Indianapolis Times, Volume 35, Number 163, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 November 1922 — Page 8

8

A Hoosier Coronide By MEREDITH NICHOLSON First Novel in thè Times Series of Fiction Stories by Indiana "Writers (Copyright. 1912. by Morditi Nlcholaon.)

“Tes,” replled Sylvia. "Are you a Madison man?” “No. I was never bere before. I went to a very different college and” —he hesitated —“a little bigger one.” "I suppose there are bigger colleges,” Sylvia remarked, with thè sllghtest accent on thè adjective. The young man laughed. "That’s thè right spiriti Madison needs no praise from me; it speaks for ltself. Is thls thè nearest way to thè station?” It had been on Sylvia’s tongue to ask him thè name of his college, but he had perhaps read thls inqulry In her eyes, and as though suddenly roused by thè remembrance of thè secrecy that had been imposed upon him, he moved on. ‘‘Tes, I understand,” he called over his shoulder. “Thank you, very much.’ He whistled softly to hlmself as he continued on his way. The manner of thè old professor m receiving thè letter and thè calmness with which he had given his reply minimized thè importance of thè transaction in thè mind of thè messenger. He was thinklng of Sylvia and smiling stili at her implication that while there vere largar colleges than Madison there was none better. As she neared home Sylvia met her friend Dr. 'Wandless, thè former presldent, who always had his Joke with her. , “Hall, Lady of thè Cbnstellations! Tou have been lootlng thè library, I see. Hast thou named thè stara without a gun?” ‘‘That isn’t right,” protested Sylvia, “Tou’re purposely misquoting. Tou've only spoiled Emerson’s line about th® birds.” “Bless me, I believe that’s sol laughed thè old gentleman. '"But teli me. Sylvia: ‘Canst thou bind thè sweet influences of Pleiades. or loose thè bands of Orlon? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or guide Arcturus with his sons?’ " Sylvia, with brightenlng eyes and a amile on her lips, answered: — “Knowest thou thè ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set thè dominion thereof in thè earth?” "Ah, if only I could, Sylvia!” said thè old minister. smiling gravely. They carne in high spirita to thè parting of their ways and Sylvia kept on through thè hedge to her grandfather’s cottage. The minister turned once, a veneratile figure with snowy beard and halr, and beat thè path softly with his stick and glanced back, as Sylvla’a red ribbon bobbed through thè greenery. " ■Whose daughter art thou?‘ ” he murmured gently. Then glancir.g furtively about he increased his gait as though to escape from his own thoughts; but thè ouestion asked of BethueTs daughter by Vbraham's servant carne again to his lips, and he shook his head as he repeated: “ Whose daughter art thou?" ”

CHAPTER II "How old did you say you were, Sylvia?” ‘Tm 16 In October, grandpa,” answered Sylvia. "la it poesdble!” murmured thè professor. “And to tfclnk that you've never been to schooli” “Why, I've been golng to echool every day, almoet, ever since I can rcmember. And haven’t I had thè finest teacher In thè world, all to myself?” Hls face brlghtened responsive to her laugh. Thls w&s at thè tea tabi*—for thè Keltons dlned at noon In conformlty wlth locai custom —nearly a week aster thè unslgned letter had been delivered to Andrew Kelton by thè unloiown messenger. Professor Kelton v, as unwontedly preoccupied tonlght. Sylvia saw that he had barely touched hls etrawberriee—thelr first of thè season, though they were fine ones and thè creara was thè thlckest. She folded her banda on thè edge of thè table and watched fctm gravely In thè Ught of thè tour candlea whose Carne flared iri thè breeze that rwept 6oftly throngh thè dlnlng-room Windows. Feeling her eyes upon hlm thè old gentleman suddenly roused hlmself. "We’ve had good timee, haven’t we, Sylvia? You've been a fine little shlpmate, but you’re not so little any more. Sixteen your next birthday! You’ve outgrown me—and l’m a dull old fellow at best. You must go where you wlll meet other gtrls, and deal wlth a varlety of teachers—not just one dlngy old fellow like me. ìlavo you ever thought what kind of a chool you’d like to go to?” "I don’t believe I have; I don’t know much about schools.” ‘ “Well, don't you thlnk you’d like to get away from 60 much mathematics and leam thlngs that wlll fit you to be entertaining and amusing? You know I’ve taught you a lot of thlngs jvrat to amuse myself and they can never be of thè ellghtest use to you. I suppose you are thè only girl of your age In America who can read thè sextant and calettiate latitude and iongltude. But, blesa me, what’e thè use?” “Oh, if I could only go to college, that would be thè flnest thlng in thè world!” “You thlnk that would be more Inlerestlng than boarding school? If you go to college they may requlre Greek and you don't even know what he lettera look like!” “Oh, yes, I know a little about if” *'l thlnk not, Sylvia. How could vou?” “Oh. thè lettera were so queer, I leamed them just for fun out of an old textbook I sound on thè campus one day. Nobody ever carne to elaim it, so I read it all through and leamed all thè declensions and vocabularies, though I only guessed at thè pronunelatlon.” Professor Kelton was greatly amused. "You tackled Greek Just for fun, dld you?” he laughed; then, aster a moment’s absorptlon: “I’m golng to Indianapolis tomorrow and I’il take you wlth me. If you care to go along. In faet. I’ve written to Mrs. Owen that we’re coming, and I’ve kept thia aa a little surprise for you.” So, aster an early breakfast thè next mornlng, they were off to thè station In one of tbose disreputable. shaky vtllage hacks that Dr. Wandless always "dark Icarlan birds,” wlth

their two bags plled on thè eeat before them. “I told Mre. Owen not to meet us; it's a nuisance having to meet peop’e,” said thè professor when they had reached thè city. "But she always sends a carriage when she expects me.” As they stepped out upon thè Street a station wagon driven by an old negro appeared preomptly at thè curb. "Mawnln’, Cap'n; mawnin'l To’ Just on tim®. Mia’ Sally tole me to kerry you all tight up to thè haouse. Tes, seh.” Sylvia did not know, what later liistorlans may be interested to learn from these pages, that thè station wagon, drawn by a single horse, was for years thè commonest veh&le known to thè people of thè Hossler capitai. The panie of 1873 had hit thè town so hard, thè community's punishment for its slns of lnflation i had been so drastio, that it had ac- ' cepted meekly thè rebuke implled in ; itß designation as a one-horse town. In 1884 carne another shock to confldence, and in 1898, stili anothe* earthquake. as though thè knees of | th® proud must at interrala be i humbled. The one horse station j wagon continued to symbolize thè ; ouiet domesticlty of thè cltlzens of J thè Hoosier capitai; women of unimpeach&ble sodai standing canicci their own baskets through thè aisles of thè city market or drove home with onion tops wavihg triumphantly on thè seat beside them. “I wonder’whether Mra. Owen wiU like me?” said Sylvia a little plalntively, thè least bit hqpaeslck as they turned into Delaware St. "Of course she wiU llke youi” laughed Professor Kelton, "though I will say that she doesn't like e veryj body by any manner of means. Tou ! mustn’t be afrald of her; she gets on best with people who are not arrald to talk td her. She isn’t like anybody you ever saw, or, I think, anybody I you are ever likely to see again i” Mra. Owen’s big comfortable brlck houce etood in that broad part of Delaware St. where thè maple arch rises highest, and it was surrounded by thè smoothest of lawns, broken only by a stone basin in whose cen- ! ter posed thè jolliest of Cupida holding a green glass umbrella, over which a Jet et water played in thè most : realistlc rainstorm imaginable. Another negro, not quito as venerable as thè coachman, opened thè door and took their bags. He explained that Mrs. Owen (he called her "Mls’ Sally”) had been obliged to atter.d a meeting of some board or other, but would return shortly. The guest*' rooms were ready and he at once lei thè way upstaira, where a whlte mald met them. Professor Kelton eXplained that he must go down into thè city on some errands, and Sylvia was thus left to : her own devices. It was like a story book to arrivo j at a strange house and be cfurled off ! to a beautiful room, with a wlndow seat from which one could look down into thè moat charroing of garden. She opened her bag and dlsposed her few belonglngs and was explorlng thè bathroom wonderlngly (for thè batb at home was an affair of a tin tub to which water was carri ed by hand) when a maid appeared with a gtass of lemonade and a piate of cakes. It was while she munched her cakes and slpped thè cool lenwmade In thè window-seat with an elm’s branches so dose that she could touch then. and wondered how near to thls room her grandfather had been lodged. and what thè mistress of th® house was like, that Mra. Owen appeared, aster thè lightest tap on thè high walnut door. "I thought you were otder, —or younger! I didn't know you would be just like thls! I didn’t know just when you were coming or I ehouJd have trled to be at home—but there was a meeting,—there are so many tlilngs, child!” Mra. Owen sat down beside Sylvia in thè window-seat and took one of thè cakes and nlbbled it while they talked. Sylvia had never been so whoily at eaa© in her Ilfe. It was as though she had been launched into thè midst of an old frlendshlp, and she felt that she had conferred thè greatest posslble favor in consentlng to vislt thls house, for was not thls dear old lady saying,— “You see, I'm lonesome sometimes and I almost kldnap people to get them to vislt me. I’m terribly practlcal old woraan. If you haven’t heard it I must teli you thè truth —I’m a farmer! And I don’t let anybody run my business. Other widows have to take what thè lawyers give them; but while I can teli oats and com and horses from pige I’m going to handle my own money. We women are a lot of geese, I teli you, child! I’m treas urer of a lot of things women run, and I can see a deficit through a brick wail as quick as any man on earth. Don’t you ever let any man vote any proxv for you—you teli ’em you "Il attend thè stockholdera’ meetings yourseìf, and when you go, kick!” When Professor Kelton had declared to Sylvia on thè way from thè station that Mra. Owen was unlike any other woman in thè world, Sylvia had not thought very much about it. To be sure Sylvia’s knowledge of thè world was thè meagrest, but certalnly she could never have imaglned any woman as rem&rkable as Mra. Owen. Mrs. Owen's whlte hair was beautlfully soft and wavy, and she wore It In thè prevalling manner. Her eyes narrowed occasionali}’ with an effect of sudden dreamlness, and these momentary reveries seemed to thè adorlng Sylvia whoily fasclnating. She spoke lnclslvely and her voicu was deep and resonant. She was exceedlngly thin and wirv, and her move ments were quick and nervous. Hearing thè whirr of a lawn-mower in thè yard she drew a pair of spectacles from a case she produced from an lncredlbly deep pocket, put them on, and critlclzed thè black man below sharply for his manner of running tlie machine. “Tcu needn't be afraid of me; my bark is worse than my bite; you have to talk just that way to these black people. Thev’ve all worked for me for years and they don't any of ’en pay thè slightest attentlon to what I say. But,” she concluded, ’‘‘they’d be a lot worse ii I didn’t say it." * Mra. family, thè Slngletons,

DOINGS OF THE DUFFS —

Ottoni,-mi morning Y f ì gave vou a j (T "WHERE. Dio \ f /YY _ , Yesjtiac^ / VJHEN Vot' LEFT FOR l- LETTER TÒ MA,L ' TW|| IVOO MAH. JT? J fr, 6 HT DO**Ylffi WÉ ( , THAT THE POST BOX WM { THE OFFICE I ASKED I DOkT 1 FoR ME - DID VOU ,f, ' Ì(M M THE )T il }ls |Jlo LONGER AT THE CORNER’ V, É i VOO TO DO SOMETHIMG ) REMEMBER | MAIL IT p ( CORNER MAIL il (IT HAS BEEN MOVED OVER /• M

/gameorno^ M WE AIN'GOY NO \ GAME.YOu'RE \ M “Time Y’DO YMIS ( 1 GOINCc YÒ SCROB ) we goY a game WmaY celiar <• Jjn —

THEM DAYS IS GOXE FOKEVER—

if 1 shootp eoo tois joe . toocfh ire-ißoeuieN'Ke -riit tufi orae SP THEM DAYS 15 WBCT WEFK-JUaT OLAMF TMg UITt A M6I.F IO OS IO WTRMOWe RWeO TMES WCHK GONC RIAEVCR * - -TWC SHOmER SKIRT-

Rie/- J ffl E (LjX _ z' ~—v otet cocd) MARSHAL OTELY WALKER FROZE Ibi MIS TRACKS WHEN HE SAW AUNT SARAH II \ DECKEP OUT/Al A NEW //v\

had crossed thè Ohio into Hoosier terrltory along In thè fiftles, i timo for Sally to have been a student —not thè demurest from all accounts —at Inefiana Pemale College. Where stood thè college thè Board of Trade has lately planted itself, frowning down upon Christ Church, whose admlrable Gothic spire chimed for Union victories in thè sixties (there’s a story

OUT OUR WAY—By WILLIAMS

THE OLD HOME TOWN—By STANLEY

about that, too!) and stili pleads with thè ungodly on those days of thè weelc appointed by thè Book of Common Prayer for offices to be said or sung. Mrs. Jackson Owen was at thls tlme 60 years old, and she had been a wldow for thlrty years. The old cltlzens who remembered Jackson Owen always spoke of him with a amile. He held an undlsputed record

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Ring Thls In a Soulful Soprano

of having been defeated for mora offices than any other Hoosier of his time. His chief assets when he died were a number of farms, plastered with mortgsges, scattered over thè commonwealth In inaccesslble looalit.les. His vvife. left a wldow with a daughter who died at 14, addressed herself zealously to thè task of paylng thè indebtedness with which th®

He Didn’t Get Away With It

n —; s —r r --- C (SSB'aww J Jjrj "Ws > msrs iuat ì L 'MWO w ) \ ’ '' ' '' ’ '' A i veli! ffVi s i I IIT w-wrm/iT S C SKAHnUNfiJ \M ( SWi "J C < COULDVOURST&CVONS }[ ' 7 6GEEN L cmi DCMOKi %A — 'f / r i\ rjcL VWUEN Va/BE So J \\

Éf MRÌ FOR A 1 SPREADtti VoO’LL WAVE'Tt? W$wFAcT- TWAT \0 "TUAf A'fTÌC EG6S ARE PtMD A VJAVTO REGIStTER OP \ " $ ueuVER some k ~oaere ooeskìV . c viitftfeß-rrs oil ' IAP “rt>TWAT " EVEIJ Giv/E US A/eatvWfcN 60 COLD liP STO'/E SOME : aoCTtu op olkjs ' aVawklrro* fA-itteßß-iK' bWweU I n ’ TU'eußkl/ICE- 1 KkioVj " MARM CLOCK- BE PlJflHj' 'TUIHim.QOQ, kAN/PEET APE 1 VAA\/E VlOkiH' VJORK b ioUOUP SO* 4OR ELSE DELL iM-TU' OWDERED UkILESS V’PUT A o kl A UOSE IWALK AROUkID \ 4 7 POObY/ , Roo wy roB U FOP VOUR /g 7 pwgl ==U 3oisouikiD , r * \ LIKE SOMEBoWSj cJL

lamented Jackson had encumberad his property. She had made a polnt of cllnging to all thè farms that had been so profitless under his direction, and so succeßsfully had she managed them that they were all paying handsomely. A four-hundred-acre tract of thè tallsst corn I ever saw was once point®d out to me In Green® County and thls plant&tlon, it was explained,

FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS —By BLOSSER

OUB BOAKDING HOUSE—By AHEBN

had been a worthless bog before Mrs. Owen "tiled” it; and later I saw stallo of this corn dispìayed in thè rooms of thè Agricultt’ral Society -to illustrate what intelllgent farming can do. , (To Be Continued) Don’t Boa.t. Too Much “Tea, cndeed,” said D® Boast; “my hearingextraordinarlly acute.”

NOV. 17, 1922

—By ALLMAN

—By AL POSEN

“You don't say!” put in Von Broke. “Oaiv you henr my watcli ticklng from where you stand?” “liasily.” “Well, you are a wonder! It’s jU tiie pawnbroker’s tea blocks away.” —From Kvterybody ’s Magi, zi no JU>r December.