The Gate Valley Star (Gate, Okla.), Vol. 16, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 31, 1921 Page: 2 of 8
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Copyright. All Rights ReaeiVed
der
MertJCStead
BEULAH AND JIM.
Synopsis.—Dissatisfied because of
the seemingly barren outlook of his
position as a Bchool teacher In a
Canadian town, John Harris deter-
mines to leave It, take up land In
Manitoba and become a "home-
steader." Mary, the girl whom he
lovea, declares she will accompany
him. They are married and Bet
out for the unknown country. Alec
McCrae, pioneer settler and ad-
viser of newcomers, proves an In-
valuable friend. Leaving his wife
with the family of a fellow Bettler,
Fred Arthurs, Harris and McCrae
Journey over the prairie and select
a homestead. Mary Insists on ac-
companying him when he takes
possession, and they begin their
life work of making the prairie fer-
tile farm land. Returning from
selling hia first crop, Harris finds
his wife despondent almost to in-
sanity from loneliness, and with
the Immediate expectation of be-
coming a mother. A son is born to
them, to whom they give the name
of Allan.
CHAPTER IV.
(n the Spell of the Mirage.
A quarter of a century Is a short
tWme as world history goes, but It is a
jconsldernble era In the life of the
iCanadlan west. More things—momen-
tous things—than can be hinted at In
'this narrative occurred In the 25 years
following the great Inrush of 1882. The
boundless prairie reaches of Munltoba
were now comparatively well settled,
and the tide of Immigration, which,
after a dozen years' stagnation, had
set In again In greater flood than ever,
was now sweeping over the newer
lands still farther west. The vast
leweep of the horizon, once undeflled
iby any work of man, was pierced and
broken with elevators, villages, and
farm buildings, and the whiff of coal
smoke was blown down the air which
liad so lately known only the breath
of the prairies.
Mary Harris hurried about her ca-
pacious kitchen, deep In preparation
of the evening meal. The years had
taken toll of the freshness of her
young beauty; the shoulders, In mute
testimony to much hard labor of the
hand, had drooped forward over the
deepening chest; the hair was thin-
ner. and farther back above the fore-
head, and Btreaked with gray at the
temples; the mouth lacked the rosy
Bensuousness of youth, and sat now
tin a mold, half of resolution, half sub-
mission, Yet her foot had lost little
iof Its sprlghtllness, and the sympathy
In her fine eyes seemed to have deep-
ened with the years.
A moist but appetizing steam rose
from the vegetable pots on the range,
and when she threw back the Iron
door to feed more coal the hot glow
from within danced In reflection along
ithe bright row of utensils hanging
from the wall, and even sought out
the brass plate on the cream separa-
tor at the far end of the big room.
Through the screen door came the mo-
notonously redundant cllc • • • a
• • • clank of the windmill, and a
k<* n ear might have caught the light
splash of water as It fell In tbe wood-
en horse troughs from the Iron nozzle
of the pump.
Mary stuck a fork In a potato to as-
certain If the "bone" was all gone,
meanwhile shielding her face from the
steam with the pot lid, held aloft In
an aproned hand. Having satisfied
herself that the meal was making sat-
isfactory progress, she stepped to the
door and s^nt a quick look across the
fields, to where a streak of black
smoke was scrawled along the sky.
"Beulah," Bhe called, turning to-
ward the Interior part of the house.
"Come, Beulnh, set the table. They're
coming from the field."
In a moment a girl of twenty, plain-
ly attired In a neat calico dress, en-
tered the kitchen. She was fresh and
beautiful as her mother had been that
first summer In the sod house on the
bench, and something in her appear-
ance suggested that with her mother's
beauty and fine sensibility she had in-
herited the Indomitable spirit which
bad made JohD Harris one of the most
prosperous farmers In the district. She
moved In an easy, unconscious grace
of self-reliance—a reliance that must
fce Just a little Irritating to men of
old-fashioned notions concerning worn
an's dependence on the sterner sex—
drew the long wooden table, with its
covering of white oil cloth, into the
center of the kitchen, and began plac-
ing the dishes In position.
The scraping of heavy boots on the
plow share nailed to the block at the
door, and John Harris, followed by
Allan and the hired man, Jim, walked
Into the kitchen. The farmer's frame
vu heavier than In his younger days,
Author of —3
'The Cbw l\incher'£tc.
Illustration*
fry
Irwin ftyert
and his hair, too, was streaked with
gray, but every muscle In his great
body seemed to bulge with strength.
His face was brown with the prairie
sun and wind of 25 summers, and
lines of worry and care had cut their
tracings about the mouth and eyes.
Reside him stood Allan, his only son,
stralghter and llther of figure, but al-
most equally powerful. The younger
man was, indeed, a replica of the old-
er, and although they had their dis-
agreements, constant association had
developed a fine comradeship, and, on
the part of the son, a loyalty equal to
any stralp. The hired man, Jim, was
lighter and finer of feature, and his
white teeth gleamed against the nut-
brown of his face In a quiet smile
that refused to be displaced In any
emergency, and at times left the be-
holder in considerable doubt as to the
real emotions working behind.
The men all wore blue overalls, dark
blue or gray shirts, and heavy boots.
They were guiltless of coat or vest,
and tossed their light straw hats on
the water bench as they passed. There
was a quick splashing of greasy hands
at the wash basin, followed by a more
effectual rubbing on a towel made
from a worn-out grain sack. The
hired man paused to change the water
and wash his face, but the others pro-
ceeded at once to the table, where no
time was lost In ceremony. Harris
helped himself generously to meat
and vegetables and having done so,
passed the platters to his son, and In
this way they were circulated about
the table. There was no talk for the
first few minutes, only the sound of
knife and fork piled vigorously and
Interchangeably by father and son, and
with some regard for convention by
the other members of the family. John
Harris had long ago recognized the
truth that the destiny of food was the
mouth, and whether conveyed on knife
or fork made little difference. Mary,
too, had found a carelessness of little
detnlls both of manner and speech
coming over her, as her occasional
"ain't" betrayed, but since Jim had
joined their table she had been on her
guard. Jim seldom said anything, but
always that quiet smile lay like a
mask over his real emotions.
When the first Insistent demands of
appetite had been appeased, Harris,
resting both elbows on the table, with
knife and fork trained on opposite
corners of the celling, straightened
himself somewhat and remarked:
"Allan an' me's goin' to town to-
night ; anything you want from Semp-
ter's store, Mary?"
"That lets me In for the cows," said
Beulah. "You were In town night be-
fore last, too, and It was 9:30 before
I got through milking."
"Oh, well, Jim was away that
night," said Allan.
"Jim has enough to do, without milk-
ing cows after hours," returned the
girl. "What do you want to go to
town for again tonight, anyway?"
"Got to get more coal," said Harris.
"We'll take two teams, an' it'll be late
when we get back."
think It's all nonsense, this day
an'-nlght work," persisted Beulah. "Is
there never going to be any let-up on
It?"
"Beulah, you forget yourself," said
her father. "If you'd more to do you'd
have less time to fret about It. Your
mother did more work In one summer
than you have In all your life, an' she's
doln' more yet."
Oh, Beulah's a good help," Inter-
posed Mary. "I hope she never has to
work like I did."
"I guess the work never hurt us,"
said Harris, helping himself to pre-
served strawberries. "Just the sair^,
I'm glad to 6ee you get tin' It a bit
easier. But this younger generation—
It beats me what we're comln' to.
Thlnkin' about nothln' but fun and
gaddln' to town every night or two.
And clo'es—Beulah there's got more
clo'es than there were In the whole
Plalnvllle settlement the first two or
three years."
"I got more neighbors, too," Inter-
jected the girl. Then springing up,
she stood behind her father'B chair
and put her arm around his neck.
"Don't be cross. Dad." she whis-
pered. "Your heart's In the right
place—but a long way In."
He disengaged her, gently enough.
As Beulah said, his heart was all right,
but a long way In. Twenty-five years
of pitched battlo with circumstances—
sometimes in victory, sometimes In de-
feat, but never In despair; always
with a load of expense about him, al-
ways with the problem of Income and
outlay to be solved—had made of Har-
ris a man very different from the
young Idealist of '82. During the first
years of struggle for a bare existence
in some way the flame of idealism still
burned, but with the dawn of the "bet-
ter times" there came a gradual shift-
ing of standards and a new conception
of essentials. The crops of the early
years were unprofitable on account of
the great distance to market; later,
when the railway came to their doors,
the crops were still unprofitable, owing
to falling prices and diminishing yields
due to poor cultivation. Then came a
decade during which those who stayed
In the country stayed because they
could not get out, and It became a cur-
rent saying that the more land a man
farmed the deeper he got in debt.
Then came the swing of the pendu-
lum. No one knows just what started
it prosperltywards. Some said It was
that the fanners, disheartened with
wheat growing, were applying them-
selves to stock, and certain It Is that
In "mixed farming" the community
eventually fouud Its salvation; others
attributed the change to Improved ag-
ricultural Implements, to Improved
methods of farming, to greater knowl-
edge of prairie conditions, to reduc-
tions In the cost of transportation and
enlarged facilities for marketing, or to
Increasing world demand and higher
world prices for the product of the
farm. But whatever the causes—and
no doubt all of the above contributed
—the fact gradually dawned upon the
settlers that land—their land—was
worth money.
It was the farmers from the United
States, scouting for cheaper lands than
were available In their own communi-
ties, who first drove the conviction
home. They came with money In their
wallets; they were actually prepared
to exchange real money for land
Such a thing had never before been
heard of in Plalnvllle district
But a few transactions took place;
lands were sold at five dollars, six dol-
lars, eight dollars an acre. The farm-
ers began to realize that land repre
sented wealth—that It was an asset,
not a liability—and there was a rush
for the cheap railway lands that had
so long gone a-begging. Harris was
now might mean losing sight of
goal, and John Harris held nothing in
heaven or earth so great as its attain-
ment.
So, gently enough, he disengaged his
daughter's arm and finished his sup-
per in silence. As soon as It was
ended the men started for the barn,
and In a few minutes two wagons rat-
tled noisily down the trail.
Beulah helped with the supper dish-
es, and then came out with the milk
pails to the corral where the cows,
pufiiug and chewing, complacently
awaited her arrival. But she had not
reached the gate when the hired man
was at her side and had slipped one
of the palls from her arm.
"Now, Jim, I don't think that's fair
at all," she said; and there was a
tremor In her voice that vexed her.
"Here you're slaving all day with coal
and water, and I think that's enough,
without milking cows at night."
But Jim only smiled and stirred a
cow Into position.
There was a tuneful song of the tin
palls as the white streams rattled on
their bottoms.
"Here I've slaved and saved
until I'm an old woman."
ti?
(TO bK CONTINUED.)
SONGS THAT ARE IMMORTAL
Greatest Minds of All the Ages Be.
stowed Their Labors on the
Poems of Homer.
The Ullad and Odyssey were prob-
ably sung by Homer about a century
and a half after the destruction of
the town of Troy following the ten
years of war that was waged In the
cause of Menelaus, king of Lacede-
mon, whose consort had been carried
away by the son of the Trojan mon-
arch. The two poems are as old as
David's psalms. Originally the Bllad
would appear not to have been a sin-
gle connected poem, but to have at-
tained at a later period its present
complete state.
About one hundred years after Hom-
er, Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Lace-
demon, brought these poems into
Greece, and two centuries and a half
later Plsistratus is supposed to have
given them their perfect form. His
son Hlpparcus introduced the custom
of reciting rhapsodies at the Pana-
thenala, or festival of the tutelar god-
dess. A more complete edition of the
Homeric poems, from which the mod-
em ones are taken, was prepared for
Alexander the Great by Aristotle,
which the former used to keep under
his pillow In a golden case. Also
Aratus, the astronomer, Arlstarchus of
Samos, and Aristophanes, librarian at
Alexendria, bestowed their labor on
these Immortal songs. Because of the
fine moral sentiment, Homer became
the pattern of Thucydldes, the favor-
ite author #f the greatest and noblest
men, and one of the best teachers of
the wisdom of human life.—Detroit
News.
"Don't Be Cross, Dad," She Whispered.
among the first to sense the change In
the times, and a beautiful section of
railway land that lay next to his
homestead he bought at four dollars
an acre. The first crop more than
paid for the land, and Harris sudden-
ly found himself on the way to riches.
The joy that came with the realiza-
tion that fortune had knocked at his
door and he had heard was the con-
trolling emotion of his heart for a
year or more. But gradually, like a
fog blown across a moonlit night, came
a BPDse of chill and disappointment.
If only he had bought two sections I If
at least he had proved up on his pre-
emption, whlc.rhe might have had for
nothing 1 He saw neighbors about him
adding quarter to quarter. None of
them had done better than himself,
but some had done as well. And In
some way the old sense of oneness,
the old community Interest which had
held the little band of pioneers to-
gether amid their privations and their
poverty, began to weaken and dis-
solve, and In Its place came an Indi-
vidualism and a materialism that
measured progress only In dollars and
cents. Hnrrls did not know that his
gods had fallen, that his Ideals had
been swept away; even as he sat at
supper this summer evening, with his
daughter's arm about his neck, he felt
that he was still bravely, persistently,
pressing on toward the goal, all un-
aware that years ago he had left that
goal like a lighthouse on a rocky
shore, and was now sweeping along
with the turbulent ftde of Mammon-
Ism. He still saw the light ahead, but
it was now a phantom of the imagina-
tion. He said. "When I am worth ten
thousand I will have reached It;"
when he was worth ten thousand he
found the faithless light had moved
on to twenty-five thousand. He said,
"When I am worth twenty-flve thou-
sand I will have reached It;" when he
was worth twenty-five thousand he
saw the glow stl^ ahead, beckoning
him on to fifty thousand. To stop
Boy and a Sermon.
The way of a boy with a sermon is
thus:
Composes himself with a deep sigh;
listens attentively for three minutes,
in unimpeachable form. Cautiously
reaches hymn book from rack; drops
it; recovers It; reads hymns for five
minutes. Explores- trousers pocket
and examines with deep interest one
magnet, two nails, three pencil stubs
and several bits of unclassified Junk.
Drops something and hunts under seat
until discovered. Sighs heavily; in-
spects all the stained glass windows
and the overhead architecture and dec-
orations. Puts sole of left foot against
back of pew In front, at level of knee,
and Is highly surprised when foot
drops noisily. Repeats same exercise
with right foot with the same result.
Sits still and gratefully sucks pepper-
mint offered by merciful aunt. Sighs
heavily. Experiments to see what will
happen If he presses on his Adam's
apple while head Is extended forward;
strange choking sound ensues, Imme-
diately suppressed by domestic author
ltles.—Life.
Don't Go From Bad toWorsel
Are you always weak, miserable and
half-sick? Then it's time you found out
what is wrong. Kidney weakness causes
much suffering from backache, lame-
ness, stiffness and rheumatic pains, and
if neglected brings danger of serious
troubles—dropsy, gravel and Bright's
disease. Don't delay. Use Doan's Kid-
ney Pills. They have helped thousands
and should help you. Ask your neigh-
bor!
A Kansas Case
Mrs. Lydla A.
More, 3rd Ave., Os-
wego, Kans., Bays:
"I suffered agony
with my back. My
back ached steadily
and I could get no
Bleep. Mornings, my
back was so sore and
stiff I could hardly
Btraighten. Every
muscle seemed lame.
I had dizzy spells
and my kidneys act-
ed irregular. I saw
Doan's Kidney Pills
advertised and began using them. One
box greatly relieved me."
Get Doan's at Any Store, 60c a Boa
DOAN'S "p'fJLV
FOSTER.MILBURN CO., BUFFALO, N. Y.
When Run-Down
St. Joseph, Mo.—"I became all
run-down In health due to woman's
weakness. I was
weak, nervous
and got very
thin. I doctored
and took differ-
1A e n t medicines
VlW pfrjy, for this condl-
kc« tlon but did not
get any relief
until I began
taking Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescrip-
tion and it soon restored me to health
and strength.
"My father took the 'Golden Med-
ical Discovery' for a catarrhal cough
and it gave him relief where all other
medicine had utterly failed."—MRS.
J. W. EVALSON, 2801 S. 23rd St.
All druggists. Liquid or tablets.
Send Dr. Pierce, Invalids' Hotel, In
Buffalo, N. Y., 10 cents for a trial
pkg. of any of his remedies.
WATCH
THE BIG 4
Stomach-Kidney s-Heart-Liver
Keep the vital organs healthy by
regularly taking the world's stand-
ard remedy for kidney, liver,
bladder and uric acid troubles—
COLD MEDAL
The National Remedy of Holland for
centuries and endorsed by Queen Wilhel-
mina. At all druggists, three sizes.
Look for the name Gold Medal on erery baa
and accept no imitation
Moths Take Big Chances.
The high-flying species of morpho
which inhabit the mountainous dis-
tricts of western America, are much
easier captured than those which fre-
quent the plains, though their capture
is often attended with difficulty and
danger, says the American Forestry
Magazine of Washington. One natural-
ist hunting moths and butterflies In
Bogota, fell over a precipice and broke
his arm, and then found that he bad
three days' Journey to make on horse-
back before be could meet with a doc-
tor to set It Another naturalist, who
was collecting In Bolivia found that
morpho godartll. Guer., a beautiful spe-
cies, of a rather light blue which was
previously almost unknown to entomol-
ogists, frequented an Inaccessible ledge
In the mountains; he was obliged to
have himself lowered by ropes over ths
precipice before he could obtain It
Half Asleep.
Compared with what we ought to
be, we are only half awake.—WlUlan^
James.
LUCKYSTRIKE
cigarette. Flavor is
sealed in by toasting
Freed From
Torture
Eatonie Cleared His
Up-Set Stomach
"The people who have seen me suf-
fer tortures from neuralgia brought on
by an up-set stomach now see me per-
fectly sound and well—absolutely due
to Eatonie," writes R. Long.
Profit by Mr. Long's experience, keep
your stomach In healthy condition,
fresh and cool, and avoid the ailments
that come from an acid condition.
Eatonie brings relief by taking up and
carrying out the excess acidity and
gases—does it quickly. Take an Eatonie
after eating and see how wonderfully
It helps you. Big box costs only a
trifle with your druggist's guarantee,
FRECKLES
■ imunukw c«.. 2>7S MtcMgfa ktmmtm, CMcaa*
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Stevens, Arthur J. The Gate Valley Star (Gate, Okla.), Vol. 16, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 31, 1921, newspaper, March 31, 1921; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc168340/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.