |
like lime, and a blouse low and thin and furiously crimson,
inspected her, and under that supercilious glance Carol was ^
aby again. She unconsdoi^ly waited for the bellboy to precede
her into the devator. When he snorted " Go ahead I '' die was
mortified. He thought she was a hayseed, she worried.

The moment she was in their room, with the bellboy safely
oat of the way, she looked critically at Kennicott. For the
first time in months she really saw him.

His dothes were too heavy and provincial. His decent
gray suit, made by Nat Hicks of Gq>her Prairie, might have
been of sheet iron; it had no distinction of cut, no easy grace
like the diplomat's Burberry. His black dioes were blunt and
not well polished. His scarf was a stiq>id brown. He needed
a shave.

But she forgot her doubt as she realized the ingenuities of
the room. She ran about, turning on the taps of the bath-
tub, which gushed instead of dribbling like the taps at home,
SDatching tiie new wash-rag out of its envelope of oiled
paper, trying the rose-shaded light between the twin beds,
pdling out Uie drawers of the kidney-shaped walnut dedL to
examine the engraved stationery, planning to write on it to
every one die knew, admiring the daret-colored velvet arm-
chair and the blue rug, testing the ice-water tap, and squealing
happfl3rwhen the water reaJly did come out cold. She flung
her arms about Eennicott, kissed him.

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" like it, old lady? ''

** It's adorable. It's so amusing. I love you for brin^png
me. You really are a dear I "

He looked blankly indulgent, and yawned, and condescended,
^^ That's a pretty slick arrangement on the radiator, so you can
adjust it at any temperature you want. Must take a big
furnace to run this place. Gosh, I hope Bea remembns to
turn off the drafts tonight."

Under the ^ass cover of the dressing-table was a menu with
the most enchanting dishes: breast of guinea hen De Vitresse,
pommes de terre k la Russe, mmngue Chantilly, g&teaux
Bruxelles.

" Oh, let's I'm going to have a hot bath, and put on my

new hat with the wool flowers, and let's go down and eat for
hours, and well have a cocktail I " she chanted.

While Kennicott labored over ordering it was annoying to
see him permit the waiter to be impertinent, but as the <^dL-
tail elevated her to a bridge among colored stars, as the
oysters came in — ^not canned oysters in the Gq)her Prairie
fadiicHi, but on the half-shell — she cried, ** If you only knew
how wonderful it is not to have had to plan this dinner, and
order it at the butcher's and fuss and think about it, and then
watch Bea cook it! I f^ so free. And to have new kinds of
food, and different patterns of dishes and linen, and not wony
about whether the pudding is being spoiled I Oh, this is a
great mom^t for me I "

Hiey had all the experiences of provincials in a metropolis.
After breakfast Carol bustled to a hair-dresser's, bought ^oves
and a blouse, and importantly met Kennicott in front of an
optician's, in accordance with plans laid down, revised, and
verified. They admired the diamonds and furs and frosty
silverware and mahogany chairs and polished morocco sewing-
boxes in shop-windows, and were abashed by the throngs in the
department-stores, and were bullied by a clerk into buying too
many shirts for Kennicott, and gaped at the " clever novdty
poiumes— just in from New York." Carol got three books
on the theater, and spent an exultant hour in warning herself
that she could not afford this rajah-silk frock, in thinking how-
envious it would make Juanita Haydock, in closing her ^es,.

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and buying it. Kennicott went from shop to shop, earnestly
hunting down a fdtrcovered device to keq> Uie windshield of
his car dear of rain.

Th^ dined extravagantly at their hotel at idf^t, and next
morning sneaked round the comer to economize at a Childs'
Restaurant. They were tired by three in the afternoon, and
dozed at the motion-pictures and said they wished they were
back in Gopher Prairie — ^and by deven in the evening they were
again so lively that they went to a Chinese restaurant tl^t was
frequented by derks and their sweethearts on pay-days. They
sat at a te^ and marble table eating Eggs Fooyung, and
listened to a brassy automatic piano, and were altogether cosmo-
politan.

On the street they met people from home — ^the McGanums.
They laughed, shook haiuls repeatedly, and ezdaimed, ^* Wdl,
this is quite acoinddencel " \They a^ed when the McGanums
had come down, and bc^^ged for news of the town they had
left two days befcnre. Whatever the McGanums were at home,
here they stood out as so siq>erior to all the undistinguishable
strangers absurdly hurr^dng past that the Kennicotts hdd
them as long as they could. The McGanums said good-by
as though they were going to Tibet instead of to the station
to catch No. 7 north*!

They explored Minneapolis. Kennicott was conversational
and technical regarding gluten and cockle-cylinders and No.
X Hard, when they were shown through the gray stone hulks
and new cement devators of the largest flour-nSlls in the world.
They kx>ked across Loring Park and the Parade to the towers
of St. Mark's and the Procathedral, and the red roofs of
houses climbing Kenwood Hill. They drove about the chain
ei garden-cirded lakes, and viewed die houses of the millers
and lumbermen and real estate peers — the potentates of the
expanding dty. They surveyed the small eccentric bungalows
with pergolas, the houses of pebbledash and tapestry brick
with deeping-porches above sun-parknrs, and one vast incredible
ch&teau fronting the Lake of the Isles. They tranq>ed through
a shining-new section of apartment-houses; not the tall bl^
iputments of Eastan dties but low structiu-es of cheerful
yellow brick, in which each flat had its glass-endosed pord^
with swingmg couch and scarlet cushions and Russian brass
bowb. Between a waste of tracks and a raw gouged hill ihey
found pov^ty in staggering shanties.

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They saw miles of the dty which they had nevo: known in
their days of absorption in college. They were distinguished
e]q>lorers, and they remarked, in great mutual esteem, " I bet
Harry Haydock's never seen the City like this! Why, he'd
never have sense enough to study the machinery in the mills,
or go through all these outlying districts. Wonder folks in
Gopher Prairie wouldn't use Uieir legs and explore, the way we
dol "

They had two meals with Carol's sister, and were bored, and
felt that intimacy which beatifies married people when they
suddenly admit that they equally dislike a relative of dtbor
of them.

So it was with affection but also with weariness that they
approached the evening on which Carol was to see the pla}^ at
the dramatic school. Kennicott suggested not going. ^' So dam
tired from all this walking; don't know but what we better
turn in early and get rested up." It was only from duty that
Carol dragged him and herself out of the warm hotel, into a
stinking trolley, up the brownstone steps of the converted
residence which lugubriously housed the dramatic school.

They were in a long whitewashed hall with a clumsy draw-
curtain across the front. The folding chairs were filled with
people who looked washed and ironed: parents of the piq>ik,
girl students, dutiful teachers.

'' Strikes me it's going to be punk. If the first play isnt
good, let's beat it," said Kennicott hopefully.

" All right," she yawned. With hary eyes she tried to read
the lists of characters, which were hidden among lifeless ad-
vertisements of pianos, music-dealers, restaurants, candy.

She regarded the Schnitzler play with no vast interest. The
actors moved and spoke stifBy. Just as its cynicism was be-
ginning to rouse her village-dulled frivolity, it was over.

" Don't think a whale of a lot of that. How about taking
a sneak? " petitioned Kennicott.

"Oh, let's try the next one, *How He Lied to Her
Husband.' "

The Shaw conceit amused her, and perplexed Kennicott:

"Strikes me it's dam fresh. Thoufl^t it would be racy.
Don't know as I think much of a play where a husband

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actually claims he wants a fdlow to make love to his wife.
No husband ever did that I Shall we shake a leg? "

" I want to see this Yeats thing, * Land of Heart's Desire.*
I used to love it in college." She was awake now, and urgent.
** I know you didn't care so much for Yeats when I read him
aloud to you, but you just see if you don't adore him on
the stage."

Most of the cast were as unwieldy as oak chairs marching,
and the setting was an arty arrangement of batik scarfs and
heavy tables, but Maire Bruin was slim as Carol, and larger-
eyed, and her voice was a morning bell. In her, Carol lived,
and on her lifting voice was transported from this sleepy small-
town husband and all the rows of polite parents to the stilly
loft of a thatched cottage where in a green dinmess, beside a
window caressed by linden branches, she bent ova* a chronicle
of twilight women and the ancient gods.

" Well — ^gosh— nice kid played that girl — good-looker," said
Kennicott. '' Want to stay for the last piece? Heh? "

She shivered. She did not answer.

The curtain was again drawn aside. On the stage they
saw nothing but long green curtains apd a leather chair. Two
young men in brown robes like fumiture-cova^ were gesturing
vacuously and droning cryptic sentences full of repetitions.

It was Carol's first hearing of Dunsany. She sympathized
with the restless Kennicott as he fdt in his pocket for a dgar
and unhappily put it.badL.

l^thout understanding when or how, without a tangible
thange in the stilted intoning of the stage-puppets, she v^as
conscious of another time and place.

Stately and aloof among vainglorious tiring-maids, a queen
m robes that murmured on the marble floor, she trod the
gallery of a crumbling palace. In the court3rard, elephants
trumpeted, and swart men with beards dyed crimson stood vrith
blood-stained hands folded upon their hilts, guarding the
caravan from £1 Shamak, the camels vrith Tyrian stuffs of
topaz and cinnabar. Beyond the turrets of the outer wiJl the
jtugle glared and shrieked, and the sun was furious above
drenched orchids. A youth came striding through the steel-
bossed doors, the sword-bitten doors that v^ere hi^er than ten
tail men. He was in flexible mail, and under the rim of his
[daniahed morion were amorous curls. His hand was out to
her; before she touched it she could fed its warmth— —

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'' Gosh all hemlockl What the dickens is all this staff about,
Carrie? "

She was no Ssnian queen. She was Mrs. Dr. Kennicott.
She fell with a jolt into a whitewashed hall and sat looking
at two scared girb and a young man in wrinkled tights.

Kennicott fondly rambled as they left the hall:

" JtVhat the deuce did that last spiel mean ? Couldn't make
heaaoTiattTSf it. if that's bighbrow drama, give me a cow-
puncher movie, every time I Thank God, that's over, and we
can get to bed. Wonder if we wouldn't make time by walking
over to Nicollet to take a car? One thing I will say for that
dump: they had it warm enough. Must have a big hot-air
1 furnace, I guess. Wonder how much coal it takes to run 'on
\through the winter? "

In the car he affectionately patted her knee, and he was {(X
a second the striding youth in armor; then he was Doc
Kennicott of Gopher Prairie, and she was recaptured by Main
Street. Never, not all her Ufe, would she behold jungles and
the tombs of kings. There were strange things in the world,
they really existed; but she would never see them.

She would recreate them in plays!

She would make the dramatic association understand her

aspiration. They would, surely they would

t She looked doubtfully at the impenetrable reality of spawning
'^trolley conductor and sleepy passengers and placards adver-
itising soap and underwear.

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CHAPTER XVm

She hurried to the first meeting of the play-reading committee.
Her jungle romance had faded, but she retained a religious
fervor, a surge of half-formed thought about the creation of
beauty by suggestion.

A Dunsany play would be too difficult for the Gc^ber Prairie
association. She would let them compromise on Shaw — on
** Androdes and the Lion," which had just been published.

The committee was composed of Carol, Vida Sherwin, Guy
Pollock, Ra3rmie Wutherspoon, and Juanita Haydock. Thcy^
were exalted by the picture of themselves as being simul-
taneously business-like and artistic. They were entertained
by \^da in the parlor of Mrs. Elisha Gurrey's boarding-house,
with its steel engraving of Grant at Appomattox, its basket of
stereoscopic views, and its mysterious stains on the gritty
carpet.

\^da was an advocate of culture-bu3dng and efficiency-,
systems. She hinted that they ought to have (as at the!
ccnnmittee-meetings of the Thanatopsis) a '' regular order of \
business," and ''the reading of the minutes," but as there
were no minutes to read, and as no one knew exactly what was
the regular order of the business of being literary, they had
to give up efficiency.

Qirol, as chairman, said politely, '' Have you any ideas about
what play we'd better give first? " She waited for them to
look abashed and vacant, so that she might suggest
"Androcles."

Guy Pollock answered with disconcerting readiness, ''III
tell you: since we're going to try to do something artistic^
and not simply fool around, I believe we ought to give some-
thing classic. How about ' The School for Scandal ' ? "

"Why Don't you think that has been done a good

deal?"

" Yes, perhaps it has."

Carol was ready to say, " How about Bernard Shaw? " wheo

217

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he treacherously went on, *' How would it be then to give a
Greek drama— say ' (Edipus Tyrannus ' ? "

" Why, I don't believe "

Vida Sherwin intruded, '' I'm sure that would be too hard
for us. Now Fve brought something that I think would be
awfully jolly."

She held out, and Carol incredulously took, a thin gray
panq)hlet entitled '' McGinerty's MoUier-in-law." It was the
sort of farce which is advertised in '^ school aitertahiment "
catalogues as:

, Riproaring knock-out, 5 m. 3 1, time 2 hrs., interior set, popular
with churches and all high-class occasions.

Carol glanced from the scabrous object to Vida, and realized
that she was not joking.

" But this is— this is— why, it's just a Why, Vida, I

thought you appreciated — ^well — appreciated art."

Vida snorted, "Oh. Art. Oh yes. I do like art. It's
very nice. But after all, what does it matter what kind of
play we give as long as we get the association started? The
thing that matters is something that none of you have q>oken
of, Uiat is: what are we going to do with the money, if we
make any? I think it would be awfully nice if we presented
the high school with a full set of Stoddard's travel-lectures! "

Carol moaned, " Oh, but Vida dear, do forgive me but this

farce Now what I'd like us to give is something dis-

tingmshed. Say Shaw's ' Androdes.' Have any of you read
it?"

" Yes. Good play," said Guy Pollock.

Then Raymie Wutherspoon astoimdingly spoke up:
I" So have I. I read through all the plays in the public

library, so's to be ready for this meeting. And But I

don't believe you gra^ the irreligious ideas in this ' Androdes,'
Mrs. Kennicott. I guess the feminine mind is too innocent to
understand all these inmioral writers. I'm sure I don't waht
to criticize Bernard Shaw; I understand he is very pc^ular

with the highbrows in Minneapolis; but just the same As

far as I can make out, he's downright improper! The things

he says- Well, it would be a very risky thing for our

young folks to see. It seems to me that a play that doesn't
leave a nice taste in the mouth and that hasn't any message
is nothing but — ^nothing but Well, whatever it may be,

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219

it isn't art. So— Now IVe found a play that is clean, and
there's some awfully funny scenes in it, too. I laughed out
loud, reading it. It's called ^His Mother's Heart/ and it's
about a young man in college who gets in with a lot of free-
thinkers and boozers and everything, but in the end his mother's
influence '1

Juanita Haydock broke in with a derisive, '^ Oh rats, Raymiel
Can the mother's influencel I say let's give something with
some class to it. I bet we could get the rights to ' The Girl
from Kankakee/ and that's a real show. It ran for eleven
months in New YorkI "

^ That would be lots of fun, if it wouldn't cost too much/*
r^ected Vida.

Carol's was the only vote cast against ^'The Girl from
Kankakee."

She disliked ''The Girl from Kankakee" even more than
she had expected. It narrated the success of a farm-lassie in
clearing her brother of a charge of forgery. She became secre-
tary to a New York millionaire and social counselor to his
wife; and after a well-conceived speech on the discomfort of
having money, she married his son.

There was also a humorous office-boy.

Carol discerned that both Juanita Haydock and Ella Stow-
body wanted the lead. She let Juanita have it Juanita ki^ed
her and in the exuberant manner of a new star presented to
the executive committee her theory, " What we want in a play
is humor and pep. There's where American playwrights put it
all over these dam old European glooms."

As sdected by Carol and confirmed by the committee, the
persons of the play were:

. Guy Pollock

. Miss Vida Shcrwin

. Dr. Harvey Dillon

. Raymond T. Wutherspoon

. Miss Ella Stowbody

. Mrs. Harold C. Haydock

. Dr. Terence Gould

. Mrs. David Dyer '

• Miss Rita Simons

. Miss M3rrtle Cass

. Mrs. W. P. Kennicott
of Mrs. Kennicott

John Grimm, a millionaire
His wife
His son

His business rival .
Friend of Mrs. Grimm
The girl from Kankakee
Her brother
Her mother
Stenographer
Office-boy
Blaid in the Grimms' home
Direction

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Among the minor lamentations was Maud Dyer's ^^ Well of
course I suppose I look old enough to be Juanita's mother,
even if Juanita is eight months older than I am, but I don't
know as I care to have everybody noticing it and "

Carol pleaded, "Oh, my dear! You two look exactly the
same age. I chose you because you have such a darling com-
plexion, and you know with powder and a white wig, anybody
looks twice her age, and I want the mother to be sweet, no
matter who else is."

Ella Stowbody, the professional, perceiving that it was be-
cause of a conspiracy of jealousy that she had been given a
small part, alternated between lofty amusement and Christian
patience.

Carol hinted that the play would be improved by cutting,
but as every actor except Vida and Guy and herself wailed
at the loss of a single line, she was defeated. She told herself
that, after all, a great deal could be done with direction and
settings. ^

Sam Clark had boastfully written about the dramatic as-
sociation to his schoolmate, Percy Bresnahan, president of the
Vdvet Motor Company of Boston* Bresnahan sent a check
for a hundred dollars; Sam' added twenty-five and brought the
fund to Carol, fondly crying, "Therel That'll give you a
start for putting the thing across swell I "

She rented the second floor of the city hall for two months.
All through the spring the association thrilled to its own talent
in that dismal room. They cleared out the bunting, ballot-
boxes, handbills, legless chairs. They attacked the stage.
It was a simple-minded stage. It was raised above the &>or,
and it did have a movable curtain, painted with the adver-
tisement of a druggist dead these ten years, but otherwise it
might not have been recognized as a stage. There were two
dressing-rooms, one for men, one for women, on dither side.
The dressing-room doors were also the stage-entrances, opening
from the house, and many a dtizen of Gopher Prairie bad for
his first glimpse of romance the bare shoulders of the leac^ng
woman.

There were three sets of scenery; a woodland, a Poor In-
terior, and a Rich Interior, the last also useful for railway
stations, offices, and as a background for the Swedish Quartette
from Chicago. There were three gradations of lighting: full
on, half on, and entirely off.

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This was the only theater in Gopher Prairie. It was known
as the "op'ra house." Once, strolling companies had used
it for performances of " The Two Orphans," and " Nellie flie
Beautiful Qoak Model," and " Othello " with specialties be-
tween acts, but now the motion-pictures had ousted the gipsy
drama.

Carol intended to be furiously modem in constructing the
office-set, the drawing-room for Mr. Grimm, and the Humble
Home near Kankakee. It was the first time that any one in
Gopher Prairie had been so revolutionary as to use enclosed
scenes with continuous side-walls. The rooms in the op'ra house
sets had separate wing-pieces for sides, which simplified drama-
turgy, as the villain could always get out of the hero's way by
walking out through the wall.

The inhabitants of the Humble Home were supposed to be
amiable and intelligent. Carol planned for them a simple set
with warm color. She coidd see the beginning of the play:
all dark save the high settles and the solid wooden table be-
tween them, which were to be illuminated by a ray from off-
stage. The high light was a polished copper pot filled with
primroses. Less clearly she sketched the Grimm drawing-room
as a series of cool high white ardies.

As to how she was to produce these effects she had no
notion.

She discovered that, deq)ite the enthusiastic young writers,,
the drama was not half so native and dose to the soil as motot
cars and telephones. She discovered that simple arts require
sophisticated training. She discovered that to produce one
perfect stage-picture would be as difficult as to turn all of
Gopher Prairie into a Georgian garden.

She read all she could find regarding staging; she bought
paint and light wood; she borrowed furniture and drapes im-
acmpulously; she made Kennicott turn carpenter. She col-
lided with the problem of lighting. Against the protest of
Kennicott and Vida she mortgaged the association by sending
to Minneapolis for a baby spotlight, a strip light, a dimming
device, and blue and amber bulbs; and with the gloating rap-
ture of a bom painter first turned loose among colors, she
spent absorbed evenings in grouping, dimming — painting with
Ughts.

Only Kennicott, Guy, and Vida helped her. They speculated
as to how flats could be lashed together to form a wall; they

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hung crocus-ydlow curtains at the windows; they blacked the
sheet-iron stove; they put on aprons and swq)t The rest
of the association drc^ped into the theater every ev^iing, and
were literary and superior. They had borrowed Card's
nutnuals of play-{)roduction and had become extremely stagey
in vocabulaiy.

Juanita Haydock, Rita Simons^ and Raymie Wutherspoon
sat on a sawhorse, watching Carol try to get the right position
for a picture on the wall in the first scene.

" I don't want to hand mysdt anything but I believe 111
give a swell performance in this first act/' confided Juanita.
** I wish Carol wasn't so bossy though. She doesn't under-
stand clothes. I want to wear, oh, a dandy dress I have —
all scarlet — and I said to her, 'When I enter wouldn't it
knock their eyes out if I just stood there at the door in this
straight scarlet thing? ' But she wouldn't let me."

Young Rita agreed, " She's so much taken up with her old
details and carpentering and ever3rthing that she can't see the
picture as a whole. Now I thou^t it would be lovely if we
had an office-scene like the one in * Little, But Oh My! '
Because I saw that, in Duluth. But she simply wouldn't listen
at all."

Juanita sighed, ''I wanted to give one speech like Ethd
Barrjonore would, if she was in a play like this. (Harry
and I heard her one time in Minneapolis — ^we had dandy seats,
in the orchestra — I just know I could imitate her.) Carol
didn't pay any attention to my suggestion. I don't want to
criticize but I guess Ethel knows more about acting than
Carol doesl "

" Say, do you think Carol has the right dope about using a
strip light behind the fireplace in the second act? I told
her I thought we ought to use a bunch," offered Raymie.
" And I suggested it would be lovely if we used a cydorama
outside the window in the fu^t act, and what do you think
she said? 'Yes, and it would be lovely to have Eleanora
Duse play the lead,' she said, * and aside from the fact that
it's evening in the first act, you're a great technician,' she
said. I must say I think she was pretty sarcastic I've been
reading up, and I know I could build a cydorama, if she didnt
want to rim everything."

" Yes, and another thing, I think the entrance in the first
act ought to be L. U. E., not L. 3 E.," from Juanita.

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** And ^y does she just use plain white tormenters? "
" What's a tormenter? " blurted Rita Simons.
The savants stared at her ignorance.

Carol did not resent their criticisms, she didn't very much
resent their sudden knowledge, so long as they let her make
pictures. It was at rehearsals that the quarrrels broke. No
one understood that rehearsals were as real engagements as
bridge-games or sociables at the Episcopal Church. They gaily
came in half an hour late, or they vociferously came in ten
minutes early, and they were so hurt that diey whiq>ered
about resigning when Qirol protested. They telephoned, " I
don't think I'd better come out; afraid the dampness might
start my toothache," or " Guess can't make it toni^t; Dave
wants me to sit in on a poker game.''

When, after a month of labor, as many as nine-devenths ]
of the cast were often present at a rehearsal; when most of i
them had learned their parts and some of them q)oke like ,
human beings, Ca rol had a new shock in th e r^igttion that 'jtoM^
.Guy PoUockand' herself were, yeiy bitdjactpre^^IdncT that . .
Raymie Wulher^oon was a surprisin]^ good o ne. For all her 1
visions she coulonot control her voice, and she was bored by
the fiftieth rq>etition of her few lines as maid. Guy pulled
Im soft mustache, looked self-conscious, and turned Mr. Grimm
into a limp dummy. But Raymie, as the villam, had no repres-
sicHis. The tilt of his head was full of character; his drawl
was admirably vicious.

There was an evening when Carol hoped she was going to
make a play; a rehearsal during which Guy stopped looking
abashed.

From that evening the play declined.

They were weary. " We know our parts well enough now;
idiat's the use of getting sick of them? " they complained.
They began to skylark; to play with the sacred li^ts; to
giggle when Carol was trying to make the sentimental M3rrtle
Cass into a humorous c^ce-boy; to act everything but " The
Girl from Kankakee." After loafing throuj^ his proper part
Dr. Terry Gould had great applause for his burlesque of
" Hamlet." Even Raymie lost his simple faith, and tried to
show that he could do a vaudeville shuffle.

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Carol turned on the company. '^ See ha^, I want this non*
sense to stop. WeVe simply got to get down to work."

Juanita Haydock led the mutiny: '^ Look here, Carol, dcmt
be so bossy. After all, we're doing this play principally
for the fun of it, and if we have fun out of a lot of monkey-
shines, why then "

"Ye-es," feebly.

*^ You said one time that fdks in G. P. didn't get enou^
fun out of life. And now we are having a circus, you want
us to stopi "

Carol answered slowly: ''I wonder if I can explain what
I mean? It's the difference between looking at the comic
y page and looking at Manet. I want fun out of this, of course.
Only I don't think it would be less fun, but more, to pro-
duce as perfect a play as we can." She was curiously exalte^
her voice was strained; she stared not at the company but at Hm
grotesques scrawled on the backs of wing-pieces by i ocgot fi
stage-hands. ^ I wonder if you can understand the * tmk * of
making a beautiful thing, the pride and satisfaction of it, nd
^the holiness I "

/ The company glanced doubtfully at one another. In Gopher
( Prairie it is not good form to be holy excq>t at a church, b»-
V^tween ten-thirty and twelve on Sunday.

" But if we want to do it, we've got to work; we must
have self-discipline."

They were at once amused and embarrassed. They did not
want to affront this mad woman. They backed off and tried to
rehearse. Carol did not hear Juanita, in front, protesting to
Maud Dyer, '^ If she calls it fun and holiness to sweat over
her darned old play— well, I don't! "

Carol attended tiie only professional play which came to
Gopher Prairie that spring. It was a ^' tent show, presenting
snappy new dramas under canvas." The hard-working actors
doubled in brass, and took tickets; and between acta sang
about the moon in June, and sold Dr. Wintergreen's Surd&re
Tonic for His of the Heart, Lungs, Kidneys, and Bowels. They
presented "Sunbonnet Nell: A Dramatic Comedy of tibe
Ozarks," with J. Witherbee Boothby wringing the soul by
his resonant '' Yuh aint done right by mah Bttle pd, Ifr,

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Qty Man, but yer a-goin' to find that back in these-yere hills
there's honest folks and good shots! "

The audience, on planks breath the patched tent, admired
Mr. Boothby's beard and long rifle; stamped their feet in""
the dust at the ^ectade of hte heroism; shouted when the
comedian aped the City Lady's use of a lorgnon by lodung
through a doug^ut stuck on a fork; wept visibly over Mr.
Boothby's Little Gal Nell, who was also Mr. Boothby's legal
wife Pearl, and when the curtain went down, listened respect-
fully to Mr. Boothby's lecture on Dr. Wintergreen's Tonic as
a core for tape-worms, ^diich he illustrated by horrible pallid
objects curled in bottles of yellowing alcohol.

Carol shook her head. "Juanita is right I'm a fool.
Holiness of the drama! Bernard Shawl The only trouble
^lith 'The Girl from Eankakee' is that it's too subtle for
Goj^ber Prairie! "

(She sought faith in q>acious banal phrases, taken from books:
^the instinctive nobiUty of simple souls," ''need only the
opportunity, to 2q>preciate fine things," and " sturdy exponents
of democracy." But these ODti^ ^fsm ^'"^ ^^* cmmH en innH
as die laughter of the audiqice at^e f unny-pan!a line, i' Yes,
by hecfcei mn, I'm a smart lel la.^ SBe wanted to give up the
play, the dramatic association, the town. As she came out of
the tent and walked with Kennicott down the dusty spring
street, she peered at this straggling wooden village and fdt
that she could not possibly stay here through all of tomorrow.!

It was Miles B jomstam who gave her strength— he and the
hct that every seat for '' The Gkl from Kankakee " had been
sdd.

Bjomstam was " keeping conq>any " with Bea. Every night
he was sitting on the back stq>s. Once when Carol i4)peared
he grumbled, " Hope you're going to give this burg one good
show. If you don't, reckon nobody ever will."

It was the great nij^t; it was the night of the play. The
two dressing-rooms were swirling with actors, panting, twitchy.
pale. Del Snafilin the barber, who was as much a professiomil
as EUa, having once gone cm in a mob scene at a stock-
company performance in Minneapolis, was making them up,
and lowing his scorn for amateurs with, " Stand still! For

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the love o' Mike, how do you expect me to get your eyelids
dark if you keep a-wig^'? " The actors were beseeching,
" Hey, Del, put some red in my nostrils— you put some in
Rita's — gee, you didn't hardly do anything to my face."

They were enormously theatric. They examined Dd's mak^
xtp box, they sniffed the scent of grease-paint, every minute
they ran out to peep through the hole in the curtain, they
came back to inspect their wigs and costumes, they read on
the whitewashed walls of the dressing-rooms the pencil in-
scriptions: "The Flora Flanda^ Comedy Company," and
" This is a bum theater," and felt that they were conq)anions
of these vanished troupers.

Carol, smart in maid's uniform, coaxed the temporary stage-
hands to finish setting the first act, wailed at Kennicott, the
electrician, " Now for heaven's sake remember the change in
cue for the ambers in Act Two," slipped out to ask Dave Dyer,
the ticket-taker, if he could get some more chairs, warned the
frightened Myrtle Cass to be sure to upset the waste-basket
when John Grimm called, " Here you, Reddy."

Del SnafiSin's orchestra of piano, violin, and comet began to
tune up and every one behind the magic line of the proscenic
arch was frightened into paralysis. Carol wavered to the
hole in the curtain. Tha*e were so many people out there,
staring so hard

In the second row she saw Miles Biomstam, not with Bea
but alone. He really wanted to see the play I It was a good
omen. Who could tell? Perhaps this eveidng would convert
Gopher Prairie to conscious beauty.

She darted into the women's (bessing-room, roused Maud
Dyo* from her fainting panic, pushed her to the wings, and
CN'dered the curtain up.

It rose doubtfully, it staggered and trembled, but it did get
up without catchhig — ^this time. Then she realized that
Kennicott had forgotten to turn off the houselights. Some
one out front was giggling.

She galloped round to the left wing, herself pulled the
switch, looked so ferociously at' Kennicott that he quaked,
and fled back,

Mrs. Dyer was creqping out on the half-darkened stage.
The play was begun.

And with that instant Carol realized that it was a bad phy
abominably acted.

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Encouraging them with l3ring smiles, she watched her work
go to pieces. The settings seemed fiimsy, the lighting com-
monplace. She watched Guy Pollock stammer and twist his
mustache when he should have been a bullying magnate; Vida
Sherwin, as Grimm's timid wife, chatter at the audience as
though they were her class in high-school English; Juanita,
in the leading role, defy Mr. Grimm as though she were re-
peating a list of things she had to buy at the grocery this
morning; Ella Stowbody remark '^ I'd Uke a cup of tea " as
though she were reciting '^ Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight ";
ai^ Dr. Gould, making love to Rita Sunons^ squeak, ^' My —
my — you — are— a — ^won'erful— girl.'*

Myrtle Cass, as the office-boy, was so much pleased by the
ai^lause of her relatives, then so much agitated by the re-
marks of Cy Bogart, in the back row, in reference to her
wearing trousers, that she could hardly be got off the stage.
Only Raymie was so unsociable as to devote himself entirely
to acting.

That she was right in her q)inion of the play Carol was
obtain when Miles Bjomstam went out after the first act,
ami did not come back.

Between the second and third acts she called the company
together, and supplicated, " I want to know something, before
we have a chance to separate. Whether we're doing well or
badly tonight, it is a beginning. But will we take it as merely
a beginning? How many of you will pledge yourselves to
start in wiUi me, right away, tomorrow, and plan for another
play, to be given in S<q)tend>er? "

They stared at her; they nodded at Juanita's protest: " I
think one's enough for a while. It's going elegant tonight, but

another play Seans to me it'll be time enough to talk

about that next fall. Carol! I hope you don't mean to hint
and suggest we're not doing fine tonight? I'm sure the ap-
plause s^ows the audience think it's just dandy I "

Then Carol knew how completely she had failed.

As the audience seeped out she heard B. J. Gougerling the
bsmker say to Howland the grocer, " Well, I think the folks
did ^endld; just as good as professionals. But I don't care
much for these plays. What I like is a good movie, with

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auto accidents and hold-iq>Sy and some git to it, and not all
this talky-talk."

Then Carol knew how certain she was to fail again.

She wearily did not blame them, company nor audience.
Henelf she blamed for trying to carve intaglios in good whde-
8ome jack-pine.

'' It's the worst defeat of all. I'm beaten. By Main Street
* I must go on.' But I can't! "

She was not vastly encouraged by the Gopher Prairie
Dauntless:

. . . would be impossible to distinguish among the actors when
an gave such fine account of themsdves in difficult roles of this
well-known New York stage play. Guy Pollock as the old mil-
lionaire could not have been bettered for his fine impersonation of
the gruff old millionaire; Mrs. Harry Haydock as the young lady
from the West who so easily showed the New York four-flushers
where they got off was a vision of loveliness and with fine stage
presence. Miss Vida Sherwin the ever popular teacher in our
high school pleased as Mrs. Grimm, Dr. Gould was well suited in
^e role of young lover— girls you better look out, remember the
doc is a baoielor. The local Four Hundred also report ihat he
is a great hand at shaking the light fantastic tootsies in the
dance. As the stenographer Rita Simons was pretty as a picture,
and Miss Ella Stowbodys long and intensive study of the drama
and kindred arts in Eastern schools was seen in the fine finish
of her part

... to no one is greater credit to be given than to Mrs. XVill
Kennicott on whose capable shoulders fell the burden of directing.

" So kindly/' Carol mused^ " so wdl meant, so ndg^hborfy—
and so confoundedly imtrue. Is it really my failure, or
^theirs?"

She sought to be sensible; she daboratdy explained to ber^
self that it was h3rsterical to condemn Gopher Prairie because
it did not foam over the drama.^' Its justification was in its
service as a njiarket-town for farmers. How bravely and gena--
ously it did its work, forwarding the bread of the world, feeding
and healing the farmers!

Then, on the comer below her husband's office, she heard
a farmer holding forth:

" Sure. Course I was beaten. The shipper and the grocers
here wouldn't pay us a decent price for our potatoes, even
though folks in the cities were howling for 'em. So we says,
well, well get a truck and ship 'em right down to Minneap<dt9.
But the commission merchants there were in cahoots with the

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local shipper here; they said they wouldn't pay us a cent
more than he would, not even if they was nearer to the
market. Well, we found we could get higher prices in Chicago,
but when we tried to get freight cars to ship th&re, the rail-
roads wouldn't let us have 'em— even thou^ they had cars
standing empty right here in the yards. There you got it —
good market, and these towns keq>ing us from it. Gus, that's'
the way these towns work all the time. They pay what th^r
want to for our wheat, but we pay what they want us to
for their clothes. Stowbody and Dawson foreclose every mort-
gage they can, and put in tenant farmers. The Dauntless lies
to us about the Noiq)artisan League, the lawyers sting us,
the machinery-dealers hate to carry us over bad years, and
then tibeir daughters put on swell dresses and look at us as
if we were a bunch of hoboes. Man, I'd like to bum this
town!"

Kennicott observed, *^ There's that old crank Wes Brannigan
shooting off his mouth again. Gosh, but he loves to hear hhn-
aelf talkl They ought to run that fellow out of townl "

She fdt M aiul detached through hip^school commence-
ment wedL, which is the fSte of youth in Gopher Prairie;
through baccalaureate sermon, senior parade, junior entertain-
ment, commencemmt address by an Iowa clergyman who
asserted that he believed in the virtue of virtuousness, and
the procession of Decoration Day, when the few CivU War
veterans fdlowed Champ Perry, in his rusty forage-cap, along
the spring-powdered road to the cemetery. She met Guy; she
found that she had nothing to say to Um. Her head ached
in an aimless way. When Kennicott rejoiced, '' Well have a
great time this summer; move down to the lake early and
wear old clothes and act natural,^' she smiled, but her smile
creaked.

In the, prairie heat she trudged along undianging ways,
talked about nothing to tepid people, and reflected that she
might never escape from them.

She was startled to find that she was using the word
"escape."

Thai, for three years which passed like one curt paragraph,
she ceased to find anything interesting save the Bjomstams
and her baby.

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CHAPTER XIX

In three years of exile from harsdf Carol had certain ex-
pa-iences chronicled as important by the Dauntless, or discussed
by the Jolly Sev^teen, but the event imchronided, undiscussed,
and supremely controlling^ was her slow admission of longing
to find hex own pec^le.

Bea and Mfles Bjomstam were married in June, a month
after '' The Girl from Kankakee." Miles had turned re^>ect-
able. He had renounced his criticisms of state and society;
he had given up roving as horse-trader, and wearing red
mackinaws in lumber-camps; he had gone to work as engineo:
in Jackson Elder's planing-mill; he was to be seen upon the
streets endeavoring to be neighborly with suspicious men whcMii
he had taunted for years.

Carol was the patroness and manager of the wedding. Jua-
nita Haydock mocked, " You're a chump to let a good hired
girl like Bea go. Besides! How do you know it's a good
thing, her manying a sassy bum like this awful Red Swede
person? Get wisel Chase the man off with a mop, and hdd
onto your Svenska while the holding's good. Huh? Me go to
their Scandahoofian wedding? I^t a chancel "

The other matrons echoed Juanita. Carol was dismayed by
the casualness of their cruelty, but she persisted. Miles had
exclaimed to ho-, " Jack Elder says maybe hell come to the
wedding! Gee, it would be nice to have Bea meet the Boss
as a reglar married lady. Some day 111 be so well off that
Bea can play with Mrs. Elder— and you! Watch us! "

There was an uneasy knot of only nine guests at the service
in the unpainted Lutheran Church — Carol, Kennicott, Guy
Pollock, and the Champ Porys, all brouj^t by Carol; Bea's
frightened rustic parents, her cousin Tina, and Pete, Miles%
ex-partner in horse-trading, a surly, hairy man yAo bad bodgjht

?3o

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a black suit and come twelve hundred miles from Spcdutne for
the evoit.

Miles continuously glanced back at the church door. Jack-
son Elder did not appear. The door did not once open after
the awkward entrance of the first guests. Miles's hand closed
on Bea's arm.

He had, with Carol's help, made his shanty over into a
cottage with white curtains and a canary and a chintz chair.

Carol coaxed the powerful matrons to call 'on Bea. They
half scoffed, half promised to go.

Bea's successor was the oldi^, broad, silent Oscarina, who
was suspicious of her frivolous mistress for a month, so that
Juanita Haydock was able to crow, ^' There, smarty, I told you
you'd run into the Domestic ProblemI " But Oscarina adq>ted
Carol as a daughter, and with her as faithful to the kitchen as
Bea had been, there was nothing changed in Carol's life.

She was unexpectedly appointed to the town library-board
by Ole Jenson, the new mayor. The other memb^ were
Dr. Westlake, L3anan Cass, Julius Flic^erbaugh the attorney,
Guy Pollock, and Martin Mahoney, former livery-stable keeper
and now owner of a garage. She was delighted. She went to
the first meeting rather condescendingly, regarding herself as
the only one besides Guy who knew an3rthing ^ut books
or library methods. She was planning to revolutionize the
whde system.

Her condescension was ruined and bei humility wholesomely
increased when she found the board, in the shabby room on the
second floor of the house which had been converted into the
library, not discussing the weather and Icmging to play check-
erSy but talking about books. She discovered that amiable old
Dr. Westlake read everything in verse and ''light fiction";
that Lyman Cass, the veal-faosd, bristly-bearded owner of the
mill, had tramped through Gibbon, Hume, Grote, Prescott,
and the other thick historians; that he could repeat pages
from th^n— ^nd did. When Dr. Westlake whispered to her,
" Yes, L3an is a very weU-informed man, but he's modest about
it^'' she fdt uninformed and immodest, and scolded at her-
sdf that she had missed the human potentialities in this vast
GpfAer Prairie. Wh^ Dr. Westlake quoted the '' Paradiso/'

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"Don Quixote," "Wilhdm Mdstcr," and the Koran, she
reflected that no one she knew, not even her father, had read
all four.

She came diffidently to the second meeting of the board. She
did not plan to revolutionize an3rthmg. She hoped that the
wise elders might be so tolerant as to listen to her suggestions
about changing the shelving of the juveniles.

Yet after four sessions of the library-board she was where
she had been before the first session. She had found that for
all their pride in being reading men, Westlake and Cass and
even Guy had no conception of making the library familiar
to the whole town. They used it, they passed resolutions
about it, and they left it as dead as Moses. Chily the Henty
books and the Elsie books and the latest q>timisms by moral
female novelists and virile do-gsonen were in g^eral demand,
and the board themselves w^e interested only in old, stilted
volumes. They had no tenderness for the noisiness of youth
discovering great literature.

If she was egotistic about her tiny learning, they were at
least as mudi so regarding theirs. And for all their talk of
the need of additional library-tax none of them was willing
to risk censure by battling for it, though they now had so
small a fund that, after paying for rent, heat, Ught, and Miss
Villets's salary, ihey had only a hundred dollars a year fcnr the
purchase of books.

The Inddent of the Seventeen Cents killed her none too oi-
during interest;

She had come to the board-meeting singing with a plan.
She had made a list of thirty European novels of the past ten
years, with twenty important books on psychology, educaticm,
and economics which the library lacked. She had made
Kennicott promise to give fifteen dollars. If each of the
board would contrTbute the same, they could have the books.

L3rm Cass k j alarmed, scratched himsdf, and protested,
" I think it - a be a bad precedent for the board-members
to contribute money — uh — not that I mind, but it wouldn't be
iair— establish precedent. GradousI They don't pay us a
cent for our servicesi Certainly can't expect us to pay for the
privilege of serving! "

Only Guy looked sympathetic, and he stroked the pii^ table
and said nothing.

The rest of the meeting tbey gave to a bdlicose investigation

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of ihe fact that there was seventeen cents less than there should
be in the Fund. Miss Villets was summoned; she spent half
an hour in explosivdy defending herself; the seventeen cents
were gnawed over, penny by penny; and Card, glancing at
the carefully inscribal list whidi had been so lovely and excit-
ing an hour before, was sflent, and sorry for Miss Villets, and
sorrier for herself.

She was reasonably regular in attendance till her two years
were up and Vida Sherwin was appointed to the board in her
place, but she did not try to be revolutionary. In the plod^
ding course of her life thare was nothing changed, and nothing
new.

Kennicott made an excellent land-deal, but as he told her
none of the details, she was not greatly exalted or agitated.
What did agitate her was his annotmcement, half whispered smd
half blurted, half tender and half coldly medical, that they
" ought to have a baby, now they could afford it." They had
so long agreed that ** perhaps it would be just as well not to
have any chOdren for a while yet," that childlessness had come
to be natural. Now, she feared and lon^ and did not know;
she hesitatingly assented, and wished that she had not assented.

As there appeared no change in their drowsy relations, she
fm'got all about it, and life was planless.

Idling on the porch of their summer cottage at the lake,
on afternoons when Kennicott was in town, when the water
was glazed and the whole air languid, she pictured a hundred
escapes: Fifth Avenue in a snow-storm, with limousines,
golden diops, a cathedral spire. A reed hut on fantastic piles
above the mud of a jungle river. A suite in Paris, immense
high grave rooms, with lambrequins and a balcony. The £n-
d^ted Mesa. An ancient stone mill in Maryland, at the turn
of the road, between rocky brook and abrupt hills. An upland
moor of sheep and flitting cool simlight. A clanging dock where
steel cranes unloaded steamers from Buenos Ayres and Tsing-
tao. A Mimich concert-hall, and a famous 'cellist playing —
pla3ang to her.

One scene had a persistent witchery:

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234 MAIN STREET

She stood on a terrace overlooking; a boulevatd by the warm
sea. She was certain, thouj^ she had no reasm for it, that the
place was Mentone. Along the drive below her swq)t barouches,
with a mechanical tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, and great cars
with polished black hoods and engines quiet as the si^ of an
old man. In them were women erect, lender, enamded, and
expressionless as marionettes, their small hands upon parasols,
their uncSanging eyes always forward, ignoring the men beside
them, tM men with gray hair and distinguished faces. Be-
yond the drive were painted sea and ps^inted sands, and blue
and yellow pavilions. Nothing moved except the gliding car-
riages, and the people were small and wooden, spots in a
picture drenched with gold and hard bright blues. There was
no sound of sea or winds; no softness of whispers nor of fall-
ing petals; nothing but yellow and cobalt and staring lig^t,
and the never-changing tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot

She startled. She whimpered. It was the rapid ticking oC
the clock which had hypnotized her into hearing the st^y
hoofs. No aching color of the sea and pride of supercilious
people, but the reality of a round-bellied nickel alarm-clock on
a shelf against a fuzzy uiqplaned pine wall, with a stiff
gray wash-rag hanging above it and a kerosene-stove standing
below.

A thousand dreams governed by the fiction she had reac^
drawn from the pictures she had envied, absorbed her drowsy
lake afternoons, but always in the midst of them Kennicott
came out from town, drew on khaki trousers which were
plastered with dry fish-scales, asked, " Enjoying yourself? "
and did not listen to her answer.

And nothing was changed, and thare was no reason to believe
that there ever would be change.

TrainsL,

fAt the lake cottage she missed the passing of the trains. She
realized that in town she had depended upon them for as-
surance that there remained a world beyond.

The railroad was more than a means of transportation to
Gc^her Prairie. It was a new god; a monster of steel limbs,
oak ribs, flesh of gravel, and a stupendous himger for freight;
a deity created by man that he might keep himsdf respectful to

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Property, as elsewhere he had elevated and served as tribal
gods the mines, cotton-mills, motor-factories, colleges, army.

Tlie East remembered generations when thare had been no
railroad, and had no awe of it; but here the railroads had
been before time was. The towns had been staked out on barren
prairie as convenient points for future train-halts; and back '
in i860 and 1870 there had been much profit, much q>portunity
to found aristocratic families, in the posse^on of advance
knowledge as to where the towns would arise|

(if a town was in disfavor, the railroad could ignore it, cut
it oflf from commerce, slay it.| To Gopher Prairie the
tracks were eternal verities, and boards of railroad directors
an omnipotence. The smallest boy or the most secluded
grandam could tell you whether No. 32 had a hot-box last
Tuesday, whether No. 7 was going to put on an extra day-
coadi; and the name of the president of the road was familiar
to every breakfast table. •*'*" *" * .

Evefi*^jthis new era of motors the citizens went down to
the station to- see ibe trains go through. It was their ro-
mance; their only .m3rstery '^esides^ mass, at the Catholic
Church; and from the trains came lords of the outer world —
traveling salesm^i with piping on their waistcoats, and visit-
ing cousins from Milwai^ee.

Gopl^r Prairie had once been a ''division-point." The
roundho>me and repair-shq[>s were gone, but two conductors !
still retain^ residence, and they were persons of distinction, j
men who travel^i^and talked to strangers, who wore uniforms
with brass buttons, and knew- bSI about these crooked games
of con-men. They were a special caste, neither above nor below
the Haydocks, but apart, artists and adventurers.

The nf^t telegraph-operator at the railroad station was the
most melodramatic figure in town: awake at three in the
morning, alone in a room hectic with clatter of the telegraph
key. All night he " talked " to operators twenty, fifty, a hun-
dred miles away. It was always to be ei9)ected that he would
be held up by robbers. He never y[bs, but roimd him was a
suggestion of masked faces at the window, revolvers, cords
binding him to a chair, his struggle to crawl to the key before
he fainted. <1 —

During blizzards everything about the railroad was melo-
dramatic. There were days when the town was completely
shut off, when they had no j nail, no ei^ress, no fr^ meat,

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no newspapers. At last the rotary snow-plow came tbroug|iy
bucking the drifts, sending op a gsyser, and the way to the
Outside was open again. The iMakemen, in mufiSers and fur
caps, running along the tops of ice-coated freight-cars; the
engineers scratching frost from the cab windows and looking
out, inscrutable, self-contained, pilots of the prairie sea — they
were heroism, they were to Carol the daring of the quest in a
world of groceries and sermons.

To the small boys the railroad was a familiar playground.
They climbed the iron ladders on the sides of the box-cars;
built fires behind piles of old ties; waved to favorite brake-
men. But to Carol it was magic.

She was motoring with Kennicott^ the car lumping throu^
darkness, the lights showing mud-puddles and ragged weeds
by the road. A train coming! A rapid chuck-a-diuck, chuck-
a-diuck, chuck-a-diuds:. It was hurling past — ^the Pacific
Flym', an arrow of golden flame. Light from the fire-box
qplashed the under side of the trailing smoke. Instantly the
vision was gone; Carol was back in the long darkness; and
Kennicott was giving his version of that fire and wonder:
" No. 19. Must be Txnit ten minutes late."

In town, she listened from bed to the express whistling in
the cut a mile north. Uuuuuuul — faint, nervous, distrait,
bam of the free night riders journeying to the tall towns where
were laughter and banners and the sound of bells — ^Uuuuul
Uuuuul — ^the world going by— Uuuuuuul — ^fainto*, more wist-
ful, gone.

Down here there were no tndns. The stillness was very
great. The prairie encircled the lake, lay round her, raw,
,: dusty, thick. Only the train could cut it. Some day she would
Intake a train; and that would be a great taking.

She turned to the Chautauqua as she had turned to the
dramatic association, to the library-board.

Besides the permanent Mother Chautauqua, in New York,
there are, all over these States, commercial Chautauqua com*
panies which send out to every smallest town troupes of
lecturers and " entertainers *' to give a week of culture under
canvas. Living in Minneapolis^ Carol had never encountered
the ambulant Chautauqua, and ihe announcement of its cobi*

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ing to Gopher Prairie gave her hope that others might be
doing the vague things which she had attenq)ted. She pic^
tored a condensed university course brought to the people.
Mornings when she came in from the lake with Kennicott she
saw placards in every shq;>-windoWy and strung on a cord
across Main Street, a line of pennants alternately worded
"The Boland Chautauqua COMING! " and " A solid week
of inspiration and enjo3rmentl " But she was disappointed
idien she saw fbt program. It did not seem to be a tabloid
university; it did not seem to be any kind of a university; it
seemed to be a combination of ^jfiMPdeville performance, Y. M.
C. A. lecture, and the ^graduation exercises of an elocution

She took her doubt to Eemdcott. He insisted* '' Well, maybe
it won't be so awful dam intellectual, the way you and I
mi^t like it, but it's a whole lot better than nothing.^ Vida
Sherwin added, " They have some splendid speakers. If the
people don't carry off so much actual information, they do get
a lot of new ideas, and that's what counts."

During the Chautauqua Carol attended three evening meet-
ings, two afternoon me^ings, and one in the morning. She was
impressed by the audience: the sallow women in skirts and
blouses, eager to be made to think, the men in vests and shut-
sleeves, eager to be allowed to lau^^, and the wriggling children,
eager to sneak away. She liked the plain benches, the portable
stage under its red marquee, the great tent over all, shadowy
above strings of incandescent bulbs at night and by day casting
an amber radiance on the patient crowd. The scent of dust
and trampled grass and sun-baked wood gave her an illusion
of Syrian caravans; she forgot the iq)eakers while she listened
to noises outside the tent: two farmers talking hoarsely,. a
wagon creaking down Main Street, the crow of a rooster. She
was content. But it was the contentment of the lost hunter
stopping to rest.

For from the Chautauqua itself she got nothing but wind
and chaff and heavy laughter, the lau^ter of yokels at old
jokes, a mirthless and primitive sound like the cries of beasts
on a farm.

These were the several instructors in the condensed uni-
versity's seven-day course:

Nine lecturers, four of them ex-ministers, and one an ex-
omgressman, all of them delivering '' inspirational addresses."

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The only facts or opinions which Carol derived from them
were: Lincoln was a celebrated president of the United States,
but in his youth extremely poor. James J. Hill was the best-
known railroad-man of the West, and in his youth extremely
poor. Honesty and courtesy in business are fM-eferable to
boorishness and exposed trickoy, but this is not to be tak^
personally, since all persons in Ck^her Prairie are known to
be honest and courteous. London is a large dty. A dis-
tinguished statesman once taught Sunday School.

Four " entertainers " who told Jewish stories, Irish stories,
German stories, Chinese stories, and Tennessee mountaineer
stories, most of which Carol had heard.

A "lady elocutionist" who recited Kipling and imitated
children.

A lecturer with motion-pictures of an Andean e]q)loratioo;
excellent pictures and a halting narrative.

Three brass-bands, a company of six opera-singers, a Hawai-
ian sextette, and four youths who played saxophones and
guitars disguised as wash-boards. The most applauded pieces
were those, such as the ''Lucia'' inevitability, which the
audience had heard most often.

The local superintendent, who remained through the week
while the other enlighteners went to other Chautauquas for
their daily performances. The superintendent was a bookish,
underfed man who worked hard at rousing artificial enthusiasm,
at trying to make the audience cheer by dividing them into
competitive squads and telling them that they were intelligent
and made splendid communal noises. He gave most of the
morning lectures, droning with equal unhappy facility about
poetry, the Holy Land, and the injustice to enqployers in any
S3rstem of profit-sharing.

The final item was a man who neither lectured, insph^, nor
entertained; a plain little man with his hands in his pockets.
(All the other speakers had confessed, ''I cannot keep from
tdling the citizens of your beautiful city that none of the
talent on this circuit have found a more charming spot or
more enterprising and hospitable people." But the little man
suggested that die architecture of Gopher Prairie was hap-
hazard, and that it was sottish to let the lake-front be monopo-
lized by the cinder-heaped wall of the railroad embankment
Afterward the audience grumbled, " Maybe that guy's got the
right dope, but what's the use of looking on the dark aide o(

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things an the time? New ideas are first-rate, but not all this
criticism. Enough trouble in life without looking for iti 'f

Thus the Chautauqua, as Carol saw it. After it, the town
felt prood and educated.

vnx

Two weeks later the Great War smote Europe.

For a month Gopher Prairie had the ddij^t of shuddering,
then, as the war settled down to a business of trench-fighting,
they forgot.

Wh^ Carol talked about the Balkans, and the possibility
of a German revolution, Kennicott yawned, '^ Oh yes, it's a
great old scrap, but it's none of our business. Folks out here
are too busy growing com to monkey with any fool war that
those foreigners want to get themselves into."

It was Miles B jomstam who said, '^ I can't figure it out. I'm
opposed to wars, but still, seems like Germany has got to be
Ikked because them Junkers stands in the way of progress."

She was calling on Miles and Bea, early in autumn. They
had received her with cries, with dusting of chairs, and a
nmning to fetch water for coffee. Miles stood and burned at
her. He fell often aiul joyously into his old irreverence about
the lords of Gopher Prairie, but always — ^with a certain diffi-
culty—he added something decorous and appreciative.

" Lots of people have come to see you, haven't they? "
Carol hinted.

''Why, Be's cousin Tbia comes in ri^t along, and the

foreman at the mill, and Oh, we have good times. Say,

take a look at that Bea I Wouldn't you think she was a
canary-bird, to listen to her, and to see that Scandahoofian tow-
head of hers? But say, loiow what she is? She's a mother
hen! Way she fusses over me — ^way she makes old Miles wear
a necktie! Hate to spoil her by letting her hear it, but she's

one pretty dam nice — ^nice Hell I What do we care if

none of the dirty snobs come and call? We've got eadh
other."

Carol worried about their struggle, but she forgot it in the
stress of sickness and fear. For that autumn she knew that
a baby was coming, that at last life promised to be interesting
in the peril of the great change.

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CHAPTER XX

The baby was coming. Each morning she was nauseated,
chilly, bedraggled, and certain that she would never again be
attractive; each twili^t she was afraid. She did not fed
exalted, but unk^npt and furious. The period of daily sick-
ness crawled into an endle^ time of boredom. It became
difficult for her to move about, and she raged that she, who
had been sUm and light-footed, should have to lean on a
stick, and be heartily commented upon by street gossy)s. She
was encircled by greasy eyes. | Every matron hinted, "Now
that you're going to be a uMther, dearie, youll get over all
these ideas of yours and settle down.'' She felt that willy-nilly
she was being initiated into the assembly of housekeq>ers; widi
the baby for hostage, she would never escape; present^ she
would be drinking coffee and rocking and talking about
diapa^.1

" I could stand fighting them. I'm used to that. But this
being taken in, being taken as a matter of course, I can't
stand it — and I must stand it! "

She alternately detested herself for not appreciating the
kindly women, and detested them for thdr advice: lugid>rious
hints as to how much die would suffer in labor, details of
baby-hygii^e based on long experience and total misunder-
standing, superstitious cautions about the things she must eat
and read and look at in prenatal care for the biaiby's soul, and
always a pest of simpering baby-talk. Mrs. Champ Perry
bustled in to lend " Ben Hur," as a preventive of future infant
immorality. The Widow Bogart appeared trailing pinkish ex-
clamations, " And how is our lovely 'ittle muzzy today! My,
ain't it just like they always say: being in a Family Way does
make the girlie so lovely, just like a Madonna. Tell me — ^"
Her whisper was tinged with saladousness — *^ does oo fed the
dear itsy one stirring, the pledge of love? I remember with
Cy, of course he was so big "

^'I do not look lovely, Mrs. Bogart. My complexion is

240

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rotten, and my hair is coming out, and I look like a p<
and I think my arches are falling, and he isn't a
love, and I'm afraid he will look like us, and I dor
in mother-devotion, and the whole business is a c<
nuisance of a biological process/' remarked Carol.

Then the baby was bom, without unusual difficul
wiUi straight back and strong legs. The first day
him for the tides of pain and hopeless fear he ha<
she resented his raw ugliness. After that she loved
an the devotion and instinct at which she had scoi
marveled at the perfection of the miniature hands as
did Kennicott; ^e was overwhelmed by the trust iv
the baby turned to her; passion for him grew with
poetic irritating thing she had to do for him.

He was named Hu^, for her father.

Hugh developed into a thin healthy child with a 1
and straight ddicate hair of a faint brown. He was t
and casual — ^a Kennicott.

For two years nothing else existed. She did n<
gmkal matrons had prq>hesied, ^' give up worrying
world and other folks' babies soon as she got one oi
to fi^t for/' The barbarity of that willingness to saa
diildren so that one child min^t have too much was i
to her. But she would sacrifice herself. She unden
secration— she who answered Kennicott's hints abo
Hu^ christened: '^ I refuse to insult my baby and i
asl±ig an ignorant young man in a frock coat to san
to permit me to have himl I refuse to subject hi
de\al-cfaasing rites I If I didn't give my baby — m
enough sanctification in those nine hours of hell,
can't get any more out of the Reverend Mr. Zitte

" WeU, Baptists hardly ever christen kids. I ws
thinking more about Reverend Warren," said Ke

Hug^ was her reason for living, promise of accon
in the future, shrine of adoration---and a diverting
thou^t I'd be a dilettante mother, but I'm as (U
natural as Mrs. Bogart," she boasted.

For two years Carol was a part of the town; as
of Our Young Mothers as Mrs. McGanum. Her op
seemed dead; she had no apparent desire for escape;
ing centered on Hugh. While she wondered at the pe
9f his ear she exulted, '^ I fed like an old woman, in

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242 MAIN STREET

like sandpopa*, beside him, and I'm ^ad of it! He is perfect
He shall have everything. He sha'n't always stay here in
Gq>her Prairie. ... I wonder which is really the best,
Harvard or Yale or Oxford? "

The people who hemmed her in had been brilliantly rein-
forced by Mr. and Mrs. Whittia: N. Small — Kennicott's Uncle
Whittia: and Amit Bessie.

The true Main Streetite defines a relative as a person to
whose house you go uninvited, to stay as long as you like. If
you hear that Lym Cass on his journey East has spent all
his time '* visiting " in Oysta: Center, it does not mean that he
prefers that vUlage to the rest of New. England, but that he
has relatives there. It does not mean that he has written to
the relatives these many years, nor that they have ever given
signs of a desire to look iq>on him. But " you wouldn't expect
a man to go and spend good money at a hotel in BosUm,
when his own third cousins live rig^t in the same state, would
you? "

When the Smails sold their creamery in North Dakota they
visited Mr. Smail's sister, Kennicott's mother, at Lac-qui-
Meurt, then plodded on to Gc^her Prairie to stay with their
nephew. They appeared unannounced, before the baby was
bom, took their welcome for granted, and immediately began
to complain of the fact that their room faced north.

Uncle Whittier and Aunt Bessie assumed that it was their
privilege as relatives to laugh at Carol, and their duty as
Christians to let her know how absurd her " notions " were.
They objected to the food, to Oscarina's lack of friendliness,
to the wind, the rain, and the immodesty of Carol's ms^temity
gowns. They were strong and enduring; for an hour at a
time they could go on heaving questions about her father^
Acome, about her theology, and about the reason why she had
not put on her rubbers when she had gone across Uie street
For fussy discussion they had a rich, full genius, and their
example developed in Eennicott a tendency to the same form
of affectionate flaying.

If Carol was so indiscreet as to murmur that she had a
small headache, instantly the two Smails and Kennicott were
at it. Every five mhiutes, every time she sat down or rose or

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PipAt to Oscarina, ihcy twanged, ^' Is your head better now?
Where does it hurt? Don't you keep hartshorn in the house?
Didn't you walk too far today? Have you tried hartshorn?
Don't you keep some in the house so it will be handy? Does
it fed better now? How does it fed? Do your eyes hurt,
too? What time do you usually get to bed? As late as that?
Wdll How does it feel now? "

In her presence Unde Whittier snorted at Eennicott, '' Carol
get these headadies often? Huh? Be better for her if she
didn't go gadding around to all these bridge-whist parties, and
tock some care of hersdf once in a while! "

They kept it up, commenting, questioning, commenting, ques-
tioning, till her determination broke and she bleated, '' For
heaven's sake, don't dis<uss it! My head 's all rightl "

She listened to the Smails and Kennicott trying to deter-
mine by dialectics whether the copy of the Dauntless, which
Aunt Bessie wanted to send to her sister in Alberta, ought to
have two or four cents postage on it Carol would have taken
it to the drug store and wdghed it, but then she was a
dreamer, while they were practical people (as they frequently 1
admitted). So they sought to evolve the postal rate from theirll
inner consdousnesses, y/Adch, combined with entire franknessll
in thmking aloud, was their method of settling all problems, r

The Smails did not '' believe in all this nonsense " about
privacy and reticence. When Carol left a letter from her
sister on the table, she was astounded to hear from Unde
Whittier, " I see your sister says her husband is doing fine.
You ou^t to go see her oftener. I asked Will and he says
you don't go see her very often. My! You ought to go see
her oftener 1 "

If Carol was writing a letter to a classmate, or planning the
week's menus, she could be certain that Aunt Bessie would
pop in and titter, ''Now don't let me disturb you, I just
wanted to see where you were, don't stop, I'm not going to stay
only a second. I just wondered if you could possibly have
thought that I didn't eat the onions this noon because I didn't
think they were .prq>erly cooked, but that wasn't the reason
at all, it wasn't because I didn't think they were well cooked,
I'm sure that everything in your house is always very dainty
and nice, though I do think that Oscarina is cardess about
some things, she doesn't appreciate the big wages you pay her,
and she is so cranky, all these Swedes are so cranky, I don't

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244 MAIN STREET

really see why you have a Swede, but But that wasn't

it, I didn't eat them not because I didn't think they weren't
cooked proper, it was just — ^I find that onions don't agree with
me, it's very strange, ever since I had an attack of biliousness
one time, I have found that onions, either fried onions or
raw ones, and Whittier does love raw onions with vinegar
and sugar on them "

It was pure affection.
I Carol was discovering that the one thing that can be more
I disconcerting than intcdligent hatred is demanding love.

She supposed that she was being gracefully dull and stand-
ardized in the Smails' presence, but they scented the heretic,
and with forward-stooping delight they sat and tried to drag
out her ludicrous concepts for their amusement. They were
like the Sunday-afternoon mob starting at monke}^ in the
Zoo, poking fingers and making faces and giggling at the
resentment of the more dignified race.

With a loose-lipped, superior, village smile Uncle Whittier
hinted, '^ What's this I hear about your thinking Gopher
Prairie ought to be all tore down and rebuilt, Carrie? I don't
know where folks get these new-fangled ideas. Lots of farmers
in Dakota getting 'em these days. About co-(^>eration. Think
they can nm stores better 'n storekeepers! Huh! "

'^ Whit and I didn't need no co-operation as long as we was
farming! " triumphed Aunt Bessie. *' Carrie, tell your old
auntie now: don't you ever go to church on Sunday? You
do go sometimes? But you ought to go every Sunday! When
you're as old as I am, you'll learn that no matter how smart
folks think they are, God knows a whole lot more than they
do, and then youll realize and be glad to go and listen to your -
pastor! "

In ihe manner of one who has just bdidd a two-headed
calf they repeated that they had "never heard such funny
ideas! " They were staggered to learn that a real tangible
person, living in Minnesota, and married to their own flesh-
and-blood ration, could apparently believe that divorce may
^ not always be immoral; that illegitimate children do not

\ bear any special and guaranteed form of curse; that there

are ethical authorities outside of the Hebrew Bible; that men
have drunk wine yet not died in the gutter; that the capital*
istic S3^tem of distribution and the Baptist wedding-caremony
were not known in the Garden of Eden; that mushrooms are

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245

as edible as corn-beef hash; that the word ^dude" is no
longer frequent^ used; that there are Ministers of the Gospel
wlio accept evohition; that some persons of apparent intdligencc
and business ability do not always vote the Republican ticket
straiglit; that it is not a univ^sal custom to wear scratch)
flannels next the skin in winter; that a violin is not inherently
more immoral than a chapel organ; that some poets do not hav<
long hair; and that Jews are not always pedlars or pants-
makers. '

" Where does she get all than theories? '' marveled Uncle
Whittier Small; while Aunt Bessie inquired, ** Do you suppose
there's many folks got notions like hers? Myl If there are/'
and her tone settled the fact that thare were not, ** I just don't
know what the world's coming to! "

Patiently— more or less — Carol awaited the exquisite day
when they would announce departure. After three weeks Uncle
Whittier remarked, ^'We kinda like Gopher Prairie. Guess
maybe well stay here. We'd been wondering what we'd do,
now we've sold the creamoy and my farms. So I had a talk
with Ole Jenson about his grocery, and I guess 111 buy him out
and storekeqp for a while."

He did.

Carol rebelled. Kennicott soothed her: '^ Oh, we won't see
much of them. They'll have their own house."

She resdved to be so chilly that they would stay away. But
she had no talent for conscious insolence. They found a house,
l:^ Carol was never safe from their appearance with a hearty,
^ Thought we'd drq> in this evenmg and keep you from bemg
kmdy. Why, you ain't had them curtains washed yet! "
Invariably, ^^never she was touched by the realization that
it was they who were lonely, they wrecked her pitying affec-
tion by comments-— questions — comments — advice.

They immediately became friendly with all of their own
race, with the Luke Dawsons, the Deacon Piersons, and Mrs.
Bogart; and brought them along in the evening. Aunt Bessie
was a bridge over whom the older women, bearing gifts of
counsel and the ignorance of experience, poured into Carol's
island of reserve. Aunt Bessie urged the good Widow Bogart,
*' Drop in and see Carrie real often. Young folks today don't
understand housekeq>ing like we do."

Mrs. Bogart showed herself perfectly willing to be an as-
sociate relative.

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Carol was thinking up protective insults when Kennicovt's
mother came down to stay with Brother Whittier for two
months. Carol was fond of Mrs. Eennicott. She could not
cany out her insults.

She felt trapped.

She had been kidnaped by the town. She was Aunt Bessie's
niece, and she was to be a mother. She was expected, she
almost expected herself, to sit forever talking of babies, cooks,
embroidery stitches, the price of potatoes, and the tastes ot
husbands in the matter of spinach.

' She found a refuge in ths Jolly Seventeen. She suddenly
understood that they could be depended upon to laugh widi
her at Mrs. Bogart, and she now saw Juanita Haydock's gossq>
not as vulgarity but as gaiety and remarkable analysis.

Her life had changed, even before Hugh a|q>eared. She
looked forward to the next bridge of the Jolly Seventeen, and
the security of whispering with her dear friends Maud Dyer
and Juanita and Mrs. McGanum.

She was part of the town. Its philosophy and its feuds
ominated her.

She was no longer irritated by the cooing of the matrons,
nor by their opinion that diet didn't matter so long as the
Little Ones had plenty of lace and moist kisses, but she
concluded that in the care of babies as in politics, intelligence
was superior to quotations about pansies. She Uked b^t to
talk about Hugh to Kennicott, Vida, and the Bjomstams. She
was happily domestic when Eennicott sat by her on the floor,
to watch baby make faces. She was delisted when Miles,
speaking as one man to another, admonished Hugh, '' I wouldn't
stand them skirts if I was you. Come on. Join the union
and strike. Make 'em give you pants."

As a parent, Kennicott was moved to establish the first
child-welfare week held in Gopher Prairie. Carol helped him
weigh babies and examine their throats, and she wrote out
the diets for mute German and Scandinavian mothers.

The aristocracy of Gopher Prairie, even the wives of the
rival doctors, took part, and for several days there was com-
munity spirit and much uplift. But this reign of love was
overthrown when the prize for Best Baby was awarded not to

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decent parents but to Bea and Miles Bjornstam! The good
matrons g^red at Olaf Bjornstam^ wiUi his blue eyes, his
honey-colored hair, and magnificent back^ and they remarked,
'' Wdl, Mrs. Keimicott, maybe that Swede brat is as healthy asj
your husband says he is, but let me tell you I hate to think]
of the futiire that awaits any boy with a hired girl tor ai
mother and an awful irreligious socialist for a pal " '

She ragedy but so violent was the current of their re^>ect-
ability, so persistent was Atmt Bessie in miming to her with
their blabber, that she was embarrassed when she took Hugh
to play with Olaf. She hated ha*self for it, but she hoped
that no one saw her go into the Bjornstam shanty. She hated
herself and the town's indifferent crudty when she saw Bea's
radiant devotion to both babies alike; when she saw MOea
staring^ at them wistfully.

He had saved mon^r, had quit Elder's planing-mill and
started a dairy on a vacant lot near his shack. He was
proud of his three cows and sixty chickens, and got up nights
to nurse them.

''Ill be a big farmer before you can bat an eye! I tell
you that yoimg fellow Olaf is going to go East to college along

with the Haydock kids. Ub^ Lots of folks dropping in to .

chin with Bea and me now. Say! Ma Bogart come in one

day! She was I liked the old lady fine. And the mill

foreman comes in riglit along. Oh, we got lots of friends.
You bet! ""

Though the town seemed to Carol to change no more than the
surrounding fields, there was a constant ^fting, these three
years. The citizen of the prairie drifts always westward. It
may be because he is the heir of ancient migrations — ^and it
may be because he finds within his own spirit so little ad-^
venture that he is driven to seek it by changing his horizon.
The towns remain unvaried, yet the individud faces alter
like dasses in college. The G^her Prairie jeweler sells out, t
for no disconible reason, and moves on to. Albania or the
state of Washington, to men a shop precisely like his former
one, in a town predsdy like the one he has left. There is,
except among professional men and the wealthy, small per-
manence either of residence or occiq>ation. A man becomes

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farmer, grocer, town policeman, garageman, restaurant-owner,
postmaster, insurance-agent, and farma: all over again, and the
community more or less patiently suffers from bis lack of
knowledge in each of his experiments.

Ole Jenson the grocer and Dahl the butcba: moved on to
South Dakota and Idaho. Luke and Mrs. Dawson picked \sp
ten thousand acres of prairie soil, in the magic portable form
of a small check book, and went to Pasadena, to a bungalow
and sunshine and cafeterias. Chet Dashaway sold his furniture
and undertaking business and wandered to Los Angeles, where,
the Dauntless reported, " Our good friend Chester has accepted
a fine position with a real-estate firm, and his wife has in the
charming social circles of the Queen City of the Southwest-
land that same pq)ularity which she enjoyed in our own society
sets."

Rita Simons was married to Terry Gould, and rivaled Juanita
Haydock as the gayest of the Young Married Set. But Juanita
also acquired merit. Harry's father died, Harry became senior
partner in the Bon Ton Store, and Juanita was more acidulous
and shrewd and cackling than ever. She bought an evening
frock, and exposed her collar-bone to the wonder of the Jolfy
Seventeen, and talked of moving to Minneapolis.

To defend her position against the new Mrs. Terry Gould
she sought to attach Carol to her faction by giggling that
*' some folks might call Rita innocent, but I've got a hunch
that she isn't half as ignorant of things as brides are supposed
to be — ^and of course Terry isn't one-two-three as a doctor
alongside of your husband."

Carol herself would gladly have followed Mr. Ole Jenson,
and migrated even to another Main Street; fli^t from famfliar
tedium to new tedium would have for a time the outer look
and promise of adventure. She hinted to Kennicott of the
probable medical advantages of Montana and Oregon. She
knew that he was satisfied with Gopher Prairie, but it gave
her vicarious hope to think of going, to ask for railroad folders
at the station, to trace the ms^s with a restless forefinger.

Yet to the casual eye she was not discontented, she was
not an abnormal and distressing traitor to the faith of Main
Street.

The settled citizen believes that the rebel is constantly in a
stew of complaining and, hearing of a Carol Kennicott, he
gasps, " What an awful personi She must be a Holy Terror

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to live with I Glad my folks are satisfied with things way
they are! " ActuaUy, it was not so much as five minutes a ^
day that Carol devotei to lonely desires. It is probable that
the agitated citizen has within his circle at least one inarticulate
rebel with aspirations as wayward as Carol's.

The presence of the baby had made her take Gopher Prairie
and the brown house seriously, as natural places of residence.
She pleased Kennicott by being friendly withi the complacent
maturity of Mrs. Qark and Mrs. Elder, and when she had
often enough be^i in conference upon the Elders' new Cadillac
car, or the job which the oldest Clark boy had taken in the
office of the flour-mill, these topics became important, things
to follow up day by day.

With nine-tenths of her emotion concentrated upon Hugh*»
she did not criticize shops, streets, acquaintances . . . this
year or two. She hurried to Uncle Whittier's store for a
package of corn-flakes, she abstractedly listened to Uncle
Whittier's dentmdation of Martin Mahoney for asserting that
ihe wind last Tuesday had been south and not southwest, she
came back along streets that held no surprises nor the star-
tling faces of strangers. Thinking of Hu^'s teething all the|
way, she did not reflect that this store, these drab blo<±s, made I
up all her background. Sbe did her work, and she triunq>hed r
over winning from the Clarks at five hundred.

The most considerable event of the two years after the
birth of Hu^ occurred when Vida Sherwin resigned from the
hi^ school and was married. Carol was her attendant, and
as the wedding was at the Episcopal Church, all the women
wore new kid sliiq>ers and long white kid gloves, and looked
refined.

For years Carol had been little sister to Vida, and had never
in the least known to what degree Vida loved her and hated
her and in curious strained ways was boimd to her.

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CHAPTER XXI

IGkay steel that seems umnoving because it spins so fast in the
balanced fly-wheel, gray snow in an avenue of elms, gray dawn
with the sun behind it — this was the wrzy of Vida Sherwin's
life at thirty-nine.

She was small and active and sallow; her yellow hair was
faded, and looked dry; her blue silk blouses and modest
lace collars and high black shoes and sailor hats were as literal
and uncharming as a schoolroom desk; but her eyes determined
her appearance, revealed her as a personage and a force, in-
dicated her faith in the goodness and purpose of ever3r^ing.
They were blue, and they were never still; they expressed
amusement, pity, enthusiasm. If she had been seext in sleep,
with the wrinkles beside her eyes stilled and the creased lids
hiding the radiant irises, she would have lost her potency.

She was bom in a hill-smothered Wisconsin village where
her father was a prosy minister; she labored through a sanc-
timonious college; she taught for two years in an iron-range
town of blurry-faced Tatars and Montenegrins, and wastes of
ore, and when she came to Gopher Prairie, its trees and the
shining spaciousness of the wheat prairie made her certain
that she was in paradise.

She admitted to her fdlow-teachers that the schoolbuilding
was slightly damp, but ^e insisted that the rooms were
^'arranged so conveniently — and ihen that bust of President
McKinley at the head of the stairs, it's a lovely art-work, ajMl
isn't it an inspiration to have the brave, honest, martyr
president to think about! " She taught French, En^ish, and
history, and the Sophomore Latin class, which dealt in matters
of a metaphysical nature called Indirect Discourse and the
Ablative Absolute. Each year she was reconvinced that the
pupils were beginning to learn more quickly. She q>ent four
winters in building up the Debating Society, and when the
debate really was lively one Friday afternoon, and the speokM
of pieces did not forget their Imes, she felt rewarded.

250

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She lived an engrossed useful life, and seemed as cool and
rimple as an apple. But secretly she was creeping anK)ng fears,
longing, and guilt. She knew what it was, but she dared not
name it. She hated even the sound of the word " sex.'' When
she dreamed of being a woman of the harem, with great white
warm limbs, she awoke to shudder, defenseless in tiie du^L of
her room. She prayed to Jesus, always to the Son of God,
ofiFering him the terrible power of her adoration, addressing him
as the eternal lover, growing passionate, exalted, large, as she
contemplated his ^lendor. Thus she motmted to endurance
and surcease.

By day, rattling about in many activities, she was able to
ridicule her blazing nights of darkness. With spurious cheer-
fulness she announced everywhere, '' I guess I'm a bom spin^
ster," and " No one will ever marry a plain schoolma'am like
me," and "You men, great big noisy bothersome creatures,
we women wouldn't have you round the place, dirtying up nice
clean rooms, if it wasn't that you have to be petted and
guided. We just ought to say * Scat I ' to all of you! "

But when a man held her dose at a dance, even when
" Professor " George Edwin Mott patted her hand paternally
as they considered the naughtinesses of Cy Bogart, she quiv^
ered, and reflected how superior she was to have kq)t her
virginity.

In the autumn of 191 1, a year before Dr. Will Kennicott
was married, Vida was his partner at a five^hundred tourna-
ment. She was thirty-four then; Kennicott about thirty-six.
To her he was a superb, boyish, diverting creature; all the
heroic qualities in a manly magnificent body. They had
been hewing Ae hostess to serve the Waldorf salad and coffee
and gingerbread. They were in the kitchen, side by side on
a bench, while the others ponderously supped in the room
beyond.

Kennicott was masculine and experimental. He stroked
Vida's hand, he put his arm carelessly about her shoulder.

" Don't I " she said sharply.

" You're a cunning thing," he offered, patting the back of
her shoulder in an exploratory manner.

While she strained away, she longed to move nearer to him.
He bent over, looked at her knowingly. She glanced down at
his left hand as it touched her knee. She sprang;; up, started
noisily and needlessly to wash the dishes. He helped her. He

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was too lazy to adventure further — and too used to women in
his profession. She was grateful for the imp^^onality of his
talk. It enabled her to gain control. She Isnew that she had
skirted wild thoughts.

A month after, on a sleighing-party^ under the buffalo robes
in the bob-sled, he whispered, '* You pretend to be a grown-iq>
schoolteacher, but you're nothing but a kiddie.'' His arm
was about her. She resisted.

^* Don't you like the poor londy bachdor? " he yammered in
a fatuous way.

" No, I don't 1 You don't care for me in the least You're
just practising on me."

" You're so mean I I'm terribly fond of you.**

" I'm not of you. And I'm not going to let myself be fond
of you, either."

He persistently drew her toward him. She clutched his arm.
Then she threw off the robe, climbed out of the sled, raced after
it with Harry Haydock. At the dance which followed the
sleigh-ride Kennicott was devoted to the watery prettiness of
Maud Dyer, and Vida was noisily interested in getting up a
Virginia Reel. Without seeming to watch Kennicott, she knew
that he did not once look at her.

That was all of her first love-affair.

He gave no sign of remembering that he was " terribly fond."
She waited for him; she reveled in longing, and in a sense of
guilt because she longed. She told herself that she did not
want part of him; imless he gave her all hb devotion she would
never let him touch her; and when she found that she was
probably lying, she burned with scorn. She fought it out in
prayer. She knelt in a pink ffannd nightgown, her thin
hair down her back, her forehead as full of horror as a mask
of tragedy, while she identified her love for the Son of God
with her love for a mortal, and wondered if any other woman
had ever been so sacrilegious. She wanted to be a nun
and observe perpetual adoration. She bought a rosary, but
she had been so bitterly reared as a Protestant that she could
not bring herself to use it.

Yet none of her intimates in the school and in the boarding-
house knew of her abyss of passion. They said she was " so
optimistic."

When she heard that Kennicott was to many a girl, pretty,
young, and imposingly from the Cities, Vida despaired. She

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congratulated Komicott; carelessly ascertained from him the
hour of marriage. At that hour, sitting in her room, Vida pic-
tured the wedding in St. Paul. Full of an ecstasy which horri-
fied her, she followed Kennicott and the girl who had stolen
her place, followed them to the train, through the evening,
the night.

She was relieved when she had worked out a belief that she
wasn't really shameful, that there was a mystical relation be-
tween herself and Carol, so that she was vicariously yet veri-
tably with Kennicott, and had the right to be.

She saw Carol during the first five minutes in Gopher Prairie.
She stared at the passing motor, at Kennicott and the girl
beside him. In that fog world of transference of emotion Vida
had no normal jealousy but a conviction that, since through
Carol she had received Kennicott's love, then Oirol was a part
of her, an astral self, a hei^tened and more beloved self.
She was glad of the girl's charm, of the smooth black hahr,
the airy head and yotmg shoulders. But she was suddenly
angry. Carol glanced at her for a quarter-second, but looked
past her, at an old roadside bam. If she had made the -great
sacrifice, at least she expected gratitude and recognition, Vida
raged, while her conscious schooh'oom mind fusdly begged
her to control this insanity.

During her first call half of her wanted to welcome a fellow
reader of books; the other half itched to find out whether
Carol knew an3rthing about Kennicott's former interest in
herself. She discovered that Carol was not aware that he had
ever touched another woman's hand. Carol was an amusing,
naive, curiously learned child. While Yida, was most actively
describing the glories of the Thanatc^is, and complimenting
this librarian on her training as a worker, she was fancying
that this girl was the child born of herself and Kennicott; and
out of that symbolizing she had a comfort she had not known
for months.

When she came home, after suppa* with the Kennicotts and
Guy Pollock, she had a sudden and rather pleasant backsliding
from devotion. She bustled into her room, she slammed her
hat on the bed, and chattered, " I don't caref I'm a lot like
her — except a few years older. I'm light and quick, too, and

I can talk just as well as she can, and I'm sure Men are

such fools. I'd be ten times as sweet to make love to as that
dreamy baby. And I am as good-looking! "

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But as she sat on the bed and stared at har thin thig^,
defiance oozed away. She mourned:

" No. I'm not. Dear God, how we fool ourselves! I pre-
tend I'm * spiritual.' I pretend my legs are graceful. Tliey
aren't. They're skinny. Old-maidish. I hate it! I hate that
impertinent young woman! A selfish cat, taking his love
for granted. . . . No, she's adorable. ... I don't
think she ought to be so friendly with Guy Pollock."

For a year Vida loved Carol, longed to and did not pry into
the details of her relations widi Kennicott, enjoyed her spirit
of play as e^ressed in childish tea-parties, and, with the
mystic bond between them forgotten, was healthily vexed by
Carol's assumption that she was a sociological messiah come
to save Gopher Prairie. This last facet of Vida's thought was
the one which, after a year, was most often turned to the

I light. In a testy way she brooded, " These people that want
to change everydiing all of a sudden without doing any work,
make me tired! Here I have to go and work for four years,
picking out the pupils for debates, and drilling them, and
nagging at them to get them to look up references, and begging
them to choose their own subjects — four years, to get up a
couple of good debates! And she comes rushing in, and expects
in one year to change the whole town into a lollypop paradise
with everybody stopping everything dse to grow tulips and
drink tea. And it's a comfy homey old town, too! "

She had such an outburst after each of Ceu'ors campaigns —
for better Thanatopsis programs, for Shavian plays, for mc^e
human schools — but she never betrayed herself, ai^ always she
was penitent.

Vida was, and always would be, a reformer, a libaal. She
believed that details could excitingly be altered, but that
things-in-general were comely and kind and immutable. Carol
was, without understanding or accq)ting it, a revolutionist, a
radical, and therefore possessed of " constructive ideas," which
only the destroyer can have, since the reformer believes that
all the essential constructing has already been done. After
years of intimacy it was this unexpressed opposition more than
the fancied loss of Kennicott's love which held Vida irritaUy
fascinated.

But the birth of Hugh revived the transcend^tal emotion
She was indignant that Carol should not be utterly fulfilled in
having borne Kennicott's child. She admitted that Cand

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seemed to have affecticm and immaculate care for the baby,
but she began to identify herself now with ELennicott, and in
this phase to feel that she had endured quite too much from
Carol's instability.

She recalled certain other women who had come from
the Outside and had not appreciated Gq>her Prairie. She
remembered the rector's wife who had been chilly to callerd
and who was rumored throuj^out the town to have said,
^ Re-ah-ly I cawn't endure tMs bucolic heartiness in the re-
sponses." The woman was positively kiumn to have worn
handkerchiefs in her bodice as padding — oh, the town had
simply roared at h^ . Of course the rector and she were
got rid of in a few months.

Then there was the mysterious woman with the dyed hair
and penciled eyebrows, who wore tight English dresses, like
basques, who smelled of stale musk, who flirted with the men
and got them to advance money for her expenses in a law-
suit, who laughed at Vida's reading at a school-entertainment,
and went oS owing a hotel-bill and the three hundred dollars
she had borrowed.

Vida insisted ♦^iLJrhft IftVf d Tarn?, ^"» ^ *^ «^Tlft aariftfartfon
she rnnip.irrd hrr to thr^ lUMlikH i (if Mil Imwii

Vida had enjoyed Raymie Wutherspoon's singing in the
Episcopal choir; she had thoroughly reviewed the weather with
hun at Methodist sociables and in the Bon Ton. But i^e did
not really know him till she moved to Mrs. Gurrey's boarding-
house. It was five years after her afifair with Kennicott. She
was thirty-nine, Raymie perhaps a year younger.

She said to him, and sincerely, " My t You can do an3rthing,
with your brains and tact and that heavenly voice. You were
so good in *The Girl from Kankakee.' You made me feel
terribly stupid. If you'd gone on the stage, I believe you'd
be just as good as anybody in Minneapolis. But still, I'm not
sorry you stuck to business. It's such a constructive car^."

" Do you really thmk so? " yearned Ra3mie, across the
apple-sauce.

It was the first time that either of them had found a de-
poidable intellectual companionship. They looked down on
Willis Woodford the bank-clerk, and his anxious babycentric

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wife, the sflent Lyman Casses, the slangy traveling man, and
the rest of Mrs. Gurrey's unenlightened guests. They sat
opposite, and they sat late. They were exhilarated to find that
they agreed in confession of faith:

" People like Sam Clark and Harry Haydodc aren't earnest
about music and pictures and eloquent sermons and really
refined movies, but then, on the other hand, people like Carol
Kennicott put too much stress on all this art. Folks ought
to appreciate lovely things, but just the same, they got to be
practical and — tbey got to look at things in a practical way."

Smiling, passing each other the pressed-glass pickle-dbh,
seeing Mrs. Gurrcy's linty supper-doth irradiated by the lig^t
of intimacy, Vida and Raymie talked about Carol's rose-colored
turban, Carol's sweetness, Carol's new low shoes, Carol's erron-
eous theory that there was no need of strict discipline in school,
Carol's amiability in the Bon Ton, Carol's flow of wild ideas,
which, honestly, just sicq)ly made you nervous trying to keq>
track of them;

About the lovely di^lay of gents' shirts in the Bon Ton
window as dressed by Raymie, about Raymie's ottertary last
Sunday, the fact that there weren't any of these new solos as
nice as " Jerusalem the Golden," and the way Raymie stood
up to Juanita Haydock when she came into the store and
tried to run things and he as much as told her that she was
80 anxious to have folks thiuk she was smart and bright that
she said things she didn't mean, and anyway, Raymie was
running the shoe-department, and if Juanita, or Harry either,
didn't like the way he ran things, they could go get anoth^
man;

About Vida's new jabot which made her look thirty-two
(Vida's estimate) or twenty-two (Raymie's estimate), Vida's
plan to have the high-school Debating Society give a playlet,
and the difficulty of keq>ing the younger bc^ well behaved
on the playground when a big lubber like Cy Bogart acted
up so;

About the picture post-card which Mrs. Dawson had sent to
Mrs. Cass from Pasadena, showing roses growing rig^t out-
doors in February, the change in time on No. 4, the reckless
way Dr. Gould always drove his auto, the reckless way almost
all these people drove their autos, the fallacy of supposing
that these socialists could carry on a government for as much
as six months if they ever did have a chance to try cmt their

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theories, and the crazy way in which Carol jumped from
subject to subject.

Vida had once beheld Raymie as a thin man with q>ectades,
mournful drawn-out face, and colorless stiff hair. Now she
noted that his jaw was square, that his long hands moved
quickly and were bleached in a refined manner, and that his
trusting eyes indicated that he had '' led a dean life." She
b^;an to call him *' Ray," and to bounce in defense of his
unselfishness and thoughtfulness every time Juanita Haydock
Of Rita Gould giggled about him at the Jolly Seventeen.

On a Sunday afternoon of late autumn they walked down
to Lake Minniemashie. Ray said that he would like to see
the ocean; it must be a grand sight; it must be much grander
than a lake, even a great big lake. Vida had seen it, she
stated modestly; she had seen it on a summer trip to C^>e
Cod.

^' Have you been clear to Cape Cod? Massachusetts? I
knew you'd traveled, but I never realized you'd heea that
far!''

Made taller and younger by his interest she poured out, '^ Oh
my yes. It w^s a wonderful trip. So many points of interest
through Massachusetts — historical. There's Lexington where
we turned back the redcoats, and Longfellow's home at Cam-
bridge, and Cape Cod — ^just ever3rthing — ^fishermen and whale-
shq)s and sand-dunes and everydiing."

She wished that she had a little cane to carry. He broke
off a willow branch.

" My, you're strong! " she said.

" No, not very. I wish there was a Y. M. C. A. here, so I
could take up regular exercise. I used to think I could do
pretty good acrobatics, if I had a chance."

" I'm sure you could. You're unusually lithe, for a large
man."

" Oh no, not so very. But I wish we had a Y. M. It would
be dandy to have lectures and everything, and I'd like to take
a class in improving the memory — I believe a fellow ought
to go on educating himself and inq>roving his mind even if he is
in business, don't you, Vida — ^I guess I'm kind of fresh to caU
you*VidaM"

" I've been calling you * Ray ' for weeks! "

He wondered why she sounded tart.

He helped her down the bank to the edge of the lake but

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dropped her hand abnqitlyy and as they sat on a willow log
and be brushed her sleeve, he delicately moved over and
murmured, " Ob, excuse me — accident."

She stared at the mud-browned chilly water, the floating
gray reeds.

" You look so thoughtful," he said.

She threw out her hands. ''I ami Will you kindly tell
me what's the use of — anythingi Oh, don't mind me. I'm
a moody old hen. Tell me about your plan for getting a
partnership in the Bon Ton. I do think you're right: Harry
Haydock and that mean old Simons ought to give you one."

He hymned the old unhappy wars in which he had been
Achilles and the mellifluous Nestor, yet gone his righteous ways
unheeded by the cruel kings. ..." Why, if I've told
'em once, I've told 'em a dozen tunes to get in a side-line of
light-weight pants for gents' summer wear, and of corn-se here
they go and let a cheap kike like Rifkin beat them to it
and grab the trade right off 'em, and then Harry said —
you know how Harry is, maybe he don't mean to be grouchy,
but he's such a sore-head "

He gave her a hand to rise. " If you don't mind, I think*
a fellow is awful if a lady goes on a walk with him and she
can't trust him and he tries to flirt with her and all."

" I'm sure you're highly trustworthy! " she snapped, and
she sprang up without his aid. Then, smiling excessivdy,
" Uh — don't you think Carol sometimes fails to ai^redate Dr.
Will's ability? "

Ray habitually asked her about his window-trimming, the
display of the new shoes, the best music for the entertainment
at the Eastern Star, and (though he was recognized as a pro-
fessional authority on what the town called " gents' furnish-
ings ") about his own clothes. She persuaded him not to wear
the small bow ties which made him look like an dongated
Sunday School scholar. Once she burst out:

" Ray, I could shake you I Do you know you're too apolo-
getic? You always appreciate other peq>le too much. You
fuss over Carol Kennicott when she has some crazy theory that
we all ought to turn anarchists or live on figs and nuts or
something. And you list«i when Harry Haydock tries to show

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off and talk about turnovers and credits and things you know
lots better than he does. Look folks in the eye I Glare at
'em! Talk deep! You're the smartest man in town, if you
cmly knew it. You ore/'*

He could not believe it. He kept coming back to her for
confirmation. He practised faring and talking deep, but he
drcuitously hinted to Vida that when he had tried to look
Harry Haydock in the eye, Harry had inquired, ^' What's the
matter with you, Raymie? Got a pain? " But afterward
Harry had asked about Kantbeatum socks in a manner which,
Ray felt, was somehow different from his former condescension.

They were sitting on the squat yellow satin settee in the
boarding-house parlor. As Ray reannounced that he simply
wouldn't stand it many more years if Harry didn't give him a
partnership, his gesticulating hand touched Vida's shoulders.

" Oh, excuse me! " he pleaded.

" It's all right. Well, I think I must be running up to my
room. Headache," she said briefly.

Ray and she had stopped in at Dyer's for a hot chocolate
on their way home from the movies, that March evening. Vida
^[>eculated, *' Do you know that I may not be here next year? "

" What do you mean? "

With her fragile narrow nails she smoothed the glass slab
which formed the top of the round table at whidi they sat.
She peeped through the glass at the perfume-boxes of black and
gidd and citron in the hollow table. She looked about at
shelves of red rubber water-bottles, pale yellow sponges, wash-
rags with blue borders, hair-brushes of polished cherry backs.
She shook her head like a nervous medium coming out of a
trance, stared at him unhappily, demanded:

'^ Why should I stay here? And I must make up my mind.
Now. Time to renew our teaching-contracts for next year.
I think 111 go teach in some oUier town. Everybody here is
tired of me. I might as well go. Before folks come out and
say they're tired of me. I have to decide toni^t. I mij^t as
weD Oh, no matter. Come. Let's skip. It's late."

She sprang up, ignoring his wail of ^'Vida! Wait! Sit
down! Gosh! I'm flabbergasted! Gee! Vida! " She
inarched out. While he was paying his check she got ahead.

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He ran after her, blubbering, " Vida! Wait! *' In the shad£
of the lilacs in front of the Gougerling house he came up with
her, stayed her flight by a hand on her shoulder.

'' Oh, don't! Don't! What does it matter? " she begged
She was sobbing, her soft wrinkly lids soaked with tears.
^ Who cares for my affection or hdp? I might as well drift
on, forgotten. O Ray, please don't hold me. Let me go.
Ill just decide not to r^ew my contract here, and — and
drift— way off "

His hand was steady on her shoulder. She droiq[>ed her
head, rubbed the back of his hand with her cheek.

They were married in June.

They took the Ole Jenson house. " It's small," said \nda,
'' but it's got the dearest vegetable garden, and I love having
time to get near to Nature for once."

Thou^ she became Vida Wuther^)oon technically, and
though she certainly had no ideals about the independence of
keeping her name, she continued to be known as ^da Sher^*
win.

She had resigned from the school, but she kq)t up one dass
in English. She bustled about on eveiy committee of the
Thanatq>sis; she was always popping into the rest-room to
make Mrs. Nodelquist S¥re^ the floor; she was appointed to
the library-board to succeed Carol; she taught the Senior
Girls' Cla^ in the ^isc(q>al Sunday School, and tried to revive
the King's Daughters. |She exploded into self-confidence and
hairiness; her draining thou^ts were by marriage turned
into ^ergy. She became daily and visibly more plump, and
though she chattered as eagerly, she was less obviously admir-^
ing of marital bliss, less sentimental about babies, sharper in
demanding that the entire town share her reforms — the pur-
chase of a park, the compulsory cleaning of back-yards/

She penned Harry Haydock at his desk in the Bon Ton;
she interrupted his joking; she told him that it was Ray who
had built up the shoe-department and men's department; she
demanded that he be made a partner. Before Harry coidd
answer she threatened that Ray and she would start a rival
shop. " 111 derk behind the counter myself, and a Ctftain
Party is all ready to put up the money."

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She rather wondered who the Certam Party was.

Ray was made a one-sixth partner.

He became a glorified floor-walker, greeting the men with
new poise, no longer coyly subservient to pretty women.
When he was not affectionately coercing people into bu3ring
things they did not need, he stood at the back of the store,
growing, abstracted, feeling masculine as he recalled the
tempestuous surprises of love revealed by Vida.

llie only remnant of \nda's identification of herself with
Carol was a jealousy when ^e saw Kennicott and Ray to-
gether, and reflected that some people mi^t suppose that
Kennicott was his superior. She was sure that Carol thou^t
so, and she wanted to shriek, "You needn't try to gloat I I
wouldn't have your pokey old husband. He hasn't one single
bit of Ray's spiritual nobility."

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CHAPTER XXn

\The greatest mystery about a human being is not his reaction
to sex or praise, but the manna: in which he contrives to put
in twenty-four hours a day J It is this which puzzles the long-
shoranan about the clerk, The Londoner about the bushman.
It was this which puzzled Carol in regard to the married Vida.
Carol herself had the baby, a larger house to care for, all the
telephone calls for Kennicott when he was away; and she
read everything, while Vida was satisfied with newspaper head-
lines.

But after detached brown years in boarding-houses, Vida
was hungry for housework, for the most pottering detail of it.
She had no maid, nor wanted one. She cooked, baked, swept,
washed supper-cloths, with the triumph of a chemist in a new
laboratory. iTo her lie hearth was veritably the alta^. When
^e went shopping she hugged the cans of soup, and she
bought a mq> or a side of bacon as though she were preparing
for a recq>tion. She knelt beside a bean sprout and crooned,
'' I raised this with my own hands — ^I brou^t this new life
into the world."!
** I love her for being so happy," Carol brooded. '' I ou^t

to be that way. I wc^hip the baby, but the housework

Oh, I suppose I'm fortunate; so much better off than farm-
women on a new clearing, or people in a slum."

It has not yet been recorded that any himian bdng has
* gained a very large or permanent contentment from medita-
^ tion upon the fact that he is better off than others.

In Carol's own twenty-four hours a day she got iq>, dressed
the baby, had breakfast, talked to Oscarina about the day%
shopping, put the baby on the porch to play, went to the
butcher's to choose between steak and pork chops, bathed the
baby, nailed up a shdf , had dinner, put the baby to bed for a
nap, paid the iceman, read for an hour, took the baby
out for a walk, called on Vida, had supper, put the baby to
bed, darned socks, listened to Kainicott's 3rawning conunent

762

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on what a fool Dr. McGanum was to try to use that cheap
X-ray outfit of his on an epithelioma, repaired a frock, drowsily
beard Kennicott stoke the furnace, tried to read a page of
Thorstein Veblen — and the day was gone.

Excq>t when Hugh was vigorously naughty, or whinqr, or |
laughing, or saying " I like my chair " with thrilling ma^- 1
turity, ^e was always enfeebled by loneliness. She no longer >
felt siq)erior about that misfortune. She would gladly have I
beai converted to Vida's satisfaction in Gopher Prairie and I
mopping the fioor.

Carol drove through an astonishing number of books from
the public library and from city shops. Kemiicott was at
first uncomfortable over her disconcertiuK habit of buying
them. A book was a book, and if you had several thousand
of them right here in the library, free, why the dickens should
you spend your good money? After worrying about it for
two or three years, he decided that this was one of the Funny
Ideas which she had caught as a librarian and from whidi
she would never entirely recover.

The authors whom she read were most of them frightfully
annoyed by the Vida Sherwins. They were young American
sociologists, young English realists, Russian horrorists; Anatole
France, Rolland, Nexo, Wells, Shaw, Key, Edgar Lee Masters,
Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Henry Mencken, and
all the other subversive philosophers and artists whom women
were consulting ever3n¥here, in batik-curtained studios in |
New York, in Kansas farmhouses, San Francisco drawing-'
rooms, Alabama schools for negroes. From them she got
the same confused desire which the million other women ;
fdt; the same determination to be class-conscious without <
discovering the class of ^viiich she was to be conscious.

Certainly her reading precipitated her observations of Main
Street, of G(^her Prairie and of the several adjacent Gopher
Prairies whidi she had seen on drives with Kennicott In
her fluid thought certain convictions appeared, jaggedly, a
fragment of an impression at a time, while she was going to
sleq>, or manicuring her nails, or waiting for Kennicott.

Tliese convictions she presented to Vida Sherwin — Yida,
Wutherspoon— -beside a radiator, over a bowl of not very good

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264 MAIN STREET

nvalnuts and pecans from Uncle Whittier's grocery, cm an

evening when both Kennicott and Raymie had gone out of

town with the oth^ officers of the Andoit and AfGiUated Order

of Spartans, to inaugurate a new chapter at Wakamin. Vida

had come to the house for the night. She helped in putting

Hugh to bed, sputtering the while about his soft skin. Then

they talked till midni^t.

/What Carol said that evening, what she was passionately

'^ thinking, was also emerging in the minds of women in ten

/ thousand Gopher Prairies. Her formulations were not pat

solutions but visions of a tragic futility. She did not utta:

, them so compactly that they can be given in her words; they

; were roughened with " Well, you see " and " if you get what

V I^ean '' and " I don't know that I'm making myself dear."

X]^^ they were definite enough, and indignant enough.

^ m

In reading popidar stories and seeing plays, asserted Carol,

she had found only two traditions of the American small town.

nHht first tradition, rq}eated in scores of magazines every month,

lis that the American village remains the one sure abode of

i friendship, honesty, and dean sweet marriageable girls. lTh«"e-

fore all men who succeed in painting in Paris or in finance in

New York at last become weary of smart women, return

to their native towns, &ssert that dties are vidous, marry

their childhood sweethearts and, prestmiably, joyously abi(te

in those towns until death j

The other tradition is that the significant features of all
villages are whiskers, iron dogs upon lawns, gold bricks,
checkers, jars of gilded cat-tails, and shrewd comic old men
who are known as " hicks " and who ejaculate " Waal I swan."
This altogether admirable tradition rules the vaudeville stage,
facetious illustrators, and syndicated newspaper hunKH*, but
out of actual life it passed forty years ago. Carol's small
town thinks not in hoss-swapping but in cheap motor cars,
telephones, ready-made dothes, silos, alfalfa, kodaks, phono-
graphs,' leather-upholstered Morris chairs^ bridge^rizes, oil-
stocks, motion-pictures, land-deals, unread sets of Mark
Twain, and a chaste version of national politics.

With such a small-town life a Kennicott or a Champ Pory
is content, but there are also hundreds of thousands, par-

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ticularly women and young men, who are not at all content.
Tbe more intelligent young people (and the fortunate widowsl )
flee to the cities with agility and, despite the fictional tra-
dition, resolutely stay there, seldom returning even for holi-
days. The most protesting patriots of the towns leave them
in old age, if they can afford it, and go to live in California
or in the cities.

The reason, Carol insisted, is not a whiskered rusticity. It
is nothing so amusing I

It is an unimaginatively standardized background, a slug-^
gishness of speech and manners, a rigid ruling of the spirit;
by the desire to i^ypear respectable. It is contentment . .
the contentmoit of the quiet dead, who are scornful of the
living for their restless walking. It is negation canonized
as the one positive vurtue. It is the prohibitionof happiness.
It is slavery sdf-sou^t and sdf-defoided. It is duUness
made God.

A savorless people, gulping tasteless food, and sitting after- 1
ward, coatless and thougfhtless, in rocking-chairs prickly with
inane decorations, listening to mechanical music, saying me-
chanical things about the excellence of Ford automobiles, and
viewing thenuMdves as the greatest race in the wotlA.

She had inquired as to the effect of this dominating dull-
ness upon foreigners. She ranembered the feeble exotic
N^ quality to be found in the first-genoration Scandinavians; she
I recalled the Norwegian Fair at the Lutheran Church, to
w4iich Bea had taken her. There, in the bondestue, the replica
of a Norse farm kitchen, pale women in scarlet jackets em-
broidered with gold thread and colored beads, in black skirts
with a line of blue, greai-striped aprons, and ridged caps very
pretty to set off a fr^ face, had served rommegrod og lefse —
sweet cakes and sour milk pudding spiced with cinnamon.
For the first time in Gopher Prairie Carol had found novelty.
She had reveled in the mild foreignness of it.

|But she saw these Scandinavian women zealously exchanging
their ^iced puddings and red jackets for fried pork chops
and congealed white blouses, trading the ancient Christmas
h3rmns of the fjords for "She's My Jaz2dand Cutie," being
Ammcanized into unifOTmity, and in less than a g^eration*^

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lfningjn _thfi gmyi^i 'H') fflT i ntfvi'i pleasant itew customs thqr
aive added to die life of the town. Their sons finished
the process. In ready-made clothes" and ready-made hi^
school phrases they sank into propriety^ and the sound Amer-
ican customs had absorbed without one trace of pollution an-
other alien invasionj

And along with these foreigners, she felt herself being ironed
into glossy mediocrity, and she rebelled, in fear.

The respectability of the Gqpher Prairies, said Carol, is
reinforced by vows of poverty and chastify in the matter of
knowledge. Exc^t for half a dozen in each town the citizens
> are proud o£ that achievement of ignorance which it is so ea^
to come by. To be " intellectual " or " artistic " or, in their
;own word, to be '^ highbrow,'' is to be priggish and of dubious
virtue.

f Large eiq)eriments in politics and in co-q>erative distributioiL
ventures requiring knowledge, courage, and imagination, do
originate in the West and Middlewest, but they are not of
the towns, they are of the farmers. If these heresies are
supported by the townsmen it is only by occasional teaches,
)A, doctors, lawyers, the labor imions, and workmen like Miles
Bjomstam, who are punished by being mocked as " cranks,"
as " half-baked parlor socialists." The editor and the rector
preach at them. The doud of serene ignorance submergis
them in unhappiness and futility.^

Here Vida obsa-ved, " Yes— wdl Do you know, I*ve

always thought that Ray would have made a wonderful rector.
He has what I call an essaitially religious soul. Myl He'd
have read the service beautifully 1 I suppose it's too late now,
but as I tell him, he can also serve the world by selling shoes
I wonder if we oughtn't to have family-i>rayers? "

. ^Doubtless an unall towns, in all countries, in all ages»
i Carol admitted, have a tendency to be not only dull but
\ mean, bitter, infested with curiosi^.| In France or Tiba quite
as much as in Wyoming or Indiana these timidities are in-
herent in isolation.

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Bnt^ village in a country which is taking pains to become
altogjBiher standardized and pure, which aiq>ires to succeed
Victorian England as the chief mediocrity of the world, is no ^
toiger merely provincial, no longer downy and restful m its
leaf-shadowed ignorance. It is a force seeking to dominate
the earthy to drain the hills and sea of color, to set Dante at
boosting G<^her Prairie, and to dress the high gods in
Elassy EoUege Klothesi Swe of itself^ it friinii>g nt^ ff rltnlifa,
tions, a s a to yeto^sajesmgtn In a brown derby, conquers, the
wisdoni ot Uhinaj^ d taAs advertisements of cij^eltes over
arches for centuries dedicate to the sayinics.of Confucius.

Such a soae^ functions admirably in the large production
of cheap automobfles, dollar watches, and safety razors. But
it is not satisfied until the entire world also admits that the
end and joyous purpose of living is to ride in flivvers, to make
advertising-pictures of dollar watches, and in the twilight to
sit talking not of love and courage but of the convenience
of safety razors.

And such a society, such a nation, is determined by the
Gopher Prairies. The greatest manufacturer is but a busier V
Sam Clark, and all the rotund senators and presidents are >
village lawyers and bankers grown nine feet tall.

iTbough a Gopher Prairie regards itself as a part of the Great
World, compares itself to Rome and Vienna, it will not acquire
the scientific spirit, the international mind, which would make
it great It picks at information which will visibly procured
money or social distinction. Its conception of a community''^
ideal is not the grand manner, the noble aspiration, the fine
aristocratic pride, but cheap labor for th^ Vitri^^" anH rapid
- ■ - ^ nd. It

incr ease in the price of Tan ar"it_giays^ at^ldajoa greasy oil-
doth in a fli aty, to d does ribr&ow that prophets are walking
and talk ing on th eTerrace4'

If an the provincials were as kindly as Champ Perry and
Sam Clark there would be no reason for desiring the town
to seek great traditions. It is the Harry Haydocks, the Dave
Dyers, the Jackson Elders, small busy men crushingly powerful
in their common purpose, viewing Uiemselves as men of the
world but keeping themselves men of the cash-register and
the comic film^ who make the town z, sterile oligarrhy

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She had sought to be definite in analyzing the surface nj^-
ness of the Gopher Prairies. |She asserted that it is a matter
of universal similarity; of flimsiness/6f construction, so that
the towns resemble frontier camps -yfiTnegkct of natural ad-
vantages, so that the hills are covflf^ Wtni ash, Hie lakes
shut off by railroads, and the crael^ ftffld*with dimq)ing-
grounds; of dq)ressmg sobriety of coiSrI rectangularity of
buildings; and excessive breadth and strdSgntness of the gashed
streets, so that there is no escape from gales and from sig^t
of the grim sweep of land, nor any windings to coax the
loiterer along, while the breadth which would be majestic in
an avenue of palaces makes the low shabby shops creeping
down the typical Main Street the more mean by comparison.1

I The universal similarity — that is the physical e3q>ression of^
the philosq>hy of dull safety. Nine-tenths of the American
towns are so alike that it is the completest boredom to wander
from one to another.* • Always, west of Pittsburg, and often,
east of it, there is the same lumber yard, the same railroad
station, the same Ford garage, the same creamery, the same
box-like houses and two-story ^ops. The new, more conscious
houses are alike in their very attempts at diversity: the same
bungalows, the same square houses of stucco or t£^>estry brick.
The shops show the same standardized, nationally advertised
wares; Uie newspapers of sections three thousand miles a{»rt
have the same '^ syndicated features''; the boy in Arkansas
displays just such a flamboyant ready-made suit as is found
on just such a boy in Delaware, both of than ito^te the same
slang phrases from the same sporting-pages, and if one of them
is in college and the other is a barber, no one may surmise which
is which.
I If Kennicott were snatched from Gopher Prairie and in-
'} stantly conveyed to a town leagues away, he would not realize
^ it. He would go down apparently the same Main Street
(almost certainly it would be called Main Street); in the
same drug store he would see the same yoimg man serving
the same ice-cream soda to the same younp: woman with the
same magazines and phonograph records under her arm. Not
till he had climbed to his office and found another sign on
. the door, another Dr. Kennicott inside, would he nnderstaiid
that something curious had presumably hi^ipened.

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Finally, bdiind all her comments, Carol saw the fact that the
prairie towns no more exist to serve the farmers who are
their reason of existence than do the great capitals; they
exist to fatten on the farmers, to provide for the townsmen
large motors and social preferment; and, miUke the capitals,
they do not give to the district in return for usury a statdy
and permanent center, but only this ragged camp. It is a
** pa rasitic Greek civil ization " — minus the civilization.

" There we are iheh,^ said Carol. "The remedy? Is
tho-e any? Criticism, perhaps, for the beginning of the
beginning. Oh, there's nothing that attacks the Tribal God
Mediocrity that doesn't help a little . . . and probably
there's nothing that hdps very much. Perhaps some day the
fanners will build and own thdr market-towns. (Think of
the dub they could havel) But I'm' afraid I haven't any
' reform program.' Not any morel I The trouble is spiritual,
and no League or Party can enact a preference for gardens
rather than dumping-grounds. • • . There's my confes-
sion. Wdl?''\

** In other words, all you want is perfection? " said Vida.

"YesI Why not?'*

"How you hate this placel How can you expect to do
anything with it if you haven't any sympathy? "

"But I havel And affection. Or dse I wouldn't fume
80. I've learned that Goph^ Prairie isn't just an enq^ticm
on the prairie, as I thought first, but as large as New York.
In New York I wouldn't know nuM-e than forty or fifty people,
uid I know that many here. Go onl Say what you're
thinking."

"WdU, my dear, if I did take all your notions seriously^
it would be pret^ discouraging. Imagine how a person
would fed, after working hard for years and helping to build
up a nice town, to have you airily flit in and simply say
* Rotten! ' Think that's fair?"

" Why not? It must be just as discouraging for the Gq>her
Prairidte to see Venice and make comparisons."

"It would not I IJmagine gondolas are kind of nice to

ride in, but we've got better bath-rooms! But- My dear,

you're not the only person in this town who has done some
tTiinlriiig for herself, although (pardon my rudeness) I'm
afraid you think so. Ill admit we lack some things. Maybe
our th^ter isn't as good as skows in Paris. AH riffatl I don't

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want to see any foreign culture suddenly forced on us— whether
it's street-planning or table-manners or orazy communistic
ideas."

Vida sketched what she termed " practical things that will
make a happier and prettier town, but that do bdong to our
life, that actually are being done." Of the Thanatc9)sis Qub
she ^>oke; of the rest-room, the fight against mosquitos, the
canq>aign for more gardens and shade-trees and sewers-
matters not fantastic and nebulous and distant, but immediate
and sure.
Carol's answer was fantastic and nebulous enough:
" Yes. . . . Yes. ... I know. They're good.
But if I could put through all those reforms at once, I'd still
want startling, exotic things. {Life is comfortable and clean
enough here already. And so secure. What it needs is to be
-^ less secure, more eager. The civic in5)rovements which I'd
like the Thanatopsis to advocate are Strindberg plays, and
classic dancers — exquisite legs beneath tulle — ^and (I can see
him so clearly I) a thick, black-bearded, cynical Frenchman
who would sit about and drink and sing opera and tell bawdy
stories and laugh at our proprieties and quote Rabelais and
not be ashamed to kiss my hand! "^

''Huh I Not sure about the rest of it but I guess that's

what you and all the other discontented young womoi really

want: some stranger kissing your hand! " At Carol's ga^, Hk

J old squirrrd-like Vida darted out and cried, "Oh, my dear,

I don't take that too seriously. I just meant "

i '" I know. You just meant it. Go on. Be good for my

.' soul. Isn't it funny: here we all are — ^me trying to be good

I for Gopher Prairie's soul, and G<^her Prairie trying to be

1 good for my soul. What are my other sins? "

^ " Oh, there's plenty of them. Possibly some day we shall

have your fat cynical Frenchman (horrible, sneering, tobacco-

stsuned object, ruining his brains ismd h is digSHbn with vile

licfilOtnrbut, thank heaven, for a while we'll manage to keep

bu»y with our lawns and pavements! You see, these things

really are coming! The Thanatopsis is getting somewhere.

And you *' Her tone italicized the words—" to my great

disappointment, are doing less, not more, than the pe(q)Ie

; you laugh at! Sam Clark, on the school-board, is WYH-king

for better school ventilation. Ella Stowbody (whose elocuting

you always think is so absurd) has persuaded the railroad

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271

to share the expense of a parked space at the staticMiy to
do away with that vacant lot.

''You sneer so easily. I'm sorry, but I do think there's
something essentially cheap in your attitude. Especially about
religion.

''If you must know, you're not a sound reformer at all.
You're an im posaibilist. And you give up too easUy. You
'^ve up on tne new city hall, the anti-fly campaign, dub papers,
the library-board, the dramatic association — ^just because we
didn't graduate into Ibsen the very first thing. lYou want per-
fection all at once. Do you know what the finest thing you've
done is — aside from bring&ig Hug^ into the world? It was
the hdp you gave Dr. Will during baby-welfare week. You
didn't demand that each baby be a philosc^her and artist
before you weighed him, as you do with the rest of usi

"And now I'm afraid perhaps I'll hurt you. We're going
to have a new schoolbuilding in this town — ^in just a few
years — and we'll have it without one bit of help or interest
from you!

("Professor Mott and I and some others have been dinging (
away at the moneyed men for years. We didn't call on
you because you would never stand the pound-pound-pounding
year after year without one bit of encouragement. And we've
won! I've got the promise of everybody who counts that
just as soon as war-conditions permit, they'll vote the bonds
for the scboolhouse. And well have a wonderful building —
lovely brown brick, with big windows, and agricultural a]i4.
manual-training departments. When we get it, that'll be m^
answer to all your theories! '1

"I'm glad. And I'm ashamed I haven't had any part in

gettmg it. But Please don't think I'm unsympathetic

if I adL one question: Will the teachers in the hygienic new
boQding go on informing the children that Persia is a yellow
spot on Uie map, and ' Cesar ' the title of a book of gram-
matical puzzles? "

^Hda was indignant; Carol was apologetic; they talked for
another hour, the eternal Mary and Martha — ^an immoralist
Mary and a reformist Martha. It was Vida who conquered.

The fact that she had been left out of the campaign for the

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new schoolbuflding disconcerted Carol. She laid her dreams
of perfection aside. When Vida asked her to take charge of
a group of Camp Fire Girls, she obeyed, and had d^nite
pleasure out of the Indian dances and ritual and costumes. She
went more regularly to the Thanatq)sis. With Vida as lieu-
tenant and unofficial commander she campaigned for a village
nurse to attend poor families, raised the f unid herself, saw to
it that the nurse was young and strong and amiable and
intelligent.

Yet all the while she beheld the burly Qrnical Frenchman
and die diaphanous dancers as clearly as the child sees its
air-bom pla3anates; she rdished the Camp Fire Girls not
because, in Vida's words, ''this Scout trainmg will hdp so
much to make them Good Wives,'' but because she hoped
that the Sioux dances would bring subversive color into their
dinginess.

She helped Ella Stowbody to set out plants in the tiny
triangular park at the railroad station; she squatted in the
dirt, with a small curved trowel and the most decorous of
gardening gauntlets; she talked to Ella about the puUic-
spiritedness of fuchsias and cannas; and she fdt that she was
scrubbing a temple deserted by the gods and empty even of
incense and the soimd of chanting. Passengers looking from
trains saw her as a village woman of fading prettiness, in-
corruptible virtue, and no abnormalities; Ae baggagonan
heard her say, '' Oh yes, I do think it will be a good enmple
for the children "; and all the wbOe she saw hersdf running
garlanded through the streets of Babylon.

Planting led her to botanizing. She never got much farther
than recognizing the tiger lily and the wOd rose, but she re-
discovered Hugh. " What does the buttercup say, nnunmy? "
he cried, his hand full of straggly grasses, his chedk gilded with
pollen. She knelt to onbrace him; she affirmed that he nmde
life more than full; she was altogether reconciled . . .
for an hour.

But she awoke at nig^t to hovmng death. She crept away
from the hump of bedding that was Kennicott; tiptoed into
the bathroom and, by the mirnH* in the door of tb^ molicine-
cabinet, examined her pallid face.

Wasn't she growing visibly older in ratio as \^da grew
plumper and younger? Wasn't her nose shaijp&c? Wasnt
her neck granulated? She stared and choked. She was only

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thirty. But tbe five years since her marriage— had they not
gone by as hastily and stupidly as though sbe had been und^
etfier; would time not slink past till death? She poimded her
fist on the cool enameled rim of the bathtub and raged mutely
against the indifferent gods:

"I don't care! I won't endure iti They lie so — ^Vida
and Wfll and Aunt Bessie — they tell me I ought to be satisfied
with Hugh and a good home and planting seven nasturtiums
in a station garden! I am I! When I die the world will be
annihilatel, as far as I'm concerned. I am II I'm not
content to leave the sea and the ivory towers to others. I
want them for me! Damn Vida! Damn all of them! Do
they think they can make me believe that a display of potatoes
at Rowland & Gould's is enough beauty and strangeness? "

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CHAPTER XXm

When America entered the Great European War, Vida sent
Raymie oS to an officers' training-camp — ^le^ than a year after
her wedding. Raymie was diligent and rather strong. He
came out a first lieutenant of infantry, and was one of the
earliest sent abroad.

Carol grew definitely afraid of Vida as Vida transferred
the passion which had been released in marriage to the cause
of the war; as she lost all tolerance. When Carol was touched
by the desire for heroism in Raymie and tried tactfully to
e]q)ress it, Vida made her fed like an impertinent child.

By enlistment and draft, the sons of Lyman Cass, Nat
Hicks, Sam Clark joined the army. But most of the soldiers
were the sons of German and Swedish farmers unknown to
Carol. Dr. Terry Gould and Dr. McGanum became captains
in the medical corps, and were stationed at camps in Iowa and
Georgia. They were the only officers, besides Rajrmie, from
the Gopher Prairie district. Kennicott wanted to go with
them, but the several doctors of the town forgot medical
rivalry and, meeting in council, decided that he would do
better to wait and keep the town well till he should be needed.
Kennicott was forty-two now; the only yoimgish doctor left
in a radius of eighteen miles. Old Dr. Westlake, who loved
comfort like a cat, protestingly rolled out at night for country
calls, and himted through his collar-box for his G. A. R. button.

Carol did not quite Imow what she thought about Kennicott's
going. Certainly she was no Spartan wife. She knew that
he wanted to go; she knew that this longing was always in
him, behind his imchanged trudging and remarks about the
weather. She felt for him an admiring affection — and she
was sorry that she had nothing more than affection.

Cy Bogart was the spectacidar warrior of the town. Cy
was no longer the weedy boy who had sat in the loft ^>ecii-
lating about Carol's egotism and the ipysterjes of genoatioD.
He was nineteen now, tall, broad, busy, the " town sport,'^

274

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femous for his bbility to drink beer, to shake dice, to teU
undesirable stories, and, from his post in front of Dyer's drug
store, to embarrass the girls by " jollying " them as they passed.
His face was at once peach-bloomed and pimply.

Cy was to be heard publishing it abroad that if he couldn't
get the Widow Bogart's permission to enlist, he'd nm away
and enlist without it. He shouted that he '' hated every dirty
Hun; by gosh, if he could just poke a bayonet into one big
fat Heinie and learn him some decency and democracy, he'd
die happy." Cy got much reputation by whipping a farmboy
named Adolph Podibauer for being a " damn hyphenated Ger-
man." . . . This was the younger Pochbauer, who was
killed in the Argonne, while he was trying to bring the body
of his Yankee captain back to the lines. At this time Cy Bogart
was stin dwelling in Gopher Prairie and planning to go to
war.

Everywhere Carol heard that the war was going to bring
a basic change in psychology, to purify and uplift everything
from marital relations to national politics, and she tried to
eralt in it. Only she did not find it. She saw the women who
made bandages for the Red Cross giving up bridge, and
lau^iing at having to do without sugar, but|over the surgical-
dressings they did not speak of God and the sotik of men,
but of Miles Bjomstam's inq>udence, of Terry Gould's scan-
dalous carryings-on with a farmer's daughter four years ago,
of cooking cabbage, and of altering blouses. Their refer-
ences to the war touched atrocities only. She herself was
punctual, and efficient at making dressings, but she could not,
like Mrs. Lyman Cass and Mrs. Bogart, fill the dressings
with hate for enemiesj

When she protested to AHda, '' The young do the work while
these old ones sit around and interrupt us and gag with hate
because th^'re too feeble to do anything but hate," then
Vida turned on her:

** If you can't be reverent, at least don't be so pert and
opinionated, now when men and women are d3ang. Some of
us — we have given up so much, and we're glad to. At least
we expect that you othas sha'n't try to be witty at our
eq>ense*"

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There was weqping.

Carol did desire to see the Prussian autocracy defeated;
she did persuade herself that there were no autocracies save
that of Prussia; she did thrill to motion-pictures of troops
embarking in New York; and she was uncomfortable when she
met Miles Bjornstam on the street and he croaked:
" How's tricks? Things going fine with me; got
cows. Well, have you become a patriot? Eh?^
bring democracy — theden^

- since the Gard e g l^FlEden the workmen have gone

"fight each other for perfectly good reasons — handed to^ theifi

by their bosses. Now me. I'm wi^^. I'm so jM fr-ihgn know

kuuw dikyihmg about the war.^^

It was not a thou^t of the war that remained with her

I after Miles's declamation but a percq>tion that she and Vida

! and all of the good-int^tloners who wanted to " do some-

I thing for the common pei^le ^ were insignificant, because the

'^ common people " were able to do tbdngg for themsdves,

and hi^y likely to, as soon as they learned the fact. The

conception of ndllions of workmen like Miles taking control

frightened her, and she scuttled rapidly away from the thought

of a time when she mig^t no longer retain the position of

Lady Boimtiful to the Bjomstams and Beas and Oscarinas

whom she loved — ^and patronized.

It was in June, two months after America's entrance into
the war, that the momentous event happened — the visit of
the great Percy Bresnahan, the millionaire president of the
Velvet Motor Car Con^)any of Boston, the one native son
who was always to be menticmed to strangers.

For two weeks there were nmiors. Sam Clark cried to
Kennicott, ''Say, I hear Petce Bresnahan is coming! By
golly it'll be great to see the old scout, eh? " Finally the
Dauntless printed, on the front page with a No. i head, a letter
from Bresnahan to Jackson Elder:

Dear Jack:

Well, Jack, I find I can make it I'm to go to Washington as a
dollar a year man for the government, in the aviation motor section,
and tell diem how much I don't kaow about carburetors. But before
I start in being a hero I want to shoot out and catch me a big black

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bass and coss out you and Sam Clark and Harry Haydock and Will
Kennicott and the rest of you pirates. Ill land in G.P. on June 7»
on No. 7 from Mpls. Shake a day-day. Tell Bert Tybce to save
me a glass of beer.

Sincerely yours,

Percb.

All members of the social, financial, scientific^ literary, and
sporting sets wa-e at No. 7 to meet Bresnahan; Mrs. Lyman
Cass was beside Del SnatBin the barber, and Juanita Haydock
almost cordial to Miss Villets the librarian. Carol saw Bres-
nahan laughing down at them from the train vestibule — ^big,
immaculate, overjawed, with the eye of an executive. In the
voice of the professional Good Fellow he bellowed, " Howdy,
folks! '' As she was introduced to him (not he to her) Bres-
nahan looked into her eyes, and his hand-shake was warm, im-
hurried.

He declined the offers of motors; he walked off, his arm
about the shoulder of Nat Hicks the sporting tailor, with the
elegant Harry Haydock canying one of his enormous pale
leather bags, Del Snafilin the other. Jack Elder bearing an
overcoat, and Julius Flickerbaugh the fishing-tackle. Carol
noted that though Bresnahan wore ^>ats and a stick, no small
boy jeered. She decided, "I must have Will get a double-
breasted blue coat and a wing collar and a (totted bow-tie
like his.''

That evening, when Kennicott was trimming the grass along
the walk with sheqvshears, Bresnahan rolled up, alone. He
was now in corduroy trousers, khaki shirt open at the throat,
a white boating hat, and marvelous canvas-and-leather shoes.
" On the job there, old Will! Say, my Lord, this is living, to
come back and get into a regular man-siz^ pair of pants.
They can talk all they want to about the city, but my idea
01 a good time is to loaf around and see you boys and catch
a gamey bass! "

He hustled up the walk and blared at Carol, " Where's that
little fellow? I hear youVe got one fine big he-boy that you're
holding out on me! "

"He's gone to bed," rather briefly.

" I know. And rules are rules, these days. Blids get routed
through the shop like a motor. But look here, sister; I'm
one great hand at busting rules. Come on now, let Unde
Perce have a look at him. Please now, sister? "

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He put his arm about her waist; it was a large, strong,
sq[>histicated arm, and very agreeable; he grimied at her wi&
a devastating knowingness, while Eennicott glowed inandy.
She flushed; she was alarmed by the ease with which the
big-dty man invaded her guarded personality. She was glad,
in retreat, to scamper ahead of the two men up-stairs to the
hall-room in which Hugh slept. All the way Kennicott mut-
tered, " Well, wdl, say, gee whittakers but it's good to have
you back, certainly is good to see youl "

Hugh lay on his stomach, making an earnest business of
sleq>mg. He burrowed his eyes in the dwarf blue pillow to
escape the electric light, then sat up abruptly, small and frail
in his woolly nightdrawers, his floss of brown hair wild, the
pillow clutched to his breast. He wailed. He stared at the
stranger, in a manner of patient dismissal. He e^lained
confidentially to Carol, ''Daddy wouldn't let it be morning
yet. What does the pillow say? "

Bresnahan dropped his arm caressingly on Carol's shoulder;
he pronounced, " My Lord, you're a lucky girl to have a fine
young husk like that. I figure Will knew what he was doing
when he persuaded 3rou to take a chance on an old bum like
himl They tell me you come frcm St. Paul. We're going to
get you to come to Boston some day." He lean^ over the
bed. ''Young man, you're the slickest sight I've seen this
side of Boston. With your permission, may we present you
with a sli^t token of our regard and appreciation of your
long service? "

He held out a red rubbo: Pierrot Hugh remarked, ^ Gimme
it," hid it under the bedclothes, and stared at Bresnahan
as though he had never seen the man before.

For once Carol permitted herself the ^iritual luxury of
not asking "Why, Hugh dear, what do you say when some
one gives you a present? " The great man was 24>parently
waiting. They stood in inane suspense till Bresnahan led
them out, rumfbling, "How about planning a fishing-trq>,

wm?"

He remained for half an hour. Always he told Carol what

a charming person she was; always he looked at hear knowing.

" Yes. He probably would make a woman fall in love with

^ I him. But it wouldn't last a week. I'd get tired of his coo-

I founded buoyancy. His hypocrisy. He's a ^iritual bully.

iHe makes me rude to him in sdf-defoase. Oh yes, he is glad

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to be here. He does like us. He's so Rood an actor that he/
convinces his own self. ... I'd hate him in Boston.
He'd have all the obvious big-dty things. Limousines. Dis- ]
creet evening-dothes. Order a clever dinner at a smart res-
taurant. Drawing-room decorated by the best firm — but the
pictures giving him away. I'd rather talk to Guy Pollock in
his dusty office. . . . How I liel His arm coaxed my
shoulder and his eyes dared me not to admire him. I'd be
afraid of him. I hate him I . . . Oh, the inconceivable
egotistic imagination of wom^il All this stew of anal3rsis
about a man, a good, decent, friendly, efficient man, because he
was kind to me, as Will's wifel "

The Eennicotts, the Elders, the Clarks, and Bresnahan went
fishing at Red Squaw Lake. They drove forty miles to the lake
in Elder's new Cadillac. There was much laughter and bustle
at the start, much storing of lunch-baskets and jointed poles,
much inquiry as to whether it would reaUy boflier Carol to
sit with her feet up on a roll of shawls. When they were
ready to go Mrs. Clark lamented, "Oh, Sam, I forgot my
magazine," and Bresnahan bullied, ^Come on now, if you
women think you're going to be literary, you can't go with
us tou^ guys I " Every one laughed a great deal, and as
they, drove on Mrs. Clark explained that though probably she
would not have read it, still, she might have wanted to, while
the other girls had a nap in the afternoon, and she was right
in the middle of a serial — ^it was an awfully exciting story —
it seems that this girl was a Turkish dancer (only she was
r^lly the daughter of an American lady and a Russian prince)
and men kept nmning after her, just disgustingly, but she
remained pure, and there was a scene

While the men floated on the lake, casting for black bass,)
the women prepared lunch and yawned. Qirol was a little I
resentful of the manner in which the men assumed that they i
did not care to fish. " I don't want to go with them, but I
I would like the privilege of refusing." ^

The hmch was long and pleasant. It was a backgroimd
for the talk of the great man come home, hints of cities and
large imperative affairs and famous people, jocosely modest
admisdc»i3 that, yes, thdr friend Perce was doing about as

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well as most of these '^ Boston swdls that think so nnich of
themselves because they come from rich old families and wait
to college and everything. Believe me^ it's us new business men
that are running Beantown today, and not a lot of fussy old
bucks snoozing in their clubs I "

Carol realized that he was not one of the sons of Gopher
Prairie who, if they do not actually starve in the East, arc
invariably spoken of as " highly successful ''; and she found
behind his too incessant flattery a genuine affection for his
mates. It was in the matter of the war that he most favored
and thrilled them. Dropping his voice whfle they bent nearer
(there was no one within two miles to overhear), he disclosed
the fact that in both Boston and Washington he'd been getting
a lot of inside stuff on the war — right straight from head-
quarters — ^he was in touch with some men — couldn't name
them but they were dam high up in both the War and State
Departments — ^and he would say — only for Pete's sake they
mustn't breathe one word of this; it was strictly on the Q.T.
and not generally known outside of Washington — but just
between ourselves — and they could take this for goq>el — Spain
had finally decided to join the Entente allies in the Grand
Scrap. Yes, sir, there'd be two million fully equipped ^)anish
soldiers fighting with us in France in one month now. Some
surprise for Germany, all rig^tl

**How about the prospects for revolution in Germany?"
reverently asked Kennicott.

The authority grunted, " Nothing to it. The one thing you
can bet on is that no matter what happens to the German
people, win or lose, they'll stick by the Kaiser till hell freezes
over. I got that absolutely straight, from a fellow who's on
the inside of the inside in Washington. No, sir I I dont
pretend to know much about international affairs but one thing
you can put down as settled is that Germany will be a Hohen-
zoUem empire for the next forty years. At that, I don't know
as it's so bad. The Kaiser and the Junkers keep a firm hand
on a lot of these red agitators who'd be worse than a king if
they could get control."

"I'm terribly interested in this uprising that overthrew
the Czar in Russia," suggested Carol. She had finally been
c(mquered by the man's wizard knowledge of affairs.

Kennicott apologized for her: " Carrie's nuts about this
Russian revolution. Is there much to it, Perce? "

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1^ There is notl " Bresnahan said flatly. ^' I can speak by
ibe book there. Carol, honey, I'm surprised to find you talking
like a New York Russian Jew, or one of th^se long-hairs I I
can tell you, only you don't need to let every one in on it,
this is confidential, I got it from a man who's dose to the
State Department, but as a matter of fact the Czar will be back
in power before the end of the year. You read a lot about
his retiring and about his being killed, but I know he's got a
big army back of him, and hell- show these damn agitators,
la^ beggars hunting for a soft berth bossing the poor goats
that fall for 'em, he'll show *em where they get off! ^

Carol was sorry to hear that the Czar was coming back,
but she said nothing. The othars had looked vacant at the
mention of a country so far away as Russia. Now they edged
in and asked Bresnahan what he thought about the Packard
car, investments in Texas oil-wells, the comparative merits of
3^0ung mttk bom in Minnesota and in Ma^achusetts, the ques-
tion of prdiibition, the future cost of motor tires, and wasn't
it true that American aviators put it all over these French-
men?

Th^ were glad to find that he agreed with them on every
point.

As she heard Bresnahan announce, ^^ We're perfectly willing
to talk to any committee the men may choose, but we're not
going to stand for some outside agitator butting in and telling
us how we're going to run our planti " Carol remonbered
that Jackson Elder (now meekly receiving New Ideas) had
said ihe same thing in the same words.

While Sam Clark was digging up from his memory a long
and immensely detailed story of the crushing things he had
said to a Pullman porter, named George, Bresnahan hugged
his knees and rocked and watched Carol. She wondered if he
did not understand the laboriousness of the smile with which
she listened to Kennicott's account of «the '' good one he had
on Carrie," that marital, coyly improper, ten-times-told tale
of how she had forgotten to attend to Hugh because she was
" all het up pounding the box "—which may be translated as
" eagerly playing the piano." She was certain that Bresnahan
saw through her when she pretended not to hear Kennicott's
invitation to jom a game of cribbage. She feared the comments
he mij^t make; she was irritated by her fear.

Stte was equally irritated, when tlie motor returned through

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Gopher Prairie, to find that she was proud of sharing in
Bresnahan's kudos as people waved, and Juanita Haydock
leaned from a window. She said to herself, ''As though I
cared whether I'm seen with this fat phonograph 1 " and
simultaneously, '' Everybody has noticed how much Will and
I are playing with Mr. Bresnahan.'^

The town was full of his stories, his friendliness, his memory
for names, his clothes, his trout-flies, his generosity. He had
given a hundred dollars to Fadier Klubok the priest, and a
hundred to the Reverend Mr. Zitta-el the Baptist minister,
for Americanization work.
At the Bon Ton, Carol heard Nat Hicks the tailor exulting:

' ''Old Perce certainly pulled a good one on this felkm
Bjornstam that always is shooting off his mouth. He's

\ supposed to of settled down since he got married, but Lord^
those fellows that think they know it all, they never change.
Well, the Red Swede got the grand razz handed to him, all
right. He had the nerve to breeze up to Perce, at Dave Dyer's,
and he said, he said to Perce, 'I've always wanted to locdL
at a man that was so useful that folks would pay him a million
dollars for existing,' and Perce gave him the once-over and
come right back, * Have, eh? ' he says. ' Well,* he says, * I've
been looking for a man so useful sweeping floors that I couM
pay him four dollars a day. Want the job, my friend? ' Ha,
ha, ha! Say, you know 1m)w lippy Bjornstam is? Well for
once he didn't have a thing to say. He tried to get fresh,
and tell what a rotten town this is, and Pecce come ri^t
back at him, ' If you don't like this country, you better get
out of it and go back to Germany, where you bdongi ' Say,
maybe us fellows didn't give Bjornstam the horse-lau^ thouj^l
Oh, Perce b the white-haired boy in this burg, all rig^iteel "

Bresnahan had borrowed Jackson Elder's motor; he stopped
at the Kennicotts'; he bawled at Carol, rocking with Hu^
on the porch, " Better come for a ride."

She wanted to snub him. " Thanks so much, but I'm bdng
maternal."

" Bring him along! Bring him along! " Bresnahan was
out of the seat, stalking up the sidewall^ and the rest of her
protests and dignities wer6 feeble.

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She did not bring Hugh along.

Bresnahan was silent for a mile« in words« But !
at her as tbou£^ he meant her to know that he u
ever3rthing she thought.

She observed how deep was his chest.

" Lovely fields over there," he said.

" You really like them? There's no profit in thet

He chuckled. "Sister, you can't get away witli
onto you. You consider me a big blu^. Wdl, ma]
But so are you, my dear — and pretty enough so
try to make love to you, if I weren't afraid you'd sU

" Mr. Bresnahan, do you talk that way to yo
friends? And do you call them ^ sister ' ? "

"As a matter of fact, I dol And I make 'ei
Score two! " But his chuckle was not so rotund, as
very attentive to the anuneter.

In a moment he was cautiously attacking: " That's
ful boy, Will Kennicott. Great work these counti
tioners are doing. The other day, in Washingto
talking to a big scientific shark, a professor in Johns
medical school, and he was saying that no one
suffici^itly appreciated the general practitioner and
pathy and help he gives folks. These crack specL
young scientific fellows, they're so Cocksure and so
up in their laboratories that they miss the human
Except in the case of a few freak diseases that no n
himian being would waste his time having, it's the
that keeps a community well, mind and body. And s
that Will is one of the steadiest and dearest-heada
practitioners I've ever met. Eh? "

" I'm sure he is. He's a servant of reality."

"Come again? Um. Yes. All of that, what
is. . . . Say, child, you don't care a whole lot fi
Prairie, if I'm not mistdcen."

"Nope."

" There's where you're missing a big chance. The
ing to these cities. Believe me, I know/ This is a g
as they go. lYou're lucky to be here. I wish I c
onl"

" Very well, why don't you? "

" Huh? Why— Lord— can't get away fr "

" You don't have to stay. I dol So I want to (

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Do you know that men like you, prominent men, do quite a
reasonable amount of harm by insisting that your native towns
and native states are perfect? It's you who encourage the
denizens not to change. They quote you, and go on believing

that they live in paradise, and " She clenched her &t.

" The incredible dullness of it! "

" Suppose you were right. Even so, don't you think you
waste a lot of thundering on one poor scared little town?
Kind of mean! "

"I tell you it's dull. DuUt''

''The folks don't find it dull. These couples like the
Haydocks have a high old time; dances and cards "

"They don't. They're bored. Almost every one here is.
Vacuousness and bad manners and spiteful gossip — ^that's what
I hate." • . .^ X^^^

JLThese tilings— HCOUEse they're here. So are they in BostonT^
xAnd evoy place else! Why, the faults you find in this town

[ are simply human natur e^nH y^ew^^ wjU be chan^d/^ ,,..^ '

^ '* rcrhatS. "But lA h B^ton all the good Carols (l^admit
I have no faults) can find one another and play. But here —
I'm alone, in a stale pool — except as it's stirred by the great
Mr. BresnahanI "

" My Lord, to hear you tell it, a fellow 'd think that all
the denizens, as you impolitely call 'em, are so confoundedly
unhai^y that it's a wonder they don't all up and commit
suicide. But they seem to struggle along somehow! "

''They don't know what they miss. And anybody can
endure anything. Look at men in mines and in prisons."

He drew up on the south shore of Lake Minniemashie.
He glanced across the reeds reflected on the water, the quiv^
of wavelets like crumpled tinfoil, the distant shores patched
with dark woods, silv^y oats and deq> yellow wheat He

patted her hand. " Sis Carol, you're a darling girl, but

you're difficult. Know what I think? "

"Yes."

" Humph. Maybe you do, but My humble (not too

hiunble!) opinion is that vou like to be different. You like
to think you're peculi^. fWhy, if you knew how many tens
of thousands of women, especially in New York, say just what
you do, you'd lose all Uie fun of thinking you're a lone goiius
and you'd be on the band-wagon whooping it up for Gopher
Prairie and a good decent family life. (^There's always about

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a mfllion young women just out of coDege who want to teach
their grandmothers how to suck eggs."

" How proud you are of that homely rustic metaphor! You
use it at 'banquets' and directors' meetings, and boast of
your climb from a humble homestead."

^ Huh! You may have my number. I'm not telling. But
look here: You're so prejudiced against Gopher Prairie that
you overshoot the mark; you antagonize those who might be

indined to agree with you in some particulars but Great

guns, the town can't be all wrong! "

^' No, it isn't. But it could be. Let me tell you a fable.
Imagine a cavewoman complaining to her mate. She doesn't
like one single thing; she hates the damp cave, the rats
running over her bare legs, the stiff skin garments, the eating
of half-raw meat, her husband's bushy face, the constant
battles, and the worship of the spirits who will hoodoo her
unless she gives the priests her b^t claw necklace. Her man
protests, ' But it can't all be wrong! ' and he thinks he has
reduced her to absurdity. Now you assume that a world
which produces a Percy Bresnahan and a Velvet Motor Com-
pany must be civilized. It is? Aren't we only about half-way
abng in barbarism? I suggest Mrs. Bogart as a test. And
we'll continue in barbarism just as long as people as nearl
intelligent as you continue to defend things as they are be-
cause they are."

" You're a fair spieler, child. But, by golly, I'd like to see
you try to design a new manifold, or run a factory and keep
a lot of your fellow reds from Czech-slovenski-magyar-
godknowswheria on the job! You'd drop your theories so
dam quick! I'm not any defender of things as they are.
Sure. They're rotten. Only I'm sensible."

He preached his gospel: love of outdoors. Playing the Game, .
loyalty to friends. She had the neoph3rte's shock of discovery I
that, outside of tracts, conservatives do not tremble and find I
no answer when an iconoclast turns on them, but r^etort with \
agility and confusing statistics.

He was so much the man, the worker, the friend, that she
liked him when she most tried to stand out against him; he
was so much the successful executive that she did not want
hmi to despise her. His manner of sneering at what he called
" parlor socialists " (thougji the phrase was not overwhelmingly
new) had a power which made her wish to placate hb

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company of wdl-fed, speed-loving administrators. When he
demanded, '' Would you like to associate with nothing but a
lot of turkey-necked, horn-spectacled nuts that have ade-
noids and need a hair-cut, and that spend all their time kicking
about * conditions ' and never do a lick of work? "she said,

"No, but just the same " When he assated, "Even if

your cavewoman was rig^t in knocking the whole works, I
bet some red-blooded Regular Fellow, some real He-man,
foimd her a nice dry cave, and not any whining criticizing
radical," she wriggled her head feebly, between a nod and a
shake.

His large hands, sensual lips, easy voice supported his sdf-
confidence. He made her fed young and soft — as Kenni-
cott had once made her feel. She had nothing to say when he
bent his powerful head and experimented, "My dear, I'm
sorry I'm going away from this town. You'd be a darling
child to play with.' You are pretty! Some day in Boston
111 show you how we buy a lunch. Well, hang it, got to be
starting back."

The only answer to his gospd of beef which she could find,
when she was home, was a wail of " But just the same "

She did not see him again before he dq>arted for Washing-
ton.

His eyes remained. His glances at her lips and hair and
shoulders had revealed to her that she was not a wife-and-
mother alone, but a girl; that there still were men in the
world, as there had been in college days.

That admiration led her to study Kennicott, to tear at the
shroud of intimacy, to perceive the strangen^ of the most
familiar.

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CHAPTER XXIV

All that midsummer month Carol was sensitive to Kennicott,
She recalled a hundred grotesqueries: her comic dismay at
his having chewed tobacco, the evening when she had tried
to read poetry to him; matters which had seemed to vanish
with no trace or sequence. Always she repeated that he had
been heroically patirat in his desire to join the army. She
made much of ha: consoling affection for him in little things.
She liked the homeliness of his tinkering about the house; his
strength and handiness as he tightened the hinges of a shutter;
his bojrishness when he ran to her to be comforted because he
had found rust in the barrel of his pump-gun. But at the\
highest he was to her another Hug^, without the glamor of ^
Hu^'s unknown future.

There was, late in June, a day of heat-lightning.

Because of the work imposed by the absence of the other
doctors the Kennicotts had not naoved to the lake cottage
but remained in town, dusty and irritable. In the afternoon,
nAen she w^t to Oleson & McGuire's (formerly Dahl &
Oleson's), Carol was vexed by the assumption of the youthful
derk, recently come from the farm, that he had to be neigh-
borly and rude. He was no more brusquely familiar than
a dozen other clerks of the town, but her nerves were heat-
scorched.

When she asked for codfish, for supper, he grunted, " What
d'you want that darned old dry stuff for? "

"I like it!"

'^ PunkI Guess the doc can afford something better than
that. Try some of the new wienies we got in. Swell. The
Haydocks use 'em."

She exploded. " My dear young man, it is not your duty to
instruct me in housekeeping, and it doesn't particularly con-
cern me what the Haydocks condescend to approve 1 "

He was hurt. He hastily wrapped up the leprous fragment
of fish; he gaped as she trailed out. She lamented, "I

387

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shouldn't have spoken so. He didn't mean anything. He
doesn't know when he is being rude."

Her repentance was not proof against Uncle Whittier when
she stopped in at his grocery for salt and a package of
safety matches. Uncle Wibittier, in a shirt coUarless and soaked
with sweat in a brown streak down his back, was whining
at a clerk, " Come on now, get a hustle on and li|g that pound
cake up to Mis' Cass's. Some folks in this town think a
storekeeper ain't got nothing to do but chase out 'phone-
orders. • . . Hello, Carrie. That dress you got on looks
kind of low in the neck to me. May be decent and modest —
I suppose I'm old-fashioned — but I never thought much of
showing the whole town a woman's bustl Hee, hee, heel
. . • . Afternoon, Mrs. Hicks. Sage? Just out of it.
Lemme sell you some other spices. Heh? " Uncle Whittier was
nasally indignant ** Certainly f Got plenty otha: spices jus'
good as sage for any purp'se whatever 1 What's the matter
with — well, with allspice? " When Mrs. Hicks had gone, he
raged, " Some folks don't know what they want! "

'' Sweating sanctimonious bully — my husband's undel ^
thought Carol. ~^^ ^

She crept into Dave^ Dyer's. DaveJiald-t^N^ anas with,
" Don't shoot! , I Surrender! " She smiled, but ifcspccurred to
her that for nearly five years Dave had kept up tn^ game of
pretoiding that she threatened his life.

As she went dragging through the prickly-hot ^eet she
rejected that a citizen of Gopher Prairie does not have jests —
\^e has a jest. Every cold morning for five winters Lyman Cass
'^had remarked, " Fair to middlin' diilly — get worse before it
gets better." Fifty times had Ezra Stowbody informed the
public that Carol had once asked, V Shall I indorse this check
on the back?" Fifty times had Sam Clark duled to her,
'' Where'd you steal that hat?" Fifty times ha^ the mention
of Barney Cahoon, the town drayman, like a^uckd in a slot
produced from Kennicott the apocryphal s^<^ of Bamor's
directing a minister, ^' Come down to thej}qx)t and get your
case of religious books — they're leaking

She came home by the unvar3r|Ag^ute. She knew every
house-front, every street-crossitig, every billboard, every tree,
|VCTy dog. She kjiew every blackened banana-skin and empty
cigar e tt C ' b orm the gutters. She knew every greeting. When
Jim Howland stopped and g24>ed at her there was no possibiBtsr

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that he was about to confide anything but his grudging, '* WeU,
haryuh t'day? "

An her future life, this same red-labded bread-crate in
front of the bakery, this same thimble-shaped crack in the
sidewalk a quarter of a block b^ond Stowbody's granite hitcb-
ing-post

She silently handed her purchases to the silent Oscarina.
She sat on the porch, rocking, fanning, twitchy with Hugh's .
whining.

Kennicott came home, grumbled, ** What the devil is the kid
ya{^ing about? "

'^ I guess you can stand it ten minutes if I can stand it all
day!"

He came to supper in his shirt sleeves, his vest partly open,
revealing discolored suspenders.

** Why don't you put on your nice Palm Beach suit, and take
off that hideous vest? " she complamed.

" Too much trouble. Too hot to go iqv-stairs."

She realized that for perhaps a year ^e had not definitely
kxdLed at her husband. She regarded his tabl^manners. He
violently chased fragments of fi^ about his plate with a knife
aiMi licked the knife after gobbling them. She was slightly
fflck. She asserted, '' I'm ridiculous. What do these things
matter! Don't be so simple! " But she knew that to her they
did matter, these solecisms and mixed tenses of the table.

She realized that they foimd little to say; that, incredibly,
they were like the talked-out coiq>les whom she had pitied at^
restaurants. . ^

Bresnahan would have spouted in a lively, exciting, unre-
liable manner. . . .

She realized that Kennicott's clothes were seldom pressed.
His coat was wrinkled; his trousers would flap at the knees
idien he arose. His shoes were unblacked, and they were of
an elderly shapelessness. He refused to wear soft hats;
cleaved to a hard derby, as a symbol of virility and pros-
perity; and sometimes he forgot to take it off in the house.
She peeped at his cuffs. They were frayed in prickles of
starched linen. She had turned them once; she clipped them
every week; but when she had begged him to throw the
shirt away, last Sunday morning at the crisis of the weekly
bath, he had uneasily protested, " Oh, it'll wear quite a while
yet/'

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He was shaved (by himself or iik»^ socially by Dd SoafiSin)
only three times a week. This morning liad not been one of
the three times.

Yet he was vain of his new turn-down collars and sleek ties;
he often spoke of the ** sloppy dressing ^ of Dr. McGanum;
and he laughed at old men wbo wore detachable cuffs or dad-
stone collars.

Carol did not care much for the creamed codfish that eve-
ning.

She noted that his nails w^re jagged and ill-shaped from
his habit of cutting them with a pocket-knife and demising
a nail-file as effeminate and urban. That they ware invariably
clean, that his wa-e the scoured fingers of the surgeon, made
; his stubborn untidiness the mc»^ jarring. They ware wise
hands, kind hands, but they were not the hands of love.

She remembered him in the days of courtship. He had tried
to please her, then; had touchal her by sheq>ishly wearing
a colored band on his straw hat. Was it possible that those
days of fumbling for each other were gone so completely?
He had read books, to impress her; had said (she readied it
ironically) that she was to point out his every fault; had
insisted once, as they sat in the secret place beneath the walls
of Fort Snelling

She shut the door on her thoughts. That was sacred ground.
But it was a shame that

She nervously pushed away her cake and stewed apricots.

After supper, when they had been driven in from the porch
by mosquitos, when Kennicott had for the two-hundredth
time in five years commented, " We must have a new screen
on the porch — ^lets all the bugs in," they sat reading, and she
noted, and detested herself for noting, and noted again his
habitual awkwardness. He slimiped down in one chair, his
legs up on another, and he explored the recesses of his left
ear with the end of his little finger — she could hear the
faint smack — he kept it up — ^he kept it up—

He blurted, '' Oh. Forgot tdl you. Some of the fellows com-
ing in to play poker this evening. Siq)poBe we could have some
crackers and cheese and beer? *'

She nodded.

''He might have mentioned it before. Oh well, it's his
house.''

The poker-party straggled in: Sam OaA, Jack Ekki^

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Dave Dyer, Jim Rowland. To her they mechanically said,
« TDevwiinV' but to Kennicott, in a heroic male manner,
** Well, well, shall we start playing? Got a himch I'm going
to lick somebody real bad/' No one suggested that she join
them. She told herself that it was her own fault, because
she was not more friendly; but she ranembered that th^
never asked Mrs. Sam Clark to play.

Bresnahan would have asked ha*.

She sat in the living-room, glancing across the hall at the
men as they humped over the dining table.

They were in shirt sleeves; smoldng, chewing, spitting in-
cessantly; lowering their voices for a moment so that she
did not hear what they said and afterward giggling hoarsely;
using over and over the canonical phrases: " Three to dole,"
" I raise you a finif," " Qnne on now, ante up; what do you
think this is, a pink tea? " The cigar-smoke was acrid and
pervasive. The firmness with which the men mouthed their
cigars made the lower part of their faces eiq>ressionless, heavy,
unappealing. They were .like politicians cynically dividing
appointments.

How could they understand her world?

Did that faint and delicate world exist? Was she a fool?
She doubted her world, doubted harsdf, and was sick in the
add, smoke-stained air.

She slipped back into brooding upon the habituality of the
house.

Kennicott was as fixed in routine as an isolated old man.
At first he had amorously deceived himself into liking her
e^^riments with food — the one medium in which she could
eiq>ress imagination— but now he wanted only his round of
favorite dishes: steak, roast beef, boiled pig's-feet, oatmeal,
baked apples. Because at some more flexible period he had
advanced from oranges to grape-fruit he considered himself an
epicure.

During their first autumn she had smiled over his affection '^
for Im hunting-coat, but now that the leatha: had come un-
stitched in dribbles of pale ydlow thread, and tatters of can- ^
vas, smeared with dirt of the fields and grease from gun-
deaning, hung in a borda: of rags, she hated the thing. ^

Wasn't her whole life like that hunting-coat?

She knew every nick and brown spot on each piece of the -
set of china purchased by Kennicott's mother in 1895 — discreet ^

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china with a pattern of washed-out forget-me-nots, rimmed
. with blurred gold: the gravy-boat^ in a saucer whidi did not
match, the solemn and evangelical covered vegetable-disl^
I the two platters.

Twenty times had Kennicott sighed ovar the fact that Bea
had broken the other platter — ^the medium-sized one.

The kitchen.

Damp black iron sink, damp whitey-yeUow drain-board with
shreds of discolored wood which from long scrubbing ware
as soft as cotton thread, warped table, alarm clock, stove
bravely blackened by Oscarina but an abomination in its
loose doors and brok^ drafts and oven that never would heep
an even heat.

Carol had done her best by the kitchen: painted it white,
put up curtains, rq>laced a six-year-old calendar by a color
print She had hoped for tiling, and a kerosene range for
summer cooking, but Kennicott always postp<med these ex-
penses.

She was better acquainted with the utensils in the kitchen
than with Vida Sherwin or Guy Pollock. The can-opener,
whose soft gray metal handle was twisted from some ancient
effort to pry open a window, was more pertinent to her than
all the cathedrals in Eiu-ope; and more significant than the
future of Asia was the never-settled weekly question as to
whether the small kitchen knife with the unpainted handle or
the second-best buckhom carving-knife was better for cutting
up cold chicken for Simday siq)per.

She was ignored by the males tUl midnight. Her husband
called, " Suppose we could have some eats, Carrie?" As she
passed through the dining-room the men smiled on her, belly-
smiles. None of them noticed her whOe she was serving the
crackers and cheese and sardines and bea*. They were de-
termining the exact psychology of Dave Dyer in standing
pat, two hours before.

When they were gone she said to Kennicott, " Your friei^
have the manners of a barroom. They expect me to wadt aa
them like a servant. They're not so much interested in me as
thQT would be in a waiter, because they don't have to tip me.
Unfortunatdyl WeH, good ni^t.''

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So rarely did she nag in this petty, hot-weather fashion
that he was astonished rather thaa angry. ^'Hey! Waitl

What's the idea? I must say I don't get you. The boys

Barroom? Why, Perce Bresnahan was saying there isn't a
finer bunch of royal good fellows anywhare than just the
crowd that were here tonight! "

They stood in the Iowa: hall. He was too shocked to go on
with his duties of locking the front door and winding his
watch and the dock.

" Bresnahanl I'm sick of him! '' She meant nothing in
particular.

" Why, Carrie, he's one of the biggest men in the countryl
Boston just eats out of his handl "

" I wonder if it does? How do we know but that in Boston,
among well-bred p^ple, he may be regarded as an absolute
lout? The way he calls women * Sistor,' and the way '^

" Now look herel That'll do! Of course I know you don't 1
mean it — ^you're simply hot and tired, and trying to workj
off your peeve on me« But just the same, I won't stand your i

junq>ing on Perce. You It's just like yoiw attitude

toward the war — so dam afraid that America will become mili- {
taristic "

" But you are the pure patriot! *'

" By God, I am! "

^' Yes, I heard you talking to Sam Clark tonight about ways
of avoiding the income taxi "

He had recovered enough to lock the door; he clunq)ed
up-stairs ahead of her, growling,r You don't know what you're
talking about. I'm perfectly willing to pay my full tax — fact,
I'm in favor of the income tax— even though I do think it's
a penalty on frugality and enterprise — fact, it's an unjust,
darn-fool tax. But just the same, 111 pay it. Only, I'm not
idiot enough to pay more than the government makes me pay,
and Sam and I were just figuring out whether all automobile
expenses oughn't to be exemptions. I'll take a lot off you,
Carrie, but I don't propose for one second to stand your say-
ing I'm not patriotic. You know mighty well and good that
I've tried t o get aw ay and"j6ih the army. And at the beginning
of the wtole IracasT safd— Fve said right along — that we
ought to have entered the war the minute Germany invaded
Bdinum. You don't get me at all. You can't appreci-
ate a man's work. You're abnormal. You've fussed so much

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with these fool novds and books and all this highbrow
junk You like to argue 1 "I

It ended, a quarter of an hour lata:, in his calling her a
" neurotic " before he turned a¥ray and pretended to sleq>.

For the first time they had fafled to make peace.

" There are two races of people, only two, and they live side
by side. His calls mine ' neurotic '; mine calls his ^ stupid.'
Well nev^ understand each other, never; and it's madness
for us to debate — ^to lie together in a hot bed in a crespy
room — enemies, yoked."

It clarified in her the longing for a place of her own.

" While it's so hot, I think 111 ^eq> in the spare room," she
said next day.

" Not a bad idea." He was che^ul and kindly.

The room was filled with a lumbering double bed and a
cheap pine bureau. She stored the bed in the attic; rq>Iaced
it by a cot which, with a denim cover, made a coiK:h by
day; put in a dressing-table, a rocker transformed by a cre>
tonne cover; had Miles Bjomstam build book-shelves.

Kennicott slowly understood that she meant to keep xsp
her seclusion. In his queries, ^' Changing the whole room? "
" Putting your books in there? " she cau^t his dismay. But
it was so easy, once her door was closed, to shut out his wwry.
That hurt her — the ease of forgetting him.

Aunt Bessie Smail sleifthed out this anarchy. She yam-
mered, "Why, Carrie, you ain't going to sleq) all alone by
yourself? I don't believe in that. Married folks should have
the same room, of course I Don't go getting silly notions. No
Idling what a thing like that might lead to. Suppose I up
and told your Uncle Whit that I wanted a room of my own! "

Carol ^>oke of recipes for corn-pudding.

But from Mrs. Dr. Westlake she drew encouragemoit She
had made an afternoon call on Mrs. Westlake. She was for
the. first time invited iq)-stairs, and found the suave oM
woman sewing in a white and mahogany room with a smaD
bed.

"Oh, do you have your own ro3ral apartments, and thv
doctor his? " Carol hinted.

" Indeed I do! The doctor says it's bad enou^ to have to

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stand my temper at meals. Do " Mrs. Westlake looked

at her sharply. " Why, don't you do the same thing? "

''IVe beoi thinking about it" Carol laughed in an em-
barrassed way. " Then you wouldn't regard me as a complete
hussy if I wanted to be h^ myself now and th^? ''

'' Why, child, every woman ought to get off by hersdf and
turn over her thoughts — about diildren, and God, and how
bad her conq[>lexion is, and the way men don't really under-
stand her, and how much work she finds to do in the house,
and how much patience it takes to endure some things in a
man's love."

^' Yes I " Carol said it in a gasp, her hands twisted to-
gether, ^e wanted to confess not only ha: hatred for the
Aunt Bessies but her covert irritation toward those she best
loved: her alienation from Kennicott, her disappointment in
Guy Pollock, her uneasiness in the presence of Vida. She had
enough self-control to confine ho^df to, '^ Yes. Men I The
dear blundering souls, we do have to get off and laug^ at
them."

^ Of course we do. Not that you have to lau^ at Dr.
Kennicott so much, but my man, heavens, now there's a
rare old birdl Reading story-books when he ou^t to be tabl-
ing to business! ' Marcus Westlake,' I say to him, ' you're a
roniantic old fool.' And does he get angry? He does not I
He chuckles and says, ^Yes, my beloved, folks do say that
married people grow to resemble each other! ' Drat him! "
Mrs. Westlake laughed comfortably.

After such a dteclosure what could Carol do but return
the courtesy by remarking that as for Kennicott, he wasn't
romantic enou^ — ^the darling. Before she left she had babbled
to Mrs. Westkke her dislike for Aunt Bessie, the fact that
Klennicott's income was now more than five thousand a year,
her view of the reason why Vida had married Raymie (which
ii^uded some thoroughly insincere praise of Raymie's '' kind
heart "), her opinion of the library-board, just what Kenni-
cott had said about Mrs. Carthal's diabetes, and what Kenni-
cott thought of the several surgeons in the Cities.

She went home soothed by confession, inq;>irited by finding
a new friend.

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The tragicomedy of the " domestic situation."

Oscarina went back home to help on the farm, and Carol had
a succession of maids, with gaps between. The lack of servants
was becoming one of the most cramping problems of the prairie
town. (Increasingly the farmers' daughters rebelled against
village dullness, and against the uncl^ged attitude of the
Juanitas toward " hired girls." They went ofF to city kitchens,
or to city shops and factories, that they might be free and
even human after hours4

The Jolly Seventeen ware delighted at Carol's desertion by
the loyal Oscarina. They reminded her that she had said, " I
don't have any trouble with maids; see how Oscarina stays on."

Between incumbencies of Finn maids from the North Woods,
Germans from the prairies, occasional Swedes and Norwegians
and Icelanders, Carol did her own work — and endured Aunt
Bessie's skittering in to tell her how to dampen a broom for
fluffy dust, how to sugar doughnuts, how to stuff a goose.
Carol was deft, and won shy praise from Kennicott, but as her
shoulder blades began to sting, she wondered how many
millions of women had lied to themselves during tiie death-
rimmed years through which they had pretended to enjoy ibe
puerile methods persisting in housework.

She doubted the convenience and, as a natural sequent, the
sanctity of the monogamous and separate home which she had
regarded as the basb of all decent life.

She considered her doubts vicious. She refused to remember
how many of the women of the Jolly Seventeen nagged their
husbands and were nagged by them.

She energetically did not whine to Kennicott But her ey«
ached; she was not the girl in breeches and a flannel shirt who
had cooked over a camp-fire in the Colorado mountains five
years ago. (Her ambition vras to get to bed at nine; her
strongest emotion was resentment over rising at half-past six
to care for Hu^. The back of her neck ached as she got out
of bed. She was cynical about the joys of a simple l^orioi^
life. She understood why workmen and workmen's wives are
not grateful to their kind employers. |

At mid-morning, when she was momentarily free from the
ache in her neck and back, she was glad of the reality of
work. The hours were living and nimble. But she had no

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desire to read the eloquent little nempaper essays in praise of
labor which are daily written by the white-browed journal-
istic prophets. She felt indq)ai(tent and (thou^ she hid it)
a bit surly.

In cleaning the house she pondered upon the maid's-room.
It was a slant-roofedy small-windowed hole above the kitchen,
oppressive in summa:, frigid in winter. She saw that while
Ae had been considering bersdf an unusually good mistress,
she had been permitting her friends Bea and Oscarina to live
in a sty. She conq>lained to Kennicott. '^ What's the matter
with it? " he growled, as they stood on the perilous stairs
dodgii^ up from the kitchen. She commented upon the slop-
ing roof <rf u]q>lastered boards stained in brown rings by the
rain, the uneven floOT, the cot and its timibled discouraged-
looking quilts, the broken rocker, the distorting mirror.

'* Maybe it ain't any Hotel Radisson parbr, but still, it's
80 much better than anything these hired girk are accustomed
to at home that th^ think it's fine. Seems foolish to spend
money when they wouldn't appreciate it"

But that nig^t he drawled, wiUi the casualness of a man who
wishes to be surprising and delightful, '^ Carrie, don't know
but what we mi^t begin to think about building a new
house, one of these days. How'd you like that? "

"W-why "

^ I'm getting to the point now where I feel we can afford]
one— and a corkerl VU show this burg something like a real!
housel Well put one over on Sam and Harryl Make folks!
sit up an' take notice! "

** Yes," she said.

He did not go on.

Daily he returned to the subject of the new house, but as
to time and modfe he was indefinite. At first she believed.
She babbled of a low stone house with lattice windows and
tiilq>-beds, of colonial brick, of a white frame cottage with
green shutters and dormer windows. To her enthusiasms he
answered, '^ Well, ye-es, might be worth thinking about. Re-
m^nber wheace I put my pipe? " When she pressed him he
fidgeted, " I dcm't know; seems to me those kmd of houses you
speak of have been overdone."

It proved that in^t he wanted was a house exactly Ukel
&un Clark's, which was exactly like every third new house inl
every town in the country: a square, yellow stolidity with im-f

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\ maculate clapboards, a broad screened porch, tidy grass-plots,
and concrete walks; a house resembling the mind of a mer-
chant who votes the party ticket strai^t and goes to churdi
once a month and owns a good car.

He admitted, ^'Well, yes, maybe it isn't so dam artfetic

but Matter of fact, though, I dont want a place just like

Sam's. Maybe I would cut off that fool tower he's gtft, and
I think probably it would look better painted a nice cream
color. That yellow on Sam's house is too kind of flas^.
Then there's another kind of house that's mi^ty nice and
substantial-looking, with shingles, in a nice brown stain, in-
stead of clapboards — seen some in Minneapolis. You're way
off your base when you say I only like one kind of house! "

Uncle Whittier and Aunt Bessie came in one evening when
Carol was sle^ily advocating a rose-garden cottage.

'^ You've had a lot of experience with hous^eeping, aunty,
and don't you think," Kennicott aiq>ealed, " that it would be
sensible to have a nice sqtiare house, and pay more att^tion
to getting a crackajack furnace than to aJl this ardiitectcffe
and doodads? "

Aunt Bessie worked her ]ips as though they were an dastic
band. ^' Why of course! I know how it is with young fc&s
like you, Carrie; you want towers and bay-windows and pianos
and heaven knows what all, but the thing to get is closets and
V a good furnace and a handy place to hang out the washing, and
>the rest don't mattm:."

^^ Uncle Whittier dribbled a little, put his face near to Carol's,

I ahd sputtered, " Course it don't! What d'you care wbsit fcSks

tmnk about the outside of your house? It's the inside you're

I living in. None of my business, but I must say jrou 3roung

folks that'd rather have cakes than potatoes get me riled."

She reached her room before she became savage. Bdow,
dreadfully near, she could hear the broom-swish of Aunt
Bessie's voice, and the mop-pounding of Uncle Whittier's
grumble. She had a reasonless dread that they would in«
trude on her, tUen a fear that she would srield to Gopher
Prairie's conception of duty toward an Aunt Bessie and go
down-stairs to be " nice." She felt the demand for standard*
ized behavior coming in waves from all the citizens who sat
in their sitting-rooms watching her with respectable eyes,
waiting, demanding, unyielding. She snarled, *^ Oh, aD ri^t,
111 go! " She powdered her nose, straightened h^ collar.

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and coldly marched down-stairs. The three elders ignored
her. ThQT had advanced from the new house to agreeable
general fussing. Aunt Bessie was saying, in a tone like the
munching of dry toast:

^' I do think Mr. Stowbody oug^t to have had the rain-pipe
fixed at our store right away. I went to see him on Tuesday
morning before texiy no, it was cotq)le minutes after ten, but
airway, it was long before noon — ^I know because I went rig^t
from the bank to tihe meat market to get some steak — myl I
think it's outrageous, the prices Oleson & McGuire charge for
their meat, and it isn't as if they gave you a good cut either,
but just any old thing, and I had time to get it, and I
stopped in at Mrs. Bogart's to ask about her rheumatism "

Carol was watching Uncle Whittier. She knew from his
taut ei^ression that he was not listening to Aunt Bessie but
herding his own thoughts, and that he would interrupt her
bluntly. He did:

'^ Will, where c'n I get an extra pair of pants for this coat
and vest? D' want to pay too much."

*^ Well, guess Nat Hicks could make you up a pair. But
if I were you, I'd drop into Ike Rifkin's---his prices are lower
than the Bon Ton's."

" Humph. Got the new stove in your office' yet? "

" No, been looking at some at Sam Clark's but "

" Well, y' ought get 't in. Don't do to put off getting a
stove aU summer, and th^ have it come cold on you in the
fan."

Carol smiled Jipon them ingratiatingly. "Do you dears
mind if I slip vp to bed? I'm rather tired— cleaned the \sp-*^
stairs today."

She retreated. She was certain that they were discussing
har, and foully forgiving her. She lay awake till she heard the
distant creak of a bed which indicated that Kennicott had
retired. Then she felt safe.

It was Kennicott who brought up the mattar of the Smails
at breakfast. With no visible connectiga'he said, '^ Uncle
Whit is kind of dumsy, but just the same, he's a pretty wise
old coot. He's co-tain^ making good with the store."

Carol smiled, and Kennicott was pleased that she had come
to her senses. " As Whit sajrs, after all the first thing is to
have the inside of a house right, and dam the people on the
outside looking inl "

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It seemed settled that the house was to be a sound example
of the Sam Clark school.

Kemiicott made much of erecting it entirely for her and the
baby. He spoke of closets for her frocks, and " a comfy sew-
ing-room." But when he drew on a leaf from an old account-
book (he was a paper-saver and a string-picker) the plans for
the garage, he gave much more attention to a cement floor
and a work-bendi and a gasoUne-tank than he had to sewing-
rooms.

She sat back and was afraid.

In the present rookery there were odd things — a step up
from the ball to the dining-room, a picturesqueness in the shed
and bedraggled lilac bush. But the new place would be smoodi,
standardized, fixed. It was probable, now that Kennicott was
past forty, and settled, that this would be the last venture
he would ever make in building^ So long as she stayed in this
ark, she wo uld al^ ys hayeapo^ biri^ ot chaligfe Jiut once
sh e' was in the new ho i gey^er^ aiife wouid sit for all th e rest
of'herBfe — therejhc^^uld^die. Desperately she wanted to
put it ofiF, against tEe^cEance of miracles. While Kennicott
was chattering about a patent swing-door for the garage shi*
saw the swing-doors of a prison.

She never voluntarily returned to the project. Aggrieved,
Kennicott stopped drawing plans, and in ten days the new
house was forgotten.

Every year since their marriage Carol had longed for a tr^
through Uie East. Every year Kennicott had talked of at-
tending the American Medical Association conventicm, "and
then afterwards we could do the East up brown. I know New
York dean through — spent pretty near a week there — but I
would like to see New England and all these historic places
and have some sea-food." He talked of it from February to
May, and in May he invariably decided that coming confine-
ment-cases or land-deals would prevent his " getting away from
home-base for very long this year— and no sense going tiD we
can do it ri^t."

The weariness of dish-washing had increased her desire ta
go. She pictured herself looking at En^son's manse, bathing
in a surf of jade and ivory, wearing a troUoir and « summer

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for, meeting an aristocratic Stranger. In the spring Kennicott
had pathetically volunteered, '' S'pose you'd like to get in a
good long tour this summer, but with Gould and Mac away
and so many patients depending on me, don't see how I can
make it. By golly, I feel like a ti^twad thou^, not taking
you." Throu^ all this restless July after she had tasted Bres-
nahan's disturbing flavor of travel a^ gaiety, she wanted to go,
but she said nothing. They spoke of and postponed a trip
to the Twin Cities. When ibe suggested, as though it were a
tremendous joke, " I think baby and I mig^t up and leave you,
and run off to Cape Cod by ourselves! " his only reaction was
''Golly, dcm't know but what you may almost have to do
that, if we don't get in a trip next year."

Toward the end of July he proposed, " Say, the Beavers are
holding a convention in Joralemon, street fair and everything.
We might go down tomorrow. And I'd like to see Dr. Cali-
bree about some business. Put in the whole day. Mi^t help
some to make up for our trip. Fine fellow, Dr. Calibree."

Joralemon was a prairie town of the size of Gopher Prairie.

Their motor was out of order, and there was no passenger-
train at an early hour. They went down by freight-train,
after the wei^ty and conversational business of leaving Hugh
with Aunt Bessie. Carol was exultant over this irregular jaunt-
ing. It was the first unusual thing, except the glance of
Bresnahan, that had happoied since the weaning of Hu^.
They rode in the cabocee, the small red cupola-topped car
jerked along at the end of the train. It was a roving shanty,
the cabin of a land schooner, with black oilcloth seats along
the side, and for desk, a pine board to be let down on hinges.
Kennicott played seven-up with the conductor and two brake-
meai. Carol iked the blue sQk kerchiefs about the brakemen's
throats; she liked their welcome to her, and their air of
friendly independence. Since thare ware no sweating passengers
crammed in b^ide her, ^e reveled in the train's slowness. She
was part of these lakes and tawny wheat-fields. She liked the
smell of hot earth and dean grease; and the leisurely chug-a-
chug, chug-a-chug of the trucks was a song of contentment in
the sun.

She pretended that she was going to the Rockies. When
tfiey reached Joralemon she was radiant with holiday-making.

Her eagoness began to lessen the moment they stq)ped at
i red frame staticm exactly like the one they had just left

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at Gopher Prairie, and Kennicott yawned, ^'Rig^t on time.
Just in time for dinnenat the Calibrees'. I 'phoned the doctor
from G. P. that we'd be here. ' Well catch the frdght that
gets in before twelve,' I told hinu He said he'd meet us at the
depot and take us right up to the house for dinner. Calibree
is a good man, and you'll find his wife is a mighty twainy
little woman, bright as a dollar. By golly, there he is."

Dr. Calibree was a squat, clean-shaven, conscientious-looking
man of forty. He was curiously like his own brown-fainted
motor car, with eye-glasses for windshield. "Want you to
meet my wife, doctor — Carrie, make you 'quainted with Dr.
Calibree," said Kennicott. Calibree bowed quietly and shook
her hand, but before he had finished shaking it he was con-
centrating upon Kennicott with, "Nice to see you, doctor.
Say, don't let me forget to ask you about what you did in that
exopthalmic goittf case — ^that Bohemian woman at Wahkeen-
yan."

The two men, on the front seat of the car, chanted goiters
and ignored her. She did not know it. She was trying to feed
her illusion of adventure by staring at unfamiliar houses. . . .
drab cottages, artificial stone buns^O¥FS, square painty stolidi-
ties with immaculate clapboards and broad screened pcmJies
and tidy grass-plots.

Calibree handed her over to his wife, a thick woman who
called her "dearie," and asked if she was hot and^ visibly
searching for conversation, produced, " Let's see, you and the
doctor have a Little One, haven't you? " At dinner Mrs. Cali-
bree served the corned beef and cabbage and looked steanqr,
looked like the steamy leaves of cabbage. I The men were
oblivious of their wives as they gave the social passwords of
Main Street, the orthodox opinions on weather, crops, and
motor cars, then flimg away restraint and g3rrated in the de-
bauch of shc^talk. Stroking his chin, drawling in the ecsta^
of being erudite, Kennicott inquired, " Say, doctor, what suc-
cess have you had with thyroid for treatnmit of pains in the
legs before chfld-birth? " I

Carol did not resent their assumption that she was too igno-
rant to be admitted to mascidine m3^teries. She was used to
it. But the cabbage and Mrs. Calibree's monotonous " I d(mt
know what we're coming to with all this difficulty getting hired
girls " were gumming her eyes with drowsiness. She soi#it
to clear them by ai^pealing to Calibree, in a manna: of ezag-

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gerated HvdinesSy ^' Doctor, have the medical societies in Min-
nesota ever advocated legislation for help to nursing mothers? "

Calibree slowly revolved toward her. " Uh— I've never —
vh— never looked into it. I don't believe much in getting
mixed up in politics." He turned squarely from her and, peer-
ing earnestly at Kennicott, resumed, " Doctor, what's been your
e99>erience with unilateral pyelonq;duitis? Buckbum of Bald-
more advocates decapsulation and nephrotoniy, but seems to
me "

Not till after two did they rise. In the lee of the stonily
mature trio Carol proceeded to the street fair winch added
mundane gaiety to ^e annual rites of the United and Fraternal
Order of Beavers, peavers, human Beavers, were every^Aere:
thirty-second degree Beavers in gray sack suits and decent
derbies, more flippant Beavers in crash summer coats and straw
hats, rustic Beavers in shirt sleeves and frayed suspenders;
but whatever his caste^ymbols, every Beaver was distinguished
by an emnrmous shrimp-colored ribbon lettered in silver, " Sir
Knight and Brotha*, U. F. O. B., Annual State Convention."
On the motherly shirtwaist of each of their wives was a badge,
*^ Sir Knight's Lady.'i The Duluth delegation had brought their
famous Beaver amateur band, in Zouave costumes of green
vdvet jacket, blue trousers, and scarlet fez. The strange
thing was that beneath their scarlet pride the Zouaves' faces
remained those of American* business-men, pink, smooth, eye-
j^assed; and as they stood playing in a circle, at the comer
of Main Street and Second, as they tootled on fifes or with
svrdling dieeks blew into comets, their eyes remained as
owlish as thou^ they were sitting at desks under the sign
" This Is My Bu^ Day."

Carol had sui^>osed that the Beavars were average citizens
organized for the purposes of getting cheap life-insurance and
|da3ing pcdia- at the lodge-rooms every second Wednesday, but
^e saw a large poster which proclaimed:

BEAVERS

U. F. O. B. \

The greatest influence for good citizenship in the
country. The j oiliest aggregation of red-blooded,
open-handed, hustlc-cm-up good fellows in the worid. ;
Joralemon welcomes you to her hospitable dty. j

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Eemiicott read the poster and to Calibree admired, ** Strong
lodge, the Beavers. Never joined. Don't know but what I
wiU."

Calibree adumbrated, '^ They Ve a good bunch. Good strong
lodge. See that fellow there that's playing the snare drwn?
He's the smartest wholesale grocer in Duluth, th^r say. Guess
it would be worth joining. Ot say, are you doing much in-
surance examining? "

They went on to the street fair.

Lining one block of Main Street were the " attractioiis " —
two hot-dog stands, a lemonade and pq>-com stand, a merry-
go-round, and booths in which balls might be thrown at rag
dolls, if one wished to throw balls at rag dolls. The dignified
ddegates were shy of the booths, but coimtry boys with brick-
red necks and pale-blue ties and bright-ydlow shoes, who had
^brought sweethearts into town in somewhat dusty and listed
Fords, were wolfing sandwiches, drinking strawberry pap out of
bottles, and riding the revolving crimson and gold horses. They
shrieked and giggled; peanut-roasters ¥^[iistled; the marry-go-
round pounded out monotonous music; the barkos bawled,
" Here's your chance— here's your chance — come on here, boy-
come on here — give that girl a good time — give her a swdl
time — ^here's your chance to win a genuwine gold watdi for
five cents, half a dime, the twentieth part of a doUahl " The
prairie sun jabbed the unshaded street with shafts that were
like poisonous thorns; the tinny cornices above the brick stores
were glaring; the dull breeze scattered dust on sweaty Beavers
who crawl^ along in tight scorching new shoes, up two blocks
and back, up two blocks and back, wondering what to do next,
working at having a good time.

Carol's head adied as she trailed bdiind the nrcgniling
Calibrees along the block of booths. She chirruped at Kemn-
cott, "Let's be wild! Let's ride on the merry-go-round and
grab a gold ring! "

Kennicott considered it, and mumbled to Calibree, " Thmk
you folks would like to stop and try a ride on the meny-go-
round? "

Calibree considered it, and mumbled to his wife, '"Hunk
you'd like to stc^ and try a ride on the merry-go-round? **

Mrs. Calibree smiled in a washed-out manner, and sighed,
'^ Oh no, I don't believe I care to much, but you tolks go ahead
and try it."

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Calibree stated to Kennicott, " No, I don't believe we care
to a whole lot, but jrou folks go ahead and try it.''

Kennicott summarized the whole case against wildness:
" Let's try it some other time, Carrie."

She gave it iq>. She looked at the town. She saw that in
adventuring from Main Street, Gopher Prairie, to Main Street,
Joralemon, she had not stirred. There were the same two-
story brick groceries with lodge-signs above the awnings; the
same one-story wooden millinery shop; the same fire-brick
garages; the same prairie at the open end of the wide street;
ihe same people wondering whether the levity of eating a hot*
dog sandwich would break their taboos.

They reached Gq>her Prairie at nine in the evening.

** You look .kind-jo£ hotj^l^said Kennicott.

" Joralemon is an enterprising town, don't you thint'^r'*^

She broke. '' No! I think it's an ash-heap." ;

"Why, Carriel"

He worried over it for a week. While he ground his
with his knife as he energetically pursued fragments^
he p^)ed at her.

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CHAPTER XXV

'^ Casxle's all right She's finicky, but shell get over it. But
I wish she'd hurry ip about it! Wha t she can 't understand
is that a fellow practising medicine iBTa small town like this
has gut lu CUtl^urfhe Kghbro w^ulfr fPd not spen d all his
time going^tp„cbncert3, aua shining, his shO(^. . (Not Ibut what
lie'migbt be just as good at all these intellectual and art
things as some other folks, if he had the time for it!) '' Dr.
Will Kennicott was brooding in his office, during a free momoit
toward the end of the summer afternoon. He hunched down
in his tilted desk-chair, undid a button of his shirt, glanced
at the state news in the back of the Journal of the Ameruum
Medical Association, dropped the magazine, leaned back with
his right thumb hooked in the arm-hole of his vest and his
left thumb stroking the back of his hair.

" By golly, she's taking an awful big chance, thou^. You'd
espect her to learn by and by that I won't be a parlor lizard.
She says we try to * make her over.' IWell, she's always trying
to make me over, from a perfectly good M. D. into a damn
poet with a socialist necktiell She'd have a fit if she knew
how many women would be willing to cuddle up to Friend Will
and comifort him, if he'd give 'em the chancel There's
still a few dames that t&ink the old man isn't so dam un-
attractive! I'm glad I've ducked all that woman-game since

I've been married but Be switched if sometimes I dont

fed tempted to shine up to some girl that has sense enou^
to take life as it is; some frau that doesn't want to tsdk
Longfellow all the time, but just hold my hand and say, ' Yoo
look all in, honey. Take it easy, and don't try to talk/

^' Carrie thinks she's such a whale at analyzing folks. Giving
the town the once-over. Telling us where we get off. Why,
she'd simply turn iq> her toes and croak if she found oat how
much she doesn't know about the high old times a wise gay
could have in this burg on the Q.T., if he wasn't faithful to
his wife. But I am. At that, no matter what faults she's

306

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got, there's nobody here, no, nor ur Minn'aplus either, that's
as nice-looking and square and bright as Carrie. She ought
to of been an artist or a writer or one of those things. But
once she took a shot at living hare, she ou^t to sti^ by it.

Pretty Lord yes. But cold. She simply doesn't know

what passion is. She simply hasn't got an i-dea how hard
it is for a full-blooded man to go on pretending to be satisfied
with just being endured. It gets awful tiresome, having tof
feel Uke a criminal just because I'm normal. She's getting
so she doesn't even care for my kissing her. Well \

" I guess I can weather it, same as I did earning my way
through school and getting started in practise. But I wonder
bow long I can stand being an outsider in my own home? "

He sat up at the entrance of Mrs. Dave Dyer. She slumped
into a chair and gaq>ed with the heat. He chuckled, " Well,
well, Maud, this is fine. Where's the subscription-list? What
cause do I get robbed for, this trip? "

'^ I haven't any subscrq)tion-list. Will. I want to see you
professionally."

" And you a Christian Scientist? Have you given that up?
What next? New Thought or Spiritualism? "

" No, I have not given it \sp\ "

'' Strikes me it's kind of a knock on the sbterhood, your
coming to see a doctor! "

^ No, it isn't. It's just that my faith isn't strong enou^
yet So there nowl And besides, you are kind of consoli^,
Win. I mean as a man, not just as a doctor. You're so strong
and placid."

He sat Qp the edge of his desk, coatless, his vest swinging
open with the thick gold line of his watch-chain across the
gap, his hands in his trousers pockets, his big arms bent and
easy. As she purred he cocked an interested eye. Maud
Dyer was neurotic, rdigiocentric, faded; her emotions were
moist, and her figure was unsystematic — ^lendid thi^ and
arms, with thick ankles, and a body that was bulgy in the
wrong places. But her milky skin was delicious, her eyes were
idive, her chestnut hair shone, and there was a tender slope
from her ears to the shadowy place below her jaw.

With untBual solicitude he uttered his stock phrase, '* Well,
^pdiat seems to be the matter, Maud? ^

^I've got such a backache all the time. I'm afraid. thf>
organic tremble that you treated me for is coming back.*

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" Any definite signs of it? "

" N-no, but I think you'd better examine me.'*

" Nope. Don't believe it's necessary, Maud. To be honest,
between old f riends, I think your troubles are mostly imaginary.
I can't really advise you to have an examination."

She flushed, looked out of the window. He was conscious
that his voice was not inq>a9onal and even.

She turned quickly. ''Will, you always say my troubles
are imaginary. Why can't you be scientific? I've been reading
an artide about these new nerve-qpecialists, and they claim
that lots of ' imaginary ' ailments, yes, and lots of r^ pain,
too, are what they call psychoses, smd they order a change in
a woman's way of living so she can get on a higher plane--^ — "

''WaitI WaitI Whoa-iq>! Wait now! Don't mix up
your Christian Science and your psychology! They're two
entirely different fads! Youll be mixing in socialism nextl
You're as bad as Carrie, with your * psychoses.' Why, Good
Lord, Maud, I could talk about neuroses and psychoses and
iiddbitions and repressions and con^lexes just as well as any
damn q>ecialist, if I got paid for it, if I was in the dty and
had the nerve to charge the fees that those fdlows do. If a
spedalist stung you for a himdred-dollar consultation-fee and
told you to go to New York to duck Dave's nagging, you'd
do it, to save the hundred dollars! But you know me — ^I'm
your ndghbor — ^you see me mowing the lawn — ^you figure I'm
just a plug general practitiona:. If I said, ' Go to New Ywk,'
Dave and you would laug^ your heads off and say, ' Look at
ithe airs Will is putting on. What does he think he is? '

'' As a matter of fact, you're right. You have a perfectly
well-developed case of repression of sex instinct, and it raises
the old Ned with your body. What you need is to get away
from Dave and travd, yes, and go to every dog-gone kind o(
New Thought and Bahai and Swami and Hooptedoodle meet-
ing you can find. I know it, well 's you do. But how can
I advise it? Dave would be up here taking my hide off.

I'm willingjQ be family phy^lrian onH pn'pcf ;gf^ lawy^ and

plumber and wet-nurse, but I draw the li ne at making Dave
loosen up on money. Too hard a j6b fn'Weather like this!
So, sav^, my dear? Believe it will ram if this heat

keeps "

" But, Wfll, he'd never give it to me on my say-so. He'd
never let me go away. You know how Dave is: so jolly and

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libaral in sodety, and oh, just hves to match quarters, and such
a perfect sport if he loses! But at home he pinches a nickel
till the buffalo drips blood I have to nag him for every
single dollar.'^

" Sure, I know, but it's your fig^t, honey. Keq> after him.
He'd simply resent my butting in." ^

He crossed over and patted her shoulder. Outside the win-
dow, beyond the fly-screen that was opaque with dust and
Cottonwood lint. Main Street was hudied except for the im-
patient throb of 3. standing moUa car. She took his firm
hand, pressed his knuckles against her cheek.

" O Will, Dave is so mean and little and noisy — ^the shrimp!
You're so calm. When he's cutting up at parties I see you
standing back and watching him — the way a mastiff watdhes
a terrier."

He fought for professional dignity with, ^^Dave 's not a
bad feUow."

Lingeringly she released his hand. '^Will, drop round by
the house this evening and scold me. Make me be good and
sei^ble. And I'm so lonely."

*^ If I did, Dave would be there, and we'd have to play cards.
It's his evening off from the store."

"No. The clerk just got called to Corinth — ^mother sick.
Dave will be in the store till midnight. Oh, come on over.
There's some lovely beer on the ice, and we can sit and talk
and be all cool and lazy. That wouldn't be wrong of us,
woidd it! "

" No, no, course it wouldn't be wrong. But still, oughtn't

to " He saw Carol, slim black and ivory, cool, scornful

erf intrigue.

" AH right. But 111 be so tenely."

Her throat seemed young, above her loose blouse of muslin
and machine-lace.

'^ Tell you, Maud: I'll drop in just for a minute, if 1 lumpen
to be called down that way."

" If you'd like," demurdy. " O Will, I just want comfort.
I know you're all married, and my, such a proud papa, and of

course now If I could just sit near you in the dusk, and

be quiet, and forget Dave! You %viU come? "

" Sure I will! "

'^ 111 expect you. Ill be lonely if you don't come! Good*
by."

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He ctirsed himself: '' Daraed fool, what 'd I promise to go
for? Ill have to keep my promise, or shell fed hurt. She's
a good, decent, affectionate girl, and Dave's a cheap skate,
all right. She's got more life to her than Carol has. All my
fault, anyway. Why can't I be more cagey, like Qdibree and
McGanum and the rest of the doctors? Oh, I am, but Maud's
such a demanding idiot. Deliberately bamboozling me into
going iq> there tonight. Matter of principle: ou^t not to
let her get away with it. I won't go. I'll call her vsp and
tell her I won't go. Me, with Carrie at home, finest little
woman in the world, and a messy-minded female like Maud
Dyer — no, sirf Though there's no need of hurting her feelings.
I may just drop in for a second, to tell her I can't stay. All
my faidt anyway; ought never to have started in and jollied
Maud along in the old days. If it's my fault, I've got no
right to punish Maud. I could just drop in for a second and
then pretend I had a country call and beat it. Damn nuisance,
though, having to fake iq> excuses. Lord, why can't the women
let you alone? Just because once or twice, seven hundred
million years ago, you were a poor fool, why can't they let
you forget it? Maud's own fault. Ill stay strictly away.
Take Carrie to the movies, and forget Maud. . . . But it
would be kind of hot at the movies tonight."

He fled from himself. He rammed on his hat, threw his
coat over his arm, banged the door, locked it, tramped down-
stairs. ^^I won't gol " he said sturdily and, as he said it,
he would have given a good deal to Imow whether he was
going.

He was refreshed, as always, by the familiar windows and
faces. It restored his soul to have Sam Clark trustingly bel-
low, " Better come down to the lake this evening and have a
swim, doc. Ain't you gomg to open your cottage at all, the
summer? By golly, we miss you." He noted the progress
on the new garage. He had triumphed in the laying of every
course of bricks; in them he had seen the growth of the town.
His pride was ushered back to its throne by the respectfulness
of Oley Sundquist: "Evenin', doc! The woman is a lot
better. That was swell medicine you gave her." | He was
calmed by the mechanicalness of the tasks at home: burning
the gray web of a tent-worm on the wild cherry tree, sealing
with gum a cut in the right front tire of the car, sprinkling
the road before the house. The hose was cool to his hands.

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As the bright arrows fell with a faint puttering sounds a
crescent of blackness was formed in the gray dusti

Dave Dyer came along.

" Where gomg, Dave? "

'' Down to the store. Just had supper.''

" But Thursday 's your nig^t oft."

'* Sure, but Pete went home. His mother ^ s¥f4>osed to
be ^ck. Gosh, these clerks you get nowadays— ove^y 'em
and then they won't wKM-kl "

'< That's toug^, Dave. YouH have to work dear up till
twelve, then."

** Yup. Better drop in and have a dgar, if you're down-
town."

'^ WeO, I may, at that. May have to go down and see Mrs.
Chan^ Peny. She's ailing. So long, Dave."

Kennicott had not yet entered the house. He was con-
scious that Carol was near him, that she was important, that
he was afraid of her disapproval; but he was content to be
alone. Wl^n he had finished sprinkling he strolled into the
house, iq> to the baby's room, and cried to Hugh, " Story-
time for the old man, di? "

Carol was in a low,^^,. framed an d haloed by the window
bdiind Ber,jan-imagGLJb4;:^eL.gQld. The baby curled in her
li^, his h^d on her arm, listening with gravity yrinle she
sang frcmi Gene Fidd:

Tis little Luddy-Dud in the morning—

*Tis little Luddy-Dud ^t night;

And all day long

Tis the same dear song,

Of that growing, crowing, knowing little sprite..

Kennicott was aichanted.

" Maud Dyer? I should say not! "

When the current maid bawled up-stairs, ''Siq)per on de
table! " Kennicott was upon his badk, flapping Ids hands in
the earnest effort to be a seal, thrilled I^ the strength with
which his son kicked him. He slipped his arm about Carol's
shoulder; he went down to supper rejoicing that he was cleansed
of perilous stuff. While Carol was putting the baby to bed
he sat on the front steps. Nat Hicks, tailor and rou^, came
to sit beside him. Between waves of his hand as he drove
oS mosquitos, Nat whispered, '^ Say, doc, you don't fed like

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imagining you're a bacheldore again, and coming out for a Time
tonight, do you? "

*^ As bow?"

" You know this new dressmaker, Mrs. Swiftwaite? — swcB
dame with blondine hair? Wdl, ^e's a pretty good goer.
Me and Harry Haydock are going to take her and that ht
wren that works in the Bon Ton — ^nice kid, too — on an auto
ride toQight. Maybe well drive down to that farm Harry
bought. We're taking some beer, and some of the smoothest
lye you ever laid tongue to. I'm not predicting none, but
if we don't have a picnic, 111 miss my guess."

'' Go to it. No skin off my ear, Nat Think I want to
be fifth wheel in the coach? "

^* No, but look here: The little Swiftwaite has a friend with
her from Winona, dandy looker and some gay bird, and Harry
and me thought maybe you'd like to sneak off for one evening.''

"No— no "

" Rats now, doc, forget your everlasting dignity. You used
to be a pretty good sport yourself, when you were foot-free."

It may have been the fact that Mrs. Swiftwaite's friend
remained to Kennicott an Ol-told rumor, it may have been
Otrol's voice, wistful in the pallid evening as she sang to
Hu^, it may have been natural and commendable virtue, but
certainly he was positive:

" Nope. I'm married for keeps. Don't pretend to be any
saint. Like to get out and raise Cain and ^oot a few drinks.

But a fellow owes a duty Straight now, won't you fed

like a sneak when you come back to the missus after 3^oar
jamboree? "

" Me? My moral in life is, ' What they don't know wont
hurt -em none.' Tlie way to handle wives, like the fellow
says, is to catch 'em early, treat 'em roug^, and tell 'em
aothingl "

"Well, that's your business, I suppose. But I cant get
away with it. Besides that— way I figure it, this illicit love-
making is the one game that you always lose at If you do
lose, you fed foolish; and if you win, as soon as you ftod out
how little it is that you've been scheming for, why then you
lose worse than ever. Nature stinging us, as usual. But at
that, I guess a lot of wives in this burg would be surprised if
they knew evervthing that goes on behind their backs, di»
Nattie? "

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^ Would theyl Say, boy! If the good wives knew what
some of the boys get away with when Hiey go down to the
Gties, m^y, they'd throw a fitl Sure you won't come, doc?
Think of getting all cooled off by a good long drive, and then
the lov-e-ly Swiftwaite's white hand mixing you a good stiff
hifi^balll "

"Nope, Nope. Sony, Guess I won't," grumbled
Kennicott

He was glad that Nat showed signs of going. But he was
restless. He heard Carol on the stairs. '^ Come have a seat —
have the whole earth! " he shouted jovially.

She did not answer his joviality. She sat on the porch,
rocked silently, then sighed, ''So many mosquitos out h^e.
You haven't had the screen fixed."

As 1]x)ugh he was testing her he said quietly, " Head aching
again?"

** Oh, not much, but This maid b so slow to learn.

I have to show her everything. I had to clean most of the
sflver myself. And Huj^ was so bad all afternoon. He
iduned so. Poor soul, he was hot, but he did wear me out."

" Uh You usually want to get out. Like to walk down

to the lake shore? (The girl can stay home.) Or go to
the movies? Come on, let's go to the movies!* Or shtdl we
jump in the car and run out to Sam's,. for a swim? "

** If you don't mind, dear, I'm afraid I'm rather tired."

" Why don't you sleep down-stairs tonight, on the couch?
Be cooler. I'm going to bring down my mattress. Come on!
Keep the old man company. Can't tell— I mig^t get scared of
burglars. Lettin' little fellow like me stay all alone by him-
self! "

*' It's sweet of you to think of it, but I like my own room
so much. But you go ahead and do it, dear. Why don't
you sleep on the coudi, instead of putting your mattress on

the floor? Well I believe I'll run in and read for just

a second— want to look at the last Vogue— and then perhaps
111 go by-by. Unless you want me, dear? Of course if
there^s anything you really want me for ? "

" No. No. . . . Matter of fact, I really ought to run
down and see Mrs. Champ Perry. She's ailing. So you skip

in and May drop in at the drug store. If I'm not home

when you get sleq>y, don't wait up for me."

He kissed her, rambled off, nodded to Jim Howkmd, stopped

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indifferently to speak to Mrs. Terry Gould. Bat fab faeart
was racing, his stomach was constricted. He walked more
slowly. He reached Dave Dyer's yard. He glanced in. f On
the porch, sheltered by a wild-grape vine, was the figure of a
woman in white. He heard the swing-couch creak as she
sat up abruptly, peered, then leaned back and pretended
to relax.

'^ Be nice to have some cool beer. Just drop in for a second,'*
he insisted, as he opened the Dyer gate.!

Mrs. Bogart was calling upon Carol, protected by Aunt
Bessie SmaD.

*^ Have you heard about this awful woman that's sui^Msed
to have come here to do dressmaking— a Mrs. Swiftwaite —
awful peroxide blonde? " moaned Mrs. Bogart./ " Th^ say
there's some of the awfullest goings-on at her house — mere
boys and old gray-headed rips sneaking in there evenings
and drinking lidcer and every kind of goings-on. We women
can't never realize the carnal thoughts in the hearts of men.
I tell you, even though I been acquainted with Will Kennicott
almost since he was a mere boy, seems like, I wouldn!t trust
even him! Who knows what designin' women mi^t tanpt
himi Especially a doctor, with women rushin' in to see htes
at his office and all! You know I neva: hint around, but
haven't you felt that "

Carol was furious. ''I don't pretend that Will has no

faults. But one thing I do know: He's as sunple-hearted

about what you call ^ goings-on ' as a babe. And if he ever

were such a sad dog as to look at another woman, I certainly

I hope he'd have spirit enou^ to do the tempting, and not be

^ coaxed into it, as in your depressing picture! ^

" Why, what a wicied thing to say, Carrie! " from Aunt
Bessie.

" No, I mean it! Oh, of course, I don't mean it! But

I know every thought in his head so well that he couldnt
hide anything even if he wanted to. Now this morning—^
He was out late, last night; he had to go see Mrs. Peny,
who is ailing, and then fix a man's hand, ai^ this TnArpfng
be was so quiet and thoughtful at breakfast and " She

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leaned forward, breathed dramatically to tbe two perched
harpies, " What do you suppose he was flunking of? "

"What? " trembled Mrs. Bogart.

" Whether the grass needs cutting, probably I There, there I
Don't mind my naughtiness. I have some fresh-made raisin
cookies for you."

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CHAPTER XXVI

Casol's liveliest interest was in her walks with the baby.
Hu^ wanted to know what the box-elder tree said, and what
the Ford garage said, and what the big cloud saidy(|knd she
told him, with a feeling that she was not in the least making
up stories, but discovering the souls of things]| They had an
especial fondness for the hitching-post in front of the mill.
It was a brown post^ stout and agreeable; the smooth leg
of it held the sunlight, while its neck, grooved by hitching-
strapSy tickled one's fingers. Carol had never been awake
to die earth excqpt as a ^ow of changing color and great
satisfying masses; she had lived in people and in ideas about
having ideas; but Hugh's questions made her attentive to the
comedies of sparrows, robins, blue jays, yellowhammers; ^le
regained her pleasure in the arching fli^t of swallows, and
added to it a solicitude about their nests and family squabbles.
She forgot her seasons of boredom. She said to Hu^
*^ We're two fat disreputable old minstrels roaming round the
world," and he echoed her, " Roamin' round — ^roamin^ round.**
I The high adventure, the secret place to which they boA
I fled joyously, was the house of Miles and Bea and Olaf
t B jomstam.

Kennicott steadily disapproved of the B jomstams. He pro-
tested, " What do you want to talk to that crank for? *' He
hinted that a former " Swede hired girl " was low conqiany
for the son of Dr. Will Kennicott. She did not explain. S^
did not quite understand it herself; did not know that in the
Bjomstams she found her friends, her dub, her sympathy,
and her ration of blessed cynicism. For a time the gossip of
Juanita Haydock and the Jolly Seventeen had been a refuge
from the droning of Aunt Bessie, but the relief had not con-
tinued. The young matrons made her nervous. They talked
so loud, always so loud. They filled a room with dashiog
cackle; their jests and gags they repeated nine times over.
Unconsciously, she had discarded the Jolly Seventeen, Gey

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Pollock, Vida, and every one save Mrs. Dr. Westlake and the
friends whom she did not clearly know as friends — ^the
Bjomstams.

To Hugh, the Red Swede was the most heroic and powerful ^ ^
person in the world. With unrestrained adoration he trotted ^
after while Miles fed the cows, chased his one pig — an animal
of lax and migratory instincts— or dramatically slaughtered a
chicken. And to Hu^, Olaf was lord amcmg mortal men, less
stalwart than the old monarch, King Miles, but more under-
standing of the relations and values of things, of small sticks,
ione pla3ang<ards, and irretrievably injured hoops.

Carol saw, though she did not admit, that Olaf was not
only more beautiful than her own dark child, but more gracious.
(Olaf was a Norse chieftain: straight, sunny-haired, large*
limbed, re^lendently amiable to his subjects. Hugh was a
vulgarian; a bustling business man. It was Hugh that bounced
and said '^ Let's play "; Olaf that opened luminous blue eyes
and agreed '^ AH ri^t," in condescending gentleness. If Hugh
batted him— and Hugh did bat him— Olaf was unafraid but
shocked. In magnificent solitude he marched toward the
home, while JEIugh bewailed his sin and the overclouding of
ai%ust favorl

The two friends played with an imperial chariot which
Miles had made out of a starch-box and four red spools; to*
gather they stuck switches into a mouse-hole, with vast satisfac-
tion though entirely without known results.

Bea, the chubby and humming Bea,.inq)artially gave cookies
and scoldings to both children, and if Carol refused a cup of
coffee and a wafer of buttered knackebrod, she was desolated.

Miles had done well with his dairy. He had six cows,
two hundred chickens, a cream separator, a Ford truck. In the
spring he had built a two-room addition to his shack. That
illustrious building was to Hugh a carnival. Unde Miles did
the most spectacdar, unexpected things: ran up the ladder;
stood on the ridge-pole, waving a hammer and singing some-
thing about '^ To arms, my citizens "; nailed shingles faster
than Aunt Bessie could iron handkerchiefs; and lifted a two-
by-six with Hug^ riding on one end and Olaf on the other.
Uncle Miles's most ecstatic trick was to make figures not on
paper but right on a new pine board, with the broadest softest
pencil in the world. There was a thing worth seeing!

Tlie tools I In his office Father had tools fascinating in their

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shininess and curious shapes, but they were sharp, ibey were
something called stoized, and they distinctly were not for
boys to touch. In fact it was a good dodge to volunteer " I
must not touch," wh^ you looked at the tools on the g^ass
shelves in Father's office. But Uncle Miles, who was a person
altogether superior to Father, let you handle all his kit except
the saws. There was a hammer with a silver head ; there was a
metal thing like a big L; there was a magic instrument, very
precious, made out of costly red wood £md gold, with a tube
which contained a drop — ^no, it wasn't a drap^ it was a nothing,
iN^ich lived in the water, but the nothing looked like a drop,
and it ran in a frightened way up and down the tube, no
matter how cautious]^ you tilt^ the magic instrument And
there were nails, very different and clever — big valiant spikes,
middle-si^d ones which were not very interesting, and shingle-
nails much jollier than the fussed-iq) fairies in the jreUow
book.

While he had worked on the addition Miles had talked
frankly to Carol. He admitted now that so long as he stayed
in Gopher Prairie he would remain a pariah. Bea's Lutheran
friends were as much offended by his agnostic gibes as the
merchants by his radicalism. '' And I can't seem to keep my
mouth shut. I think I'm being a baa-lamb, and not springing
say theories wilder than ^c-a-t spells cat,' but when folks
have gone, I relize I've been stepping on their pet rdigious
corns. Oh, die mill foreman keeps dropping in, and that Danish
shoemaker, and one fellow from Elder's factory, and a few
Svenskas, but you know Be: big good-hearted wench like
her wants a lot of folks around — ^IS^es to fuss over 'em — never
satisfied unless she tiring herself out makiqg coffee for seme-
body.

" Once she kidnapped me and drug me to the Methodist
Church. I goes in, pious as Widow Bogart, and sits still
and never cracks a smile while the preadier is favoring us
with his misinformation on evolution. | But afterwards, when
the old stalwarts were pumphandling ever3ix>dy at the door
and calling 'em * Brother ' and * Sister,' they let me sail ri^
by with nary a clinch. I They figure I'm the town badnum.
Always will be, I guess. It'll have to be Olaf who goes on.

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And sometimes Blamed if I don't fed like coming out and

saying, ^I've been conservative. Nothing to it. Now I'm
gcHng to start something in these rotten one-horse lumb^-
camps west of town.' But Be's got me h3motized. Lord, Mrs.
Kennicotty do you reliie what a jolly, square, faithful woman

she b? And I love Olaf Oh well, I won't go and get

sentimental on you.

*< Course I've had thoughts of pulling up stakes and going|
West. Maybe if they didn't know it befordiand, they wouldn'ti
find out I'd ever been guilty of trying to think for m3rself.|
But— oh, I've worked hard, and built up this dairy business,
and I hate to start all over again, and move Be and the kid /"'
into another one-room shack. That's how they get us! En-
courage us to be thrifty and own our own houses, and then,
by golly, they've got us; they know we won't dare risk
everything by committing lez — ^what is it? lez majesty? — ^I
mean they know we won't be hinting around that if we had
a co-<^>erative bank, we could get along without Stowbody.
Well— — As long as I can sit and play pinochle with Be,
and tell whoppers to Olaf about his daddy's adventures in the
woods, and how he snared a wapaloosie and knew Paul Bun-
yan, why, I don't mind being a bum. It's just for them that
I mind. Say! Say! Don't whisper a word to Be, but when
I get this addition done, I'm going to buy her a phonograph! "

He did.

While she was busy with the activities her work-hungry
muscles found — ^washing, ironing, mending, baking, dusting,
preserving, plucking a chicken, painting the sink; tasks which,
because ^e was Miles's full partner, were exciting and crea-
tive — Bea listened to the phonograph records with rapture like
that of cattle in a warm stable. The addition gave her a
kitchen with a bedroom above. The original one-room shack
was now a living-ro6m, with the phonograph, a genuine leather-
upholstered golden-oak rocker, and a picture of Governor John
Johnson.

In late July Carol went to the Bjomstams' desirous of a
chance to express her opinion of Beavers and Calibrees and
Joralemons. She found Olaf abed, restless from a slight fever,
and Bea flushed and dizzy but trying to keep up her work.
&e lured Miles aside and worried:

" They don't look at all well. What's the matter? "

^' Their stomachs are out of whack. I wanted to call in

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320 MAIN STREET

Doc Kennicotty but Be thinks the doc doesn't like

she thinks maybe he's sore because you come down here. But

I'm getting worried."

" I'm going to call the doctor at once."

She yeam^ over Olaf . His lambent eyes were stiq>idy he
moanedy he rubbed his forehead.

"Have they been eating something that's been bad iat
them? " she fluttered to Miles.

" Might be bum water. I'll tdl you: We used to get our
water at Oscar Eklund's place, over across the street, but
Oscar kept dinging at me, and hinting I was a ti^twad not
to dig a well of my own. One time he said, ^ Sure, you
socialists are great on divvying up other folks' money — and
waterl ' I knew if he kept it up there'd be a fuss, and I
ain't safe to have around, once a fuss starts; I'm likely to
forget myself and let loose with a punch in the snoot I
offered to pay Oscar but he refused— he'd rather have the
chance to kid me. So I starts getting water down at Mrs.
Fageros's, in the hollow there, and I don't bdieve it's read
good. Figuring to dig my own well this fall."

One scarlet word was before Carol's eyes while she listened
She fled to Kennicott's ofiQce. He gravely heard her out,
nodded, said, "Be right over."

He examined Bea and Olaf. He shook his head. "Yes.
Looks to me like typhoid."

" Golly, I've seen typhoid in lumber-camps," groaned Miles,
all the strength drifting out of him. "Have they got it
very bad? "

" Oh, we'll take good care of them," said Kennicott, and
for the first time in their acquaintance he smiled on Mile$
and clapped his shoulder.

" Won't you need a nurse? " demanded Carol.

" Why " To Mfles, Kennicott hinted, " Couldn't you

get Bea's cousin, Tina? "

" She's down at the old folks', in the country."

"Then let me do it! " Carol insisted. "They need scmie
one to cook for them, and isn't it good to give them ^>onge
baths, in typhoid? "

" Yes. All right.'' Kennicott was automatic; he was the
official, the physician. " I guess probably it would be hard to
get a nurse here in town just now. Mrs. Stiver is busy with
an obstetrical case, and that town nurse of yours is off on

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vacation, ain't she? All right, Bjornstam can spell you at
night"

All week, from eight each morning till midnight, Carol fed
them, bathed them, smoothed sheets, took ten^>eratures.
Miles refused to let her cook. Terrified^ pallid, noiseless in
stocking feet, he did the kitchen work and the sweeping, his
big red hands awkwardly careful. Kennicott came in Uiree
times a day, unchangingly tender and hopeful in the sick*
room, evenly polite to MQes.

Carol understood how great was her love for her friends.
It bore her through; it made her arm steady and tireless to
bathe them. What exhausted her was the sight of Bea and
Olaf turned into flaccid invalids, uncomfortably flushed after
takiog food, begging for the healing of sleep at night.

During the second week Olaf 's powerful legs were flabby.
Spots of a viciously delicate pink came out on his chest and
back. His cheeks sank. He looked frightened. Hi$ tongue^
was brown and revolting. His confident voice dwindled to a /
bewildered murmur, ceaseless and racking. ^

Bea had stayed on her feet too long at the beginning. The
moment Kennicott had ordered her to bed she had begun to
collapse. One early evening she startled them by screaming,
in an intense abdominal pain, and within half an hour she was
in a delirium. TiU dawn Carol was with her. and not all of
Bea's groping through the blackness of half-ddirious pain
was so pitiftd to Carol as the way in which Miles silently
peered into the room from the top of the narrow stairs. Card
slq>t three hours next morning, and ran back. Bea was alto-
geUier delirious but she muttered nothing save, '^Olaf — ^ve
have such a good time '^

At ten, while Carol was prq)aring an ice-bag in the kitchen,
MOes answered a knock. At the front door she saw|
Vida Sherwin, Maud Dyer, and Mrs. Stterel, wife of the
Baptist pastor. They were carrjring grapes, and women's-
magazines, magazines with high-color^ pictures and optimistic
fiction.

"We just heard your wife was sick. We've come to see
if there isn't something we can do," chirruped Vida.

Miles looked steadily at the three women. "You're too
late. You can't do nothing now. Bea's alwa3rs kind of hoped
that you folks would come see her. She wanted to have a
chance and be friends. She used to sit waiting for somebody

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I to knock. I've seai her sitting here, waiting. Now Ob,
you ain't worth God-damning." He shut the door.

All day Carol watched Olaf's strength oozing. He was
emaciated. His ribs were grim clear lines, his skin was
clammy, his pulse was feeble but terrifyingly n^id. It beat —
beat — beat in a drum-roll of death. Late that afternoon
he sobbed, and died.

Bea did not know it. She was delirious. Next mormng,
iidien she went, she did not know that Olaf would no longer
swing his lath sword on the door-stq>, no longer nile hb
subjects of the cattle-yard; that Miles's son would not go
East to college.

Miles, Carol, Eennicott were silent. They washed the bodies
together, their eyes veiled.

" Go home now and sleq>. You're pretty tired. I can't ever
pay you back for what you done," Miles whispered to Carol.

" Yes. But 111 be back here tomorrow. Go with jrou to
the funeral," she said laboriously.

When the time for the funeral came, Carol was in bed,
collapsed. She assumed that nei^bors would go. They had
not told her that word of Miles's rebuff to Vida had !^read
throu^ town, a cyclonic fury.

It was only by chance that, leaning on her elbow in bed,
she glanced through the window and saw the funeral of Bea
and Olaf. There was no music, no carriages. There was (miy
Miles Bjomstam, in his black wedding-suit, walking quite
alone, head down, behind the shabby hearse that bore the
bodies of his wife and baby.

An hour after, Hugh came into her room oying, and when
she said as cheerily as she could, " What is it, dear? " he be-
sought, " Mummy, I want to go play with Olaf."
t That afternoon Juanita Haydock dropped in to bri^ten
Carol. She said, "Too bad about this Bea that was your
: hired girl. But I don't waste any sympathy on that man of
hers. Everybody says he drank too much, and treated his
i family awful, and that's how they got sidk."

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CHAPTER XXVn

A LETTEs from Raymie Wutherq>oony in France, said that he

had been sent to the front^ been slightly wounded, been made

a captain. From Vida's pride Carol sought to draw a stimulant |

to rouse her from dq>ression. f

Miles had sold his dairy. He had several thousand dollars. v^

To Carol he said good-by with a mumbled word, a har^ ^ f^

hand-shake, " Going to buy a farm in northern Alberta— far ( |

off from folks as I can get." He turned sharply away, butjl |

he did not walk with his former a3ring. His shoidders seemedtt I

old. ' )

It was said that before he went he cursed the town.
There was talk of arresting him, of riding him on a rail. It
was rumored that at the station old Champ Perry rebuked
him, " You better not come back here. We've got respect foirl j^ ^
your dead, but we haven't got any for a blasphemer and al*^ j
traitor that won't do anything for his country and only bought y ^
one Liberty Bond." ^

Some of the pecple who had been at the station declared that {
Miles made some dreadful seditious retort: something about
loving German workmen more than American bankers; but |
others asserted that he couldn't find one word with which to |
answer the veteran; that he merely sneaked up on the plat- < |

form of the train. He must have felt guilty, everybody agreed, I j

for as the train left town, a farmer saw him standing in the I |

vestibule and looking out. {

His house — ^with the addition which he had built four I
months ago — ^was very near the track on which his train passed. (

When Carol went there, for the last time, she found Olaf 's ) •
chariot with its red spool wheels standing in the sunny corner (
beside the stable. She wondered if a quick eye could have
noticed it from a train.

That day and that week she went reluctantly to Red Cross
work; she stitched and packed silently, while Vida read the war .

bulletins. And she said nothing at all when Kennicott com- ||

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I mented, *^ From what Champ says^ I guess Bjornstam was a
' bad egg, after all. In spite of Bea, don't know but what the
j citizens' committee ought to have forced him to be patriotic —
\^ let on like they could send him to jail if he didn't volunteer and
come through for bonds and the Y. M. C. A. They've worked
i that stunt fine with all these German farmers/'

She found no inspiration but she did find a dependable
kindness in Mrs. Westlake, and at last she yidded to the old
woman's receptivity and had rdief in sobbing the story of
Bea.

Guy Pollock she often met on the street, but he was merdy
a pleasant voice which said things about Charles Lamb and
sunsets.

Her most positive experience was the revelation of Mrs,
Flickerbaugh, the tall, thin, twitchy wife of the attom^.
Carol encountered her at the drug store.

" Walking? " snapped Mrs. Flickerbaugh.

"Why, yes."

" Humph. Guess you're the only female in this town that
retams the use of her legs. Come home and have a cup o'
tea with me."

Because she had nothing else to do, Carol went. But she
was uncomfortable in the presence of die amused stares which
Mrs. Flickerbaugh's raiment drew. Today, in reeking early
August, she wore a man's cap, a skinny fur like a dead cat,
a necklace of imitation pearls, a scabrous satin blouse, and a
thick doth skirt hiked up in front.

" Come in. Sit down. Stick the baby in that rodcer. Hope
you don't mind the house looking like a rat's nest. You dont
like this town. Neither do I," said Mrs. Flickerbaugh.

"Why "

" Course you don't! "

" Well then, I don'tl But I'm sure that some day 111 find
some solution. Probably I'm a hexagonal peg. Solution: find
the hexagonal hole." Carol was very brisk.

" How do you know you ever will find it? "

" There's Mrs. Westlake. She's naturally a big-dty woman —
she ought to have a lovely old house in Philaddphia or Boston
— ^but she escapes by being absorbed in reading."

" You be satisfied to never do axiything but read? "

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325

"No, but Heavens, one can't go on hating a totm

aIw&vs! ^

"Why not? I canl IVe hated it for thirty-two years. Ill
die here — and 111 hate it till I die. I ought to have been a
business woman. I had a good deal of tsdent for tending to
figures. All gone now. Some folks think I'm crazy. Guess
lam. Sit and grouch. Go to church and sing hymns. Folks
think I'm religious. Tut! Trying to forget washing and
ironing and mending socks. Want an office of nqr own, and
sell things. Julius never hear of it. Too late."

Carol sat on the gritty couch, and sank into fear. Could
this drabness of life keq> up forever, then? Would she some
day so despise herself and her neighbors that she too would
walk Main Street an old skinny eccentric woman in a mangy
cat's-fur? As she crept home she felt that the trap had
finally dosed. She went into the house, a fraQ small woman,
still winsome but hopeless of eye as she staggered with the
weight of the drowsy boy in her arms.

She sat alone on the porch, that evming. It seemed that
Kennicott'^ had to make a professional call on Mrs. Dave
Dyer.

Under the stilly boughs and the black gauze of dusk the
street was meshed in silence. There was but the hum of
motor tires crunching the road, the creak of a rocker dh the
Rowlands' porch, the slap of a hand attacking a mosquito, a
heat-weary conversation starting and dying, the precise rhythm
of crickets, the thud of moths against the screen — sounds that
were a distilled silence. It was a street beyond the end of the
world, beyond the boundaries of hope. Though she should sit
here forever, no brave procession, no one who was interesting,
would be coming by. It was tediousness made tangible, a
street builded of lassitude and of futility.

Myrtle Cass appeared, with Cy Bogart. She giggled and!
bounced when Cy tickled her ear in village love, liiey strolled
with the half-dancing gait of lovers, kicking their feet out side-
ways or shufi9ing a dragging jig, and the concrete walk sounded
to the broken two-four rhythm. Their voices had a dusky
turbulence. Suddenly, to the woman rocking on the porch of
the doctor's house, the night came alive, and she felt that
ever3rwhere in the darkness panted an ardent quest which she

was missing as she sank back to wait for There must be

something.

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CHAPTER XXVni

It was at a supper of the JoQy Seventeen in August tbat
Carol beard of "Elizabeth," from Mrs. Dave Dyer.

Carol was fond of Maud Dyer, because she had been particu-
larly agreeable lately; had obviously repented of the nervous
distaste which she had once shown. Maud patted her hand
when they met, and asked about Hugh.

Kennicott said that he was ^^kind of sony for the giil|
some ways; she's too darn emotional, but stilly Dave is scnrt
of mean to her.*' He was polite to poor Maud when they
all went down to the cottages for a swim. Carol was proud of
that sympathy in him, and now she took pains to sit with their
new friend.

Mrs. Dyer was bubbling, ^' Oh, have you folks heard about
this young fellow that's just come to town that the boys call
'Elizabeth'? He's working in Nat Hicks's tailor shop. I bet
he doesn't make eighteen a week, but my I isn't he the perfect
lady thought He talks so refined, and oh, the lugs he puts on
— belted coat, and piqu6 collar with a gold pin, and socks
to match his necktie, and honest— you won't believe this, but
I got it straight — this fellow, you know he's staying at Mrs.
Gurry's punk old boarding-house, and they say he asked Mrs.
Gurrey if he ought to put on a dress-suit for supper! Imagine!
Can you beat that? And him nothing but a Swede tailor— ^Srik
Valborg his name is. But he used to be in a tailor shop
iif Minneapolis (they do say he's a smart needle-pusher, at
that) and he tries to let on that he's a regular dty fellow.
They say he tries to make people think he's a poet-— carries
books around and pretends to read '^n. Myrtle Cass says
she met him at a dance, and he was mooning around all
over the place, and he asked her did she like flowers and
poetry and music and everything; he spieled like he was a
regular United States Senator; and Myrtle— she's a devO, that
girl, ha! ha! — she kidded him along, and got him going, and
honest, what d^ou think he said? He said he didn't find any

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inteUectual coiiq>anionship in this town. Can you beat it?
Imagine! And him a Swede tailor! Myl And they say he's
the most awful mollycoddle — ^looks just like a girl. The boys
call him 'Elizabeth/ and they stop him and ask about the
books be lets on to have read, and he goes and tells them, and
they take it all in and jolly him terribly^ and he never gets
onto the fact they're kidding him. Oh, I think it's just too
funny! "

The Jolly Seventeen laughed, and Carol laughed with them.
Mrs. Jack Elda: added that this Erik Valborg had confided
to Mrs. Gurrey that he would 'Move to design clothes for
women." Imagine! Mrs. Harvey Dillon had had a glimpse
of him, but honestly, she'd thou^t he was awfully hand-
some. This was instantly controverted by Mrs. B. J. Gouger-
Img, wife of the banker. Mrs. Gougerling had had, she re-
ported, a good look at this Valborg fellow. She and B. J.
had been motoring, and passed " Elizabeth " out by McGruder's
Bridge. He was wearing the awfuUest clothes, with the waist
pinched in like a girl's. He was sitting on a rock doing
nothing, but when he heard the Gougerling car coming he
snatched a book out of his pocket, and as they went by he
pretended to be reading it, to show off. And he wasn't really
good-looking — ^just kind of soft, as B. J. had pointed out.

When the husbands came they joined in the expos6. '' My
name is Elizabeth. I'm the celebrated musical tailor. Tl^
skirts fall for me by the thou. Do I get some more veal
loaf? " morily shrieked Dave Dyer. He had some admirable
stories about the tricks the town yoimgsters had played on
Va^org. They had drG^^)ed a decaying perch into his pocket.
Tliey had pinned on his back a sign, '* I'm the prize boob,
kkk me."

Glad of any laughter, Carol joined the frolic, and surprised
than by crymg, " Dave, I do think you're the dearest thing
since 3rou got your hair cutl " That was an excellent sally.
Everybody applauded. Kennicott looked proud.

She decided that sometime she really must go out of her
way to pass Hicks's shop and see this freak.

She was at Sunday morning service at the Baptist Church,
in a solemn row with her husband, Hugh, Unde Whittier,
Aunt Bessie.

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Despite Aunt Bessie's nagging the Kennicotts rardy atr
tended church. The doctor asserted^^^ Sure, religion is a fine
influence — got to have it to keep the Iowa: classes in order-
fact, it's the only thing that appeals to a lot of those fellows
and makes 'em respect the ri^ts of pr(^>erty.| And I guess this
theology is O.K.; lot of wise old coots figured it all out, and
they knew more about it than we do." He believed in the
Christian religion, and never thought about it; he believed
in the church, and seldom went near it; he was shocked by
Carol's lack of faiUi, and wasn't quite sure what was tli^
nature of the faith that she lacked.

Carol herself was an uneasy and dodging a^ostic

When she ventured to Sunday School and hesuxl the teachers
droning that the genealogy of Shamsherai was a valuable
ethical problem for children to think about; whsa she ex-
perimented with Wednesday prayer-meeting and listened to
store-keeping elders giving their unvarying weekly testimony
in primitive erotic symbols and such gory Chaldean phrases
as '^ washed in the blood of the lamb " and '^ a vengeful God ";
Jl^hen Mis. Bogart bqasted that through his boyhood she had
made 6y confess nT^ly upon the basis of ihe Ten Cwn-
man4|nentsf then Carol was dismayed to find the Christian
religion, in America, in the twentieth century, as abnormal as
Zoroastrianism— without the ^lendor. But when she went
to church suppers and felt the friendliness, saw the gaiety widi
which the sisters served cold ham and scall(q>ed potatoes;
when Mrs. Champ Perry cried to her, on an afternoon call,
*' My dear, if you just knewthow happy it makes 3roa to comt
into abiding grace," then Okrol found the humanness bdiind
the sanguinary and alien theolb^. | Always she perceived that
the churches — Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, Catholic,
2JI of them— which had seemol so unimportant to the judge's
home in her childhood, so isolated from the dty struggle in
St. Paul, were still, in Gopher Prairie, the strongest of the
forces compelling respectabQityJi

This August Simday she had been tempted by the announce-
ment that the Reverend Edmund Zitterd would preach on the
topic " America, Face Your Problems! " With flie great war,
workmen in every nation showing a desire to control indus-
tries, Russia hinting a leftward revolution against Kermsky,
woman suffrage coming, there seemed to be plenty of proUans
for the Reverend Mr. Zitterd to call on America to face.

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Carol gathered her famOy and trotted off behind Unde
Whittier.

The congregation faced the heat with informality. Men
with highly plastered hair, so painf uDy shaved that their faces
looked sere, removed their coats, sighed, and unbuttoned two
buttons of their uncreased Sunday vests. Large-bosomed,
white-bloused, hot-necked, spectacled matrons — the Mothers
in Israel, pioneers and friends of Mrs. Champ Perry — ^waved
their palm-leaf fans in a steady rhythm. Abashed boys slunk
into the rear pews and giggled, while milky little girls, up front
with their mothers, self-consdously kept from turning around.

The church was half bam and half Gopher Prairie parlor.
The streaky brown wallpaper was broken in its dismal sweep
only by framed texts, " Come unto Me " and " The Lord is
My Shepherd,*' by a list of hymns, and by a crimson and
green diagram, staggeringly drawn upon hemp-colored paper,
indicating the alarming ease with which a young man may
descend from Palaces of Pleasure and the House of Pride to
Eternal Damnation. But the varnished oak pews and the new
red carpet and the three large chairs on the platform, behind
the bare reading-stand, were all of a rocking-chair comfort.

Carol was civic and nei^borly and commendable today.
She beamed and bowed. She trolled out with the others the
byian:

How pleasant 'tis on Sabbath mom
To gather in the church,
And there I'll have no carnal thoughts,
Nor sin shall me besmirch.

^th a rustle of starched linen skirts and stiff shirt-fronts,
the congregation sat down, and gave heed to the Reverend
Mr. Zitterel. The priest was a thin, swart, intense young
man with a bang. He wore a bladk sack suit and a lilac tie.
He smote the enormous Bible on the reading-stand, vociferated,
" Come, let us reason together,^' delivered a prayer informing
Almighty God of the news of the past week, and began to
reason.

It proved that the only problems which America had to
face were Mormonism and Prohibition:

ff' Don't let any of these self-conceited fellows that are
always trying to stir up trouble deceive you with the belief
atoit there's anything to all these smart-aleck movements to

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let the unions and the Farma^' Nonpartisan Leagoe kill all
our initiative and enterprise by fixing wages and prices. There
isn't any movement that amounts to a whoop without it's got
a moral background.|i And let me tell you that while folks
are fussing about what they call ^ economics ' and ' socialism '
and ' science ' and a lot of things that are nothing in the world
but a disguise for atheism, the Old Satan is busy spreading
his secret net and tentacles out there in Utah, under his guise
of Joe Smith or Brigham Young or whoever their leaders
happen to be today, it doesn't make any difference, and they're
making game of the Old Bible that has led this American
people tb^ough its manifold triak and tribulations to its firm

Kution as the fulfilment of the prophecies and the recognized
der of all nations. ' Sit thou on my right hand till I make
thine enemies the footstool of my feet/ said the Lord of Hosts,
Acts II, the thirty-fourth verse — and let me tell you right now,
you got to get up a good deal earlier in the UKHning tixan you
get up even when you're going fishing, if you want to be
smarter than the Lord, who has shown us the strai^t and nar-
row way, and he that passeth therefrom is in eteriud peril and,
to return to this vital and terrible subject of Mormonism — and
as I say, it is terrible to realize how little attention is given
to this evil right here in our midst and on our very doorstep,
as it were — ^it's a shame and a disgrace that the Congress of
these United States spends all its time talking about incon-
sequential financial matters that ought to be left to the Treasury
Department, as I understand it, instead of arising in thdr
might and passing a law that any one admitting he is a Mormon
shall simply be deported and as it were kicked out of this
free country in which we haven't got any room for polygamy
and the tyrannies of Satan. * ^ .

^' And, to digress for a moment, especially as there are more
I of them in this state than tliAtw «n>^i | fn|T||j | ^, i>» ^ii
never can tell yhat yyill Iwippi ii WfTTT lliii vain

t think more about wearing silk stockings
minding their mothers and learning to bake a good ]

bread, and many of them listening to th^e sneaking Mormo
tnH^i onaries— fln d T ngfunlly boiiil mil i\t IIkmi IjllTtntc rTpTTl
VoutSn a streei-corner in Duluth, a few years a^Jand tl^
officers of the law not protesting— 4DUt still, as they are a smaller
|t>ut more immediate problem, let me stop for just a moment
to pay my respects to these Seventh-Day Adventists. Not that

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they are immoral^ I don't mean, bat when a body of men
go on insisting that Saturday is the Sabbath, after Christ him-
self has clearly indicated the new di^)ensation, then I think
the legislature ou^t to step in ''

At this point Carol awoke.

She got through three more minutes by studying the face
of a girl in the pew across: a sensitive unhappy girl whose
longing poured out with intimidating self-revelation as she wor-
shiped Mr. Zitterd. Carol wondered who the girl was. She
had seen her at church suppers. She considered how many
of the three thousand people in the town she did not know;
to how many of them the Thanatopsis and the Jolly Seventeen
were icy social peaks; how many of them might be toiling
through boredom thicker than her own— with greater courage.

She examined her nails. She read two hymns. She got some
satisfaction out of rubbing an itching knuckle. She pillowed
on her shoulder the head of the baby who, after killing time
in the same manner as his mother, was so fortunate as to
fall asleep. She read the introduction, title-page, and acknowl-
edgment of cq>3nights, in the h3muial. She tried to evolve
a philosq;>hy which would explain why Kennicott could neva:
tie his scarf so that it wotdd reach the top of the gap in his
turn-down collar.

There were no other diversions to be foimd in the pew.
She glanced back at the congregation. She thought that it
would be amiable to bow to Mrs. Champ Perry.

Her slow turning head stopped, galvanized.

Across the aisle, two rows back, was a strange young man
^o shone among the cud-chewing citizens like a visitant from
the sun — camber curls, low fordiead, fine nose, chin smooth
but not raw from Sabbath shaving. His lips startled her. The
lips of men in Gopher Prairie are flat in the face, straight and
grudging. The stranger's mouth was arched, the upper lip
diort. He wore a brown jersey coat, a ddft-blue bow, a white
silk shirt, white flannd trousers. He suggested the ocean
beach, a tennis court, anything but the sun-blistered utility
of Main Street.

A visitor from Minneapolis, here for business? No. He
wasn't a business man. He was a poet. Keats was in his face,
and Shelley, and Arthur Upson, whom she had once seen in
Minneapolis. He was at once too sensitive and too sophis-
ticated to touch business as she knew it in Gopher Prairie.

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With restrained amusement be was analyzing the noisy Mr.
Zitterel. Carol was ashamed to have this spy from the Great
World hear the pastor's maundering. She felt responsible for
the town. She resented bis gaping at their private rites.
She flushed, turned away. But she continued to feel his
presence.

How could she meet him? She must! For an hour of talk.
He was all that she was hungry for. She could not let
him get away without a word — ^and she would have to. She
pictured, and ridiculed, herself as walking up to him and
remarking, " I am sick with the Village Virus. Will you please
tell me what people are saying and playing in New York? "
She pictured, and groaned over, the expression of Kennicott
if she should say, " Why wouldn't it be reasonable for you, my
soul, to ask that complete stranger in the bro¥m jersey coat to
come to supper tonight? "

She brooded, not looking back. She warned herself that
she was probably exaggerating; that no young man could have
all these exalted qualities. Wasn't he too obviously smart,
too glossy-new? Like a movie actor. Probably he was a
traveling salesman who sang tenor and fancied himself in
imitations of Newport clothes and spoke of " the swdlest
business proposition that ever came do¥m the pike." In a
panic she peered at him. Not This was no hustling salesman,
this boy with the curving Grecian lips and the serious eyes.

She rose after the service, carefully taking Eennicott's arm
and smiling at him in a mute assertion that she was devoted
to him no matter what happened. She followed the Myst^'s
soft brown jersey shoulders out of the church.

Fatty Hicks, the shrill and pufiy son of Nat, flapped hb
hand at the beautiful stranger and jeered, '^ How's the kid?
All dolled up like a plush horse today, ain't we! "

Carol was exceeding sick. Her herald from the outside
was Erik Valborg, " Eli2abeth." Apprentice tailor 1 Gasoline
and hot goose 1 Mending dirty jackets I Respectfully holding
a tape-measure about a paunch I

And yet, she insisted, this boy was also himself.

They had Sunday dinner with the Smails, in a dining-room
which centered about a fruit and flower piece and a crayon-

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enlargement of Unde Whittier. Carol did not beed Aunt
Bessie's fussing in regard to Mrs. Robert B. Scbminke's bead
necklace and Whittier's error in putting on the striped pants,
day like tbis. Sbe did not taste the shreds of roast pork. She
jsaid vacuously:

^ Uh — ^Will, I wonder if that young man in the white flannel
trousers, at church this monung, was this Valborg person that
they're all talking about? ''

'' Yump. That's him. Wasn't that the darndest get-up he
had on! " Kennicott scratched at a white smear on his hard
gray sleeve.

" It wasn't so bad. I wonder where he comes from? He
seems to have lived in cities a good deal. Is he from the
East?"

" The East? Him? Why, he comes from a farm right up
north here, just this side of Jefferson. I know his father
dig^tly — ^Adolph Valborg — ^typical cranl^r old Swede farmer."

" Oh, really? " blandly.

'^ Believe he has lived in Minneapolis for quite some time,
though. Learned his trade there. And I will say he's bright,
some ways. Reads a lot. Pollock says he takes more books
out of the library than anybody else in town. Huh! He's
kind of like you in that! "

The Smails and Kennicott laughed very much at this sly
jest. Uncle Whittier seized the conversation. ^^ That fellow
that's working for Hidus? Milksop, that's what he b. Makes
me tired to see a young fellow that ought to be in the war.
or an3^way out in the fields earning his living honest, like
I done when I was young, doing a woman's work and then
come out and dress up like a show-actorl Why, when I was
his age "

Carol reflected that the carving-knife would make an
excellent dagger with which to kill Uncle Whittier. It would
slide in easily. The headlines would be terrible.

Kennicott said judiciously, '^ Oh, I don't want to be unjust
to him. I believe he took his physical examination for military
s^vice. Got varicose veins — ^not bad, but enough to disqualify
him. 1}iough I will say he doesn't look like a fellow that
would be so awful dam crazy to poke his bayonet into a
Hun's guts."

"WiUI Please/''

^* Well, be don't. Looks soft to me. And they say he told

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Del Snaffin, wben he was getting a haii'-cat on Satarday, that
he wished he could play the piano."

'^ Isn't it wonderful how modi we all know about one another
in a town like this," said Carol innocently.

Kennicott was suspicious, but Aunt Bessie, serving the float-
ing island pudding, agreed, " Yes, it is wonderful. Folks can
get away with all sorts of meannesses and sins in these ter-
rible cities, but they can't here. I was noticing this tailor
fellow this morning, and when Mrs. Riggs offared to share her
hymn-book with him, he shook his head, and all the while we
was singing he just stood there like a bump on a log and nev^
opened his mouth. Everybody says he's got an idea that
he's got so much better manners and all than what the rest
of us have, but if that's what he calls good manners, I want to
know! "

Carol again studied the carving-knife. Blood on the white-
ness of a tablecloth might be gorgeous.

Then:

''Fool I Neurotic inq>ossibilist! Tdling yourself orchard
fairy-tales — ^at thirty. . . . Dear Lord, am I really ^Mrfyf
That boy can't be more than twenty-five."

She went calling.

Boarding with the Widow Bogart was Fern Mullins, a giil
of twenty-two who was to be teacher of English, French, and
gymnastics in the high school this coming session. F^n
Mullins had come to to¥m early, for the six-weeks normal
course for country teachers. Carol had noticed her on the
street, had heard almost as much about her as about Erik
Valborg. She was tall, weedy, pretty, and Incurably rakish.\ ^
Whether she wore a low middy collar or dressed reticently
for school in a black suit with a high-necked blouse, die was
airy, flippant. " She looks like an absolute totty," said all
the Mrs. Sam Clarks, disapprovingly, and all the Juanita Hay-
docks, enviously.

That Sunday evening, sitting in baggy canvas lawn-chairs
beside the house, the Eennicotts saw Fern laughing with Cy
Bogart who, though still a junior in high school, was now
a lump of a man, only two or three years younger than Fern.
Cy had to go downtown for weighty matta^ connected with the

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pool-i>arIor. Fern drooped on the Bogart porcb| her chin in
her hands.

" She looks lonely," said Kennicott.

^ She does, poor souL I believe I'll go over and speak to
her. I was introduced to her at Dave's but I haven't called."
Carol was slipping across the la¥m, a white figure in the dim-
ness, faintly bru^iing the dewy grass. She was thinking of
Erik and of the fact Uiat her feet were wet, and she was casual
in her greeting: '' Hellol The doctor and I wondered if you
were lonely."

Resentfully, "lam!"

Carol concentrated on her. ^ My dear, you sound so! I
know how it is. I used to be tired when I was on the job—
I was a librarian. What was your college? I was Blodgett."

More interestedly, " I went to the U." Fern meant the
Univttsity of Minnesota.

" You must have had a splendid time. Blodgett was a bit
dun."

" Where were you a librarian? " challengingly.

" St. Paul— the mam library."

"Honest? Oh dear, I wish I was back in the GtiesI This
is my first year of teaching, and I'm scared stiGf. I did have
the best time in college: dramatics and basket-ball and fussmg
ami dancing — I'm simply crazy about dancing. And here,
except when I have the kids in gymnasium class, or when I'm
chaperoning the basl^et-ball team on a trip out-of-town, I won't
d^ure to move above a whisper, ^jy^^ thfiy ^^" *^ ^''^ mitr^
if you puTany^ pty into tearhing nr not, ag Inng as ymi look
like a Good Influence out of gchQol-hours~-and that means
never doing anything you want to. This normal course is
bad enougETbiit the regular school will be fierce/ If it wasn't
too late to get a job in the Cities, I swear I'd resign here.
I bet I won't dare to go to a single dance all winter. If I cut
loose and danced the way I like to, they'd think I was a
perfect hellion— poor harmless mel Oh, I oughtn't to be
talking like this. Fern, you never could be cagey! "'

" Don't be frightened, my dear! . . . Doesn't that
sound atrociously old and kind! I'm talking to you the way
Mrs. Westlake talks to me! That's having a husband and a
kitchen range, I su{^>ose. But I feel young, and I want to
dance like a — ^like a hellion? — too. So I sympathize."

Fern made a sound of gratitude. Carol inquired^ " What

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experience did you have with coDege dramatics? I tried to
start a kind of Little Theater here. It was dreadful. I must
tell you about it "

Two hours later, when Kennicott came over to greet Fern
and to yafm, '' Look here, Carrie, don't you suppose you better
be thinking about turning in? I've got a hard day tomorrow,"
the two were talking so intimately diat they constantly inter-
rupted each other.

As she went respectably home, convoyed by a husband, and
decorously holding up her skirts, Carol rejoiced, " Everjrthing

has changedl I have two friends, Fern and But who's

the other? That's queer; I thought there was Oh, how

absurdl "

She often passed Erik Valborg on the street; the brown
jersey coat became unremarkable. When she was driving with
Kennicott, in early evening, she saw him on the lake shore,
reading a thin book which might easily have been poetry. She
noted that he was the only person in the motorized town who
still took long walks.

She told herself that she was the daughter of a judge, the
wife of a doctor, and that she did not care to know a a^>eriiig
tailor. She told herself that she was not responsive to men
. . . not even to Percy Bresnahan. She told hersdf
that a woman of thirty who heeded a boy of twenty-five was
ridiculous. And on Friday, when she had convinc^ hersdf
that the errand was necessary, she went to Nat Hicks's shop,
bearing the not very romantic burden of a pair of her husband's
trousers. Hicks was in the back room. She faced the Greek
(pCKi who, in a somewhat ungodlike way, was stitching a coat
on a scaley sewing-machine, in a room of smutted plaster walls.

She saw that his hands were not in keeping widi a Hellenic
face. They were thick, roughened with needle and hot iron
and plow-handle. Even in the shop he persbted in his finery.
He wore a silk shirt, a topaz scarf, thin tan shoes.

This she absorbed while she was saying curtly, "Can I
get these pressed, please? "

Not rising from the sewing-machine he stuck out his hand,
mumbled, " When do you want them? "

"Oh, Monday."

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The adventure was over. She was marching out.

" What name? " he called after her.

He had risen and, despite the farcicality of Dr. Will Kenni-
cott's bulgy trousers draped over his arm, he had the grace
of a cat.

" Kennicott."

'^ Kennlcott. Oh I Oh say^ you're Mrs. Dr. Eennicott th^
aren't you? "

" Yes." She stood at the door. Now that she had carried
out her prq>osterous unpulse to see what he was like, she was
cold, she was as ready to detect familiarities as the virtuous
Miss Ella Stowbody.

" I've heard about you. Myrtle Cass was saying you got
%xp a dramatic club and gave a dandy play. I've sdways wished
I had a chance to belong to a Little Theater, and give some
European plays, or whimsical like Barrie, or a pageant."

He pronounced it " pagent""; he rhymed " pag " with " rag."

Carol nodded in the manner of a lady being kfod to a trades-
man, and one of her selves sneered, '^ Our Erik is indeed a lost
Jdin Keats."

He was appealing, '' Do you suppose it would be possible
to get up another dramatic dub thte coming fall? "

" Well, it might be worth thinking of." She came out of
her several conflicting poses, and said sincerely, '' There's a new
teacher, Miss Mullins, who might have some talent. That
would make three of us for a nucleus. If we could scrape up
half a dozen we might give a real play with a small cast Have
yoa had any experience? "

*^ Just a bum club that some of us got up in Minneapolis
when I was working there. We had one good man, an interior
deoNrator — ^maybe he was kind of sis and effeminate, but he

really was an artist, and we gave one dandy play. But I

Of course I've always had to work hard, and study by myself,
and I'm probably doppy, and I'd love it if I had training in
rdiearsing — I mean, the crankier the director was, the better
I'd like it. If you didn't want to use me as an actor, I'd love
to design the costumes. I'm crazy about fabrics — textures
and colors and designs."

She knew that he was trying to keep her from going, trying
to indicate that he was something more than a person to whom
one brought trousers for pressing. He besought:

" Some day I hope I can get away from thte fool repairing,

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wben I have the money saved up. I want to go East aiKi work
for some big dressmaker, and study art drawing, and become
a higb-class designer. Or do you think that's a kind of fiddlin'
ambition for a fdlow? I was brought up on a farm. And then
monkeyin' round with silks! I don't know. What do you
think? Myrtle Cass says you're awfully educated."

" I am. Awfully. Tell me: Have the boys made fun of
your ambition? "

She was seventy years old, and sexless, and more advisory
than Vida Sherwin.

" Well, they have, at that. They've jollied me a good deal,
here and Minneapolis both. They say dressmaking is ladies'
work. (But I was willing to get drafted for the war! I tried
to get in. But they rejected me. But I did try I } I thought
some of working up in a gents' furnishings store, and I had
a chance to travel on the road for a clothing house, but some-
how — ^I hate this tailoring, but I can't seem to get enthusiastk
about salesmanship. I keep thinking about a room in gray
oatmeal paper with prints in very narrow gold frames— or
wotdd it be better in white enamel paneling?— but anyway, it

looks out on Fifth Avenue, and I'm designing a sumptuous ^

He made it " sump-too-ous " — ^^ robe of linden ^en chi£foQ
over cloth of gold I You know — tiled. It's el^ant. . . •
What do you think? "

''Why not? What do you care for the opinion of city
rowdies, or a lot of farm boys? But you mustn't, you really
mustn't, let casual strangers like me have a chance to judge
you."

" Well You aren't a stranger, one way. M)rrtle Cass

— ^Miss Cass, should say— -^e's spoken about you so often. I
wanted to call on you — and the doctor — ^but I didn't quite
have the nerve. One evening I walked past your house, but
you and your husband wtte talking on the porch, and you
looked so chtunmy and happy I didn't dare butt in."

Maternally, "I think it's extremely nice of you to want
to be trained in — in enunciation by a stage-director. Perhaps
I could hdp you. I'm a thorou^ly sound and iminspired
schoolma'am by instinct; quite hc^essly mature."

" Oh, you aren't eUhert "

She was not very successful at accepting his fervor with the
air of amused woman of the world, but she sounded reasonably
impersonal: '' Thank you. Shall we see if we really can gk

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np a new dramatic dub? Ill tell you: Come to the house this
evening, about eig^t. Ill ask Miss Mullins to come over, and
^ell talk about it."

'< He has absolutely no sense of humor. Less than Will. But

hasn't he What is a * sense of humor ' ? Isn't the thing

he lacks the back-slapping jocosity that passes for humor here?

Anyway Poor lamb, coaxing me to stay and play with

him I Poor lonely lamb I If he could be free from Nat Hickses,
from people who say ' dandy ' and ' bum/ would he develop?

" 1 wonder if Whitman didn't use Brocddyn back-street ^ang,
as a boy?

''No. Not Whitman. He's Keats— sensitive to silken
things. * Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes as are the
tiger-moth's deq>-damask'd wings.' Keats, here! A bewildered,
^irit fallen on Main Street. And Main Street laughs till itj|
aches, giggles till the ^irit doubts his own self and tries to give;
up the use of wings for the correct uses of a * gents' f umishing»i
store.' Gopher Prairie with its celebrated eleven miles orJ
cement walk. ... I wonder how much of the cementj
is made out of the tombstones of John Keatses? " '

Kennicott was cofdial to Fern Mullins, teased her, told her
he was a ''great hand for running oGf with pretty school-
teachers," and promised that if the school-board should object
to her dancing, he would " bat 'em one over the head and tell
'em how lucky they were to get a girl with some go to her, for

But to Erik Valborg he was not cordial. He shook hands
loosdy, and said, "H' are yuh."

Nat Hicks was socially acceptable; he had been here
years, and owned his shop; but this person was merely Nat'
workman, and the town's principle of perfect democracy was
not meant to be applied indiscriminately.

The conference on a dramatic club theoretically included
Koonicott, but he sat back, patting yawns, conscious of Fern's
ankles, smiling amiably on the children at their sport.

Fern want^ to tell her grievances; Carol was sulky every

fori

wasl ^\

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time she thought of " The Girl from Kankakee ''; it was Erik
who made suggestions. He had read with astdunding breadth,
and astounding lack of judgment. His voice Was sensitive to
liquids, but he overused the word ''glorious.^ He mispro-
nounced a tenth of the words he had from books, but he knew
it. He was insistent, but he was shy.

When he demanded, ** I'd like to stage ' Siq)pressed Desires,'
by Cook and Miss Glaspell,'' Carol ceased to be patronizing.
He was not the yeamer: he was the artist, sure of his vision.
*^ I'd make it simple. Use a big window at the back, with a
^dorama of a blue that would simply hit you in the ey^
and just one tree-branch, to suggest a park below. Put the
breakfast table on a dais. Let the colors be kind of arty and
tea-roomy — orange chairs, and orange and blue table, and blue
Japanese breakfast set, and some place, one big flat smear of
black — bang I Oh. Another play I wish we could do is Texmy-

son Jesse's 'The Black Mask.' I've never seen it but

Glorious ending, where this woman looks at the man witli his
face all blown away, and she just gives one horrible scream.**

'' Good God, is that your idea of a glorious ending? " bayed
Eennicott.

'' That sounds fiercel I do love artistic things, but not the
horrible ones," moaned Fern Mullins.

Erik was bewildered; glanced at Ouol. She nodded loyally.

At the end of the conference they had decided nothing.

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CHAPTER XXIX

She had walked up the railroad track with Hugh, this Sunday
afternoon.

She saw Erik Valborg coming, in an ancient highwater suit,
tramping sullenly and alone, striking at the rails wiUi a stick.
For a second she unreasoningly wanted to avoid him, but &he
kq>t on; and she serenely talked about God, whose voice, Hugh
asserted, made the humming in the telegraph wires. Erik
stared, straightened. They greeted each other with '^ Hello.''

" Hugh, say how-do-you-do to Mr. Valborg."

" Oh, dear me, he's got a button imbuttoned," worried Erik,
kneeling. Carol frowned, then noted the strength with which
he swimg the baby in the air.

" May I walk along a piece with you? "

'Tm tired. Let's rest on those ties. Then I must be trotting
back."

They sat on a heap of discarded railroad ties, oak logs
spotted with cinnamon-colored dry-rot and marked with me-
tallic brown streaks where iron plates had rested. Hu^
learned that the pile was the hiding-place of Injuns; he went
gunning for them while the elders talked of uninteresting
things.

The telegraph wires thrummed, thrummed, thrummed above
them; the rails were glaring hard lines; the goldenrod smelled
dusty. Across the track was a pasture of dwarf clover and
sparse lawn cut by earthy cow-paths; beyond its placid narrow
green, the rough immensity of new stubble, jagged with wheat-
stacks like huge pineapples.

Erik talked of books; flamed like a recent convert to any
faith. He exhibited as many titles and authors as possible,
halting only to appeal, ^' Have you read his last book? Don't
you think he's a terribly strong writer? "

She was dizzy. But when he insisted, "You've been a
librarian; tell me; do I read too much fiction? " she advised
him loftily, rather discursively. He had, she indicated, never

341

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studied. He had skipped from one emotion to another. Es-
pecially — she hesitated, then flung it at him — ^he must not guess
at pronunciations; he must endure the nuisance of st(^>ping to
reach for the dictionary.

" I'm talking like a cranky teacher/' she sighed.

" No! And I will study 1 Read the damned dictionary ri^t
through.'' He crossed his legs and bent over, clutching his
ankle with both hands. " I know what you mean. I've been
rushing from picture to picture, like a Idd let loose in an art
gallery for the first time. You see, it's so awful recent that
IVe found there was a world — ^well, a world where beautiful
things counted. I was on the farm till I was nineteen. Dad
is a good farmer, but nothing else. Do you know why he first
sent me off to learn tailoring? I wanted to study drawing,
and he had a cousin that'd made a lot of money tailoring out
in Dakota, and he said tailoring was a lot like drawing, so be
sent me down to a punk hole called Curlew, to work in a
tailor shop. Up to that time I'd only had three months' school-
ing a year — ^walked to school two miles, through snow up to
my knees — and Dad never would stand for my having a single
book except schoolbooks.

" I never read a novel till I got ^ Dorothy Vernon of Hadd<Hi
Hall' out of the library at Curlew. I thought it was die
loveliest thing in the world! Next I read ' Barriers Burned
Away' and then Pope's translation of Homer. Some com-
bination, all right! When I went to Minneapolis, just two
years ago, I guess I'd read pretty much everything in that
Curlew library, but I'd never heard of Rossetti or John Sargent

or Balzac or Brahms. But Yump, I'll study. Look here!

Shall I get out of this tailoring, this pressing and repairing? "

" I don't see why a surgeon should spend very much time
cobbling shoes."

** But what if I find I can't really draw and design? After
fussing around in New York or Chicago, I'd feel like a fool
if I had to go back to work in a gents' furnishings store! ^

" Please say * haberdashery.' "

" Haberdashery? All right. Ill rememba-." He shrugged
and spread his fingers wide.

She was humbled by his humility; she put away in her
mind, to take out and worry over later, a ^>eculation as to
whether it was not she who was naive. She urged, "What
if you do have to go back? Most of us do! We can't all

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be artists — ^myself, for instance. We have to dam socks, and
yet we're not content to think of nothing but socks and darning-
cotton. I'd demand all I could get — ^whether I finally settl^
down to designing frocks or building temples or pressing pants.
What if you do drop back? YouTl have had the adventure.
iDon't be too meek toward life! Go! You're young, you're
unmarried. Try everything! Don't listen to Nat Hicl^ and
Sam Qark and be a ' steady young man ' — ^in order to help
them make money. You're still a blessed innocent. Go and
play till the Good People capture you! '|

^^ But I don't just want to play. I want to make something
beautiful. God! And I don't Imow enough. Do you get it?
Do you understand? Nobody else ever hasl Do you under-
stand? "

"Yes."

" And so— But here's what bothers me: I like fabrics;
dinky thmgs like that; little drawings and elegant words. But
look over there at those fields. Big! New! Don't it seem
kind of a shame to leave this and go back to the East and
Enroptf and do what all those people have been doing so long?
Being careful about words, when diere's millions of bushels of
wheat here! Reading this fellow Pater, when I've helped Dad
to dear fields! "

" It's good to clear fields. But it's not for you. (it's one
of our favorite American m3rths that broad plains necessarily
make broad minds, and hi^ mountains make high purpose.
I thought that myself, when I first came to the prairie. ' Big —
new.' Oh, I don't want to deny the prairie future. It will
be magnificent. But equally T^rnjiflnged 'f J want t o bg buHifid
by it, m to war o n beflaltjoi Main St^ and bvUied

by t firiaith that Wt future is alrea dy her e in theljfeseht, and 1 "
that a u of us m ust stay and worship wheat-sta cks and insist^^
that th is IS 'Go d's Countr y ^-^n d never, of coufgerdo any-^'^
thing Oflglbal oT^y-cdlpred that .W6Uld help*^ to make* that
future! An3nvay, you don't belong here. |Sam Oark and Nat
£Qci3, that's what our big newness has produced. Go! Before
it's too late, as it has been for — for some of us. Young man, JL
go East and grow up with the revolution! Then perhaps your^
may come back and tell Sam and Nat and me what to do with
the land we've been clearing — if well listen — ^if we don't lynch
you first! "I

He looked at her reverently. She could hear him saying,

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''I've always wanted to know a woman who would talk to
me like that."

Her hearing was faulty. He was saying nothing of the sort
He was saying:

" Why aren't you happy with your husband? "

« I— you "

''He doesn't care for the 'blessed innocent' part of you,
does he!"

" Erik, you mustn't "

" First you tell me to go and be free, and then you say that
I ' mustn't ' I "

" I know. But you mustn't You must be more im-
personal I "

He glowered at her like a downy young owl. She wasn't
sure but she thought that he muttered, '^ I'm damned if I will.''
She considered with wholesome fear the perils of meddling with
other people's destinies, and she said timidly, "Hadn't we
better start back now? "

He mused, " You're younger than I anu Your lips are for
songs about rivers in the morning and lakes at twilight. I don't
see how anybody could ever hurt you. . . . Yes. We
better go."

He trudged beside her, his eyes averted. Hugh experi-
mentally took his thumb. He looked do¥m at the baby seri-
ously. He burst out, " All right. Ill do it. Ill stay here
one year. Save. Not spend so much money on clothes. And
then 111 go East, to art-school. Work on the side — ^tailor shop,
dressmaker's. Ill learn what I'm good for: designing doth^
stage-settings, illustrating, or selling collars to fat men. AU
setded." He peered at her, unsmiling.

" Can you stand it here in town for a year? "

"With you to look at?"

" Please! I mean: Don't the people here think you're an
odd bird? (They do me, I assure you!) "

" I don't know. I never notice much. Oh, ihey do kid me
about not beiilg in the army — e^)ecially the old warhorses, the
old men that aren't going themselves. And this Bogart boy.
And Mr. Hicks's son — ^he's a horrible brat. But probably he's
licensed to say what he thinks about his father's hired man! "

"He'sb^dy!"

They were in town. They passed Aunt Bessie's house. Aunt
Bessie and Mrs. Bogart were at the window, and Carol saw

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tbat they were staring so intently that they answered her wave
only with the stiffly raised hands of automatons. In the next
block Mrs. Dr. Westlake was gaping from her porch. Carol
said with an embarrassed quaver:

** I want to run in and see Mrs. Westktke. Ill say good-by
here."

She avoided his eyes.

Mrs. Westlake was affable. Carol fdt that she was expected
to explain; and whQe she was moitally asserting that she'd
be hanged if she'd explain, she was explaining:

** Hv^ captured that Valborg boy up the track. They be-
came siKh good friends. And I talked to him for a while. I'd
heard he was eccentric, but really, I found him quite intelligent.
Crude, but he reads — reads almost the way Dr. Westlake does."

'' That's fine. Why does he stick here in town? What's
this I hear about his being interested in Myrtle Cass? "

^ I don't know. Is he? I'm sure he isn't! He said he was
quite lonelyl Besides, M3rrtle is a babe in arms! "

" Twenty-one if she's a dayl "

^Well Is the doctor going to do any huntmg this

fall?"

The need of explaining Erik dragged her back into doubting.
For all his ardent reading, and his ardent life, was he anything
but a small-town youth bred on an illiberal farm and in cheap
tailor shops? I He had rough hands. She had been attracted
only by hands that were fine and suave, like those of her father.
Delicate hands and resolute purpose. But this bpy-^>owerful
seamed hands and flabby will.f

** It's not appealing weakness like his, but sane strength that

will animate the Gopher Prairies. Only {Does that mean

aiQTthing? Or am I echoing Vida? The world has always let
' strong ' statesmen and soldiers — the men with strong voices —
take control, and what have the thundering boobies done?
What is* strength'?!

<< This classifying of peoplel I suppose tailors differ as much-
as burglars or kings.

''Erik frightened me when he turned on me. Of course
he didn't mean anything, but I mustn't let him be so perscMiaL

** Amazing inq>atinencel

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'' But he didn't mean to be.

'^His hands are firm. I wonder if sculptors don't have
thick hands, too?

^ Of course if th^re really is anything I can do to hdp
the boy

^Though I despise these people who interfere. He must
be independent."

She wasn't altogether pleased, the week after, when Erik was
independent and, without asking for her inspiration, planned
the tennis tournament. It proved that he had learned to play
in Minneapolis; that, next to Juanita Haydock, he had tte
best serve in town. Tennb was well spoken of in GofAtf
Prairie and almost never played. There were three courts:
one belonging to Harry Haydock, one to the cottages at Ihe
lake, and one, a rough field on the outskirts, laid out by a
defunct tennis association.

Erik had been seen in flannels and an imitaticm panama hat,
pla3dng on the abandoned court with Willis Woodford, die derk
in Stowbody's bank. Suddenly he was going about proposing
the reorganization of the tennis association, and writing names
in a fifteen-cent note-book bought for the purpose at Dyer's.
When he came to Carol he was so excited over being an
organizer that he did not stop to talk of himsdf and Aubrey
Beardsley for more than ten minutes. He begged, " Will you
get some of the folks to come in? " and she nodded agreeably.

He proposed an informal exhibition match to advertise the
association; he suggested that Carol and himself, the Hajfdocks,
the Woodfords, and the Dillons play doubles, and that the
association be formed from the gathered enthusiasts. He had
asked Harry Haydock to be tentative president. Harry, he
rqx)rted, had promised, " All right. You bet But you go
ahead and arrange things, and I'll O.K. 'em." Erik planned
that the match should be held Saturday afternoon, on the dd
public court at the edge of town. He was hai^y in being, for
the first time, part of Gopher Prairie.

Tbrou^ the wedc Carol heard how sdect an attendance
there was to be.

Kennicott growled that he didn't care to go.

Had he any objections to her playing with Erik?

No; sure not; die needed the exercise.

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Carol went to the match early. The court was in a meadow
out on the New Antonia road. Only Erik was there. He was
dashing about with a rake, trying to make the court somewhat
less like a plowed fidd. He admitted that he had stage-
fri^t at the thought of the coming horde. Willis and Mrs.
Woodford arrived, Willis in home-made knidcers and black
sneakers through at the toe; then Dr. and Mrs. Harvey Dillon,
people as harmless and grateful as the Woodfords.

Carol was embarrassed and excessively agreeable, like the
bishop's lady trying not to fed out of place at a Baptist
bazaar.

They waited.

The match was scheduled for three. As ^>ectators there as-
sonbled one youthful grocery derk, stopping his Ford delivery
wagon to stare from the seat, and one solemn smsdl boy, tug*
ging a smaller sister who had a careless nose.

^ I wonder where the Haydocks are? They ou^t to show
vp, at least," said Erik.

Carol smiled confidently at him, and peered down the empty
road toward town. Only heat-waves and dtist and dus^
weeds.

At half-past three no one had come, and the grocery boy
rductantly got out, cranked his Ford, ^red at them in a
disillusioned manner, and rattled away. The small boy and hh-
sister ate grass and si^ed«

The players pretended to be exhilarated by practising serv-
ice, but they startled at each dust-doud from a motor car.
None of the cars turned into the meadow— none till a quarter
to four, when Kennicott drove in.

Carol's heart swelled. ^^ How loyal he isj Depend on himi
He'd come, if nobody else did. Even thou^ he doesn't care
for the game. The old darlingi **

Kennicott did not ali^t. He called out, ^^ Carriel Hany
Haydock phoned me that they Ve dedded to hold the tennis
matches, or whatever you call 'em, down at the cottages at the
lake, instead of here. The bunch are down there now: Hay-
docks and Dyers and Clarks and evaybody. Harry wanted ta
know if I'd bring you down. I guess I can take the time —
come right back after supper."

Before Carol could sum it all up, Erik stammered, " Why,.
Haydock didn't say an3rthing to me about the change. Of
course he's the president^ but "

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Kennicott looked at him heavily, and grunted, *^'l don't know
a thing about it. . • . Coming, Carrie? ''

'^ I am noil The match was to be here, and it will be herel
You can tell Harry Haydock that he's beastly rude! " She
rallied the five who had been left out, who would always be
left out. '^ Come oni Well toss to see which four of us {day
the Only and Original First Annual Tennis Tournament of
Forest Hills, Del Monte, and G<q>her Prairiel "

" Don't know as I blame you,^ said Komicott. " Well
have supper at home then? " He drove off.

She hated him for his conq)osure. He had ruined ha de-
fiance. She felt mudi less like Susan B. Anthony as she turned
to her huddled foUowers.

Mrs. Dillon and Willis Woodford lost the toss. The others
played out the game, slowly, painfully, stumbling on the rough
earth, muffing the easiest shots, watched only by the small b^
and his sniveling sister. Beyond the court stretched the eternal
stubble-fields. The four marionettes, awkwardly going through
exercises, insignificant in the hot sweep of contemptuous lai^
were not heroic; their voices did not ring out in the score, but
sounded apologetic; and when the game was over th^ glanced
about as ihou^ they were waiting to be laughed at.

They walked home. Carol took Erik's arm. Through her
thin linen sleeve she could fed the crunq>ly warmth of bis
familiar brown jersey coat. She observ^ that there were
purple and red-gold threads interwoven with the brown. She
remembered the first time she had seen it

Their talk was nothing but improvisations on the theme:
'^ I never did like this Haydock. He just consider^ his own
convenience." Ahead of them, the Dillons and Woodfords
spoke of the weather and B. J. Gougerling's new bungalow. No
one referred to their tennis tournament At her gate Carol
shook hands firmly with Erik and smiled at him.

Next morning, Sunday morning, when Carol was on the
porch, the Haydocks drove up.

" We didn't mean to be rude to you, deariel " in^dored
Juanita. " I wouldn't have you diink that for ai^thing. We
planned that Will and you should come down and lutve svppts
at our cottage.**

" No. I'm sure you didn't mean to be." Carol was super-
neighborly. '^ But I do think you ought to apologize to poor
Erik Valborg. He was terribly hurt"

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^Oh. Valborg. I don't care so much what he thinks/'
objected flarry. ^'He's nothing but a conceited buttinsky.
Juanita and I kind of figured he was tiying to run thb
tennis thing too dam much anyway."

" But you asked him to make arrangements."

^* I know, but I don't like hiuL Good Lord, you couldn^i
hurt his fedingsl He dresses up like a chorus man — and, I
by goUy, he looks like onel— but he's nothing but a Swede farmi
boy, and these foreigners^ they all got hides like a covey of iV
rhinoceroses."

" But he is hurt! "

** Wdl I don't suppose I oug^t to have gone off half-
cocked, and not jollied Um along. Ill give him a cigar.
Hell ^"

Juanita had been licking her 1^ and staring at Carol. She
intemq>ted her husband, ''Yes, I do dunk Harry ou^t to
fix it iq> with him. You like him, dot^t you, Carol? "

Over and throu^ Carol ran a fri^tened cautiousness.
*^ Like him? I haven't an f-dea. He seems to be a very decent
young man. I just fdt that when he'd worked so hard on
the plans for the match, it was a shame not to be nice to him."

** Maybe there's something to that," mumbled Harry; then,
at sig^t of Kennicott coming round the comer tugging the red
garden hose by its brass nozzle, he roared in relief, '' What
d' you think you're trying to do, doc? "

WhQe Kennicott explained in detail all that he thought he
was tiying to do, while he mbbed his chin and gravely stated,
^ Struck me the grass was looking kind of brown in patches —
didn't know but what I'd give it a ^>rinkling," and whfle
Harry agreed that this was an excellent idea, Juanita made
friendly noises and, behuid the gilt screen of an affectionate
smile, watched Carol's face.

She wanted to see Erik. She wanted some one to play withi
There wasn't even so dignified and sound an excuse as
having Kennicott's trousers pressed; when she inspected them,
all th-ee pairs looked discouragingly neat. She probably
would not have ventured on it had ^e not spied Nat Hicb
in the pool-parlor, being witty over bottle-pool. Erik was
alonel She fluttered toward ttie tailor shop, dashed into its

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slovenly heat with the comic fastidiousness of a hnmmiiig bird
dipping into a dry tiger-lily. It was after she had entered
that she found an excuse.

Erik was in the back room, cross-legg^ on a long table, sew-
ing a vest. But he looked as thouj^ he w^e doing this ec-
centric thing to amuse himself.

^' Hello. I wonder if you couldn't plan a ^>orts-suit for
me? " she said breathlessly.

He stared at her; he protested, " No, I won'tl God! I^
not going to be a tailor with youl ''

^^Why, Erikt " she said, like a mildly shocked motha:.

It occurred to her that she did not need a suit, and that
the order mi^t have been hard to explain to Kennicott.

He swung down from the table. ^^I want to show you
something." He rummaged in the roU-top desk on whidi Nat
Hicks kept bills, buttons, calendars, buckles, thread-channeled
wax, shotgun shells, samples of brocade for "fancy vests,"
fishing-reels, pornographic post-cards, shreds of buckram lin-
ing. He pulled out a blurred sheet of Bristol board and
anxiously gave it to her. It was a sketch for a frock. It
was not well drawn; it was too finicking; the pillars in the
backgroimd were grotesque^ squat But the frock had an
original back, very low, with a central triangular section from
the waist to a string of jet beads at the neck.

" It's stunning. But how it would shock Mrs. Clark! "
'"Yes, wouldn't it!"

" You must let yourself go more when you're drawii^."

"Don't know if I can. I've started kind of late. But
listen I What do you think I've done this two weeks? I've
read almost clear through a Latin grammar, and about twenty
pages of Caesar."

" Splendid ! You are lucky. You haven't a teacher to make
you artificial."

" You're my teacher! "

There was a dangerous edge of personality to his voice.
She was offended and agitated. She turned her shoulda: on
him, stared throu^ the back window, studying this typical
center of a typical Main Street block, a vista hidden from
casual strollers. The backs of the chief establidmients in town
surrounded a quadrangle neglected, dirty, and incomparably
dismal. From the front, Howland & Gould's grocery was
smug enough, but attached to the rear was a lean-to of stonn-

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streaked pine lumber with a sanded tar roof — a staggering
donbtftd shed behind which was a heap of ashes, splintered
packing-boxes, shreds of excdsior, cnm^lal straw-board,
broken olive-bottles, rotten fruit, and utterly disintegrated
vegetables: orange carrots turning black, and potatoes with
ulcers. The rear of the Bon Ton Store was grim with blistered
Uack-painted iron shutters, under them a pOe of once ^ossy
red shirt-boxes, now a pul^ from recent rain.

As seen from Main Street, Oleson & McGuire's Meat Market
had a sanitary and virtuous eq>ression with its new tfle
•counter, fresh sawdust on the floor, and a hatnging veal cut
in rosettes. But she now viewed a back room witih a home-
made refrigerator of yellow smeared with black grease. A man
in an apron spotted with diy blood was hoisting out a hard
slab of meat.

Behind Billy's Lunch, the cook, in an s^ron which must
long ago have been white, smoked a pipe and ^>at at the
pest of sticky flies. In the center of the block, by itself, was
the stable for the three horses of the drayman, and beside it a
pile of manure.

The rear of Ezra Stowbody's bank was whitewashed, and
back of it was a concrete walk and a three-foot square of
grass, but the wmdow was barred, and behind the bars she
saw Willis Woodford cramped over figures in pompous books.
He raised his head, jerkily rubbed bis ores, and went back
to the eternity of figures. .

The backs of the other shops were an inq>resstonistic picture I
of dirty grays, drained browns, writhing heaps of refuse. I

" Mine is a back-yard romance — with a journeyman tailor! ** '

She was saved from self-pity as she began to think through
Erik's mind. She turned to him with an indignant, ''It's
disgusting/that this is all you have to look at."

He co&dered it. ^' Outside there? _I don^t notice much.
Fm l earning to look inside. Not awful easyl "

" YS: .. n must be~Burrymg.^

As she walked home — ^without hurr3ring — she remembered
her father saying to a serious ten-year-old Carol, " Lady, only
a fool thinks he's superior to beautiful bindings, but only a
double-distilled fool reads nothing but bindings." «

She was startled by the return of her father, startled by a
sudden conviction that in this flaxen boy she had found
the gray reticent judge who was divine love, perfect under-

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standing. She debated it^ furiously denied it, reaffirmed it,
, ridiculed it. Of one thing she was nnhappOy certain: there
was nothing of the beloved father image in Will Eomicott

She wondered why she sang so often, and yAxy she foond
so many pleasant things — ^lampli^t seen though trees on
a cool evening, sunshine on brown wood, morning sparrows,
blade sloping roofs turned to plates of silver by moonlis^t
Pleasant things, small friendly things, and pleasant pla£es--a
fidd of goldenrod, a pasture by the credL — ^and swldenly a
wealth of pleasant people. Vida was lenient to Card at the
surgical-<iressing dass; Mrs. Dave Dyer flattered her with
questions about her health, baby, cook, and (pinions on the
war.

Mrs. Dyer seemed not to share the town^ prejudice agaimt
Erik. '' He's a nice-looking fellow; we must have him go on
one of our picnics some time.'' Une]q>ectedly, Dave Dyer abo
liked him. The ti^^t-fisted little farceur had a confused rever-
ence for anything that seemed to him refined or dever. He
answer^ Harry Haydock's sneers, "That's all ri^t now!
Elizabeth may doll himsdf up too much, but he's smart, and
don't you forget itl I was asking round trying to find
out where this Ukraine is, and darn if he didn't tell me.
What's the matter with his talking so polite? Hell's bdb,
Harry, no harm in being polite. There's some regular he-
men that are just as polite as women, prett' near."

Carol found hersdf going about rejoicing, " How nd^bocly
the town isl " She drew up with a dismayed " Am I falling in
k>ve with this boy? That's ridiculousi I'm merdy interested
in him. I like to think of hdping him to succeed."

But as she dusted the living-room, mended a collar-band,
bathed Hugh, she was picturing herself and a young arti^ —
an Apollo namdess and evasive---building a house in the Berk-
shires or in Virginia; exuberantly buying a chair with his
first check; reading poetry together, arid frequently being
earnest over valuable statistics about labor; tumbling out cS
bed early for a Sunday walk, and chattering (where Kennicott
would have jrawned) ova- bread and butter by a lake. Huj^
was in her pictures, and he adored the young artist, who made
castles of chairs and rugs for him. Beyond these plajrtimes

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die saw the '' things I could do for Erik ''—and she admitted
that Erik did partly make up the image of her altogether perfect
artist

In panic she insisted on being attentive to Kennicott, when
he wanted to be left akme to read the new^>aper.

She needed new clothes. Eennicott had i^omised, '' Well
have a good trip down to the Cities in the fall, and take plenty
of time for it, and you can get your new glad-rags then." But
as she examined her wardrobe she flung her ancient black
velvet frock on the floor and raged, '' They're disgraceful
Everjrthing I have is falling to pieces."

There was a new dressmaker and mflliner, a Mrs. Swift-
waite. It was said that she was not altogether an elevating
influence in the way she glanced at men; that she would as
soon take away a legally af^ropriated husband as not; that if
there was any Mr. Swif twaite, ** it certainly was strange that
nobody seemed to know anytUng about himi " But ^e had
made for Rita Gould an organdy frock and hat to match
universally admitted to be ^' too cunning for words," and the
matrons went cautiously, with darting eyes and excesdve
politeness, to the rooms which Mrs. Swiftwaite had taken in
the old Luke Dawson house, on Floral Avenue.

With none of the ^iritual preparation which normally pre-
cedes the buying of new clothes in G<q>her Prairie, Carol
marched into Mrs. Swiftwaite's, and demanded, ^'I want to
see a hat, and possibly a blouse."

In the dingy old front parlor which she had tried to make
smart with a pier glass, covers from fashion magazines,
anemic French prints, Mrs. Swiftwaite moved smoothly among
the dress-dummies and hat-rests, spoke smoothly as she took
up a small black and red turban. ^ I am sure the lady will
fiod this extremely attractive."

"It's dreadfully tabby and small-towiqr," thought Carol,
while she soothed, " I don't believe it quite goes with me."

" It's the choicest thing I have, and I'm sure you'll find
it suits you beautifully. It has a great deal of ckic. Please
try it on," said Mrs. Swiftwaite, more smoothly than ever.

Carol studied the woman. She was as imitative as a glass
diamond. She was the more rustic in her effort to appear

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urban. She wore a sevae hig^-cdlared blouse with a row of
small black buttons, which was becoming to ha: low-breasted
slim neatness, but her skirt was hysterically diecker^, her
cheeks were too highly rouged, her lips too sharply pencfled*
She was magnificoitly a specimen of the illiterate divorcee of
forty made up to look thir^, clever, and alluring.

While she was trying on die hat Caxci felt vay condescend-
ing. She took it off, shook her head, explained with the kind
smile for mferiors, '^ I'm afraid it won't do, though it's un-
usually nice for so small a town as this."

" But it's really absolutely New-Yorkish.'*

«WeD, it "

" You see, I know my New York styles. I lived in New
York for years, besides almost a year in Akron! "

^^ You did? " Carol was polite, and edged away, and went
home unhappily. She was wondering whether her own aus
were as lau^ble as Mrs. Swiftwaite's. She put on the eye-
glasses whidh Kennicott had recently given to her for reading,
and looked over a grocery bill. She went hastily up to her
room, to her mirror. She was in a mood of self-depredation.
Accurately or not, this was the picture she saw in the mirrOT:

Neat rimless eye-glasses. Black hair dumsily tucked under
a mauve straw hat which would have suited a spimter. Cheeks
clear, bloodless. Thin nose. Gentle mouth and chin. A
modest voile blouse with an edging of lace at the neck. A
virginal sweetness and timorousness — no flare of gaiety, no
suggestion of cities, music, quick lau^ter.

'' I have become a small-town woman. Absolute. Topical.
Modest and moral and safe. Protected from life. GetUed!
The Village Virus — ^the village virtuousness. My hair — just
scrambled together. What can Erik see in that wedded spinster
there? He does like mel Because I'm the only woman who'^
decent to him I How long before hell wake up to me? . . .
I've waked iq> to myself. . • . Am I as old as — as old
as I am?

'' Not really old. Become careless. Let mysifSd look tabby«

^'I want to chuck every stitch I own. Black hair and
pale cheeks — ^they'd go with a Spanish dancer's costume —
rose behind my ear, scarlet mantilla over cme shoulder, the
other bare."

She seized the rouge sponge, daubed ha chedLS, scratched at
her lq>s with the vermilion pencil until thqr stung, tore open

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her collar. She posed with her thin arms in the attitude of

the fandango. She dropped them sharply. She diook her head.

"My heart doesn't dance/' she said. She fluked as she

fastened her blouse.
" At least I'm much more graceful than Fern Mullins. N
" Heavens! When I came here from the Cities, girls imitated ]

me. Now I'm trying to imitate a dty girl." y

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CHAPTER XXX

Fern Mullins rushed into the house on a Saturday morning
early in September and shrieked at Carol, '^ School starts next
Tu^ay. I've got to have one more ^ree before I'm arrested.
Let's get iq> a picnic down the lake for this afternoon. Wont
you come, Mrs. Kennicott, and the doctOT? Cy Bogart wants
to go— he's a brat but he's lively."

''I don't think the doctor can go," sedatdy. '^He said
something about having to make a country call this afternoon.
But I'd love to."

"That's dandy! Who can we get?"

" Mrs. Dy^ mi^t be chaperon. She's been so nice. And
maybe Dave, if he could get away from the store."

" How about Erik Valborg? I tldnk he's got lots more style
than these town bo}rs. You like him all lij^t, don't you? "

So the picnic of Carol, Fern, Erik, Cy Bogart, and the
Dyers was not only moral but inevitable.

They drove to the birch grove on the south shore of Lake
Minniemashie. Dave Dyer was his most clownish sdf. He
yelped, jigged, wore Carol's hat, dropped an ant down Fern's
bade, and when th^r went swimming (the women modestly
changing in the car with the side curtains up, the men un-
dressing behind the bushes, constantly repeating, " Gee, hope
we don't run into poison ivy"), Dave splashed water on
them and dived to clutch his wife's ankle. He infected the
otha3. Erik gave an imitation of the Greek danc»3 he had
seen in vaude^le, and when th^r sat down to picnic sapper
q>read on a lap-robe on the grass^ Qy climbed a tree to throw
acorns at them.

But Carol could not frolic.

She had made hersdf young, with parted hair, sailor blouse
and large blue bow, white canvas shoes and short linen skirt
Her mirror had asserted that she looked exactly as she had in
college, that her throat was smooth, her collar-bone not very
noticeable. But she was under restraint Whoi they swam

35^

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she enjoyed the freshness of the water but she was irritated by
Cy's tricks, by Dave's excessive good q>irits. She admir^
Erik's dance; he could never betray bad taste, as Cy did, and
Dave. She waited for him to come to her. He did not come.
By his joyousness he had apparently oideared himself to
the Dyers. Maud watched him and, after siq>per, cried to
him, " Come sit down beside me, bad boyl " Carol winced
at Ills willingness to be a bad boy and come and sit, at his en-
josrment of a not very stimulating game in which Maud, Dave,
ami Cy snatched sUces of cold tongue from one another's
plates. Maud, it seemed, was sli^tly dizzy from the swim.
She remarked publidy, '' Dr. Kennicott has helped me so much
by putting me on a diet," but it was to Erik alone that she
gave the complete version of her peculiarity in being so sensi-
tive, so easily hurt by the sli^test aoss word, that she siiiq>ly
had to have nice cheery friends.

Erik was nice and cheery.

Carol assured herself, ''Whatever faults I may have, I
certainly couldn't ever be jealous. I do like Maud; she's
always so pleasant But I wonder if she isn't just a bit fond of
fishing for men's syn^athy? Playing with Erflc, and her
married Well But she looks at him in that languish-
ing, swooning, mid-Victorian way. Disgusting! "

Cy Bogart lay between the roots of a big birch, smoking his
I^>e and teasing Fern, assuring her that a wedc from now,
when he was again a hig^-school boy and she his teacher, he'd
wink at her in dass. Maud Dyer wanted Erik to '' come down
to the beach to see the darling little minnies." Carol was left
to Dave, who tried to entertain her with humorous accounts
of Ella Stowbo^'s fondness for chocolate peppermints. She
watched Maud Dyer put her hmd on Erik's shoulda* to steady
hersdf.

^ Disgustingl " she thou^t.

Cy Bogart covered Fern's nervous hand with his red paw, and
when she bounced with half-anger and shrieked, "Let go, I
teD you I " he grinned and waved his pipe — a gangling twenty-
year-old satyr.

" Disgusting! "

When Maud and Erik returned and the grouping shifted,
Erik muttered at Carol, '' There's a boat on ^ore. Let's skip
off and have a row."

"What will they think?" she worried. She saw Maud

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Dyer peer at Erik with moist possessive eyes. '^ Yesl Lef^l "
she said.

She cried to the party, with the canonical amount of sprig^t-
liness, " Good-by, everybody. Well wirdess you from China.**

As the rhythmic oars plopped and creaked, as she floated
on an unreality of delicate gray over which the sunset was
poured out thin, the irritation of Cy and Maud sliiq>ed away.
Erik smiled at her proudly. She consida*ed him— coatless, in
white thin shirt l^e was conscious of his male differentness,
of his flat masculine sides, his thin thighs, his easy rowing.
They talked of the library, of the movies. He hununed ai:^
she softly sang ''Swing Low, Sweet dariot." A breexe
shivered across the agate lake. The wrinkled water was like
armor damascened and polished. The breeze flowed round the
boat in a chill current Carol drew the collar of her middy
blouse over her bare throat.

'' Getting cold. Afraid well have to go back," she said.

"Let's not go back to them yet l^eyll be cutting up.
Let's keep along the shore."

'' But you enjoy the ' cutting up! ' Maud and you had a
beautiful time."

''Whyl We just walked on the sh(«e and talked about
flahingl"

She was relieved, and apologetic to her friend Maud. ^' Of
eomrse. I was joking."

'' 111 tell youl Let's land here and sit on the shore— that
bunch of hazel-brush will shelter us from the wind — and watdi
the sunset. It's like melted lead. Just a short whflel We
don't want to go back and listen to them I "

''No, but " She said nothing while he sped ashore.

The keel clashed on the stones. He stood on the forward seat,
holding out his hand. They were alone, in the ripple-lapping
silence. She rose slowly, slowly stq)ped over the water in the
bottom of the old boat. She took his hand confidently. Un-
speaking they sat on a bleached log, in a russet twilight yA^cb
hinted of autumn. Linden leaves fluttered about them.

" I wish Are you cold now? " he whiq)ered.

" A little." She shivered. But it was not with cold.

" I wish we could curl up in the leaves there, cov^ed all
up, and lie looking out at die dark."

" I wish we could." As thou^ it was ccnnfortably under-
stood that he did not mean to be taken seriously.

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^Like what all the poets say — brown n3anph and faun."

" No. I can't be a nynq>h any more. Too old &ik,

am I old? Am I faded and small-towny? "

"Why, you're the youngest Your eyes are like a

girFs. They're so — ^weU, I mean, like you believed every-
thing. Even if you do teach me, I feel a thousand years older
than you, instead of maybe a year younger."

" Four or five years younger! "

"An3rway, your eyes are so innocent and your cheeks so

soft Damn it, it makes me want to cry, somdiow, you're

so defenseless; and I want to protect you and There's

nothing to protect you against! "

"Am I young? Am I? Honestly? Truly?" She be-
trayed for a moment the childish, mock-imploring tone that
comes into the voice of the most seriotis woman when an
agreeable man treats her as a girl; the childish tone and
cUldish pursed-up lips and shy lift of the cheek.

"Yes, you are!"

"You're dear to believe it. Will— £H*/"

"Wffl you play with me? A lot?"

"Perhaps."

** Would you really like to curl in the leaves and watch the
stars swing by overhead? "

" I think it's rather better to be sitting here! " He twmed
his fingers with hers. "And Erik, we must go back."

"Why?"

"It's somewhat late to outline all the history of social
custom! "

" I know. We must. Are you glad we ran away thou^? "

*^ Yes." She was quiet, perfectly simple. But she rose.

He circled her waist with a brusque arm. She did not resist.
She did not care. |He was neither a peasant tailor, a potential
artist, a social complication, nor a pail. He was himself, and
in him, in the personality flowing from him, she was unreason-
ingly contoit. In his nearness she caught a new view of his
head; the last li^t brought out the planes of his neck, his
flat ruddied cheeks, the side of his nose, the dq)ression of his
tenq>les. Not as coy or uneasy lovers but as companions they
walked to the boat, and he lifted her up on the prow.|

She began to talk intently, as he rowed: " Erik, you've got
to work! You ought to be a personage. You're robbed of
your kingdom* Fig^t tor it! Take one of these correspon-

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dence courses in drawing — ^tbey mayn't be any good in tbem-
sdves, but they'll make you try to draw and- — "
* As they reached the picnic ground she perceived that it was
darky that they had been gone for a long time.

" What will they say? " she wondered.

The others greeted them with the inevitable storm of humor
and slight vexation: '' Where the deuce do you think you've
been? " " You're a fine pair, you are I " Erik and Card
looked self-conscious; failed in their efifort to be witty. All the
way home Carol was embarrassed. Once Cy winked at her.
That Cy, the Peeping Tom of the garage-loft, should consider

her a feUow-sinner She was furious and frightened and

exultant by turns, and in all her moods certain that Kennicott
would read her adventuring in her face.

She came into the house awkwardly defiant

Her husband, half asleep under the lamp, greeted her, '^ Wdl,
well, have nice time? "

She could not answer. He looked at her. But his lodk
did not sharpen. He began to wind his watch, yawning the old
" Weimill, guess it's about time to turn in."

That was all. Yet she was not glad. She was almost dbap-
pointed.

Mrs. Bogart called next day. She had a hen-like, crumb-
pecking, diligent appearance. Her smOe was too innoc^it Hie
pecking started instantly:

*' Cy says you had lots of fun at the picnic yesterday. Did
you enjoy it? "

'' Oh yes. I raced Cy at swimming. He beat- me badly.
He's so strong, fan't he I "

" Poor boy, just crazy to get into the war, too, but

This Erik Valborg was along, wa'n't he? "

"Yes."

" I think he's an awful handsome fellow, and they say bels
smart. Do you like him? "

" He seems very polite."

" Cy says you and him had a lovdy boat-ride. My, that
must have been pleasant." -

" Yes, except tiiat I couldn't get Mr. Valborg to say a word.
I wanted to ask him about the suit Mr. Hicb is making for

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my husband. But he insisted on singing. Still, it was restful,
floating around on the water and singing. So l^appy and 1%
nocent Don't you think it's a shame, Mrs. Bogart, that people
in this town don't do more nice dean things like that, instead
of all this horrible gossiping? " '

"Yes. . . . Yes."

Mrs. Bogart sounded vacant. Her bonnet was awry; she
was incomparably dowdy. Carol stared at her, felt contemp-
tuous, ready at last to rebel against the trap, and as the rusty
goodwife fished again, " Plannin' some more picnics? " she
flung out, '' I haven't the slightest ideal Oh. Is that Hugh
cryiiig? I must run up to Um."

But up-stairs she remembered that Mrs. Bogart had seen her
walking with Erik from the raihroad track into town, and she
f^as chilly with disquietude.

At the Jolly Seventeen, two days after, she was effusive to
Maud Dyer, to Juanita Haydock. She fancied that evay one
was watching her, but she could not be sure, and in rare strong
moments she did not care. She could rebel against the town's
prying now that she had something, however indistinct, for
which to rebel.

In a pagfiionflte ^cap^ ^ere must be not only a place from
which to flee but a p lace-io whirh t n flee - She had known
that she would gladly leave Gopher Prairie, leave Main Street
and all that it signified, but she had had no destination. She
had one now. That destination was not Erik Valborg and the
love of Erik. She continued to assure herself that she wasn't
in love with him but merely " fond of him, and interested in
his success." |Yet in him she had discovered both her need of
youth and the fact that youth would welcome her. It was not .
Erik to whom she must escape, but imiversal and joyous youth,'x
in class-rooms, in studios, in offices, in meetings to protest
against Things in General. . • • But universal and joyous
youth rather resembled Erik4

All week she thought of tmngs she wished to say to him.
High, improving things. She began to admit that she was
lonely without him. Then she was afraid.

It was at the Baptist church suppe;, a week after the picnic,
that she saw him again. She had gone with Eennicott and
Aunt Bessie to the siq>per, which was spread on oilcloth-
covered and trestle-support^ table^. in the church basement.
Erik ^Vas helping Myrtle Cass to fill coffee cups for the wait-
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resses. The congregation bad doffed their piety. ChOdren
tumbled under the tables, and Deacon Pierson greeted the
women with a rolling, '* Where's Brother Jones, sister, where's
Brother Jones? Not going to be with us toni^t? Wdl,
you tell Sister Ferry to hand you a plate, and msJ^e 'em give
you enough oyster piel ''

Erik shared in the dieaiulness. He laughed with Myrtle,
jogged her elbow when she was filling ci^, made deq> mock
bows to the waitresses as they came up for coffee. Myrtle
was enchanted by his humor. From the other end of the room,
a matron among matrons, Carol observed Myrtle, and hated
her, and caught herself at it. '' To be jealous of a wooden-
faced vUlage girll " But she kept it up. She detested Erik;
j^oated over his gaucheries— his "breaks,'* she called them.
When he was too expressive, too much like a Russian dancer,
in saluting Deacon Pierson, Carol had the ecstasy of pain in
seeing the deacon's sneer. When, tr3dng to talk to three girb
at once, he dropped a cup and effeminately wailed, " Oh dear! "
she sympathized with — and ached over — the insiilting secret
glances of the girls.

\|From meanly hating him she rose to compassion as ^ saw
that his eyes begged every one to like him. She perceived how
inaccurate her judgments could be. At the picnic she had
fancied that Maud Dyer looked upon Erik too sentimentally,
and she had snarled, " I hate these married women who che^^en
themselves and feed on bo3rs."| But at the supper Maud was one
of the waitresses; ^e bustled with platters of cake, she was
pleasant to old women; and to Erik she gave no attention at aD.
Indeed, when she had her own siq>per, she joined the Eenni-
cotts, and how ludicrous it was to siippose that Maud was a
gourmet of emotions Carol saw in the fact that she talked
not to one of the town beaux but to the safe Kennicott him-
self!

When Carol glanced at Erik again she discovered that Mrs.
Bogart had an eye on her. It was a shock to know that at last
there was something which could make her afraid of Mrs.
Bogart's spying.

" What am I doing? Am I in love with Erik? Unfaithful?
I? I want youth but I don't want him — ^I mean, I don't want
youth— enough to break iq> my life. I must get out of this.
Quick."

She said to Kennicott 0n their way home, '' Will! I want to

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nm away for a few days. Woiildn't you like to skip down to
Chicago? ''

" Still be pretty hot there. No fun in a big dty till winter.
What do you want to go for? "

" Feoplel To oc(nq>y my mind. I want stimulus.''

" Stimulus? " He spoke good-naturedly. " Who's been feed-
ing you meat? You got that ' stimiilus ' out of one of these fool
stories about wives that don't know when they're well off.
Stimulus I Seriously, though, to cut out Hxe joUying, I can't
get away."

" Then why don't I run off by myself? "

** Why 'Tisn't the money, you understand. But what

about Hugh? "

" Leave him with Aunt Bessie. It would be just for a few
da3rs.''

'^ I don't think much of this business of leaving kids around.
Bad for 'em."

" So you don't think "

" 111 tell you: I think we better stay put till after the war,
Then well have a dandy long trip. No, I don't think you
better plan much about going away now."

So she was thrown at Erik.

She awoke at ebb-time, at three of the morning, woke sharply
and fully; and sharply and coldly as her father pronouncing
sentence on a cruel swindler she gave judgment:

" A pitifiil and tawdry love-affair.

^^No splendor, no defiance. A self-deceived little woman
whispering in corners with a pretentious litUe man. ^ ^

" No, he is not. He is fine. A spiring. It's not his f aultgjff'y^
Hi s eyes are sweet w h en he looka-atJne>y .jweet»,iQ swggt:" v^

She piaed iierself that her romance sKouId be pitifulr-rfre
signed that in this colorless hour, to this austere self, it should
seem tawdry.

Thai, in a very great desire of rebellion and unleashing of all
her hatreds, " The pettier and more tawdry it is, the more blame
to Main Street. It shows how much I've been longing to escape.
Any way out I |Any humility so long as I can flee. Main Street
has done this to me. I came here eager for nobilities, ready for
work, and now Any way out. 1

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'^ I came trusting them. They beat me with rods of dullness.
They don't know, they don't imderstand how agonizing their
complacent dullness is. Like ants and August sun on a wound.

"Tawdry! Pitiful! Carol— the clean girl that teed to
walk so fast! — sneaking and tittering in dark comers, beiog
sentimental and jealous at chiu'ch slippers! ''

At breakfast-time her agonies were nig^t-blurred, and per-
sbted only as a nervous irresolution*

Few of the aristocrats of the JoUy Seventeen attended the
humble folk-meets of the Baptist and Methodist church simpers,
where the Willis Woodfords, the Dillons, the Champ Perrys,
Oleson the butcher, Brad Bemis the tinsmith, and Deacon Pier-
son foimd release from loneliness. But all of the smart set
went to the lawn-festivals of the Episcopal Church, and were
reprovingly polite to outsiders.

The Harry Haydocks gave the last lawn-festival of the sea-
son; a splendor of J2q)anese lanterns and card-tables and
chicken patties and Neapolitan ice-cream. Erik was no longer
entirely an outsider. He was eating his ice-cream vrith a gjroup
of the people most solidly " in " — the Dyers, Myrtle Cass, Guy
Pollock, the Jackson Elders. The Haydocks themselves k^
aloof, but the others tolerated him. (He would never, Csicl
fancied, be one of the town pUlars, because he was not ortho-
dox in hunting and motoring and poker. But he was winning
approbation by his liveliness, his gaiety — ^the qualities least
important in him|

When the group summoned Carol she made several very
well-taken points in regard to the weather.

Myrtle cried to Erik, " Come on! We don't belong with
these old folks. I want to make you 'quainted with the jolliest
girl, she comes from Wakamin, she's staying with Mary How-
land."

Carol saw him being profuse to the guest from Wakamin.
She saw him confidentially strolling with Myrtle. She burst
out to Mrs. Westlake, '' Valborg and Myrtle seem to have quite
a crush on each other."

Mrs. Westlake glanced at her curiously before she mumUed,
"Yes, don't they."

" I'm mad, to talk this way," Carol worried

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She had regained a feeling of social virtue by telling Jiianita
Haydock ''how darling her lawn looked mih the Japanese
lanterns '' when she saw that Erik was stalking her. Though
he was merely ambling about with his hands in his pockets,
thou{^ he did not peep at her, she knew that he was calling
her. She sidled away from Juanita. Erik hastened to her. She
nodded coolly (she was proud of her coolness).

"Carol I I've got a wonder fill channel Don't know buk/
what some ways it might be better than going East to takei

art. Myrtle Cass says I dropped in to say howdy to!

Myrtle last evening, and'had quite a long talk with her father J
and he said he was hunting for a fellow to go to work in the!
flour mill and learn the whole business, and maybe become!
general manager. I know something about wheat from my^
farming, and I worked a coiiple of months in the flour mill at
Curlew when I got sick of tailoring. What do you think? You J
said any work was artistic if it was done by an artist. And i
flour is so important. What do you think? "

"WaitI Wait!"

This sensitive boy would be very skilfiilly stamped into con-
formity by L3anan Cass and his ^low dau^ter; but did idie
detest the plan for this reason? '' I must be honest. I mustn't
tamper wiUi his future to please my vanity." But idie had no
sure vision. She turned on him:

"How can I decide? It's up to you. Do you want to
become a person like Lym Cass, or do you want to become a
person like — ^yes, like me! Wait! Don't be flattering. Be
honest. This is important."

" I know. I am a person like you nowl I mean, I want to
rebel."

" Yes. We're alike," gravely.

" Only I'm not svae I can put through my schemes. I really
can't draw much. I guess I have pretty fair taste in fabrics, but
since I've known you I don't like to think about fussing with
dre^-designing. But as a miUer, I'd have the means — books,
piano, travel."

" I'm going to be frank and beastly. Don't you realize that
it isn't just because her papa needs a bright young man in the
mill that Myrtle is amiable to you? Can't you understand
what she'll do to you when she has you, when ^e sends you to
diurch and makes you become respectable? "

He glared at her. " I don't know. I suppose so."

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^^ You are thoroughly unstable! ''

'' What if I am? Most fish out of water arel Don't talk
like Mrs. Bogartl How can I be an3rthing but ' unstable ' —
wandering from farm to tailor shop to books, no training,
nothing but tr3dng to make books talk to mel Probably 111
fail. Oh, I know it; probably I'm imeven. But I'm not un-
stable in thinking about this job in the mill — and Myrtle. I
know, what I want. I want youl ^

" Please, please, oh, please! "

'^ I do. I'm not a schoolboy any more. I want you. If
I take Myrtle, it's to fOTgeUgu/*

" Please, please! " ^

^\ It's you that ar^ unstable! You hSk at things and play
at things, but you're scared. Wotdd I mtod it if you and I
went off to poverty, and I had to dig ditch^ I would not!
But you would. I think you woiild onne to lil^ me, but you
won't acknit it I wouldn't have said this, mit when you

sneer at Myrtle and the mill If I'm not di have good

sensible things like those, d' you think 111 be content with
trying to beoDme a damn dressmaker, after youf \ Are you
fair? Are you? " \

" No, I suppose not." \

" Do you lie me? Do you? ^ \

"Yes No! Please! I can't talk any more.** 1

" Not here. Mrs. Haydock is looking at us." J

" No, nor anywhere. O Erik, I am fond of you, ttut I'm
afraid."

"What of?"

\ " Of Them! Of my rulers— Gopher Prairie. ... My
boy, we are talking very foolishly. I am a normal wife
a good mother, and you are — oh, a coll^;e freshman."

love me! "
looked at him once, recklessly, andjvsilked away with a
serenV p;ait that was a disordered

grumbled on their wa/" home, "You and this
ValborglWlow seem quitedwHlmy."

" Oh, we afey He' fr- t fltgmted in Myrtle Cass, and I was
telling him how nice she is."

In her room she marveled, "I have become a liar. I'm
snarled with lies and foggy analyses and desires — ^I who was
clear and sure."

She hurried into Kennicott's room, sat on the edge of his

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bed. He flapped a drowsy welcoming hand at her from the
e]q>anse of quilt and dented pillows.

"Will, I reaUy think I oug^t to trot off to St Paul of
Chicago or some place." .

'' I thought we settled all that, few nights ago! Wait till
we can have a real trip." He shook himself out of his
drowsiness. " You might give me a good-nig^t kiss."

She did — dutifully. He held her lips against his for an intol-
erable time. *' Don't you like the old man any more? " he
coaxed. He sat up and shyly fitted his p^m about the
slimness of her waist

" Of course. I like you very much indeed." Even to her-
self it sounded flat She longed to be able to throw into her
voice the facile passion of a li^t woman. She patted his cheek.

He signed, "I'm sorry you're so tired. Seems like

But of course you aroi't very strong."

" Yes. . . . Then you don't think— you're quite sure I
oug^t to stay here in town? "

" I told you sol I certainly do! "

She crept back to her room, a small timorous figure in white.

"I can't face Will down— demand the right. He'd be
obstinate. And I can't even go off and earn my living again.

Out of the habit of it. He's driving me I'm afraid of

what he's driving me to. Afraid.

'' That man in there, snoring in stale air, my husband?
Could any ceremony inake him my husband?

" No. I don't want to hurt him. I want to love him.
can't, when I'm thinking of Erik. Am I too honest — a funn}!
tc^y-turvy honesty — the faithfulness of unfaith? I wish Ij|
had a more compartmental mind, like men; I'm too monoga-
mous — toward Erik! — my child Erik, who needs me.

" Is an illicit affair like a gambling debt — demands stricter
honor than the legitimate debt of matrimony, because it's not
l^^ly enforced?

"That's nonsense I I don't care in the least for Erik!
Not for any man. I want to be let alone, in a woman world —
a world without Main Street, or politicians, or business men,
or men with that sudden beastly hungry look, that glistening
unfrank expression that wives know

" If Erik were here, if he would just sit quiet and kind and
talk, I could be still, I could go to sleep.

" I am so tired. If I could sleep "

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CHAPTER XXXI

Their night came tmberalded.

Eennicott was on a country call. It was cod but Card
huddled on the porch^ rocking, meditating, rocking. The house
was londy and repellent, and though she sighed, ^'I oug|it
to go in and read — so many things to read — ought to go in," she
remained. Suddenly Erik was coming, turning in, swinging
open the screen door, touching her hand.

"Erik!"

'' Saw your husband driving out of town. Couldn't stand
it."

"Well You mustn't stay more than five minutes."

" Couldn't stand not seeing you. Every day, towards eve<
ning, felt I had to see you — pictiu'ed you so dear. IVe been
gocd though, sta3dng away, haven't II "

" And you must go on being good."

"Why must I?"

"We better not stay here on the porch. The Rowlands
across the street are such window-peepers, and Mrs. Bo-
gart "

She did not look at him but she could divine his tremdous-
ness as he stumbled indoors. A moment ago the night had been
coldly empty; now it was incalcdable, hot, treacherous. But
it is women who are the calm realists once they discard the
fetishes of the premarital hunt. Carol was serene as she
murmured, " Hungry? I have some little honey-colored cakes.
You may have two, and then you must skip home."

" Take me up and let me see Hugh asleep."

"I don't believe "

"Just a glimpse!" •

"Well "

She doubtfdly led the way to the haUroom-nursery. Their
heads dose, Erik's curls pleasant as they touched her cheek,
they looked in at the baby. Hugh was pink with slumber.
He had burrowed into his pillow with such energy that it

368

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was almost smothering him. B eside it was a celluloid
rh inoceros; ti^t in his hand a torn picture of 014 isjng '

" Shhhl " said Carol, quite automaticaUy. She tiptoed in
to pat the pillow. As she returned to Erik she had a friendly
sense of his waiting for her. They smiled at each other. She
did not think of Eennicott, the baby's father. What she did
think was that some one rather like Erik, an older and surer
Erik, ought to be Hugh's father. The three of them would
play — incredible imaginative games.

** Carol! You've told me about your own room. Let me
peep in at it."

'^ But you mustn't stay, not a second. We must go down-
stairs."

« Yes "

"Will you be good?"

" R-reasonablyl " He was pale, large-eyed, serious.

'^ You've got to be more tha^ reasonably good I " She felt
sensible and siq>erior; she was energetic about pushing open
the door.

Kennicott had always seemed out of place tha'e but Erik
surprisingly harmonized with the spirit of the room as he
stroked the books, glanced at the prints. He held out his
hands. He came toward her. She was weak, betrayed to a
warm softness. Her head was tilted back. Her eyes were
closed. Her thoughts were formless but many-coloied. She
felt his kiss, diffident and reverent, on her eyeUd.

Then she knew that it was impossible.

9ie shook herself. . She sprang from him. " Pleasel " she
said sharply.

He looked at her unyielding.

'' I am fond of you," she said. '^ Don't spoil ever)rthing.
Be my friend."

^' How many thousands and millions of women must havel
said that! And now youl And it doesn't spoil everything.!
It glorifies everything." t-

" Dear, I do think there's a. tiny streak of fairy in you —
whatever you do ¥rith it. Perhaps I'd have loved that once.
But I won't. It's too late. But I'll keep a fondness for you.
Impersonal — ^I will be impersonal 1 It needn't be just a thin
talky fondness. You do need me, dcm't you? Only you and
my son need me. I've wanted so to be wantedl Once I

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wanted love to be given to me. Now 111 be content if I can
give. . . . Almost content!

''We women, we like to do things for men. Poor men!
We swoop on you when you're defenseless and fuss over you
and insist on reforming you. But it's so pitifully deep in us.
Youll be the one thing in which I haven't failed. Do some-
thing definite I Even if it's just selling cottons. SeD beautiful
cottons— <:aravans from China "

" Caroll StopI You do love me! "

" I do not! It's just Can't you understand? Every-
thing crushes in on me so, all the gapmg dull peq)le, and I look

for a way out Please go. I can't stand any more.

Please! "

He was gone. And she was not relieved by the quiet of the
house. She was en^ty and the house was empty and she
needed him. She want^ to go on talking, to get this threshed
out, to build a sane friend^p. She wavered down to the
living-room, looked out of the bay-window. He was not to
be seen. But Mrs. Westlake was. She was walking past, and
in the light from the com^ arc-lamp she quickly inspected
the porch, the windows. Carol dr(^>ped the curtain, stood with
movement and reflection paralyzed. Automatically, without
reasoning, she mumbled, '' I will see him again soon and make

him understand we must be friends. But The house is

so empty. It echoes so."

Kennicott had seemed nervous and absent-minded throu^
that supper-hour, two evenings after. He prowled about the
living-room, then growled:
'' What the dickens have you been saying to Ma Westlake? "
Carol's book rattled. " What do you mean? "
" I told you that Westlake and his wife were jealous of. os,

and here you been chumming up to than and From what

Dave tells me, Ma Westlake has been going around town sayiog
you told her that you hate Aunt B^ie, and that you fixed
up your own room because I snore, and you said Bjomstam
was too good for Bea, and then, just recent, that you were
sore on the town because we don't all go down on our knees
I and beg this Valborg fellow to come take siq)per with us. God
only knows what else she says you said."

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'' It's not true, any of iti I did like Mrs. Westlake, and
Tve called on her, and if)parently she's gone and twisted
evenrthing I've said "

" Sure. Of course she would. Didn't I teD you she would?
She's an old cat, like her pussyfooting, hand-holding husband.
Lord, if I was side, I'd rather have a faith-healer than Westlake,
and she's another slice off the same bacon. What I can't
understand though—^ — "

She waited, taut

" ^is whatever possessed you to let her pump you, bright

a girl as you are. I don't care what you told her—we all get
peeved sometimes and want to blow off steam, that's natural —
but if you wanted to keep it dark, why didn't you advertise
it in the DamUless, or get a megaphone and stand on top of
the hotel and holler, or do an3rthing besides spUl it to her I "

^^ I know. You told me. But she was so motherly. And

I didn't have any woman Vida 's become so married and

proprietary."

" Well, next time youll have bettor sense."

He patted her h^, flumped down bdiind his newq)aper,
said nothing more.

Enemies leered through the windows, stole on her from
the hall. I She had no one save Erik. This kind good man
Kennicott — ^he was an dder brother. It was Erik, ha: feUow
outcast, to whom she wanted to run for sanctuary. / Throu^
her storm she was, to the eye, sitting quietly with her fingers
between the pages of a baby-blue book on home-dressmaking.
But her dismay at Mrs. Westlake's treachery had risen to
active dread. What had the woman said of her and Erik?
What did she know? What had she seen? Who else would
join in the baying hunt? Who else had seen her with Erik?
What had she to fear from the Dyers, Cy Bogart, Juanita,
Aunt Bessie? What precisely had she answered to Mrs.
Bogart's questioning?

All next day she was too restless to stay home, yet as she
walked the streets on fictitious orands she was afraid of every
parscm she met. She waited for them to speak; waited with
foreboding. She rq)eated, ^- 1 mustn't ever see Erik again."
But the words did not register. She had no ecstatic indulgence
in the sense of guilt which is, to the women of Main Street,
the surest escape frcnn blank tediousness.

At five, crumpled in a chair in the living-room, she started

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372 MAIN STREET

at the sound of the bell. Some one q;>ened the docnr. She
waited, uneasy. Vida Sherwin charged into the room. ''Here's
the one person I can tnistl " Carol rejoiced.

Vida was serious but affectionate. She bustled at Carol
with, '' Oh, there you are, dearie, so glad t' find you in, sit
down, want to talk to you."

Carol sat, obedient.

Vida fussily tugged over a large chair and launched out:

''I've been hearing vague rumors you were interested in
this Erik Valborg. I knew you coulcbi't be guilty, and I'm
surer than ever of it now. Here we are, as bloomii^ as a
daisy."

"How does a req>ectable matron look mhea she feds
guilty?"

Carol sounded resentful.

"Why Oh, it would show! Besides! I know that 3^

of all people, are the one that can appreciate Dr. Will."

" What have you been hearing? "

" Nothing, readly. I just heard Mrs. Bogart say she'd seen
you and Valborg walking togetha: a lot." ^^da's chirpfaig

slackened. She looked at her nails. " But I su^>ect

you do like Valborg. Oh, I don't mean in any wroi^ way.
But you're young; you don't know what an innocent liking
might drift into. You always pretend to be so sophisticated
and all, but you're a baby. Just because you are so innocent,
you don't know what evU thoughts may lurk in that fdlow^
brain."

I "You don't suppose Valborg could actually think about
making love to me? "

Her rather cheap sport ended abn^tly as Vida cried, with
contorted face, "What do you know about the thou^ts in
hearts? You just play at reforming the world. You dont
know what it means to suffer."

/ There are two insults which no human being will endure:
/the assertion that he hasn't a sense of humor, and the doubly
I impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble. Ou:ol
I said furiously, " You think I don't suffer? You think IVc
Vdways had an easy "

"No, you don't. I'm going to tell you something I've
never told a living soul, not ev^ Ray." Ilie dam of repressed
imagination whidi Vida had builded for years, which now,
with Raymie off at the wars» she was buildii^ again, gave way.

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" I was— I liked Will terrib^ wdl. One time at a party— oh,
before he met you, of course — ^but we held hands, and we were
so happy. But I didn't fed I was really suited to him. I let
him go. Please don't think I still love him! I see now that
Ray was predestined to be my mate. But because I liked him,
I know how sincere and pure and noble Will is, and his

thoughts never stra3dng from the path of rectitude, and

If I gave him up to you, at least you've got to s^redate himi
We danced together and laughed so, and I gave him iq>,

but This is my affairl I'm not intruding! I see the

whde thing as he does, because of all I've told you. Maybe
it's shameless to bare my heart this way, but I do it for him —
for him and you! "

Carol undttstood that Vida believed herself to have recited
minutely and brazenly a story of intimate love; understood
that, in alarm, she was trying to cover her shame as she
struggled on, '^ Liked him in the most honorable way — singly

can't help it if I still see things through his eyes If I

gave him up, I certainly am not beyond my rights in demanding
that you take care to avoid even the £^^>earance of evil
and " She was weepmg; an insignificant, flushed, ungrace-
fully weeping woman.

Carol could not endure it. She ran to ^^da, kissed her
forehead, comforted her with a murmur of dove-like soimds,
sought to reassure ha with worn and hastily assembled gifts
of words: '^ Oh, I appredsXt it so much," and *' You are so
fine and splendid," and '^ Let me assure you there isn't a thing
to what you've heard," and '^Oh, indeed, I do know how
sincere Will is, and as you say, so — so sincere."

Vida believed that she had explained many deep and devious
matters. She came out of her hysteria like a sparrow shaking
off rain-drops. She sat up, and took advantage of her victory:

"I don't want to rub it in, but you can see for yourself i
now, this is all a resiilt of your being so discontented andl
not appreciating the dear good people here. And another \ ^
thing: People like you and me, who want to reform things, \ "^
have to be particidarly careful about appearances. Think .
how much better you can criticize conventional customs if you 1
yourself live up to them, scrupulously. Then people can't I
say you're attacking them to excuse your own infractions."

To Carol was given a sudden great philosophical under-
standing, an explanation of half the cautious reforms in his-

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Itory. " Yes. IVe heard that pleai It*s a good one. It sets
revolts aside to cool. It keeps strays in the flock. To word
it differently: * You must live up to the popular code if you
believe in it; but if you don't bdieve in it, then you must live
iq)toitI'"

^ "1 don't thmk so at all/' said VidsL vaguely. She began to
look hurt, and Carol let her be oracular.

Wida, had done her a service; had made all agonizing seem
so fatuous that she ceased writhing and saw tl^t her whole
problem was simple as mutton: she was interested in Erik's
a^iration; interest gave her a hesitating fondness for him;
and the future would take care of the event. . . . But
at night, thinking in bed, she protested, " I'm not a falsdy
accused innocent, though 1 If it were some one more resdute

than Erik, a filter, an artist with bearded surly lii»-

They're only in books. | Is that the real tragedy, that I never
DoshaQ know tragedy, never find anjrthing but blustery cooh
^^ plications that turn out to be a farce? |

''No one big aioug^ or pitifiil enou^ to sacrifice for.
Tragedy in neat blouses; the eternal flame all nice and safe
in a kerosene stove. Neither heroic faith nor h&coic guOt
Peeping at love from behind lace curtains — on Main Streetl "

Aunt Bessie crq>t in next day, tried to pump her, tried to
prime the pump by again hinting that Komicott might have
his own affairs. Carol snapped, "Whatever I may do, 111
have you to understand that Will is only too safe! " She
wished afterward that she had not been so lofty. How mudi
would Aunt Bessie make of " Whatever I may do? "

When Kennicott came home he poked at things, and hemmed,
and brought out, " Saw aunty, this afternoon. She said 3rou
weren't very polite to her."

Carol laughal. He looked at her in a puzzled way and
fled to his newspaper.

She lay sleepless. |She alternately conddered ways of leaving
j^ Kennicott, and remembered his virtues, pitied his bewilderment
^ in face of the subtle corroding sicknesses which he could not

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dose nor cut out] Didn't he perhaps need her more than did
the book-solaced Erik? Suppose Will were to die, suddenly.
Suppose she never again saw him at breakfast, silent bat
amiable, listening to her chatter. Suppose he never again

played elephant for Hugh. Suppose A coimtry call, a

^Uppery road, his motor skidding, the edge of the road crum-
blh^, the car turning turtle. Will pinned beneath, suffering;
brought home maimed, looking at her with spanid eyes — or
waiting for her, caUing for her, while she was in Chicago
knowing nothing of it. Suppose he were sued by some vicious
shrieking woman for malpractice. He tried to get witnesses;
Westlake spread lies; his friends doubted him; his self-
confidence was so broken that it was horrible to see the in-
decision of the decisive man; he was convicted, handcuffed,

taken on a train

She ran to his room. At her nervous push the door swimg
sharply in, struck a chair. He awoke, gasped, then in a
steady voice: " What is it, dear? Anything wrong? " She
darted to him, fumbled for the familiar harsh bristly cheek«
How well she knew it, every seam, and hardness of bone, and
roll of fat! Yet when he sighed, "This is a nice visit," and
dropped his hand on her thin-covered Moulder, she said, too
cheerily, " I thought I heard you moaning. So silly of mc
Good night, dear."

She did not see Erik for a fortnight, save once at church
and once when she went to the tailor shop to talk over the
plans, contingencies, and strategy of Kennicott's annual cam-
paign for getting a new suit. Nat Hicks was there, and he
was not so deferential as he had been. With unnecessary
jauntiness he chuckled, " Some nice flannels, them samples,
heh? " Needlessly he touched her arm to call attention to the
fashion-plates, and humorously he glanced from her to Erik.
At home she wondered if the little beast might not be sug-
gesting himself as a rival to Erik, but that abysmal be-
dragglement she would not consider.

She saw Juanita Haydock slowly walking past the house —
as Mrs. Westlake had once walked past.

She met Mrs. Westlake in Uncle Whittier's store, and before
that alart stare forgot her determination to be rude, and was
shakily cordial.

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She was sore that all the men on die street, even Guy
PoUock and Sam Clark, leered at her in an mterested hopefid
way, as thou^ she were a notorious divorcee. 9ie Mt as
insecure as a shadowed crinuiral. She wished to see Erik, and
wished that she had never seen him. She fancied that Komh-
cott was the only person in town who did not know att—
know in€on9>arabfy more tham there was to know— about her*
sdf and Erik She crouched in her dbak as ^e imagined men
talking of her, thick-voiced, obscene, in barber shops and die
tobaoco-stinking pool parlor.

Throi^ early autumn Fern Mullins was the only person
who broke die su^>ense. The f rivcdous teacher had come to
accept Carol as of her own youth, and thou^ sdiool had
began she rushed m daily to suggest dances, welsh-rabbit
parties.

Fern begged her to go as chaperon to a barn-dance in the
country, on a Saturday evening. Carol codd not go. The
next day, the storm crashed.

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CHAPTER XXXn

Casol was on the bad: porch, ti^tening a boh on the baby's
go-cart, this Sunday afternoon. Throu^ an open window of
die Bogart house she beard a screeching, heard Mrs. Bogart's
haggish voice:

"... did too, and there's no use your denying it
. . . no you don't, you march yourself ri^t strai^t out
of the house . . . never in my life heard of such . . .
iKvo: had nobody talk to me like . . . walk in the ways
of sin and nastiness . . . leave your clothes here, and
heaven knows that's more than 3rou deserve . . . any of
your lip or 111 caH Ae policeman."

The voice of the other interlocutor Carol did not catch,
cor, though Mrs. Bogart was proclaiming tiiat he was her con-
fidant and present assistant, did she catdi the voice of Mrs.
Bogart's God

" Another row with Cy," Carol inferred.

She trundled the go-cart down the back steps and tentatively
wheeled it across the yard, proud of her repairs. She heard
steps on the sidewalk. She saw not Cy Bo^rt but Fern
Mullins, carrying a suit-case, hurrying up the street with her
head low. The widow, standing on the porch with buttery
arms akimbo, yammered after the fleeing girl:

" And don*t you dare show jrour face on this block again. 1
You can send the drayman for your trunk. My house has 1
been contaminated long enough. Why the Lord should aflSict \
me »

Fern was gone. The ri^teous widow glared, banged into
the house, came out poking at her bonnet, mardied away.
By this time Carol was staring in a manner not visS>ly to be
c&tinguidied from tiie window-peeping of the rest of Gopher
Prairie. She saw Mrs. Bogart enter the Howland house, then
Ae Casses^ Not till suppertime did she readi the Kennicotts.
The doctor answered her ring^ and greeted her, *^ Well, weD,
bow's the good nei^ibor? "

S72

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The good neighbor charged into the living-room, waving the
most unctuous of black kid gloves and delightedly sputtering:

" You may well ask how I am! I really do wonder how I
could go through the awful scenes of this day — and the im-
pudence I took from that woman's tongue^ that ou^t to be
cat out "

•'Whoal Whoal Hold up! " roared Kennicott. "Who's
tiie hussy, Sister Bogart? Sit down and take it cool and teU
«s about it."

" I can't sit down, I must hurry home, but I couldn't devote
m3rself to my own selfish cares till I'd warned you, and heaven
knows I don't expect any thanks for trying to warn the town
against her, there's alwa3rs so much evil in the world that folks
simply won't see or appreciate your trying to safeguard

them- And forcing herself in here to get in with you and

Carrie, many 's the time I've seen her doing it, and, thank
boiven, she was found out in time before she could do any
more harm, it simply breaks my heart and prostrates me to
think what she may have done already, even if some of us
that understand and know about things "

" Whoa-up! Who are you talking about? "

''She's talking about Fern Mullins," Carol put m, not
{deasantly.

" Huh? "

Kennicott was incredulous.

"1 certainly ami " flourished Mrs. Bogart, "and good and
thankful you may be that I found her out in time, before ^
could get you into something, Carol; because even if you are
my neighbor and Will's wife and a cultured kidy, let me tell
you ri^t now, Carol Kennicott, that you ain't always as
respectful to — ^you ain't as reverent — you don't stick by the
(ood old ways like they was laid down for us by God in the
Bible, and while of course there ain't a bit of harm in having
a good laug^, and I know there ain't any real wickedness in
you, yet just the same you don't fear God and hate the trans-
gressors of his commandments like you oug^t to, and 3rou may
be thankful I found out this serpent I nourished in my hosook
— and oh yes I oh yes indeed! my lady must have two ^gs
every morning for breakfast, and eggs sixty cents a dozen,
and wa'n't satisfied with one, like most folks — ^wfaat did she
care how much they cost or if a person couldn't make hardly
pothing on her board and room, in fact I just took her in out

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of charity and I might have known from the kind of stockings
and dothes that she sneaked into my house in her trunk **

Before they got her story she had five more minutes of
obscene wallowing. The gutter comedy turned into hig^
tragedy, with Nemesis in black kid gloves. The actual story-
was simple, depressing, and unimportant. As to details Mrs.
Bogart was indefinite, and angry that she should be ques-
tioned.

Fern Mullins and Cy had, the evening before, driven alone
to a barn-dance in the country. (Carol brought out the ad-
mission that Fern had tried to get a chaperon.) At the dance
Cy had kissed Fern — she confessed that. Cy had obtained a
pint of whisky; he said that he didn't remember where he had
got it; Mrs. Bogart implied that Fern had given it to him; Fern
herself insisted that he had stolen it from a farmer's over-
coat — which, Mrs. Bogart raged, was obvioxisly a lie. He had
become soggily drunk. Fern had driven him home; deposited
him, retching and wabbling, on the Bogart porch.

Never before had her boy been drunk, shrieked Mrs. Bogart
When Kennicott grunted, she owned, " Well, maybe once or
twice IVe smelled licker on his breath.^' She abo, with aa
air of being only too scrupulously exact, granted that some-
times he did not come home till morning. But he couldnt
ever have been dnmk, for he Blways had the best excuses:
the other boys had tempted him to go down the lake spearing
pickorel by torchlight, or he had been out in a '' machine that
ran out of gas.'* Anyway, never before had her boy faDea
into the hands of a '^ designing woman."

^' What do you suppose Miss Mullins could design to do with
him? " insbted Carol.

Mrs. Bogart was puzzled, gave it up, went on. This morning^
when she had faced both of them, Cy had manfully confessed
that all of the blame was on Fern, because the teacher — ^his
own teacher — ^had. dared him to take a drink. Fern had tried
to deny it.

" Then," gabbled Mrs. Bogart, " then that woman had the
impudence to say to me, * What purpose could I have in want*
ing the filthy pup to get dnmk? ' That's just what she called
him — piq>. 'Ill have no such nasty language in my house,'
I says, ^ and you pretending and pulling the wool over people's
eyes and making them think you're educated and fit to be a
teacher and look out for young pec^le's morals — ^you're worse

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'n any ati^et-walkar! ' I says. I let her have it good. I
wa'n't going to fliadi from my bousden ^iity and let her tink
that decent folks had to stand for her vile talk. ' Purpose? '
I says, ' Purpose? Ill tdl you what purpose you hadi Am^
I seen you making up to eveiything m pants tbat'd waste
time aold pay attention to your imperfnence? Ain't I seen
you showing off your legs with, than short skirts of yours,
tiying to make out like you was so girlish and la-de-da,
running along the street? ' "

Card was very sick at this version of Fern's eager yoQth,
but she was sidkat as Mrs. Bogart hinted that no aae cookl
tell what had happened between Fern and Cy before the
drive home. Without eacactly describing the scene, by her
power of lustf id imagimttoa the woman suggested dark country
places s^Murt from the lanterns and rude fiddMng and banging
dance-steps in the bam, then madness and harsh hateful con*
quest Card was too sick to internq>t It was Kennkott
who criedy ^' Oh, for God's sake quit itl You havoi't any idea
what hai^>ened. You haven't given us a single proof yet that
Fern is ansrthing but a rattle-brained youngster."

<< 1 haven% da? Well,' what do yon say to this? I come
strai^t out and I says to her, * Did you or ^ you not taste the
wh^y Cy had? * and she sa}^, ' I Mok I did take one sip—
Cy made me,' she said. She owned up to that nmdr, so you
can imagine "

^^ Does that prove her a prostitute? '' a^Led Card.

" Carrie! Don't you never use a wwd like that again! "
wailed the outraged Piuritan.

'^ Well, does it prove her to be a bad woman, that she took
a taste of whisky? I've done it mjrselfl "

" That's different. Not that I approve your donig it What
do the ScripUres tell us? ^ Strong driidi is a modcer 'J But
that's entirely different from a teacher drinking with one of her
own pi^ls."

" Yes, it does sound bad. Fern was silly, imdoubtedly. Bit
as a matter of fact she's only a year or two older than Cy,
and probably a good many years younger in ei^>ericnce of
vice."

" That's — not — true! 9ie is plenty old enou^ to corrqjt
him!"

" The irf> of comq>ting Cy was done by yoiff siidess town,
five years ago! 'If

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Mrs. Bogart did not rage in Teturo. Suddenly she was
hopeless. Her head drooped. She patted her Uack kid gloves,
picked at a thread of her faded brown skirt, awl sigjhed, ^^ He*s
a good boy, and awful affectionate if you treat him ri^t.
Some thinks he's terriUe wild, but thaf^ because he% young.
And he's so brave and truthfid— why, he was one of the first
m town that wanted to enlist for die war, and X had to speak
real sharp to him to keep him from nmmng away. I didn't
want him to get faito no blui inflnfnofs rou^ these camps —
9Xki then," Mrs. Bogart rose from her pitifulness, recovered ice
pace, " then I go and bring into my own house m woman that'3
worse, when all's said and done, than any bad woman he could
have met. lYou say this MuKlins woman is too young and
ine]q>eriencra to corrupt Cy. Well then, she's too young and
inexperienced to teach him, too, one or tVither, you cant have
your cake and eat itl So it dont make no difference whidi
reason they fire her for, and tfaat% practically almost vAiat
I said to the school-board.'^

"^ Have you been telling this story to Ae mend>ecs of the
adool-board? "

'^I certainly havel Every one of 'em! And their wives.
I says to them, ' Taint my affair to decide what you should
or should not do with your teachers,' I says, * and I aint pre-
suming to dictate in any way, shape, manner, or form. I just
want to know,' I sajrs, * whether yoaVe graig to go on record
as keepmg here in our sdioob, among a lot of innocent boys
and girls, a woman that drinks, smokes, curses, uses bad lan-
guage, and does such dreadful things as I wouldnt lay tongue
to but you know what I mean,' I says, ^ and if so, I'll just
see to it Aat the town learns about it.' And that's what I tdd
Professor Mott, too, being superintendent — ^and he^ a ri^teous
man, not going autoing on the Sabbath like the school-board
members. And the professor as much as admitted he was
su^icious of the MulUns woman himself."

Kennicott was less shocked and raudi less frig^ened than
Carols and more articidate in his description of Mrs. Bogart,
whtn she had gone.

Maud Dyer te1q)boned to Carol and, after a rather im-
probable question about cooking lima beans with bacon, de«

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Handed, '' Have you heard the scandal about this Miss Mullins
«nd Cy Bogart? "

**I'm sure it's a lie."

''Ohy probably is." Maud's manner indicated that the
falsity of the story was an insignificant flaw in its general
delig^tfulness.

Carol crept to her room, sat with hands curled tight to-
f^er as she listened to a plague of voices. She could hear the
town yelping with it, evay soul of them, gleeful at new details,
panting to win importance by having details of their own to
add. How well they would make up for what they had been
afraid to do by imagining it in another 1 They who had not
been entirely afraid (but merely careful and sneaky), all the
barber-shop rou^s and millinery-parlor mondaines, how arcU^
they were giggling (this second---5he could hear them at it);
with what self-commendation they were cackling their suavest
wit: " You can't tell me she ain't a gay bird; I'm wise! "

And not one man in town to carry out their pioneer tradition
of superb and contemptuous cursing, not one to verify the
nqrfli that their " rough chivalry " and " rugged virtues " were
more generous than Uie petty scandal-picking of older lands,
not one dramatic frontiersman to thunder, with fantastic and
fictional oaths, "What are you hinting at? What are you
snickering at? What facts have you? What are these un-
heard-of sins you condemn so much — and like so well? "

No one to say it. Not Kennicott nor Guy Pollock nor
Champ Perry.

Erik? Possibly. He would sputter uneasy protest.

She suddenly wondered what subterranean connection her
interest in Erik had with this affair. Wasn't it because they
had been prevented by her caste from bounding on her own
trail that they were howling at Fern?

Before supper she found, by half a dozen telephone caUs,
that Fern had fled to the Minniemashie House. She hastened
there, trying not to be sdf-consdous about the people who
looked at her on the street The clerk said indifferently that
he " guessed " Miss Mullins was up in Room 37, and left CaxoL
to find the way. She hunted along the stale-smdling corrid<»s
with their wallpaper of cerise daisies and poison-greoi rosettes,

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fttreaked in white spots from spilled water, their frayed
red and yellow matting, and rows of pine doors painted a
sickly blue. She could not find the number. In the darkness
at the end of a corridor she had to feel the aluminum figures
on the door-panels. She was startled once by a man's voice:
"^ Yep? Whadyuh want? " and fled. When she reached the
right door she stood listening. She made out a long sobbing.
There was no answer till her third knock; then an alarmed
"Who is it? Go away!**

Her hatred of the town turned resolute as she pushed open
the door.

Yesterday she had seen Fern Mullins in boots and tweed
skirt and canary-yellow sweater, fleet and self-possessed. Now
she lay ^across the bed, in crumpled lavender cotton and shabby
pumps, very feminine, utterly cowed. She lifted her head in
stupid terror. Her hair was in tousled strings and her face
was sallow, creased. Her eyes were a blur from weeping.

" I didn't I I didn't 1 " was all she would say at first, and
she repeated it while Carol kissed her cheek, stroked her
hair, bathed her forehead. She rested then, while Carol looked
about the room — the welcome to strangers, the sanctuary of
hospitable Main Street, the lucrative property of Kennicott's
frietid, Jackson Elder. It smelled of old linen and decaying
carpet and ancient tobacco smoke. The bed was rickety, with
a thin knotty mattress; the sand-colored walls were scratched
and gouged; in every comer, under everything, were fluffy
dust and cigar ashes; on the tilted wash-stand was a nicked
and squatty pitcher; the only chair was a grim straight object
of spotty varnish; but there was an altogether splendid gilt
and rose cu^idor.

She did not try to draw out Fern's story; Fern insisted on
telling it.

She had gone to the party, not quite liking Cy but willing
to endure him for the sake of dancing, of escaping from Mrs.
Bogart's flow of moral comments, of relaxing after the first
strained weeks of teaching. Cy " promised to be good." He
was, on the way out. There were a few workmen from Gopher
Prairie at the dance, with many young farm-people. Half
a dozen squatters from a degenerate colony in a brush-hidden
hollow, planters of potatoes, suspected thieves, came in noisily
drunk. They all pounded the floor of the bam in old-fashioned
square dances, swinging their partners, skipping, laughing,

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384 MAIN STREET

voder the incantatioDS of Del SnaCSin the barber, who fiddled
and caitod the figures. Cy had two drinks from pocket-flasks.
Fern saw him fumblini; among the overcoats piled on the feed-
box at the far end of the bam; soon after she heard a faormer
declaring that some one had stolen his bottle. She taxed Cy
frith the theft; he chuckled, ''Oh, it's jtBt a joke; I'm gomg
to give it back/' He demaiKled diat she take a drink. Unless
Ae did, he wouldn't return the bottle.

" I just brushed my lips with it, and gave it back to Mm,**
moaned Fern. She sat up, ^ared at CuoL ^ Did you ever
take a drink? "

" I have. A few. I'd love to have one rij^ now! TTiis
contact with righteousness has about doae me up I "

Fern could laugh then. ''So would II I don't suppose IVe
had five drinks in my life, but if I meet just one more Bogart

and Son Well, I didn't really touch that bottle-iorrible

raw whisky — though I'd have loved some wine. I f eh so joUy.
The bam was almost like a stage scene — ^the high rafters, and
the dark stalls, and tin lanterns swinging, and a silage-outter
up at the end like some mysterious kind of madune. And
I'd been having lots of fun dancing with the nicest ycmof;
farmer, so strong and nice, and awfully intelligent. But I got
imeasy when I saw how Cy was. So I dovbt if I touched two
I drops of the b^istiy stuff. Do you suiqx»e God is punsfaing
me for even wanting wine? '*

'' Vy "^KflFp ^T P'^rt'fl fY^ mny hf— ^^fli Strp^»> w^-

But all the courageous intelligent people are fitting him
. . . though he slay us."

Fere danced again with the young farmer; she focgot Cy
while she was talking with a girl who had taken the UniversiQr
s^icultural course. Cy could not have returned the bottle;
he came staggering toward her — taking time to make himsdf
offensive to every girl on the way and to dance a jig. Sbe
insisted on their returaing. Cy went with her, churkling and
jigging. He kissed her, outside the door. . . . ''And
to think I used to think it was interesting to have men kiss
you at a dancel "... She ignored t]be kiss, in the need
of getting him home before he started a fight. A farn^r helped
her harness the h'j^gy, while Cy snored in the seat He moke
before they set out; all the way home be altecnatdy siq>t and
tried to make love to her.

" I'm almost as strong as he is. I nuuaaged to keep Irin

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away while I drove — such a rickety buggy. I didn't feel like
a girl; I felt like a scrubwoman — ^no, I guess I was too scared
to have any f edlngs at aH It was terribly dark. I got home,
somdow. But it was hard, the time I had to get out, and it
was quite mudcty, to read a sign-post — ^I lit matches that I
took from Cy's coat pocket, and be followed me— ^ fdl off the
buggy step into the mud, aad got iq> and tried to make kve

to me, and I was scared. But I hit him. Quite hard.

And got in, and so he ran after the buggy, crying like a baby,

2Uid I let him in again, and ri^t away again he was tryii^

But no matter. I got him home. Up on the porch. Mrs.
Bogart was waithiig up. » . .

'' Yon know, it was funiQr; all the time she was— oh, talking
to me — and Cy was being terribly skk — I just kept dunking,
' I've still got to drive the buggy down to the livery stable.
I wonder if the livery man will be awake? ' But I got through
somehow. I took Ae buggy down to the stable, and got to
my room. I locked my door, but Mrs. Bogart kept saying
things, outside the door. Stood out there sa3ring things about
me, dreadful things, and rattling the knob. And all the while
I could hear Cy in the back yard— being sidL. I don't think
111 ever marry any man. And then today

*^ She drove me ri^t oat of the house. She wouldn't listen |
to me, all morning. Just to Cy. I suppose he's over hisi
lieadache now. Even at breakfeist he dwught the whole thing
was a grand joke. I suppose ri^ this minute he's going
around town boasting about his ' conquest' You understand-^ •
oh, don't you understand? I did keep him away! But I don't 1
see how I can face my school. They say coimtry towns are I

fine for bringing up boys in, but I can't bdieve this is \

me, lying here and saying dus. I don't bdieve what happened t
last night.

''Oh. This was curious: When I took off my dress last
night — it was a darlmg dress, I loved it so, but of course the

mud had spewed it. I cried over it and No matter. But

my white silk stockings wore all torn, and the strange thing is,
I don't know ?rtiether I cau^t my legs in the briers when I got
out to look at the sign-post, or yAieihet Cy scratched me wh^
I was fighting him o&.^*

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Sam Clark was president of the school-board. When Carol
told him Fern's story Sam looked sympathetic and neighbcM-Iy,
and Mrs. Clark sat by cooing, " Oh, isn't that too bad." Carol
was interrupted only when Mrs. Clark begged, " Dear, don't
speak so bitter about ' pious ' pe(q>le. There's lots of sincere
practising Christians that are real tolerant. Like the Champ
Perrys."

"Yes. I know. Unfortimately there are enou^ kindly
people in the churches to keep them going."

When Carol had finished, Mrs. Clark breathed, " Poor girl;
I don't doubt her story a bit," and Sam rumbled, " Yuh, sure.
Miss Mullins is young and reckless, but evnybody in town,
except Ma Bogart, knows what Cy is. But Miss Mullins was
a fool to go with him."

" But not wicked enough to pay for it with disgrace? **

"N-no, but " Sam avoided verdicts, climg to the en-
trancing horrors of the story. ^' Ma Bogart cussed her out bH
morning, did she? Jumped her neck, eh? Ma certainly is
one hell-cat,"

" Yes, you know how she is; so vidous/'

" Oh no, her best style ain't her viciousness. What she pulls
in our store is to come in smiling with Christian Fortitude and
ke^ a derk busy for one hour while she picks out half a dozen
fourpenny nails. I remember one time "

" Samf " Carol was uneasy. " YouTl figjit for Fern, won't
you? When Mrs, Bogart came to see you did she make d^nite
charges?"

" Well, yes, you might say she did."

" But the school-board won't act on them? "

" Guess we'll more or less have to."

" But youll exonerate Fern? "

" 111 do what I can for the girl personally, but you know
what the board is. There's Reverend Zitterel; Sist^ Bogart
about half runs his church, so of course hell take her say-so;
and Ezra Stowbody, as a banker he has to be all heU for
morality and purity. Might 's well admit it, Carrie; I'm afraid
Aerell be a majority of the board against her. Not that any
of us would believe a word Cy said, not if he swore it on a
stack of Bibles, but still, after all this gossip, Miss Mullins
wouldn't hardly be the party to chaperon our basket-ball team

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when it went out of town to play other high schools, would
shcl "

*^ Perhaps not, but couldn't some one dse? ''

'' Why, that's one of the ^rngs^^h^Hfras^ldrerteF;!!^^
soundedst ubbom. — — ' ' ^^^

'' IXTyou realize that this isn't just a matter of a job, and
hiritag and firing; that it's actually sending a ^lendid girl out^
with a beastly stain on her, giving all the other Bogarts injdie
world a chance at her? That's what will happenJf^-jnriTdis-
charge her/' ^^___r— ^

Sam moved uncomfortably, looked at his wife, scratched his
head, rig^, siaid nothing.

" Won't you fight for her on the board? If you lose, won't
you, and whoever agrees with you, make a minority report? "

** No reports made in a case like this. Our rule is to just
decide the thing and announce the final decision, whether it's
unanimous or not."

*^ Rules I Against a girl's future 1 Dear God I Rules of a
school-board I Sam! Won't you stand by Fern, and threaten
to resign from the board if they try to discharge her? "

Rather testy, tired of so many subtleties, he complained^
'' WeD, 111 do what I can, but 111 have to wait till the board
meets."

And ** 111 do what I can," together with the secret admission
'' Of course you and I know what Ma Bogart is," was all Carol
could get from Superintendent George E^vin Mott, Ezra Stow-
body, the Reverend Mr. Zitterel or any other member of the
school-board.

Afterward she wondered whether Mr. Zitterel could have
been referring to herself when he observed, " There's too much
license in hi^ places in this town, thou^, and the wages of
sin is death — or anyway, bein' fired." The holy leer with ^idi
the priest said it remained in her mind.

She was at the hotel before eight next morning. Fern longed
to go to school, to face the tittering^ but she was too shaky.
Carol read to her all day and, by reassuring her, convinced her
own self that the school-board would be just. She was less
sore of it that evening when, at the motion pictures, she heard
Mrs. Gougerling exclaim to Mrs. Howland,|'^ She may be so
innocent and all, and I suppose she probably is, but still, if she
drank a whole bottle of whisky at that dance, the way every-
body says she did, she mav have forgotten she was so innocent!

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Hee, bee, bee! " Maud Dyer, leaning back iron her seat, {Nit
in, " That's what IVe said all along. I don't want to roast
anybody, but have you noticed the way she looks at men? "|

'^ When will tbey have me on Ae scaffold? " C2arol speculated.

Nat Hicks stopped the Kennicotts on their way home. Carol
bated him for his namier of assuming that they two bad a
mysterious understanding. Without quite winking he seemed
to wink at her as he gurgled, " What do you idOss timdc about
this Mullins woman? I'm not strait-Iaoed, but I tell you we
got to have decent women in our schools. D' you know what
I heard? They say whatever she may of done afterwards, this
Mullins dame took two quarts of whisky to die danoe with
her, ami got stewed before Cy didt Some tank, that wreni
Ha, ha, ha! "

" Rats, I don't believe it,** Kennicott nwittered.

He got Carol away before she was able to speak.

She saw Erik passing the house, late, alone, and she stared
after him, longing for the lively bitterness of the dnngs he
would say about tibe town. Kennicott had nothing for her but
" Oh, course, ev'body likes a juicy story, but they don't intend
to be mean.*'

She went up to bed proving to hersdf that the members of
the school-board were superior men.

It was Tuesday afternoon before she learned that the board
had met at ten in the morning and voted to "accept Miss
Fern MulKns's resipiation." Sam Clark telephoned the news
to her. " WeVe not making any charges. We're just letting
her resign. Would you like to drop ova: to the hotd and ask
her to write the resignation, now we've accepted it? Glad I
could get the board to put it that way. It's thaidcs to you."

^' But can't you see that the town will take this as proof
of the charges? "

" We're — ^not — ^maktng— ^no — charges-^wbateverl " Sam was
obviously finding it hard to be patient.

Fern left town that evening.

Carol went with her to th« train. The two girls elbowed
through a silent lip-licking crowd. Carol tried to stare tiicm
down but in ftice of the impishness of the boys and the faorine
gaping of the men, she was embarrassed. Fern <Sd not gjlanoe
at them. Carol fdt her arm trendble, though she was tearless,
listless, plodding. She squeezed Carol's hand, said something
unintdUgible, stimibled up into the vestSnde.

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S-TREET 389

Carol remembered that MOes Bjomstam had also taken a^
train. What would be the scene at the station when she
herself took departure? _

She walkedjip lowii l>fliiiid two sliaugeis-

5em was giggHng^ "See that good-looking wench
that got on here? The swell kid with the small black hat?
She's some charmer! I was here yesterday, before my jump to
Ojibway FaUs, and I heard all about her. Seems she was a
teacher, but ^e certainly was a high-rdler — O boy! — high,
wide, ajMl fancy! Her and couple of other skirts bought a
whole case of whisky and went on a tear, and one night, darned
if this bunch of cradle-robbers didn't get hdd of some young
kids, just small boys, and they all got lit up like a White Way,
and went out to a roughneck dance, and they say "

The narrator turned, saw a woman near and, not being a
conmion person nor a coarse workman but a clever salesman
and a householder, lowered his voice for the rest of the tale.
Duriog it the other man laughed hoarsely.

Carol turned off on a side-streeL

She passed Cy Bogart He was humorously narrating some
achievement to a group which included Nat Hicks, Del Sna£9in,
Bert Tybee the bartender, and A. Tennyson O'Heam the
shyster lawyer. iThey were men far dder than Cy but they
accepted him as one of their own, and encouraged him to
go 004

It was a week before she received from Fern a letter of
which this was a part:

. . . & of course my family did not really believe the story but
as they were sure I must have done something wrong they just
lectured me generally, in fact jawed me till I have gone to live at
a boarding house. The teachers' agencies must know the story,
nian at one admost slammed the door in my face when I went to
ask about a job, & at another the woman in charge was beastly.
Don't know what I will do. Don't seem to feel very well. May
marry a fellow that's in love with me but he's so stupid tiiat he
makes me scream.

Dear Mrs. Kennicott you were the only one that believed meJI
I guess it's a joke on me, I was such a simp, I felt quite heroidj
wmle I was driving the buggy back that night & keeping Cy away v
from me. I guess I expected the people in Gopher Prauie to admire^
roe. I did use to be admired for my athletics at the U.— just five |
months ago.

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CHAPTER XXXni

For a month which was one suspended moment of doubt she
saw Erik only casually, at an Eastern Star dance, at the shop,
where, in the presence of Nat Hicks, they conferred with im-
mense particularity on the significance of having one or two
buttons on the cuff of Kennicott's New Suit. For the benefit
of beholders they were respectably vacuous.

Thus barred from him, depressed in the thou^t of Fern,
Carol was suddenly and for the first time convinced that she
loved Erik.

She told herself a thousand in^iriting things which he would
say if he had the opportunity; for tibem she admired him,
loved him. But she was afraid to summon him. He under-
stood, he did not come. She forgot her every doubt of him,
and her discomfort in his background. Each day it seemed
impossible to get throu^ the desolation of not seeing him.
Each morning, each afternoon, each evening was a co^^>artmalt
divided from all other units of time, distinguished by a sudd^i
"Oh! I want to see Erik! " which was as devastating as
thou^ she had never said it before.

There were wretched periods when she could not picture
him. Usually he stood out in her mind in some little moment —
glancing up from his preposterous pressing-iron, or running on
the beach with Dave Dyer. But sometimes he had vanished;
he was only an opinion. She worried then about his appear-
ance: Weren't his wrists too large and red? Wasn't his nose
a snub, like so many Scandinavians? Was he at all the grace-
ful thing she had fancied? When she encountered him on the
street she was as much reassuring herself as rejoicing in his
presence. More disturbing than being unable to visualize him
was the darting remembrance of some intimate aspect: his
face as they had walked to the boat together at the j^cnic;
the ruddy li^t on his temples, neck-cords, flat chedcs.

On a November evening when Kennicott was in the country
she answered the bell and was confused to find Erik at the

390

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door, sto(^>ftd, imploring, his hands in the pockets of his top-
coat. As though he had been rehearsing his speech he instantly
besought:

" Saw your husband driving away. IVe got to see you. I
can't stand it. Come for a walk. I knowl People might
see us. But they won't if we hike into the country. Ill wait
for you by the elevator. Take as long as you want to — oh,
come quidcl "

" In a few minutes," she promised.

She murmured, " 111 just talk to him for a quarter of an
hour and come home.'' She put on her tweed coat and rubber
overshoes, considering how honest and hopeless are rubbers,
how clearly their chaperonage proved that she wasn't going
to a lovers' tryst.

She foimd him in the shadow of the grain-elevator, sulkily
licking at a rail of the side-track. As she came toward himj
she fancied that his whole body expand^. But he said nothing, i
nor she; he patted her sleeve, she returned the pat, and they I
crossed the railroad tracks, foimd a road, clumped toward!
open country.

" Chilly night, but I like this mdancholy gray," he said.

" Yes."

They passed a moaning clump of trees and splashed along
the wet road. He tucked her hand into the side-pocket of his
overcoat. She catight his thumb and, sighing, held it exactly
as Hugh held hers when they went walking. She thought
about Hug^. The current maid was in for the evening, but
was it safe to leave the baby with ha*? The thought was
distant and elusive.

Erik began to talk, slowly, revealingly. He made for her a
picture of his work in a large tailor dbop in Minneapolis: the
steam and heat, and the drudgery; the men in darned vests
and crumpled trousers, men who " rushed growlers of beer "
and were cynical about women, who laughed at him and played
jokes on him. " But I didn't mind, because I could keep away
from them outside. I used to go to the Art Institute and the
Walker Gallery, and tramp dear around Lake Harriet, or hike
out to the Gates house and imagine it was a chateau in Italy
and I lived in it. I was a marquis and collected tapestries —
that was after I was wounded in Padua. The only really bad
time was when a tailor named Finkelfarb found a diary I was
trying to keq) and he read it aloud in the shqp — it was a

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392 MAIN STREETT

bad fight." He lauded. '' I got fined five (hilars. But that's
all gone now. Seems as thou^ you stand between me and
the gas stoves — the long flames with manve edges, licking 't^
around the irons and making that sneering sound all day —
aaaaahl "

Her fingers tightened about his thumb as she perceived the
:hot low room, the pounding of pressing^irons, the reek of
scorched cloth, and Erik among giggling gnomes. Hfe fingo"-
tip crept through the opening of her glove and smoothed her
pahn. She snatdied her hand away, stripped off her ^ove,
tucked her hand back into his.

He was saying something about a " wonderful person." In
her tranquillity ^e let the words blow by and heeded only the
beating wings of his voice.

She was conscious that he was fumbling for inq^ressive
speech.

"Say, uh — Carol, I've written a poem about you."

" That's nice. Let^s hear it."

" Damn it, don't be so casual about itl Can't you take me
seriously? "

" My dear boy, if I .took you seriously 1 I don't want

us to be hurt more than — more than we will be. Tdl me the
poem. I've never had a poem written about me! "

" It isn't really a poem. It's just some words that I love
because it seems to me they catdi what you are. Of course

probably they won't seem so to anybody dse, but

Well

Little and tender and merry and wise
With eyes that meet my eyts.

Do you get the idea the way I do? "

"Yes I I'm terribly grateful! " And die was gcatefnl^
while she impersonally noted how bad a verse it wns.

She was aware of the haggard beauty. in the lowering ni^t.
Monstrous tatto^ clouds sprawled round a forlorn noan;
puddles and rocks glistened with iimer light. They were pass-
ing a grove of scrub poplars, feeUe by day but looming now
like a menacing wall. She stq>ped. They heard the bran&es
dripping, the wet leaves sullenly plumping on the soggy earth.

" Waiting-Awaiting — everything is waiting," she whispered.
She drew her hand from his, pressed ;her desched fii^cis

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against her lips. She was lost in the somberness. ''I am
happy — so we most go home, before we have time to beccnner
onfaappy. But can't we sit on a log for a minute and just
listen? *'

" No. Too wet. But I wish we could build a fire, and you
could sit on my overcoat beside it. I'm a grand fire-builder 1
My cousin Lars and me^ spent a week one time in a cabin
way up in Uie Big Woods, snowed in. The fireplace was filled
with a dome of ice ^en we got there, but we chopped it out,
and jammed the thing full of pine-boughs. Couldn't we build
a fire back here in tte woods and sit by it for a while? "

She pondered, half-way between yielding luid refusal. Her
head ached faindy. She was in abeyance. Bverything, the
night, his silhouette, the cautious-treading future, was as un-
distinguishable as though she were drifting bodiless in a Fourth
Dimension. While her mind groped, the li^ts of a motor car
swooped round a bend in the road, and they stood farther

^art. "What ought I to do?" she mused. "I think

Oh, I won't be robbed! I am goodi If I'm so enslaved that
I can't sit by the fire with a man and talk, then I'd better
be deadi "

The lights of the thrumming car grew magically; were upon
them; abruptly stopped. From behind the dimness of the wind-
shield a voice, annoyed, sharp: " Hdlo there! "

She realized that it was Kennicott.

The irritation in his voice smoothed out. " Having a walk? "

They made schoolboyish sounds of assent.

" Pretty wet, isn't it? Better ride back. Jump up in front
here, Valborg."

His manner of swinging open the door was a command.
Carol was conscious that Erik was climbing in, that ^e was
apparently to sit in the back, and that she had been left to
open the rear door for herself. Instantly the wonder \^ch
had flamed to the gusty skies was quenched, and she was
Mrs. W. E. Kennicott of Gopher Prairie, ridmg in a squeaking
old car, and likely to be lectured by her husband.

She feared what Kennicott would say to Erik. She bent
toward them. Kennicott was observing, ''Going to have some
rain before the night 's over, all right."

« Yes," said Erik.

" Been fimny season this year, anyway. Never saw it with
such a cold October and such a nice Noveori>er. 'Member

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394 MAIN STREET

we had a snow way back on October ninth 1 But it certainly
was nice up to the twenty-first, this month — as I remember it,
not a flake of snow in November so far, has there been? But
I shouldn't wonder if we'd be having some snow 'most any
time now."

" Yes, good chance of it," said Erik.

'^ Wi^ I'd had more time to go after the ducks this fall.
By golly, what do you think? " Kennicott sounded appealing.
" Fellow wrote me from Man Trap Lake that he abot seven
mallards and couple of canvas-back in one hour! "

'' That must have been fine," said Erik.

Carol was ignored. But Kennicott was blustrously cheerful.
He shouted to a farma-, as he slowed up to pass the frightened
team, " There we are—schon gtU! " She sat back, neglectai,
frozen, unheroic heroine in a drama insanely undramatic. She
made a decision resolute and enduring. She would tdl Kenni-
cott What would she tell hun? She could not say that

she loved Erik. Did she love him? But she would have it
out. She was not sure whether it was pity for Kennicott's
blindness, or irritation at his aJssumption that he was enough
to fill any woman's life, which prompted her, but she kn^
that she was out of the trap, that she could be frank; and she
was exhilarated with the adventure of it • • • while in
front he was entertaining Erik:

*' Nothing like an hour on a duck-pass to make you relish

your victuals and Gosh, this machine hasn't got the

power of a fountain pen. Guess the cylinders are jam-cram-full
of carbon again. Don't know but what maybe I'll have to
put in another set of piston-rings."

He stopped on Main Street and clucked hospitably, '* There^
that'll give you just a block to walk. G* night."

Carol was in suspense. Would Erik sneak away?

He stolidly moved to the back of the car, thrust in his hand,
muttered, " Good night — Carol. I'm glad we had our walk."
She pressed his hand. The car was flapping on. He was
hidden from her — ^by a comer drug store on Main Street!

Kennicott did not recognize her till he drew up before the
house. Then he condescended, " Better jump out here and
111 take the boat around back. Say, see if the back door is
unlocked, will you? " She unlatched the door for him. She
realized that she still carried the damp glove she had stripped
off for Erik. She drew it on. She stood in the center of the

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living-room, immovingy in damp coat and muddy rubbers.
Kennicott was as opaque as ever. Her task wouldn't be any-
thing so lively as having to endure a scolding, but only an
exasperating efiFort to command his attention so that he would
understand the nebulous things she had to tell him, instead
of interrupting her by yawning, winding the clock, and going
up to bed. She heard him shoveling coal into the furnace. He
came through the kitchen energetically, but before he spoke
to her he did stop in the hall, did wind the clock.

He sauntered into the living-room and his glance passed
from her drenched hat to her smeared rubbers. She could
hear — she could hear, see, taste, smell, touch— his "Better
take your coat off, Carrie; looks kind of wet." Yes, there it
was:

" Well, Carrie, you better " He chucked his own coat

on a thair, stalked to her, went on with a rising tingling voice,
** ^you better cut it out now. I'm not going to do the out-
raged husband stunt. I like you and I respect you, and I'd
probably look like a boob if I tried to be dramatic. But I think
It's about time for you and Valborg to call a halt before you get
JQ Dutch, like Fern MulUns did.''

« Do you "

" Course. I know all about it. What d' you e]q>ect in a
town that's as filled with busybodies, that have plenty of time
to stick their noses into other folks' business, as this is? Not
that they've had the nerve to do much tattling to me, but
they've hinted around a lot, and an)rway, I could see for myself
that you liked him. But of course I knew how cold you were,
I knew you wouldn't stand it even if Valborg did try to hold
your hand or kiss you, so I didn't worry. But same time, I
hope you don't suppose this husky young Swede farmer is as
innocent and Platonic and all that stuff as you are! Wait
now, don't get sore I I'm not knocking him. He isn't a bad
sort. And he's young and likes to gas about books. Course
you like him. That isn't the real rub. But haven't you just
seen what this town can do, once it goes and gets moral on
you, like it did with Fern? You probably think that two
young folks making love are alone if anybody ever is, but
there's nothing in this town that you don't do in company
with a whole lot of uninvited but awful interested guests.
Don't you realize that if Ma Westlake and a few othora got
started they'd drive you up a tree^ and you'd find yourself so

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396 MAIN STTIEET

well mdvertked as h&Dg in love wiA this Vdborg idlow tiiat
you'd Aove: to i>e, just to spite *eml "

"Let me sit dom^ums all Carol coidd say. She drooped
on the coudi, wearily, without elasticity.

He yawned, "Gimme your coat airf rubbers," and wbBe
die stripped them off he twiddled his watch*diain, fdt the
radiator, peered at the thermometer. He shook out her -wra^
in the hail, hung them up with exactly his usual care. He
pushed a chair near to her and sat bolt up. He looked Bke
a phsrstckn about to give souzd and undesired advice.

Before he could launch into his heavy discourse Ae des-
.perately got in, " Pleasel I want you to know that I was
going to tell you «ver3rthing, tonight."

" Well, I don't suppose there's really much to tell.*'

" But there is. I'm fond of Erik. He appeals to something
in here.'* She touched her breast. " And I admire hhn. fie
isn't just a *3roung Swede farnttr.* He's an artst "

" Wait nowl He's had a chance all evening to tell 3^00
what a whale of a fine f eltow he is. Now it's my turn. I carft

telk artistic, but Carrie, do you understand my work?"

He leaned forward, thick capable hands on thick stunly tfai^
mature and slow, yet beseeching, f * No matter-even U you are
cold, I like you better than anybody in tibe world, foie time
I Slid that you were my soul. And that still goesT You're
all the thmgs that I see in a sunset when I'm driving in from
the country, the things that I Uke but can't make poetry of.
Do you realize wbsit my job is?3l go round twenty*four hours
a day, in mud and blizzard, trying my ckmnedest to heal
•everybody, rich or poor. You— that 're always spieling about
h ow sdentfets ought t o nile^ the world, instead of a bunch
of~spread'eagle poiitioMS— c antTOirsee '^fliat'T *ffl iO !"fK>ci-
*ence there isnere? And I can stand the cold and the bonq^
roads and the lonely rides at ni^t. All I need k to have yw
here at home to wdcome me. I don't esqsect you to be pi^
sionate— not any more I don't — ^but I do expect you to ap-
qyredate my work. I bring babies into the world, and smi
lives, and make cranky husbands quit being mean to their
wives. And thenjyou go and moon over a Swede tailor because
he can talElEout Sow to put ruchings on a skirt 1 Hdl of a
thi ng-jor aTnan to fuss bveri "\

She flfew out at him: " You make your side clear. Let me
give mine. I admit all you say — except about Erik. But is

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it only you, and the baby, that want me to back you up, that
dceoand things from me? They're all on m^ the wfade townl
I can feel their hot breaths on my neckl Aunt Bessie anl'
that horrible slavering old Uncle Whittier and Joanita aaad
Mrs. Westlake and Mrs. Bogart and all of' them. And you
welcome them, you encourage them to drag me down into their
cavel I won't stand itl Do you hear? Now, ri^t now, I'm
done. And it's Erik, who gives me the courage. You say he
just thinks about niches (which do not usually go on skirts,
by the way! ). I tell you he thinks about God, the God that
Mrs. Bogsurt covers up with grea^ gingham wrappers! Erik
will be a great man: some day, and if I oould contribute one
tsDy bit to hi» success ^'

"Wait, wait,. wait nowl Hold up! You're assuming that
your Erik will make good. As a matter of fact, at my age he'll
be running, a onerman tailor shop in some burg about the size
of Schoenstront"

" He will not! ''

" That's what he's besuied for now all rig^, and he's twenty*

five or -six and What's he done to noake you tbkak hell

ever be anything but a pants-presser? "

" He has sensitiveness and talent " \.

" Wait now! What has he actually done in the art line?
Has he done one first-class picture or — sketch, d' you call it?
Or one poem, or played the piano, or anythii^ except gas
about what he's going to do? "

She lodged tbougbtful.

^'Then it's a hundred to one shot that he never will. fWay
L understand it, even these fdlows that do something pretty
good at home and get to go to art school, there ain't more
than one out of ten of 'em, maybe one out of a hundred, that
ever get above grinding out a tnmi living^-r-about as artistic
as [dumbing. And when it comes down to this tailor^ why.
ca n't you see—y ou that take on so about psychologyr-catf t
you' sce tha t it^s jiistTiy contrast with folks like Doc McGanum
or Lym Cass" that this Yellow seems artistic? Suppose you'd
met upwTth him firsF in one of these reglar New York studios !
^ou wouldn't notice him any more 'n a rabbit! ^

She huddled over folded hands like a temple virgin shivering
on^her knees b^ore the thin warmth of a brazier. She could
not answer.

Kennicott rose quickly, sat on the couch, took both her

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398 MAIN STREET

hands. '' Suppose he fails — ^as he will! Suppose he goes back
to taUoringy and you're his wife. Is that going to be this
artistic life you've been thinking about? He's in some bum
shack, pressing pants all day, or stooped over sewing, and
having to be poUte to any grouch that blows in and jams a
dirty stinking old suit in his face and says, 'Here yon, fix
this, and be blame quick about it.' He won't even have enough
j savvy to get him a big shop. Hell pike along doing his own
jwork — ^unless you, his wife, go help him, go hdp fahn in the
jghop, and stand over a table all day, pushing a big heavy iron.
liYour complexion will look fine after about fifteen years of
'baking that way, won't it! And youll be humped over like

• an old hag. And probably youll live in one room back of
; ihe shop. And then at night — oh, you'll have your artist —

Burel Hell come in stinking of gasoline, and cranky from
hard work, and hinting around that if it hadn't been for you,

• he'd of gone East and been a great artist. Sure I And youll

be entertaining his relatives Talk about Uncle Whitl

Youll be having some old Axel Axelberg coming in with manure
.on his boots and sitting down to supper in his socks and yelling
at you, * Hurry up now, you vimmin make me sick! ' Yes,
and youll have a squalling brat every year, tug^g at you
while you press clothes, and you won't love 'em like you do
Hugh up-stairs, all downy and asleep "

" Please! Not any more! "

Her face was on his knee.

He bent to kiss her neck. '^ I don't want to be unfair. I
guess love is a great thing, all ri^t. But think it would stand
much of that kind of stuff? Oh, honey, am I so bad? Can't
you like me at all? I've— I've been so fond of you! "

She snatched up his hand, she kissed it. Presently she
sobbed, "I won't ever see him again. I can't, now. The
hot living-room behind the tailor shop— I don't love him

enough for that. And you are Even if I were sure of

him, sure he was the real thing, I don't think I could actually
leave you. This marriage, it weaves people together. It^
not easy to break, even when it oug^t to be broken."

" And do you want to break it? "

"No!"

He lifted her, carried her up-stairs, laid her on her bed,
turned to the door.

" Come kiss me," she whimpered.

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He kissed ber lightly and slipped away. For an hour she I
^heard him moving about his room, lighting a cigar, drumming I
with his knuckles on a chair. She felt that he was a bulwark
between her and the darkness that grew thicker as the delayed
storm came down in sleet.

He was cheery and more casual than ever at breakfast. All
day she tried to devise a way of giving Erik up. Telephone?
The village central would imquestionably ^'listen in." A
letter? It might be found. Go to see him? Impossible.
That evening Eennicott gave her, without comment, an en-
velope. The letter was signed " E. V."

I know I can't do anything but make trouble for you, I think.
I am going to Minneapolis tonight and from there as soon as I can
either to New York or Chicago. I will do as big things as I can.
I I can't write I love you too much God keep you.

Until she heard the whistle which told her that the Minne*
apolis train was leaving town, she kept herself from thinking,
from moving. T hen it was a ll over. She had no plan nor
desire for anytfrifl gT — " — — — "- " ^

When^^e^uugliL &.(,matolt lookmg at her over his 3N(^
papeiP-'d^ned to his arms, thrusting the paper aside, and fol\
the fir^time in years they were lovers. But she knew that she
still had no plan in life, save always to go along the same
streets, past the same people, to the same shops.

A week aftwr EHk's going the maid startled her by an-
noimeingr^' There's a Mr. Valborg down-stairs say he vant to
see you.*'

She was conscious of the maid's interested stare, angry at
this shattering of die calm in which she had hidden. She
crept down, peeped into the living-room. It was not Erik
Valborg who stood there; it was a small, gray-bearded, yellow-
faced man in mucky boots, canvas jacket, and red mittens.
He glowered at her with shrewd red eyes.

" You de doc's wife? "

" Yes."

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400 MAIN STREET

"I'm Adolpk Valborg, from up by JeffersoiL I'm Etflc's
father."

'' Ohl " He was a monkey-faced little mas^ and: not gentle.

" What you dcme wit' my son? "

" I don't think I imderstand you."

" I t'ink you're going to imderstand before I get t'roughl
^ere is he? "

" Why, really I presume that he's in Minneapolis."

'^ You presume! " He looked tfannigh. her with a con-
temptuousness such as she could not have imagined. Oidy an:
insane contortion of speUing^ could portray his l3rric whine, he
mangled consonants. He damored, " Presume! Dot's a fine
word I I don't want no fine words and I don't want no more,
lies! I want to know what you know! "

" See here, Mr. Valborg, you may stop this bull3ring ri^t
now. I'm not one of your farmwomen. I don't know where
your son is, and there's no reason why I should know." Hct
defiance ran out in face of his immense flaxen stolidity. He-
raised his fist, worked up his anger with the gesture, and
sneered:

" You dirty city women wit' yom fine ways and fine dresses!
A- father come here trying to save his boy from wickediKSS,
and you call him a bully! By God, I don't have to take
nothin' off you nor your husband! I ain't one of your faired
men. For one time a woman like you is going to hear de trot'
about what you are, and no fine city words to it, needer."

" Really, Mr. Valborg "

" What you done wit' him? Heh? Ill yoost tdl you what
you done! He was a good boy, even if he was a danm fool,
I want him back on de farm. He don't make enough money
tailoring. And I can't get me no hired man! I want to take
him back on de farm. And 3^ou butt in and fool wit' him aiui
make love wit' him, and get him to run away! "

" You are lying! It's not true that It's not true, and

if it were, you would have no right to speak like this,"

'' Don't talk foolish. I know. Ain't I heard from a fdlow
dot live ri^t here in town how you been acting wit* de bay?
I know what you done! Walking wit' him in de counttyt
Hiding in de woods wit' him! Yes and I guess you talk about
religion in de woods! Sure! Women like you— you're worsr
dan street-walkers! Rich women like you, wit' fime hud[)ands
and no decent work to do — ^and me, look at my hands, look

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how I work, look at those hands! But you, oh God no, you
mustn't work, you're too fine to do decent work. You got
to play wit' young fellows, 3roiinger as you are, lauding and
rolling around and acting lUce de animabl You let my son
alone, d' you hear? " He was shaking his fist in her face, -^e
could smdl the manure and sweat. '' It ain't no use talkm' to
women like you. Get no trut' out of you. But next time I
go by your husbandl "

He was mardiing into the hall. Carol flung herself on him,
her clenchmg hand on his hayseed-dusty dioulder. "You
horrible old man, you've always tried to turn Erik into a slave,
to fatten your pocketbook! You've sneered at him, and over-
worked him, and probably you've succeeded in preventing his
ever rising above your muck-heap I ^k1 now because you can't
drag him baci, you come here to vent Go tell my hus-
band, go tell him, and don't blame me when he kills you, when
niy husband kilb you — he wfll kill you '*

The man grunted, looked at her impassively^ said one word,
and walked out.

She heard the word very plainly.

She did not quite reach the couch. Her knees gave way,
she pitched forward. She heard her mind saying, " You
haven't fainted. This is ridiculous. You're simply drama-
tizing yourself. Get tip." But she could not move. When
Kennicott arrived she was l3ring on the coudi. His step
quickened. " What's happen^, Carrie? You haven't got a
bit of blood in your face."

She dutdied his arm. " You've got to be sweet to me, and
kind! I'm going to California — mountains, sea. Please don't
argue about it, because I'm going."

Quietly, " All right. Well go. You and I. Leave the kid
here with Aunt Bessie."

"Nowl"

" Well yes, just as soon as we can get away. Now don't
talk any more. Just imagine you've already started." He
smoothed her hair, and not till after supper did he continue:
"I meant it about California. But I think we better wait
three weeks or so, till I "get hold of some young fellow released
from the medical corps to take my practice. And if people
are gossiping, you don't want to give them a chance by running
away. Can you stand it and face 'em for three weeks or so? "

" Yes," she said emptily.

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People covertly stared at her on the street. Aunt Bessie
tried to catechize her about Erik's disappearance, and it was
Kennicott who silenced the woman with a savage, '' Say, are
you hinting that Carrie had anything to do with that fellow's
beating it? Then let me tell you, and you can go ri^t out
and tell the whole bloomin' town, that Carrie and I took Val —
took Erik riding, and he asked me about getting a better job
in Minneapolis, and I advised him to go to it. . . •
Getting much sugar in at the store now? ''

Guy Pollock crossed the street to be pleasant apn^)os of
California and new novels. Vida Sherwin dragged her to the
Jolly Seventeen. There, with every one rigidly listening, Maud
Dyer shot at Carol, " I hear Erik has left town."

Carol was amiable. '^Yes, so I hear. In fact, he called

me up — told me he had been offered a lovely job in the dty.

So sorry he's gone. He would have been valuable if we'd

tried to start the dramatic association again. Still, I wouldn't

be here for the association myself, because Will is all in from

work, and I'm thinking of taking him to California. Juanita^

you know the Coast so well — tell me: would you start in at

Los Angeles or San Francisco, and what are the best hotels? "

, The Jolly Seventeen looked disappointed, but the Jolly

^ Seventeen Uked to give advice, the Jolly Seventeen liked to

i mention the expensive hotels at which they had stayed. (A

jmeal counted as a stay.) Before they could question her

again Carol escorted in with drum and fife the tc^ic of Rasrmie

Wutherspoon. Vida had news from her husband. He had

peen gassed in the trenches, had been in a hospital for two

tweeks, had been promoted to major, was learning French.

She left Hugh with Aunt Bessie.

But for Kennicott she would have taken him. She hoped
that in some miraculous way yet unrevealed she might find
it possible to remain in California. She did not want to see
Gopher Prairie again.

The Smails were to occupy the Kennicott house, and quite
the hardest thing to endure in the month of waiting was the
series of conferences between Kennicott and Uncle Whittier

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in regard to heating the garage and having the furnace flues
deaned.

Did Carol, Kennicott inquired, wish to stop in Minneapolis
to buy new clothes?

" Nol I want to get as far away as I can as soon as I can.
Let's wait till Los Angeles."

" Sxire, surel Just as you like. Cheer up I We're going
to have a large wide time, and everything 11 be different when
we come back."

Dusk on a snowy December afternoon. The sleeper which
would connect at Kansas City with the California train rolled
out of St. Paul with a chidc-a-chick, chick-a-chi(^y chick-a-
chick as it crossed the other tracks. It bumped through the
factoiy belt, gained speed. Carol could see nothing but gray
fields, which had dosed in on her all the way from Gopher
Prairie. Ahead was darkness.

'' For an hour, in Minneapolis, I must have been near Erik.
He's stUl there, somewhere. He'll be gone when I come back.
I'll neva: know where he has gone."

As Kennicott switched on the seat-light she turned drearily
to the illustrations in a motion-picture magazine.

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CHAPTER XXXIV

They journeyed for three and a half months. They saw the
Grand Canyon, the adobe walk of Sante Fe and, in a drive
from El Paso mto Mexico, their first foreign land. They jogged
from San Diego and La Jolla to Los Angeles, Pasadena, River-
side, through towns with bell-towered missions and orange-
groves; they viewed Monterey and San Franciseo and a
forest of sequoias. They bathed in the surf and climbed foot-
hills and danced, they saw a polo game and the malang of
motion^ictures, they sent one hundrol and seventeen souvenir
post-cards to Gopher Prairie, and once, on a dune by a foggy
sea when she was walking alone, Carol found an artist, and he
looked up at her and said, '^ Too danmed wet to paint; sit
down and talk," and so for ten miqutes she lived in a romantic
novel.

Her only stnig^e was in coaxing Kennicott iK)t to spend
iall his time with the tourists from the ten thousand other
Gopher Prairies. I In winter, California is full of people from
Iowa and Nebraska, Ohio and Oklahoma, who, having traveled
thousands of miles from their familiar villages, hasten to secure
an illusion of not having left them. They bunt for people from
their own states to stand between them and the shame of naked
mountains; they talk steadily, in Pullmans, on hotel porches,
at cafeterias and motion-pictxure shows, about the motors and
crops and county politics back home J (SLennicott discussed
land-prices with them, he went into the merits of the several
sorts of motor cars with them, he was intimate with train
porters, and he insisted on seeing the Luke Dawsons at their
flimsy bungalow in Pasadena, where Luke sat and yearned to
go back and make some more money. But Kennicott gave
promise of learning to play4 He shouted in the pool at the
Coronado, and he spoke of (though he did nothing more radical
than speak of) buying evening-clothes. Carol was touched
by his efforts to enjoy picture Series, and the dogged way in

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which he accuim^ted dates and dimensions when they fol-
lowed monkis})pguides through missions.

She felt strong. Whenever she was restless* she dodged her
thoughts by the familiar vagabond fallacy of running away
from them, of moving on to a new place, and thus she per-
suaded herself that she was tranquil. In Mardi she willingly
agreed with Kennicott that it was tin^ to go home. She was
longing for Hugh.

Th^ left Monterey on ^ril first, on a day of hi^ blue
skies and poppies and a summer sea.

As the train struck in among the hills she resolved, ^' I'm
going to love the fine Will Kennicott quality that there is in
G<^er Prairie. The nobility of good sense. It will be sweet
to see Vida and Guy and the Clarks. And I'm going to see
my baby! All the words hell be able to say now! It's a
new start. Everything will be different! "

Thus on April first, among dappled hills and the bronze of
scrub oaks, while Kennicott seesawed on his toes and chuckled,
" Wonder what Hughll say when he sees vs? "

Three days later they reached Gopher Prairie in a sleet
storm.

No one knew that th^r were coming; no one met them;
and because^ of the icy roads, the only conveyance at the sta-
tion was IM hotel 'bus, which they missed while Kennicott
was giving |kis trtmk-cfaeck to the station agent— the only
person to welcome them. Carol waited for him in the station,
among huddled German women with shawls and umbrellas, and
T2^ed-bearded farmers in corduroy coats; peasants mute as
oxen, in a room thick with the steam of wet coats, the reek
of the red-hot stove, the stench of sawdust boxes which served
as cuspidors. The afternoon li^t was as reluctant as a winter
dawn.

" This is a useful narket-center, an interesting pioneer post,
but it is not a home for me," meditated the stranger Carol.

Kennicott suggested, " I'd 'phone for a flivver but it'd take
quite a wiiile for it to get here. Let's walk."

They stepped imcomfortably from the safety of the plank
platform and, balancing on their toes, taking cautious strides,
ventured along the road. The sleety rain was turnmg to.^now.

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The air was stealthily cold. Beneath an inch of water was a
layer of ice, so that as they wavered with their suit-cases they
slid and almost fell. The wet snow drenched their gloves; tl^
water underfoot splashed their itching ankles. They scu£9ed
inch by inch for three blocks. In front of Harry Haydock's
Kennicott sighed:

" We better stop in here and 'phone for a machine."

She followed him like a wet kitten.

The Haydocks saw them laboring up the slippery omcrete
walk, up the perilous front stq>s, and came to the door
chanting:

" Well, well, well, back agsdn, eh? Say, this is fine! Have
a fine trip? My, you look like a rose, Carol. How did you
like the coast, doc? Well, well, well! Where-all did you
go?"

I But as Kennicott began to proclaim the list of places
achieved, Harry interrupted with an account of how much
he himself had seen, two years ago. When Kennicott boasted,
"We went through the mission at Santa Barbara," Harry
broke in, "Yeh, that's an interesting old mission. Say, 111
never forget that hotel there, doc. It was swell. Why, the
' rooms were made just like these old monasteries. Juanita
and I went from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo. You folks
go to San Luis Obispo? "

" No, but "

"Well you ought to gone to San Luis Obispo. And then
we went from there to a ranch, least they called it a ranch "

Kennicott got in only one considerable narrative, which
began:

*^ Say, I never knew— did you, Harry? — that in the Chicago
district the Kutz Kar sells as well as the Overland? I never
thought much of the Kutz. But I met a gentleman on the
train — it was when we were pulling out of Albuquerque, and
I was sitting on the back platform of the observation car,
and this man was next to me and he asked me for a li^t,
and we got to talking, and come to find out, he came from
Aurora, and when he found out I came from Minnesota he
asked me if I knew Dr. Clemworth of Red Wing, and of course,
while I've never met him, I've heard of Clemworth lots of
times, and seems he's this man's brother! Quite a coincidence!
Well, we got to talking, and we called the porter — ^that was a
pretty good porter on that car — ^and we had a couple bottles

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of ginger ale, and I happened to mention the Kutz ELar, and
this man — seems he's driven a lot of different kinds of cars —
he's got a Franklin now—- and he said that he'd tried the Kutz
and liked it first-rate. Well, when we got into a station —
I don't remember the name of it — Carrie, what the deuce
was the name of that first stc^ we made the other side of
Albuquerque? — ^well, anyway, I guess we must have stopped
thare to take on water, and this man and I got out to stretch
our legs, and darned if there wasn't a Kutz drawn right up
at the dq>ot platform, and he pointed out something I'd never
noticed, and I was glad to learn about it: seems that the gear
lever in the Kutz is an inch longer "

Even this chronicle of voyages Harry interrupted, with re-
marks on the advantages of the ball-gear-shift.

Kennicott gave up hope of adequate credit for being a
traveled man, and telephoned to a garage for a Ford taxicab,
while Juanita kissed Carol and made sure of being the first
to tell the latest, which included seven distinct and proven
scandals about Mrs. Swiftwaite, and one considerable doubt as
to the chastity of Cy Bogart.

They saw tiie Ford sedan making its way over the water-
lined ice, through the snow-storm, like a tug-boat in a fog.
The driver stopped at a comer. The car skidded, it turned
about with comic reluctance, crashed into a tree, and stood
tilted on a broken wheel.

The Kennicotts refused Harry Haydock's not too urgent
offer to take them home in his car " if I can manage to get
it out of the garage — ^terrible day — stayed home from the
store — but if you say so, I'll take a shot at it." Carol gurgled,
** No, I think we'd better walk; probably make better time, and
I'm just crazy to see my baby." With their suit-cases they
waddled on. Their coats were soaked through.

Carol had forgotten her facile hopes. She looked about
with impersonal eyes. But Kennicott, through rain-blurred
lashes, caught the glory that was Back Home.

She noted bare tree-tnmks, black branches, the spongy
l)rown earth between patches of decayed snow on the lawns.
The vacant lots were full of tall dead weeds. Stripped of
summer leaves the houses were hq^eless — temporary shelters.

Kennicott chuckled, " By golly, look down therel Jack Elder
must have painted his garage. And look! Martin Mahoney
has put up a new fence around his chicken yard. Say, that's

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408 MAIN STREET

a Ipod ience, eh? CUdben-ti^ and dog-ti^. That% cer-
taiiily a dandy ience. Wonder bow mvcb it cost a jsrdf
Ves^ sir, they been budding ri^t along, even in winter. Got
more enterprise than these Calilomians. Pretty good to be
home, eh? ''
I She noled that all winter long the citizens had been throwing
\, I garbage into thdr back yards, to be cleaned iq> in ^ning. The
1 recent thaw had disclosed heaps of ashes, dog-^bcmes, torn
bedding, clotted paint-cans, all half covered by the icy pools
wbkb filled the bdUows of the yards. The refnse had stained
the water to vile colors of waste: thin red, sour yellow, streaky
brown.

Eemiicott chuckled, '^Look over there on I^iain Street!
They got the feed store all £xed iq>, and a new sign on it,
black and gold. That'll improve the appearance of the block
a lot."

She noted that the few people whom they passed wore thcsr
raggedest coats for the evil day. They -were Bcarecrows in a
shanty town. . . . " To think," she marvded, " of coining
two thousand miles, past momitains and dties, to get off h«e,
and to plan to stay here! What conceivaiide rsaawi for
choosing this particukr place? "

She noted a figure in a rusty coat and a cloth rap.

Kennicott diudded, '' Look who's osningl IVs Sam dark!
Gosh, all rigged out for the weather."

The two men shook hands a dozen times and, in the
Western fashion, bumbled, " Well, well, wdi, wdl, you old
hell-hound, you old devil, how are you, anyway? Ychi old
horse-thief, maybe it ain't good to see you again! " While &hb
nodded at her over Kenaicott '5 shoulder, Ae was embarrassed.

'^ Perhaps I should sever have gone away. I^ out of
practise in lying. I wish Aey would get it over! Just a
blodk more and — my baby! "

They mese home. She brushed past the wrimming Aunt
Bessie and knelt by Hugh. As he stammered, ^ O mimmiy,
munnny, don't go away! Stay with me, mummyl " At cried,
"No, I'll never leave you again! "

He volunteered, " That's daddy."

" By goUy, he knows us just as if we'd never been awayl **
sdd Kennkott. " You dont find any of these California kids
as bright as he is, at his age! "

When the trunk came they piledabout Hi^ thei>ewfairic£ml

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Kttle woodte men fitting one inside another, the miniatire jimk,
and the Oriental drum, from San Francisco Chinatown; the
blocks carved by the old FrenchmaA in San Diego; the lariat
from San Antonio.

" Will you forgive mummy toe going away? Will you? "
she whispered.

AbsOTbed in Hugh, asking a hundred questions about hkn —
had he had any colds? did he still dawdle over his oatmeal?
what about unfortunate morning mddests? — she viewed Aunt
Bessie only as a source of information, and was able to ignore
her hint, pointed by a coyly shaken fingo-, " Now that you've
had such a fine long trip and spent so mudi mouey smd all,
I hofpe you're going to settle down, and be satisfied and
not "

" Does he Mke carrots yet? " replied Carol.

She was cheerful as the snow began to conceal the slatternly
yaf ds. She assured herself that the streets of New York and
Chicago were as i^Ly as Gopher Prairie in such weather; she
dismissed the thoi^t, ^ But they do have charming interiors
for refuge.'' She sang as she energetically looked over Hugh's
clothes.

The afternoon grew old and dark. Aunt Bessie went home.
Card toek the baby into her own room. The maid came in
complaining, " I can't get no extra milk to make chipped beef
for supper." Hugh was sleq)y, and he had been spoiled by
Aunt Bessie. (Even to a returned mother, his whining and
his trick of seven times snatching her silver brush were fa-
tiguing. As a backgrouod, behmd the noises of Hugh and the
kitchen, the house reeked with a colorless stillness.!

From the window she heard Kennicott greeting the Widow
Bogart as he had always done, always, every snowy evening:
" Guess this 11 keep up all night." She waited. There they
were, the furnace sounds, unalterable, etenral: removing ashes,
shoveling coal.

Yes. She was back home! Nothing had changed. She
had never been away. California? Had she seen it? Had she
for one minute left this scraping sound of the small ^lovd in
the ash-pit of the furnace? But Kennicott preposterously sup-
posed that she had. Never had ^e been quite so far from
£oing away as now when he believed she had just come back,
phe felt oozing throi^h the walls the spirit of smalt houses and
tighteous people. At that instant she knew that in running

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away she had merely hidden her doubts behind the officious
stir of travd.J

*^ Dear God, don*t let me begin agonizing again 1 " she sobbed.
Hugh wept witfi her.

" Wait for mummy a second I " She hastened down to the
cellar, to Kennicott.

He was standing before the furnace. However inadequate
the rest of the house, he had seen to it that the fundamental
cellar should be large and clean, the square pillars whitewashed,
and the bins for coal and potatoes and tnmks convenient. A
glow froni die drafts fell on the smooth gray cement floor at
his feet. [He was whistling tenderly, staring at the furnace
with eyes which saw the black-domed monster as a symbol
of home and of the beloved routine to which he had returned —
his gipsying decently accomplished, his duty of viewing
"sights" and "curios" performed with thoroughness. Un-
conscious of her, he stooped and peered in at the blue flames
among the coals. He closed the door briskly, and made a
whirling gesture with his right hand, out of pure blissl

He saw her. " Why, hello, old lady I Pretty dam good to
be back, eh? "

" Yes," she lied, while she quaked, " Not now. I can't face
the job of explaining now. He's beep so good. He tnsts
me. And I'm going to break his heart! "

She smiled at him. She tidied his sacred cellar by throwing
an empty bluing bottle into the trash bin. She mourned, " It's
only the baby that holds me. If Hugh died- — " aie fled up-
stairs in panic and made sure that nothing had happened to
Hugh in these four minutes.

She saw a pencil-mark on a window-sill. She had made it
on a September day when she had been planning a picnic for
Fern Mullins and Erik. Fern and she had been h3^terical with
nonsense, had invented mad parties for all the coming winter.
She glanced across the aDey at the room which Fern had oc-
cupi^. A rag of a gray curtain masked the still window.

She tried to think of some one to idiom she wanted to
tdephone. There was no one.

'nie Sam Clarks called that evening and encouraged hor to
describe the missions. A dozen times they told her how ^ad

t hey were to have her back. - -^-^ «

— " it is go60rv 5 be w i mte d;*^^e^dugHt. " It will drug^ite
But Oh, is all life, always, an unresolved But? " j

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CHAPTER XXXV

She tried to be content, which was a contradiction in terms.
She fanatically cleaned house all April. She knitted a sweater
for Hugh. She was diligent at Red Cross work. | She was
silent when Vida raved that though America hated war as much
as ever, we must invade Germany and wipe out every man J^
because it was now proven that there was no soldier in the /
German army who was not crucifying prisoners and cutting ofi
babies' hands. I

Carol was volunteer nurse when Mrs. Champ Perry suddenly
died of pneumonia.

In her funeral procession were the eleven peq>le left out
of the Grand Army and the Territorial Pioneers, old men and
women, very old and weak, who a few decades ago had been
boys and girls of the frontier, riding broncos through the rank
windy grass of this prairie. They hobbled behind a band made
iq> of business men and high-sdiool boys, who straggled along
without uniforms or ranks or leader, trying to play Chimin's
Funeral March — a shabby group of neighbors with grave eyes,
stumbling through the slush under a solenmity of faltmng
music.

Chanq> was broken. His rheumatism was worse. The rooms
over the store were silent. He could not do his work as buyer
at the elevator. Farmers coming in with sled-loads of wheat
complained that Chan^ could not read the scale, (hat he
seemed always to be watching some one back in the darkness
of the bins. He was seen slipping through alleys, talking
to himself, trying to avoid observation, creeping at last to the
cemetery. lOnce Carol followed him and found the coarse,
tobacco-stained, unimaginative old man lying on the snow of
the grave, his thick arms spread out across the raw mound
as if to protect her from the cold, her whom he had carefully
covered up every night for sixty years, who was alone there
now, uncared for.)

The elevator company, Ezra Stowbody president, let him go.

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The company, Ezra explained to Carol, had no funds for
giving pensions.

S hfijried to have him apnni ntpd tn thi> pnf;tma«^tff^^^Pj which,
ftinrP all^P wnrk waQ Hnnf> hy aQgJQtantg^ wac the One SinecUre

in to wn, the on e reward Jfor p olitical purity . But it pro\'ed
thai Mr. Bert Tybee, the former bartender, desired" the pbst-
mastcrririjh- -

ATher solidtatian Lyman Cass gave Champ a warm berth
as night watdunan. Small boys ^yed a good many tricks
on Champ iM^ien he fdl asteq> at the milL
J

She bad vkartooB happiness in the retim of Major Ra3rmoiid
Wuther^oon. He was well, but still weak from iumng been
gassed; he had been dscharged and he came hmne as the
first of the war veterans. It was rumored that he surprised
Vida by coming miannounced, that Vida fainted when she saw
him, and for a night ami day would not share him with the
town. When Carol saw them Vida was hazy about ev^ything
except Raymie, and never went so far from him that she
could not slip ber hand tmder his. Without unckrstandiBg
why, Carol was troubled by this intensity. Asui Raymit —
surely this was not Raymie, loit a sterner brother of his, this
nsan with the tight blouse, tiie shcndder emblems, the trim legs
in boote. His face seemed different, his lips more ti^. He
was not Rajrmie; he was Major Wutherspoon; and Kenmcott
and Card were grateful when he divulged iiiat Paris wasn^Sialf
as pretty as MinneapoHs, tliat all of the American asidkcs lad
been distinguished by their morality when on leave. Keannicott
was Tespectftd as he inquired whether liie Germaens had good
aeropkoies, and wbaX a salient was, and a cootie, and ^inag
West.

In a week Major Wtitl>£i'^^o<^ ^^ made iuH manager of Ihs
,Bon Ton. Harry Ha3rdock was gomg to devote bimself to the
half-d(»en branch stores which he was establi^iang at cross-
roads hamlets. Harry would be the town^ rich man in die
commg generation, and Major Wutherspoon woidd rise with
him, and Vida was jubilant, thou^ she was regretful at bwins
to give up most of her Red Cross work. Ray atiU nieeded
nnrsiiig, she explained.

When Carol saw him with his uniform o£F, in a pe{^)ar-and-

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suit ant and a mw gray felt hait, sle^ was disappoiated. He
was not Major Wiith^:spooH; he was Raymie.

For a montfa smaD hoys fc^ewed' him down th« street,, and
everybody called him Majcsr, but tfaa^ was presently sbortaied
to Maj^ and tteamaQ boys did not lode «p from tlKir marUnp
m he went l^*

The towa was booming^ as a resHdt of die war price ot wheal.

The wheat money dkt not remain in the pockets of the
farmers;, the towns existed to take care of ail that, Ib^nci
farmers were selling their land at four lumdrtd' doUara an acre
ud conmg into Minnesota. Bat iriioevo? bei^bt m 9oid
or Biortgaged^ the townsmen invittd themselves to the feast —
miUeES^ mi^-estate men, lawyers, merchants, and Dr. Will
Kennicetit. They bought busd at a hundred and fifty,, sold it
next dajy at a hundred and sevoity, and bought again. In
dnaee mtntiis Kemticott made seven diousand doBars, which
was rather more than four times as much as society paid him
for healing the sick.

In early sunsmer began a ''campaogn of boosting;" The
Commercial Chib decided that Gopher Prairie was not only a
wheat-center but alsO' the pettect site for factories, summer
cottages^ and state hatitutions. In diarge of die cmnpatgn was
Mr. James Biausser, wkn had recently comne to town to
speculate in land. Mr. Blausset was known as a Hustler. Hie
deed to be called Honest Jim. He was a bulky, gamche, noisy,
humorous man, with narrow eyes, a rustic complexion, brge
red hands, and brilliant cIc^Iks. He was attentiw to all t
wonxn. He was the first man in town who had not been ;
sensitive enough to feel Carol's aloofness. He put his arm '
about her shoulder wUie he condescended to Kenokott, " Nice ]
Kl wifey, 1^11 say, doc," and when she answered, not warmly, •
** Thank you very mudi for the imprimatnr" he blew on her
necfc, and did not know that he had been insulted.

He was a layer-on of hands. He never came to the house
witiBMtt trying to paw her. He touched her arm, let his fist
brush her side. She hated the man, and she was afraid of
him. She wondered if he had heard of Erik, asd was taking
advantage. She spoke ill of him at home and in public phuces,
but Keaoiicott sod the other powers insisted, '"^ iRfoybe he is

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kind of a roughneck, but you got to hand it to him; he's got
more git-up-and-git than any fellow that ever hit this burg.
And he's pretty cute, too. Hear what he said to old Ezra?
Chucked him in the ribs and said, ' Say, boy, what do 3roa
want to go to Denver for? Wait 'U I get time and 111 move
the mountains here. Any mountain will be tidded to death
to locate here once we get the White Way ml ' "

lllie town welcomed Mr. Blaussa: as fuUy as Carol snubbed
him. He was the guest of honor at the Commercial Club
Banquet at the Minniemashie Hoiee, an occasion for menus
printed in gold (but injudiciously proof-read), for free cigars,
soft damp slabs of Lake Superior whitefish served as fiUet of
sole, drenched dgar-ashes gradually filling the saucers of coffee
aq)s, and oratorical references to Pep, Punch, Go, Vigor, Enter-
prise, Red Blood, He-Men, Fair Women, God's Country, James
J. Hill, the Blue Sky, the Green Fields, the Bountiful Harvest,
Increasing Population, Fair Return on Investments, Alien
Agitators Who Threaten the Security of Our Institutions, the
Hearthstone the Foundation of the State, Senator Knute
Nelson, One Hundred Per Cent. Americanism, and Pointing
with Pride!

Harry Haydock, as chairman, introduced Honest Jim
Blausser. '' And I am proud to say, my fellow citizens, that
in his brief stay here Mr. Blausser has become my warm
personal friend as well as my fellow booster, and I advise you
all to very carefully attend to the hints of a man who kmxws
how to achieve."

M r. Blausser reared \ ?p Ijfr*^ an plpphant with A^^^m^rft neck
— red faced, red eyed, heavy fistedj^ slightly belching — a born
leader, divinely intended to be a congressinaiTbut ^flec^^^^ to
the more^ lucrative honoii of jr^-^estate. He smiled on his
warm personal friends and fellow boosters, and boomed:

" I certainly was astonished in the streets of our lovely little
city, the oUier day. I met the meanest kind of critter that
God ever made — ^meaner than the honifid-ioadl^ErQWs^exas
lallapaluza IXIaugbtcr ) — AffiTdo'you know what the^a
was? Hr^^s a knockerl (Laughter and applause.)

"^JKwant to tell you good people, and it's just as sure
made little apples, tibe thing that distinguishes our
io&n commonwealth from the pikers and Un-homs in
Witries is our Punch. You take a genuwine, hoc
fefflM AmCT Jcanibus^ and thore ain't anythmglJie^afraid to

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tack]^^'^''Snap and speed are his middle name! He'll pi3t her
acrc^ if he has to ride from hell to breakfast, aild belief me,
I'tn mi^ty good and sorry for the boob that's so unludiy as to
get in his way, because that poor slob is going to winder where
he was at when Old Mr. Cyclone hit townU-^ttaughter.)

" Now, frien's, th er<*'g gvip*> fnlLft i<i7^11ow and small and
soTew in the pod that they go to work and claim that those
of us that have the big vision are off our trolleys. They say
we can't make Gc^her Prairie, God bless her I just as big as
Minneapolis or St. Paul or Duluth. But lemme tell you right
here ami now that there ain't a town under the blue canopy
of heaven that's got a better chance to take a running jump
and go scooting right up into the two-hundred-thousand class
than little old G. P.! And if there's anybody that's got such
cold kismets that he's afraid to tag after Jim Blausser on the
Big Going Up, then we don't want him herel |Way I figger it,
you folks are just patriotic enough so that you ain't going to
stand for any guy sneering and knocking his own town, no
matter how much of a smart Aleck he is — and just on the side
I want to add that this Farmers' Nonpartisan League and the
whole bunch of socialists are right in the same category, or,
as the fellow says, in the same scategory, meaning This Way-
Out, Exit, Beat It While the Going's Good, This Means You,
for all knockers of prosperity and the rights of property!!

" Fellow citizens, there's a lot of folks, even ri^t here in this
fair state, fairest and richest of all the glorious union, that
stand up on their hind legs and claim that the East and Europe
put it all over the golden Northwestland. Now let me nail
that lie right here and now. (*Ah-ha,' says they, *so Jim
Blausser is claiming that Gopher Prairie is as good a place
to live in as Zx>ndon and Rome and — ^and all the rest of the Big
Burgs, is he? How does the poor fish know? ' says they. Well,
I'll tell you how I know! I've seen 'em! I've done Europe
from soup to nuts! They can't spring that stuff on Jim
Blausser and get away with it! And let me tell 3^ou that the
cmly live thing in Europe is our boys that are fighting there
now! London — I ^ent three days, sixteen straight hours a
day, giving London the once-over, and let me tell you that it's
nothing but a bunch of fog and out-of-date buildings that no
Kve American burg would sta nd fo r one minute . Yo g, may
nor^iieve it, but there al tft Otte first-clas s s^fy^^^rapcr in *^^
wteDl Tworks. |Andlhe same thing goes for that crowd of crabs

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4i6 MAIN STREET

and snobs Down East, and next time youi heae some zsb
from. YafaeovtHe-om-liie-Hudson cbewing tiie nig^ and! bidling
and trying to get yonr goat^ yon. teil Um tha^l no two-fi^ed
enterpia^^ Westerner woidd have New York for a gUtl

" Now the point of this is: Vm not oniy insistk^tbat Gopber
Prairie is going to be Minnesota's pride, liie brightest ray in the
f^ory of the Nordr Star State, but abo and fartfaennore that
it is right now, and still more shall be, as good a place to live
in, and love in, and bring np the little One& in, aiid it's got
as much r e fiuemc u t and culture, as any bmrg on the wisote
bloomin' expanse of God's Green Footstool, and tJuut goes, get
me, that goes! "

Half dai hour later Chairman Haydock moved a vote of
thanks to m . Biauflser.

^HwTOWii uuugbl iHal iSSSESrshA madera variety of fasK
which is known as '^ pid>licity." The band; was reocgunized,
and provided by the Commercial Chib with miforms ol purpie
andgokL The amateur b^d^alHeam hired a semi-pcofessmiBl
^tcber from Des Moines, and made a sdiedule of games witk
every town for fifty miles about. The citizens accompasied
it as ** rooters," in a ^lecial car, with banners kttered " Watch
Gopher Prairie Grow," and with the band playing " Smile,
Smile, Smile." Whether tiie team won or lost the Dauntless
loyally shrined, " Boost, Boys, and Boort TogeAer — ^Put
Gopher Prairie on the Map — Brilliant Record of Our MatcUesi
Team."

Thai, ^ry of glories, the town put in a White Way- White
Ways were in fashion in the Middlewest. They were composed
of ornamented posts with clusters of high-powered dectrk
li^ts along two or three blocks on Main Street. The Datmliea
confessed: "White Way Is Installed— Town Lit Up Lite
Broadway — Speech by Hon. James Blausser — Come On You
Twin Cities— Our Hat Is In the Ring."

The Commercial Club issued a booklet prepared by a. great
and expensive literary person from a Minneapolb advertising
agOKy, a red-headed young man who smoked cigarettes in. a
long amber holder. Carol read the booklet with a. certain
wonder. She learned that Pk>ver and Minniemashie Lakes
were world-famed for their beauteous wooded shores and gamey
pike and bass not to be equaUed ehewfaere in the entine coun-
try; {that the residences of Gopher Prairie vnx^ modds cf

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dignity^ comfort, and culture, with lawns and gardens known
far and wide; that the Gopher Prairie schools and public
library, in its neat and commodious building, were celebrated
throughout the state; tiiat the Gopher Prairie mills made the
best flour in the country; that the surrounding farm lands were
renowned, where'er men ate bread and butter, for their in-
comparable No. I Hard Wheat and Holstein-Priesian cattle;
and that the stores in Gopher Prairie compared favorably with
Minneapdlis and Chicago in their abundance of luxuries and
necessities and the ever-courteous attention of the skilled
derks. She learned, in brief, that this was the ene Logical
Location lor factories and wholesale houses.

'^ There's where I wapt to go; tn th at model t^wn QopTv^
hgirie,^^ s aid (JaroLI

"Tlennicbtt was triumphant when the Commercial Qub did
caipture one small shy factory which planned to make wooden
automohile^wheels, but when Carol saw the promoter she could
not feel that his coming much mattered — ^and a year after,
when he failed, she could not be very sorrowful.

Ketired farmers were moving into town. The price of lots
bad increased a third. But Carol could discover no more
pictures nor interesting food nor gracious voices nor amusing
conversation nor questing minds. {She could, she asserted,
endure a shabby but modest town; the town shabby and
egomaniac she could not endmre. She could nurse Champ
Perry, and warm to the ndghborliness of Sam Clark, hut she
could not sit applauding Honest Jim Blausser. ^ennicott had
be^ gged her , m courtship days, to convert the town to beauty .
njLJaaInQK>-asJ^fiautiiul.a&!^ Blausser and the Dauntless,
said, th fflber work was over, and she could go.]

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CHAPTER XXXVl

Kennicott was not so inhumanly patient that he could con-
tinue to forgive Carors heresies, to woo her as he had on the
venture to California. IShe tried to be inconspicuous, but she
was betrayed by her failure to glow over the boosting.
Kennicott believed in it; demanded that she say patriotic
things about the White Way and the new factory. He snorted,
" By golly, IVe done all I could, and now I expect you to
play the game. Here you been complaining for years about
us being so poky, and now when Blausser comes along and does
stir up excitement and beautify the town like youVe always
want^ somebody to, why, you say he's a roughneck, and you
won't jump on the band-wagon."|

Once, when Kennicott announced at noon-dinner, '' What do
you know about thisl They say there's a chance we may
get another factory — cream-separator works! " he added, " You
might try to look interested, even if you ain't I " The baby
was fri^tened by the Jovian roar; ran wailing to hide his
face in Carol's lap; and Kennicott had to make himself humble
and court both mother and child. The dim injustice of not
being understood even by his son left him irritable. He fdt
injured.

An tvent which did not directiy touch them brought down
his wrath.

I In the early autumn, news came from Wakamin that the
sheriff had forbidden an organizer for the National Non-
partisan League to speak anywhere in the county. The or-
ganizer had defied the sheriff, and announced that in a few
days he would address a farmers' political meeting. That
W night, the news ran, a mob of a hundred business men led by
'^ the sheriff — the tame village street and the smug village faces
ruddled by the light of bobbing lanterns, the mob flowing be-
tween the squatty rows of shops— had taken the organizo*
from his hotel, ridden him on a fence-rail, put him on a
freight train, and warned him not to return.)

418

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The story was threshed out in Dave Dyer's drug store, with
Sam Clark, Kennicott, and Carol present.

"That's the way to treat those fellows— only they ought
to have lynched him I " declared Sam, and Kennicott and Dave
Dyer joined in a proud " You betl "

Carol walked out hastily, Kennicott observing her.

Through supper-time she knew that he was bubbling and
would soon boil over. When the baby was abed, and they sat
composedly in canvas chairs on the porch, he experimented,
" I had a hunch you thought Sam was kind of hard on Uiat
fellow they kicked out of Wakamin."
1" Wasn't Sam rather needlessly heroic? "
I" All these organizers, yes, and a whole lot of the German
and Squarehead farmers themselves, they're seditious as the
devil— disloyal, non-patriotic, pro-German pacifists, that's
what they are! "

" Did this organizer say anything pro-German? "

" Not on your life! They didn't give him a chance! " His
laugh was stagey.

" So the whole thing was illegal — and led by the sher ififl
Pr eciseiY JiiDw. dajfou expect these aliens to nhpy your Taw if
the officer of the law teaches them to break it? Is it a ne w
ki nd ot lo gic? ''

" Maybe ir wasn't exactly regular, but what's the odds?
They knew this fdlow would try to stir up trouble. When-
ever it comes right down to a question of defending American-
ism and our constitutional rights, it's justifiable to set aside
ordinary procedure."!

" What editorial did he get that from? " she wondered, as
she protested, " See here, my beloved, why can't you Tories
declare war honestly? Y ou don't op pose this organizer be-
cause you think he's seditious but because you're attaW that
the farmers hels brganiahg will deprive you townsmen of the
monev you m ake out oF mortgages and wheat and shops.
Of course, since we're at war with Germany, anything that any
one of us doesn't like is * pro-German,' whether it's business
competition or bad music. If T^were^fighting^ England,
you'd call the radicals *prp-EnglisB7" When this war is over,
I stqypos rTtrolf'BFcall ing them Vred anarchists.' What an
eternal art 11 is — such a glittery delightiful art— finding hard
names for our opponents I (How we do sanctify our efforts to
keep them from getting the holy dollars we want for ourselves )

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Tbd cbtirdieft have always done it, and the political oratois —
and I suppose I do it wiien I call Mrs. Bogart a ' Puritan ' and
Mr. Stowbody a ' capitalist.' But you busmess men are going
to beat aU the rest oi us at it, with yoiK sixxq^hearted^

energetic, pompous "

She got so far only because Kenmcott was slow in dnking
oEF respect for ha:. Now he bayed:

'' That'll be about all from you! I've stood for your sneer-
ing at this town, and saying hcHV u§^y and dull it is. I've steed
for your refusing to appreciate ^od fellows like Sara« I've
even stood for your ridiculing our Watch Gc^her Prakie Grow
campaign. (But one thing I'm not going to stand: I'm not
going to stand my own wife being seditious. You cam camou-
flage all you want to, but you know dam well that these
j^ radicals, as you call 'em, are oiq)osed to the wa r^ and let to
42 tell you right here and now, and you and all these^^^-h airefl
jn^ flpn cnnrf Jyn ired womeh can peet aa yon want fp^ hul
we're going to take these fellows, and if they ain't patriotic,
we're going to make them be patrioticl (And — ^Lord knows
I never thought I'd have to say this to my own wile— but if
you go defending these fellows, then the same thing a[^es to
you! Next thii^, I si^pose you'll be yapping abrat free
speech. Free speech! There's too much f ree spcuKch and fme
w gas and free beer and free love and all the rest of your damned
^ mouthy freedom, and if I had my way I'd make you folks live
up to the establi^ied rules of decency even if I had to take

you "I

" Will! " She was not timorous now. " Am I pro-German
if I fail to throb to Honest Jim Blauqser, too? Letls have my
whole duty as a wife! "

He was grumbling, '^ The whole thing's right in line with
the criticism you've always been making. Mi^^ have known
you'd oppose any decent constructive work for the town or

for ''

'* You're ri^t All I've done has been in line. I dos't
belong to Gorier Prairie. That isn't meant as a con-
deomation of Gopher Prairie, and it may be a condemnation
of me. All right! I don't care! I don't belong here, and
I'm gofaig. I'm not a^ing permission any more. I'm simply
going."

He ^imted. '^ Do you mind telHng me^ if it isn't too much
trouUe, how long you're going for? "

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"I dont know. Peilu^ ior a }^ear. Periiape for a life-
time."

" I see. Well, of course, I'll be tickled to deatb to adl out
my practise and go anywlwre you say. Would you like to have
me go with you to Paris and study art, maybe, and w«ur vel-
veteen pants and a vromaa'^ bonnet, and live on spaghetti? ^'

^ No, I think we can save you lliat -trouble. You don't
qske understand. I am going — I really am— and ^onel I've
got to And out what my work is "

" Work? Work? Sure! That's Hbt whole troifele with
yoal You haven't got enough work to do. If you had five
kids and no hired $^, and had to hdp with the chores and
Sfifnrate the cream, like these farmers' wives, then you wouldn't
be so discontented!"

"I know. That's what most men — and women — ^Kfee you
would say. That's how they would explain all I am and all
I wanL And I shouldn't argue with them. These business
men, from their crushing labors of sitting in an <^Kce seven
hours a day, would calmly recommend that I have a dozen
dnldren. As it happens, I've done that sort of thing. There've
been a good many times when we hadn't a maid, and I did
all the housework, and cared for Hugh, and went to Red, Cross,
and did it all very efficiently. I'm a good cook and a good
sweeper, and you don't dare say I'm notl ^

" N-no, you're "

" But was I more happy when I was drudging? I was not.
I was just bedraggled and unhappy. I t's wo rk— but not m v
work. I could rm i an offic e or ^ \\hn^ry^ nr nurse and teach
dnidcea. But solitary djsfa-washing isn't enougb to satisfy me
— or many other women. We're going to chuck it. We're' ^
going to wash 'em by machinery, and come out and play with
you men in the, offices and cliAs and politics youVe cleverly
kept far ycHirselvesI Qh, we're hopeless, we dissatisfied
women! Then why do you want to have us about Ae place,
to fret you? So it's for your sake that I'm going! "

" Of course a little thing like Hugh makes no difference! "

" Yes, all the difference. That's why I'm going to take hhn
wiA me."

''Suppose I tafuse?"

*' Yon won*t1 "

Forlornly, " Ub Carrie, what the devil is k you want,

anyway? "

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*' Oh, conversation! No, it's mucb more than that. I think
it's a greatness of life — a refusal to be content with even the
healthiest mud.''

" Don't you know that nobody ever solved a problem by
numing away from it? "

^' Perhaps. Only I choose to make my own definition of

* running away.' I don't call Do you realize how big a

world there is beyond this Gopher Prairie where you'd keep
me all my life? It may be that some day 111 come back, but
not till I can bring something more than I have now. And
even if I am cowardly and run away — all right, call it cowardly,
call me anything you want to! {I've been ruled too long by
fear of being called things. I'm going away to be quiet and
think. I'm — ^I'm going! I have a right to my own life."!

" So have I to mine! "

"Well?"

(" I have a right to my life^— and youVe it, you're my life!
You've made yourself so. I'm damned if 111 agree to aU your
freak notions, but I will say I've got to depend on you. Never
thought of that complication, did you, in this ^ off to Bohemia,
and express yourself, and free love, and live your own life'
stuff! "
^ " You have a right to me if you can keep me. Can you? "
He moved uneasily.

j For a month they discussed it. They hurt each other very
' much, and sometimes they were close to weeping, and invariably
he used banal phrases about her duties and ^e used phrases
quite as banal about freedom, and through it all, her discovery
that she really could get away from Main Street was as sweet
as the discovery of love. Kennicott never consented definitely.
At most he agreed to a public theory that she was " going to
take a short trip and see what the East was like m war-
Itime."

She set out for Washington in October — ^just before the
war ended.

She had determined on Washington because It was less in-
timidating than the obvious New York, because she hoped to
find streets in which Hugh could play, and because in the stress
of war-work, with its demand for thousands of tenq>orary
clerks, she could be initiated into the world of offices.

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42J

Hugh was to go with her, despite the wails and rather ex*
tensive comments of Aunt Bessie.

She wondered if she might not encounter Erik in the East,
but it was a chance thou^t^ soon forgotten.

The last thing she saw on the station platform was Kenni-
cott, faithfully waving his hand, h is face so full of xmcompre- |
hending loneliness that h e cou ld n ot smile but only tw ftch up I
his lips. (Sh^ wavi&no~hfifi"as long as she could, and when !
he was lost she wanted to le^ from the vestibule and run
back to him. She thought of a hundred tenda-nesses she had .
neglected.t \

She had her freedom, and it was empty. The moment was\ \
not the highest of her life, but the lowest and most desolate, j I
which was altogether excellent, for instead of slipping downy J
ward she began to climb.

She sighed, " I couldn't do this if it weren't for Will's kmd-
ness, his giving me money." But a second after: " I wonder
how many women would always stay home if they had the
money? "

Hugh complained, " Notice me, mmnmyl " He was beside
her on the red plush seat of the day-coach; a boy of three
and a half. '^ I'm tired of playing train. Let's play something
cJse. Let's go see Auntie Bogart."

" Oh, no/ Do you really like Mrs. Bogart? "

"Yes. She gives me cookies and she tells me about the
Dear Lord. You never tell me about the Dear Lord. Why
don't you tell me about the Dear Lord? Auntie Bogart says
I'm going to be a preacher. Can I be a preacher? Can
I preach about the Dear Lord? "

" Oh, please wait till my generation has stopped rebdling
before yours starts in! "

" What's a generation? "

" It's a ray in the illumination of the spirit."

" That's foolish." He was a serious and literal person, and
rather humorless. She kissed his frown, and marveled:

" I 3I?L_nuimng_away from my husbsmd^ftCT Hk^
Swedish ne'er-do-well and expressing immoraCopimons, just
as in a romanti c sto ry. "?[nd my own son reproves me because
1 havehl given him religiQUs instruction. But the story

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doesn't go rigkt. I'm neither groaning nor being dramatkally
saved. I keep on running away, and I enjoy it. I'm n^d
with j(^ over it Gopber Prairie is lost hack there in die
dust and stubble, amd I look forward— — ''

She continued it to Hugh: " Darling, do you know what
mother and you are going to find beyond the blue horizon
rim? "
"What? "flatly.

" We're going to find dephants with golden howd^dis from
which peep young maharanees with necklaces of rubies, afid a
dawn sea colored like the breast of a dove, and a white and
green house fiHed with books and silver tea-sets."
"And cookies?"

" Cookies? Oh, most decidedly cookies. We've had enou^
j of bread and porridge. We'd get sick on too numy cookies,

but ever so much sicker on no cookies at all."
, " That's foolish,"
! " It is, O male Kennicott! "

j "Huh! " said Kenmcott U, and went, to sleep on her
' shoulder.

The theory of the Dauntless regarding Carol's absence:

Mrs. Win Kennicott and son Hugh left on No. 24 on Saturday
last for a stay of some tnontfas in Minneapolis, Chicago, New
York, and Washington. Afrs. Kennicott confided to Ye Scribe
that she will be connected with one of the taultifarious war activities
now centering in the Nation's Capital for a brief period before
returning. Her countless friends who appreciate her splendid labors
with the local Red Cross realize how Talnable she will be to any
war board with which she chooses to become connected. Gopliv^
Prairie thus adds another shining star to its service flag; and
without wishing to knock any neighboring communities* ve would
like to know any town of anywheres near our size in the state
that has such a sterling war record. Another reason why you'd
better Watch Gopher rrairic Grow.

* ♦ *

/ Mr. and Mrs. David Dyer, Mrs, Dyer's ^ster, Mrs, Jennie Day-
l born of Jaekrabbit, and Dr. Will Kennicott drove to MaanicmashK
\^n Tuesday for a delightful picnic.

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CHAPTER XXXVn

She found employment in the Bureau of War Ri^ Insurance.
Thougjb the armistice with Germany was signed a few wed^s
after her coming to Washington, the work of the bweau con-
tinued. She filed correspondence all day; then she dictated
answers to letters of inquiry. It was an endurance of monot-
onous details, yet she asserted that she had found ^ real work/'

Disillusions she did have. She discovered that in the after-
noon, office routine stretches to the grave. She discovered that
an office is as full of cliques and scandals as a Gof^er Prairie.
Sbe discovered that most of the women in the government
tMireaus lived imhealthfully, dining on snatches in their
crammed apartmopts. |1But she also discovered that business
women may have friendships and enmities as frankly as men^
and may revd in a bliss which no housewife attains — a free
Sunday. It did not appear that the Great ^orld needed her
inspiration, but she fdt that her letters, her contact with
the anxieties of men and women all over the country, were
a part of vast afiairs, not confined to Main Street and a kitchen^
but linked with Paris, Bangkok, Madridl

She perceived that she could do office work without losing
any of the putative feminine virtue of domesticity; that cook-
ing and cleaning, when divested of the fussing of an Aunt
Bessie, take but a tenth of the time which, in a Gopher
Prairie, it is but decent to devote to them.

Not to have to apologize for her thoughts to the Jolly Seven-
teen, not to have to report to Kennicott at the end of the
day an that she had done or mi^ do, was a rdief which made
op for the office weariness. She felt that she was no longer
one-half of a marriage but the whole of a human being.

Washington gave her all the gradousness in which sbe had
had faith: white odunms seen acroas leafy parks, spacious

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avenues, twisty alleys. Daily she passed a dark square house
with a hint of magnolias and a courtyard behind it, and a tall
curtained second-story window through which a woman was
alwa)rs pewing. The wwnan was mystery, romance, a story
whidi told itself differently every day; now she was a mur-
deress, now the neglected wife of an ambassador. It was m}^
tery which Carol had most lacked in Gopher Prairie, where
every house was open to view, where every person was but
too easy to meet, where there were no secret gates opening
upon moors over which one might walk by moss-deadened
paths to strange high adventures in an aiKient garden.

As she flitted up Sixteenth Street after a Kreisler recital,
given late in the afternoon for the government clerks, as the
lamps kindled in spheres of soft fire, as the breeze flowed into
the street, fresh as prairie winds and kindlier, as she ^anced
up the elm alley of Massachusetts Avenue, as she was rested
by the integrity of the Scottish Rite Temple, she loved the
city as she loved no one save Hu^. She encountered neg^
shanties turned into studios, with orange curtains and pots of
mignonette; marble houses on New Hampshire Avenue, with
butlers and limousines; and men who looked like ficdoiial ex-
plorers and aviators. Her days were swift, and she knew that
in her folly of nmning away she had found the courage to
be wise.

She had a dispiriting first month of hunting lodgings in the
crowded city. She had to roost in a hall-room in a moldy
mansion conducted by an indignant decayed gentlewoman,
and leave Hugh to the care of a doubtful nurse. But later
she made a home.

Her first acquaintances were the members of the Tincomb
Methodist Church, a vast red-brick tabernacle. Vida Sherwin
had given her a letter to an earnest woman with eye-glasses,
plaid silk waist, and a belief in Bible Classes, who introduced
her to the Pastor and the Nicer Members of Tincomb. f Carol
recognized in Washington as she had in California a trans-
planted and guarded Main Street. Two-thirds of the church-
members had come from Gopher Prairies. The church was
their society and their standard; they went to Sunday service,
Sunday School, Ep worth League, missionaiy lectures, church

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sopp^^, precisely as they had at home; they agreed that am-
bassadors and flippant newspapermen and infidel scientists of
the bureaus were equally wicked and to be avoided; and by
cleaving to Tincomb Church they k^t their ideals from aU
contamination.^

They welcomed Carol, asked about her husband, gave her
advice regarding colic in babies, passed her the gingerbread
and scalloped potato^ at church suppers, and in general made
her very unhappy and lonely, so that she wondered if she
might not enlist in the militant suffrage organization and be
allowed to go to jail.

Always she was to pa-ceive in Washington (as doubtless she .
would have perceived in New York or London) a thick streak
of Main Street. (The cautious dullness of a Gopher Prairie
appeared In boarding-houses where ladylike bureau-clerks gos-
s^>ed to polite young army officers about the movies; a thou-
sand Sam Claris and a few Widow Bogarts were to be iden-
tified in the Sunday motor procession, in theater parties, and
at the dinners of State Societies, to which the emigres from
Texas or Michigan surged that they might confirm themselves
in the faith that their several Gopher Prairies were notoriously '
" a whole lot peppier and chummier than this stuck-up East.'M

But she found a Washmgton which did not deave to Main
Street

Guy Pollock wrote to a cousin, a temporary army captain, a
confiding and buoyant lad who took Carol to tea-dances, and
lauded, as she had alwa3rs wanted some one to laugh, about
nothing in particular. The captain introduced her to the secre-
tary of a congressman, a cynical young widow with many ac-
quaintances in the navy. Through her Carol met commanders
and majors, newspapermen, chemists and geographers and fiscal
experts from the bureaus, and a teacher who was a familiar
of the militant suffrage headquarters. The teacher took her
to headquarters. Carol never became a prominent suffragist.
Indeed her onlv recognized position was as an able addresser
of envelopes. iBut ^e was casually adopted by this family
of friendly women who, when they were not being mobbed or
arrested, took dancing lessons or went picnicking up the Chesa-
peoke Canal or talked about the politics of the American
Federation of Labor^

With the congressman's secretary and the teacher Carol
leased a small flat. Here she foimd home, her own place and

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428 MAIN STREET

ber oini peqplc. She bad, thougji it absorbed most of her
sskiry, an excellent mirse for Huj^. Sbe h^uil put bim to
bed and phyed witb bim on bobdays. There were walks wi^
bim, there were modonlesB evenmgs of reading, but cbiefly
Washington was associated with people, scores of tbem, sftting
about the flat, talking, talking, talking, not always wis^ but
always excitedly. It was not at all the '' artist's studio " ot
wbkb, because of its persistence in fiction, she bad dreamed.
Most of them were in offices all day, and thou^t more in
card-catalogues or statistics than in mass and color. But tbey
played, very simply, and they saw no reason why anything
which exists cannot also be acknowlec^ed.

Sbe was sometimes sbocked quite as she had shodced Gopher
Prairie by these girls with their cigarettes and elfish knowMge.
When they were most eager about Soviets or canoeing, &
listened, longed to have some spedal learning whidi woxM
distinguish ber, and ^g^ied that ber adventure bad come so
late. Keniricott and Main Street bad drained her sdf-rdiance;
the presence of Hugh made her fed temporary. Some day —
cb, she'd have to take bim back to open fields and the right
to climb about hay-lofts.

But the fact that sbe could never be eminent among these
scoffing enthusiasts did not keep her from being proud of
them, from defending them in imaginary conversations with
Kennicott, who grunted (she could bear his voice), " They're
simply a bunch of wild impractical theorists sittin' round
chewing the rag," and " I haven't got the time to chase after
a lot of these fool fads; I'm too bu^ putting aside a stake for
our old age."

Most of the men who came to the flat, whether they were
arrify oteceire or radicals who bated the army, had tbc easy
gentleness, the acceptance of women wit hout embarrassed
banter, for whTch, she had longed in Gopher Prairie^ Ye t they
seemed Jo be as efficient as the Sam Clarks. I She ccnc£i3ed
tbafiTwas'because they were of secure reputation, not hemmed
in by the fire of provincial jealousies. Kennicott had asserted
that the villager's lack of courtesy is due to his poverty.
^ We're no millionaire dudes," be boasted. Yet thee anny
and navy men, these bureau experts, and organizers of mrf-
titudinous leagues, were cheerful on three or four thousand a
year, while Kennicott had, outside of his land ^Mcuiatioos,
six thousand or more, and Sam bad eight.| %

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iNor could she iqx)n inquiry learn that many of this reckless
race died in the poorhouse. That institution is reserved for *
BMsi like Kennicott who, after devoting fifty years to " putting^
aside a stake/' incontinently invest tht stake in spurious oil-
stocksj

She was axx)uraged to believe that she had not been ab-
normal in viewiAg Gopher Prairie as unduly tedious and slat-
ternly. She found the same faith not only in g^ls escaped
from domesticity but also in demure old ladies who, tragically
deprived of esteemed husbands and huge old houses, yet
managed to make a very comfortable thing of it by living in
small fiats snd having time to read.

But she also learned that by comparison Gopher Prairie
was a model of daring color, clever planning, and frenzied
intellectuality. From 1^ teacher-housemate she had a sardonic
description of a Middlewestem railroad-division town, of the j
same size as Gopher Prairie but devoid of lawns and trees, a '
town where the tracks ^rawled along the cinder-scabbed '
Main Street, and the railroad shqps, drilling soot from eaves
and doorway, rdled out smoke in greasy coils. ;

Other towns ^e came to know by anecdote: a prairie village
where the wind blew all day long, and the mud was two feet \
thick in spring, and in summer the flying sand scarred new-
painted houses and dust covered the few flowers set out in .
pots. New England mill-towns with the hands living in rows ■
of cottages like blocks of lava. A rich farming-center in New
Jersey, off the railroad, furiously pious, ruled by old men,
imbelievably ignorant (dd men, sitting about the grocery talking
of James G. Blaine. A South^n town, full of the magnolias
and white columns which Carol had accepted as proof of
romance, but hating the negroes, obsequious to the Old
Families. A Western mining-settlement like a tumor. A boom - ^
ing s£mi-city^ with parks, and clever architects, visueci Dy
famous pianists and unctuous lecturers, but irritable from a
struggle between union labor and the manufacturers' associa- i
tion,lor{HaI In even flie gayest of the new houses there was a
ceaseless and hitltnidatrng hefesy-hunt.

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The chart which plots Carol's progress is not easy to read
The lines are broken and uncertain of direction; often instead
of rising they sink in wavering scrawls; and the colors are
watery blue and pink and the dim gray of rubbed pencil
marks. A few lines are traceable.

Unhappy women are given to protecting their sensitiveness
by cynical gossip, by whining, by high-church and new-thought
religions, or by a fog of vagueness. Carol had hidden in none
of these refuges from reality, but she, who was tender and
merry, had been made timorous by Gc^her Prairie. Even her
flight had been but .the temporary courage of panic. |The
thing she gained in Washington was not information about
olBfice-systems and labor unions but renewed courage, that
amiable contempt called poise. Her glimpse of tasks involving
JL millions of people and a score of nations reduced Main Street
from bloated importance to its actual pettiness. She couM
never again be quite so awed by the power with which she
herself had endowed the Vidas and Blaussers and Bogarts.^

From her work and from her association with women who

had organized suffrage associations in hostile cities, or had

defended political prisoners, she caught something of an im-

^personal attitude; saw that she had been as touchily personal

yfas Maud Dyer.

And why, she began to ask, did she rage at individuals? Not
individuals but institutions are the enemies, and they most
I afflict the disciples who the most generously serve them. They
^^^•^ I insinuate their tyranny under a hundred guises and pompous
names, such as Polite Society, the Family, the Church, Sound
Business, the Party, the Country, the Superior White Race;
and the only defense against them, Carol beheld, is unon-
^ bittered laughter.

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CHAPTER XXXVm

She had lived in Washington for a year. She was tired of the
office. It was tolerable, far more tolerable than housework, but
it was not adventurous.

She was having tea and cinnamon toast, alone at a small
roimd table on the balcony of Rauscher's Confis^e. Four
debutantes clatta-ed in. (She had felt young and dissipated,
had thou^t rather well of her black and leaf-green suit, but
as she watched them, thin of ankle, soft under the chin, seven-
teen or eighteen at most, smoking cigarettes with the correct
ennui and talking of ^^ bedroom farces'' and their desire to
" run up to New York and see something racy," she became
old and rustic and plain, and desirous of retreating from these
hard brilliant children to a life easier and more sympathetic
When they flickered out and one child gave orders to a chauf-
feur, Carol was not a defiant philosopher but a faded govern-
ment clerk from Gopher Prairie, Minnesota.^

She started dejectedly up Connecticut Avenue. She stopped,
her heart stopped. Coming toward her wa-e Harry and Juanita
Haydo(±. She ran to them, she kissed Juanita, while Harry
confided, "Hadn't expected to come to Washington — ^had to
gp to New York for some bu3ring— didn't have your address
along — ^just got in this morning — ^wondered how in the world
we could get hold of you."

She was definitely sorry to hear that they were to leave at
nine that evening, and she clung to them as long as she could.
She took them to St. Mark's for dinner. Stooped, her elbows
on the table, she heard with excitement that " Cy Bogart had
the 'flu, but of course he was too gol-darn mean to die of it."

" Will wrote me that Mr, Blausser has gone away. How did
he get on? "

" Fine! Fine! Great loss lo the town. There was a real
public-spirited fellow, all right! "

She discovered that she now had no (pinions whatever about

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Mr. Blausser, and she said sympathetically, "Will you keep
up the town-boosting campaign? "

Harry fumbled, " Well, weVe drq>ped it just tonporarily,
but — sure you bet! Say, did the doc write you about the
luck B. J. Gougerling had lumtiog dncfcs down in Texas? "

When the news had been told and their enthusiasm had
slackened she looked about and was proud to be able to point
out a senator, to explain the cleverness of the canopied garden.
She fancied that a man with dinner-coat and waxed mustache
glanced supwciliously at Harry's hi^ily form-fitting bri^-
brown suit and Juanita's tan silk frock, whidi was doubtful at
the seams. She glared back, defending her own, daring the
world not to appreciate them.

Then, waving to them, she lost them down die long train
shed. She stood reading the list of stations: Harri^tnirg,

Pittsburg, Chicago. Beyond Chicago ? She saw the lakes

and stubble fields, beard the rh3rtimi of insects and the creak
of a buggy, was greeted by Sam Clark's " WeB, wdl, how's
the Uttle lady? "

Nobody in Washington cared enough for her to fret about
her sins as Sam did.

But that night thgr had at the flat a man just back from
Finland.

She was on the Powhatan roof with the captain. At alaUe,
somewhat vociferously buying improbable " soft drinks " for
two fluffy girls, was a man with a large feimiliar badL.
"Oh! I think I know him," she murmured.
" Who? There? Oh, Bresnahan, Percy Bresnahan."
" Yes. YouVe met him? What sort orf a man is he? **
" He's a good-hearted idiot. I rather like him, and I believe
that as a salesman of motors he's a wonder. But fae^ a
nuisance in the aeronautic section. Tries so hard to be us^ul
but he doesn't know anything— he doesnt know anytfaiBg.
Rather pathetic: rich man poking around and trying to be
useful. Do you want to spesk to him? "
" No— no— I don't think so."

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9ie Tvas at a motion-picture show. The film was a hig^y
advertised and abysmal thing smacking of simpering hair«
dressers, cheap perfume, red-phish suites on the back streets
of tenderloins, and complacent fat women chewmg gum. It
pretended to deal with the life of studios. The leading man did
a portrait which was a masterpiece* He also saw visions in
pipe-smoke, and was very brave and poor and pure. He had
ringlets, and his nu^terpiece was strangely like an enlarged
photograph.

Carol prepared to leave.

On the screen, in the rdle of a composer, appeared an actor
called Eric Valour.

She was startled, incredulous, then wretched. Looking
straight out at her, wearing a beret and a vdvet jacket, was
Erik Valborg.

He had a pale part, which he played neither well nor bacBy.

She speculated, "I could have made so much of him '*

She did not finish her specidation.

She went home and read Kennicott^s letters. They had
seemed stiff and undetailed, but now there strode from them
a personality, a personality unlike that of the languishing
young man in the vdvet jacket playing a dummy piano in a
canvas room.

Kennicott first came to see her in November, thirteen months
after her arrival in Washington. When he announced that
he was coming she was not at all sure that she wished to
see hhn. She was glad that he had made the decision him-
self.

She had leave from the office for two days.

She watched him marching from the train, sdid, assured,
carrying his heavy suit-case, and she was diffident — ^he was
SQch a bulky person to handle. Th^r kissed each other
Cfuestioningly, and said at the same time, '^ You're looking fine;
bow's the baby? " and " You're looking awfully wdl, dear;
how is everythfiig? "

He grumbled, " I don't want to butt in on any plans you've
OEiade or your friends or anything, but if you've isot time for

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ity'I'd like to chase around Washington, and take in some
restaurants and shows and stuff, and forget work for a while."

She realized, in the taxicab, that he was wearing a soft
gray suit, a soft easy hat, a flippant tie.

'^ Like the new outfit? Got 'em in Chicago. Gosb^ I hope
they're the kind you like."

They spent half an hour at the flat, with Hugh. She was
flustered, but he gave no sign of kissing her again.

As he moved about the small rooms she realized that he
had had his new tan shoes polished to a brassy luster. There
was a recent cut on his chin. He must have shaved on the
train just before coming into Washington.

It was pleasant to fed how important she was, how many

people she recognized, as she took him to the Capitol, as she

told him (he asked and she obligingly guessed) how many

feet it was to the top of the dome, as ^e pointed out Senator

LaFoUette and the vice-president, and at lunch-time showed

herself an habitu^ by leading him through the catacombs to

the senate restaurant.

y She realized that he was slightly more bald. The familiar

1 way in which his hair was parted on the left side agitated

her. She looked down at his hands, and the fact that bh naOs

were as ill-treated as ever touched her more than his pleading

j shoe-shine.

" You'd like to motor down to Mount Vernon this afternoon,
wouldn't you? " she said.

It was the one thing he had planned. He was delighted that
it seemed to be a perfectly well bred and Washingtonian thing
to do.

He shyly held her hand on the way, and told her the news:
they were excavating the basement for the new schoolbuilding,
Vida '^ made him tired the way she always looked at the Maje,"
poor Chet Dasjbaway had been killed in a motor accident out
on the Coast. I He did not coax her to like him. At Mount
Vernon he admired the paneled library and Washington's
dental tools.}

She knew that he would want oysters, that he would have
heard of Harvey's apropos of Grant and Blaine, and she took
him there. At dinner his hearty voice, his holiday enjoyment
of everything, turned into nervousness in his desire to know
a number of interesting matters, such as whether they still w»e
married. But be did not ask questions, and be said nothing

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about her returning. He cleared his throat and observed, " Oh
say, been trying out the old camera. Don't you think these
are pretty good? "

He tossed over to her thirty prints of Gopher Prairie and
the country about. Without defense, she was thrown into it.
She remembered that he had lured her with photographs in
courtship days; she made a note of his sameness, his satis-
faction with the tactics which had pfoved good before; but she
forgot it in the familiar places. She was seeing the sim-
speckled ferns among birches on the shore of Minniemashie,
wind-rippled miles of wheat, the porch of their own house where
Hugh had played, Main Street where she knew every window
and every face.

She handed them back, with praise for his photography, and
he talked of lenses and time-e]q>osures.

Dinner was over and they were gossiping of her friends at
the flat, but an intruder was with them, sitting back, persistent,
inescapable. She could not endure it. She stammered:

^' I had you check your bag at the station because I wasn't
quite sure where you'd stay. I'm dreadfully sorry we haven't
room to put you up at the flat. We ought to have seen about
a room for you before. Don't you think you better call up
the Willard or the Washington now? "

He peered at her cloudily. Without words he asked, with-
out speech she answered, whether she was also going to the
Willard or the Washington. But she tried to look as though
she did not know that they were debating anything of the
sort. She would have hated him had he been meek about it.
But he was neither meek nor angry. However impatient he
may have been with her blandness he said readily:

" Yes, guess I better do that. Excuse me a second. Then
how about grabbmg a taxi (Gosh, isn't it the limit the way
these taxi shuffers skin around a corner? Got more nerve
driving than I have I) and going up to your flat for a while?
Like to meet your friends — ^must be fine women — and I might
take a look and see how Hugh sleeps. Like to know how he
breathes. Don't think he has adenoids, but I better make sure,
eh? " He patted her shoulder.

At the flat they found her two housemates and a girl who
had been to jail for suffrage. Kennicott fitted in surprisingly.
He laughed at the girl's story of the humors of a hunger-
strike; he told the secretary what to do when her eyes were

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tired from typing; and the tetcber asked him--iiot as the hos-
basd of a friend but as a {riiyaician-^whether tbei« was '' any-
thing to this inoculation for colds."

His colloquiaUftms seeaied to Car(d no more lax than their
habitual slang.

Like an older brother he kissed her good-ni^ in the midst
erf the company.

" He's terribly nice," aaid her houseouites, and waited for
confidences. |They got none, nor did her own heart Sbe could
find nothing definite to agoniae about. She feU that she was
no longer analyzing and oontroUing forces^ but sw^t on by
theia)

He came to the fiat for breakfast, and washed the dishes.
That was her only occasion for spite. Back home he never
thought of washing dishes]

Sbe took him to the obvious '' sights " — the Treasury, the
Monument, the Corcoran Gallery, the Pan-American BuadiQg,
the Lincoln Memorial, with the Potomac beyond it and the
Arlington hills and the columns of the Lee Mansion. For all
his wUlingness to play there was over him a melancholy ndiich
piqued her. His normally expressionless eyes had depths to
them BOW, and strangeness. As they walked through Lafayette
Square, looking past the Jackson statue at the lovely tranqiul
fa<^ade of the White House, he sighed, " I wish I'd had a shot
at places like this. When I was in tli^ U., I had to earn part
of my way, and when I wasn't doing that or studying, I guess
I was roughhousing. My gang were a great bundi fot
bumming around and raising Cain. Maybe if I'd been caug^

early and sent to concerts and all that Would I have

been what you call intdligent? "

" Oh, my dear, don't be humble! You are inteHigentl For
instance, you're the most tfaorou^ doctor "

He was edging about something he wished to say. He
pounced on it:

'' You did like those pictures of G. P. pretty wdl, after all,
didn't youl ''

"Yes,ofo(Miise."

'^ Wouldn't be so bad to have a f^&xnpBe of the old town,
would it! "

"No, it wouldn't. Just as I was terribly glad to see the
Haydocks. But please understand me! That doesn't mean
that I withdraw all OQr critidsms. The fact that I might like

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a glimpse of okl friends hasn't any particular relation to tbe

question of whether Gopher Prairie oughtn't to have festivals

and lamb chops."

Hastily, " No, no! Sure not. I nnd'stand."

" But I know it must have been pretty tiresome to have to

live with anybody as perfect as I wia."
He grinned. She liked his ffda.

He wa» thrilled by old negro co2ichm», admirals, aeroplanes,
the building to which his income tax vrould eventually go, a
RoUs-Royce, Lynniiaven oysters, the Sc^)reme Court Roon^
a New York thiatrical manager down for the try-out of a play,
the house where Lincoln died, the cloaks of Italian officers, the
barrows at which derhd buy their box-lunches at noon, the
barges on the Chesapeake Canal, and the fact that District
of Cdimibia cars had both District and Maryland licenses.

She resolutdy took him to her £acvorite yAnte and green
cottages and Georgian houses. He admitted that fanlights, and
white shatters against rosy brick, were more homelike than a
painty wooden box. He volunteered, " I see how you mean.
They make me think of these pictures of an old-fashioned
Christmas. Oh, if you keep at it long enough you'll have Sam
and me reading poetry and everything. Oh say, d' I teU you
about this fierce green Jack Elder's had his machine painted? "

They were at dinner.

He hinted, '^ Before you showed me those {daces today,
I'd already made iq> my mind that ^en I buih the new house
we used to talk about, I'd fix it the way you wanted it. I'm
pretty practical about fomidations and radiation and stuff like
that, but I guess I don't know a whole lot about architectxu'e."

'' My dear, it occurs to me with a sudden shock that I don't
eitherl »

" Well — ^anyway— yoo let roe plan the garage and the plumb-
ing, and you do the rest, if yon ever — ^I mean — ^if you ever
want to."

Doubtfully, " That's sweet of you."

'^ Look hare, Carrie; you think I'm going to ask ytm to love

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me. I'm not. And I'm not going to ask you to come back to
G^er Prairie! "

She gaped.

" It's been a whale of a fi^it. But I guess I've got myself
to see that you won't ever stand G. P. unless you want to
come back to it. I needn't say I'm craiy to have you. But
I won't ask you. I just want you to know how I wait for you.
Every mail I look for a letter, and when I get one I'm kind of
scared to open it, I'm hoping so much that you're coming back.

Evenings You know I didn't open the cottage down at

the lake at all, this past summer. Simply couldn't stand all
the others lau^ng and swimming, and you not there. I used
to sit on the porch, in town, and I — ^I couldn't get over the
feeling that you'd simply run up to the drug store and would
be ri^t back, and till after it got dark I'd catch m3rself
watching, locddng up the street, and you nev^ came, and the
. house was so empty and still that I didn't like to go in.
\ And sometimes I fell asleep there, in my chair, and didn't

; wake up till after midnight, and the house Oh, the devil!

' Please get me, Carrie. I just want you to know how welcome
• you'll be if you ever do come. But I'm not asking you to."

" You're It's awfully "

" 'Nother thing. I'm going to be frank. I haven't always
been absolutely, uh, absolutely, pr(^)er. I've always loved you
more than anything else in tbe world, you and the kid. But
sometimes when ypu were chilly to me I'd get londy and
sore, and pike out and Never intended "

She rescued him with a pitying, " It's all right. Let's forget
it."

" But before we were married you said if your husband
ever did anything wrong, you'd want him to tell you."

"Did I? I can't remember. And I can't seem to think. Oh,
my dear, I do know how generously you're trying to make me

happy. The only thing is I can't think. I don't know

what I think."

" Then listen! Don't think! Here's what I want 3rou io
do! Get a two-weeks leave from your office. Weather's
beginning to get chilly here. Let's run down to Charleston
and Savannah and maybe Florida.

" A second hone)mioon? " indecisively.

" No. Don't even call it that. Call it a second wooing.
I won't ask anything. I just want the chance to chase around

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with you. 1 1 guess I never appreciated how lucky I was to
have a girl with imagination and lively feet to play with.
So— — Could you maybe run away and see the South with
me? If you wanted to, you could just — ^you could just pretend
you were my sister and- — 111 get an extra nurse for Hugh!
Ill get the best dog-gone nurse in Washingtonl "|

It was in the Villa Marg^erita, by the palms of the
Charleston Battery and the metallic harbor, that her aloofness
mdted.

When they sat on the iq>per balcony, enchanted by the
moon glitter, she cried, " Shdl I go back to Gopher Prairie
with you? Dedde for me. I'm tired of deciding and un-
deciding."

" No. You've got to do your own deciding. As a matter of
fact, in spite of this honQrmoon, I don't thhik I want you to
come home. Not yet."

She could only stare.

" I want you to be satisfied when you get there. Ill do
everything I can to keep you happy, but IH make lots of
breaks, so I want you to take time and think it over."

She was relieved. She still had a chance to seize splendid
indefinite freedoms. She might go-— oh, she'd see Eurc^, some-
how, before she was recaptured. (But she also had a firmer
respect for Kennicott. She had fancied that her life might
make a story. She knew that there was nothing heroic or ob-
viously dramatic in it, no magic of rare hours, nor valiant
challenge, but it seoned to h^ that she was of some sig-
nificance because she was commonplaceness, the ordinary life
of the age, made articulate and protesting. It had not occurred
to her that there was also a story of Will Kennicott, into which
she entered only so much as he entered into hers; that he
had bewilderments and concealments as indicate as her own,
and soft treacha^us desires for sympathy4

Thus she brooded^ looking at the amazing sea, holding hii
hand.

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vra

She was in Washin^on; Kennicott was in Gopher Prairie,
writing as dryly as ever about water-pq)es and goose-hunting
and Mrs. Fageros's mastoid.

She was talking at dinner to a generalissima of suflDrage.
Should she return?

The leader spoke wearily:

" My dear, I'm perfectly selfish. I can't quite visualize the
needs of your husband, ud it seems to me that your baby
will do quite as well in the schools here as in your barracks at
home."

" Then you think I'd better not go back? " Carol sounded
disappointed.

'' It's more difficult than that. When I say that Fm selfish
I mean that the only thing I consider about women is iK^ether
they're likely to prove useful in building up real political power
for women. And you? Shall I be frank? Remember when
I say ' you ' I don't mean you alone. I'm thinking of thousands
of women who come to Washington and New York and Chicago
every year, dissatisfied at home and seeking a sign in the
heavens — ^women of all sorts, from timid mothers of fifty in
cotton gloves, to girls just out of Vassar who organize strikes
in their own fathers' factories! All of you are more or less
useful to me, but only a few of you can take my place, because
I have one virtue (only one): I have given up father and
mother and children for the love of God.

"Here's the test for you: Do you come to ^conquer the
East,' as people say, or do you come to conqua- yoursdf ?

" It's so much more complicated than any of you know— so
much more complicated than I knew when I put on Ground
Grippers and started out to reform the world, | The final com-
plication in 'conquering Washington' or 'conquering New
York ' is that the conquerors must beyond all things not con-
querl It must have been so easy in the good old da3rs when
authors dreamed only of selling a hundred thousand volumes,
and sculptors of being feted in big houses, and even the Up-
lifters like me had a simple-hearted ambition to be dected to
inportant offices and invited to go round lecturing. But we
»Bddlg 5_have upset e verything. N ow the on e thing TTSF »
dfa^Raceful to any of us Is obvious success. |The Ufdifter who
is very popular with wealthy patrons can be pretty sure Aat

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he has softened his philosophy to please them, and the author
who is making lots of money — poor things, I've heard 'em
apologizing for it to the shabby bitter-enders; I've seen 'em
ashamed of the sle^ luggage they got from movie rightsf

'< Do you want to sacrifice younelf in such a top^-turvy
world, where popularity makes you unpopular with the people
you love, and the only faflure is cheap success, and the onty
individualist is the person who gives iq> all his mdividualism
to serve a jolly ungrateful proletariat which thumbs its nose at
him?"

Carol smiled ingratiatingly, to Indicate that she was indeed
one who desired to sacrifice, but she sighed, ^ I don't know;
I'm afraid I'm not heroic. I certainly wasn't out home. Why
didn't I do big effective "

^ Not a matter of heroism. Matter of endurance. Your '
Mi ddlewest is do uble-Purit an— prairie Puritan on top of Ne w
Engi^dj^uritan; blufflrontiersman on the surface, but in its
heart it still h as the ideal of Plymouth Rock In ajleet-storm.
There's one^sxtS^Lym can'make on it, perhaps the only kind .
that accomplishes much anywhere: t you can keep on looking
at one thing after another in your home and church and bank,
and ask why it is, and who first laid down the law tha^ it had
to be that way. If enough of us do this impolitely enough,
then we'll become dvilized in merely twenty thousand years
or so, instead of having to wait the two himdred thousand
years that my cynical anthropologist friends allow4 . . .
Easy, pleasant, lucrative home-work for wives: asking people
t o defi ne their jobs. That^_the, m^JLdangecous-dQctcine J
knSwT^

Carol was mediating, " I wiU go backl I will go on asking
questions. I've always done it, and always failed at it, and it's
all I can do. I'm going to a^ Ezra Stowbody why he's op-
posed to the nationalization of railroads, and ask Dave Dyer
why a druggist always is pleased when he's called ' doctor,'
and maybe ask Mrs. Bogart why she wears a widow's veil that
looks like a dead crow."

The woman leader straightened. " And you have one thing.
You have a baby to hug. That's my temptation. I dream of
babies— of a baby — and I sneak around parks to see them
playing. (The children in Dupont Circle are like a poppy-
garden.) And the antis call me ' unsexed ' ! "

Carol was thinking, in panic, ^'Oughtn't Hugh to have

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44^1 MAIN STREET

countiy air? I won't let him become a yokid. I can guSe
him away from street-comer loafing* ... I think I can."

On her way home: '' Now that I've made a precedent, joined
the union and gone out on one strike and learned personal
solidarity^ I won't be so afraid. Will won't always be resisting
my running away. Some day I really will go to Europe with
him ... or without him.

" I've lived with people who are not afraid to go to jaiL
I could invite a Miles Bjomstam to dinner witlu)ut bdng
afraid of the Haydocks ... I think I could.

*' 111 take back the sound of Yvette GuObert's songs and
Ehnan's violin. They'll be only the lovelier against the thrum-
ming of crickets in the stubble on an autumn day. -

'^ I can laugh now and hti serene ... I thk& ^-can."

Though she ^guIdTeturn, she said, she would not be utt^^
defeated, ^eivas ^ad of har rd)dlion. The prairie was do\
longer enmfly land in the sun-^are; it was the living tawny j
beast whidn she had fought and made beautiful by fighting;
and in thcWiUage streets were shadows of her desiresjand the
sound of hoL marching and the seeds

Her active hatred of Gopher Pairie had run out She saw
it now as a tofling new settlement. With sympathy she re^
membered Kennicott's defense of its citizens as ^'a lot of
pretty good folks, working hard and trying to bring up their
families the best they can." She recalled tenderly the young
awkwardness of Main Street and the makeshifts of the little
brown cottages; she pitied their shabbiness and isolation; had
compassion for their assertion of culture, even as expressed in
Thanatopsis papers, for thdr pretense of greatness, even as
trumpeted in ^^ boosting." She saw Main Street in the dmtf
prairie sunset, a line of frontier shanties with solemn londy
people waiting for har, sdemn and lonely as an old man who
has outlived his friencb. She remembered that Eauiicott and
Sam Oark had listened to her songs, and she wanted to nm
to than and sii^.

"At last," she rejoiced, "IVe come to a fafrer attitude
toward the town. I can love it, now."

She was, perhaps, rather proud of herself f(nr having acquired
so much tolerance.

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She awoke at three in the nKHning, after a dream of being
tortured by Ella Stowbody and the Widow Bogart

" IVe been making the town a myth. This is how people
keq> up the tradition of the perfect home>town, the bappy
boyhood, the brilliant college friends. We forget so. IVe.
beenforgett ing that Ma|n Street doesn't think it's in the least
lone^^lind pitiful. It think^ itVGoa's X>^ It isn't

waitin g for me. It doesn't care."

But lh6 &(3l evening shettgain saw Goph» Prairie as her
home, waiting for her in the sunset, rinmied round with
spleodoT.

She. did not return for five months more; five months
crammed with greedy accumulation of somxls and cdors to
take back for the long still days.

She hadqpent nearly two years in Washington.

When she dq)arted for Gopher Prairie, in June, her second
baby was stirring within her.

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CHAPTER XXXDC

She wondered all the way home what ha: sensations woidd be.
She wondered about it so much that she had every sensation
she had imagined. She was excited by each familiar porch,
each hearty '' Well, well! " and flattered to be, for a day, Uie
most important news of the comnmnity. She bustled about,
making calk. Ijuanita Haydock bubbled over their Washington
encounter, and took Carol to her social bosom. This ancient
opponent seemed likely to be her most intimate friend, for
\^da Sherwin, though ^e was cordial, stood back and watched
for imported heresies^

In the evening Carol went to the mill. The mystical Om-
Om-Om of the dynamos in the electric-light plant behind the
null was louder in the darkness. Outside sat the nig^t watch-
man, Champ Perry. He held up his stringy hands and
squeaked, " We've all missed you terrible.'^

Who in Washington would miss her?

Who in Washington could be depended iq;)on like GiQr
Pollock? When she saw him on the street, smiling as always,
he seemed an eternal thing, a part of her own self.

After a week she decided that she was neither glad nor
sorry to be back. She entered each day with the matt«'-of-fact
attitude with which she ha4 gone to her office in Washington.
It was her task; there would be mechanical details and mean-
ingless talk; what of it?

The only problem which she had aiq>roached with emotion
proved insignificant. She had, on tl^ train, worked hersdf
up to such devotion that ^e was willing to give up her own
room, to try to share all of her life with Eennicott.

He mumbled, ten minutes after she had entered the house,
" Say, I've kept your room^for you like it was. IVe kind of
come round to your way 6f thinking. Don't see why folki
need to get on each other's nerves just because they're tnetuSfy.
Darned if I haven't got so I jike a little privacy and mullisg
things o^w by mvsdf ." ^^

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n c?

She had left a dty which sat up nir its to talk of universal
transition; of European revolution, git d socialism, free versel
She had fancied that all the world was changing. |

She found that it was not.

lln Gopher Prairie the only ardent .hew topics were prohibi-
tion, the place in Minneapolis where you could get whisky at
thirteen dollars a quart, recipes for home-made beer, the " hig^
cost of living," the presidential election, Clark's new car, and
not very novel foibles of Cy Bog^rt. T heir problems were
ezactlyj^hat they had been two years ago, wftat they had been
twenty years ago, and what Ifiey woyld be Jp.r„ twentxjre^^^
to comg»^With the world a possible volcano, the husbandmen
were plowing at the base of the mountain. A volcano does
occasionally drop a river of lava on even the best of agricul-
turists, to Uieir astonishm^t and considerable injury, but their
cousins inherit the farms and a year or two later go back to
the plowing4

She was unable to rhapsodize much over the seven new
bungalows and the two garages which Kennicott had made to
seem so important. Her intensest thought about them was,
" Oh yes, they're all right I suppose." The change which she
did heed was the erection of the schoolbuilding, with its cheer-
ful brick walls, broad windows, gymnasium, classrooms for
agriculture and cooking. It indicated Vida's triumph, and it
stirred her to activity — ^any activity. She went to Vida with a
jaunty, " I think I shall work for you. And 111 begin at the
bottom."

She did. She^ relieved the attendant at the rest-room for
an hour a day. v Her only innovation was painting the pine
table a black an4 orange rather shocking to the Thanatopsis.
She talked to the iarmwives and soothed their babies and was
happy. ;

Thinking of thetn she did not think of the ugliness of Main
Street as she hurried along it to the chatter of the Jolly
Seventeen.

She wore her eye-glasses on the street now. She was begin-
ning to ask Kennicott and Juanita if she didn't look young,
mudb younger than thirty-three. The eye-glasses pinched her
nose. She considered spectacles. They would make her seem
older, and hopelessly settled. No! She would not wear spec-

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446 MAIN STREET

tacks yet. but she tri< 1 on a pair at Kennicott'^ office. Tliejr
really were much more comfortable^

Dr. Westlake, Sam Ch^k, Nat Hicks, and Dd SnaSSin were
talking in Dd's barber rhq>.

'^ Welly I see KennicoU s wife is taking a whirl at the rest-
room, now,^ said Dr. Westlake. He emphasized the ^' now."

Dd interrupted the shaving of Sam and, with his brush
dripping Iath», he observed jocularly:

** Whatll she be up to next? They say she used to daim
this burg wasn't swell enough for a dty girl Uke her, and
would we please tax oursdves about thirty-seven point nine and
fix it all iq> pretty, with tidies on the hydrants and statoos oa
the lawns ^

Sam irritably blew the lather from his lips, with milky
small bubbles, and snorted, '^ Be a good thing for most of us
roug^ecks if we did have a smart woman to tell us how to
fix iq> the town. Just as much to her kicking as there was
to ^m Blausser's gassing about factories. And you can bet
Mrs. Kennicott is smart, ev^ if she b skittish. Glad to see
her bade."

Dr. Westlake hastened to play safe. ''So was II So was I!
She's got a nice way about her, and she knows a good deal
about books— or fiction anyway. Of course she's like M ibt
rest of these women — ^not solidly founded — not scholarly—
doesn't know anything about political economy — falls for every
new idea that some windjamming crank puts out But she's
a nice woman. Shell probably fix up the rest-room, and the
rest-room is a fine thing, brings a lot of business to town. And
now that Mrs. Kennicott's been away, maybe she's got over
some of her fool ideas. Maybe she realizes that folks singly
laug^ at her when she tries to tdl us how to run everything."

" Sure. Shell take a tumble to herself,^ said Nat Hids,
sucking in his lips judidally. '' As far as I'm concerned, IH
say dbe's as nice a looking skut as there is in town. But yow! "'
His tone electrified them. ''Guess she'll miss that Swede
Valborg that used to work for me! They was a pair! Talking
poetry and moonshine! If they could of got away with it,
they'd of been so dam lovqr-dovey "

Sam Clark interrupted, "Rats, they never even thoti^

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about making love. Just talking books and all that junk,
I tell you, Carrie Kennicott's a smart woman, and these smart
educated women all get funny ideas, but they get over 'em
after they've had three or four kids. You'll see her settled
down one of these dajrs, and teaching Sunday School and
helping at sociables and behaving hersdf, and not trying to
butt into business and politics. Sure I "

After only fifteen minutes of conf^ence on hex stockings,
her son, her separate bedroom, her music, hex ancient interest
in Guy Pollock, her probable salary in Washington, smd every
remark which she was known to have made since her return,
the siq>reme council decided that they would permit Carol
Kennicott to live, and they passed on to a consideration of
Nat Hicks's New One about the traveling salesman and the
old maid.

'For some reason which was totally nQrsterious to Carol,
Maud Dyer seemed to resent her return. At the Jolly Seven-
teen Maud gigs^ed nervously, "Well, I suppose you found
war-work a good excuse to stay away and have a swell time.
Juanital Don't you think we ought to make Carrie tell us
about the officers she met in Washington? "

They nestled and stared. Carol looked at them. Their
curicpity seemed natural and uninqportant

"Oh yes, yes indeed, have to do that some day,'' she
yawned.

She no longer took Aunt Bessie Smafl seriously enough to
struggle for indq)endence. She saw that Aunt Bessie did not
mean to intrude; that she wanted to do things for all the
K^micotts. I Thus Carol hit i4>on the tragedy of old age, which
is not that it is less vigorous than youdi, but that it is not
needed by youth; that its love and prosy sageness, so im-
portant a few years ago, so gladly offered now, are rejected
with laug^ter.j She divined Uiat when Aunt Bessie came in
-with a jar of wOd-grape jelly she was waiting in hope of being
asked for the recipe. After that she could be irritated but she
could not be depressed by Aunt Bessie's simoom of ques-
tioning.

She wasn't dqpressed even when she heard Mrs. Bogart
observe^ " Now we've got prohibition it seems to me that the

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448 MAIN STREET

next problem of the country ain't so much abolishing dg^
rettes as it is to make folks observe the Sabbath and arrest
these law-breakers that play baseball and go to the movio
and all on the L(M*d's Day.''

Only one thing bruised Carol's vani^. \ Few people asked het
about Washington. They who had most admirin^y begged
Percy Bresnahan for his q>inions were least interested in her
facts. She laughed at herself when she saw that she had
eiqpected to be at once a heretic and a returned hero; she wis
very reasonable and merry about it; and it hurt just as mudi
as eva:4

Her baby, bom in August, was a girl. Carol could not
decide whether she was to bea>me a feminist leado* or marry
a scientist or both, but did settle on Vassar and a tricdette
suit with a small black hat for hex FVeshman year.

Hug^ was loquacious at breakfost He desired to give his
impressions of owls and F Street.

" Don't make so much noise. You talk too much," growled
Kennicott.

Carol flared. " Don't speak to him that way! Why dont
3rou listen to him? He has some weary interesting things to
teU."

*' What's the idea? Mean to say you expect me to spoid
all my time listening to his chatter? "

"Why not?"

" For one thing, he's got to learn a little discipline. Time
for him to start getting educated."

" I've learned much more discipline, IVe had much more
education, from him than he has from me."

" What's this? Some new-fangled idea of raising kids you
got in -Washington? "

*^ Perhaps. Did you ev^ realize that children are people? **

" That's all rig^t. I'm not going to have him monopolizing
the conversation."

" No, of course. We have our rights, too. But I'm going
to bring him vp as a human being. He has jiat as many

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thoughts as we have, and I want him to develop tbem, not
take Gqdier Prairie's version of them. That's my biggest
work now-4Leq>ing mjsdf, keq>ing you, from 'educating'
him."

" Well, let's not scrap about it. But I'm not going to have
him spoUed."

Kennicott had forgotten it In ten minutes; and she forgot
it— this time.

The Kennicotts and the Sam Oarks had driven north to a
duck-pass between two lakes, on an autumn day of blue and
copper.

Kennicott had givoi her a lig^t twenty-gauge shotgun. She
had a first lesson in shooting, in keeping her eyes qpen, not
trindng, understanding that the bead at the end of the barrel
redly had something to do with pointing the gun. She was
radiant; she almost believed Sam when he insisted that it was
she who had shot the mallard at ^idiich they had fired to*
gether. ^

She sat on the bank of the reedy lake and found rest in
Mrs. Qark's drawling comments on nothing. The brown dusk
was stOl. Behind them were dark marshes. The plowed acres
smelled fresh. The lake was garnet and silver. The voices of
the men, waiting for the last flight, were dear in the cool
air.

'' Mark leftl " sang Kennicott, in a long-drawn caU.

Three ducks were swooping down in a swift line. The guns
banged, and a duck fluttered. The men pushed their light
boat out on the burnished lake, dis24)peared beyond the reeds.
Their cheerful voices and the slow ^lash and clank of oars
came back to Carol from the dimness. In the sky a fiery plain
sloped down to a serene harbor. It dissolved; the lake was
fdiite ms^le; and Kennicott was crying, " Well, old lady, how
Kbout hiking out for home? Supper taste pretty good, db? "

*' 111 sit back with Ethel," she said, at the car.

It was the first time ^e had called Mrs. Clark by her given i
name; the first time she had willingly sat back, a woman of 1
Main Street.

'' I'm hungry. It's good to be hungry," she reflected, as
they drove away.

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450 MAIN STREET

She looked across the silent fields to the west She was
consdous of an unbroken sweep of land to the Rockies, to
AladLa; a dominion which will rise to unexampled greatness
when other empires have grown senile. Before that rimo, lilte

tnp^r^^imHrflH fyfM>qitifttr? ftf C'ArnU will ayiri^ pnrf gn Hnigp

iinfa^^ _devoid of palls and solemn r lianfin^^ tlj^ hnnu
driM Inevitable tra ggsdy of struggle ag ainst inertia"

"Xet^^att gblo Uie movies tomorrow hi^t. ~ Awfully ex-
citing fihn," said Ethel Qark.

" Well, I was going to read a new book but All ri^t,

let's go/' said Carol.

vra

"They're too much for me," Carol signed to Komicott
" I've been thinking about getting up an annual Community
Day, when the whole town would forget feuds and go out and
have sports and a picnic and a dance. But Bert TVb€« (why
did you ever elect him mayor?) — he's kidn£4>ped my idea.
He wants the Community Day, but he wants to have some
politician ' give an address.' That's just the stilted sort of
thing I've tried to avoid. He asked Vida, and of course she
'agreed with him."

Kennicott considered the matter while he wound the dock
and they tramped up-stairs.

" Yes, it would jar you to have Bert butting in," he said
amiably. " Are you going to do much fussing over this Com-
munity stunt? Don't you ever get tired of fretting and stewing
and experimenting?"

" I haven't even started. Lookl " She led him to the
nursery door, pointed at the fuz^ brown head of her daughter.
" Do you see that object on the pillow? Do you know what
it is? It's a bomb to blow up smugness. If you Tories were
wise, you wouldn't arrest anarchists; you'd arrest all these
children while they're asleq> in thdr cribs. Think ^diat that
baby will see and meddle with before she dies in the year 2000I
She may see an industrial union of the whole world, she may
see aeroplanes going to Mars."

" Yump, probably be changes all ri^t," yawned E^nicott

She sat on the edge of his bed while he hunted through his
bureau for a collar which ought to be there and persistently
wasn't.

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451

'^ III go on, always. Andlamhappy. JBitfJbisJCommu&i^
Day makes me see howH iornTigMy I'm nritrn **

"^TET'aaii coUaTcStainly is gone for keq)s," muttered

Kamicott and, louder, " Yes, I guess you I didn't quite

catch what you said, dear."

She patted his pillows, turned down his sheets, as she r^
fleeted:

" But I have won in this: I've never excused my failures
by sneering at my aspirations, by pretending to have gone
beyond them. I do not admit that Main Street is as beautiful
as it should bel I do not admit that Gopher Prairie is
greater or more generous than Eurqpel I do not admit that
dish-washing is enough to satisfy all women I I may not have
fought the good fight, but I have kept the faith."

" Sure. Yoi bet you have," said Komicott " Well, good
nig^t. Sort of feels to me like it might snow tomorrow. Have
to be thinking about putting up the storm-windows pretty
soon. Say, did you notice whether the girl put that screw-
driver back? "

THE END

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