Adventure Magazine Cover — page 156: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

_—) THE River Bottom farm had but few sa neighbors. The country thereabout was devoted almost exclusively to grain growing. Such neighbors as dropped over found an uncommunicative man, quite willing, however, to listen to all they had to say about farming. The women, met at the house by a cadaverous party who, remark- ing—‘‘Skipper’s on deck,” closed the door upon them, ceased calling after one attempt. A mile down the road was a little school, which Nance attended. Beyond the school was the Upland farm, owned by De Witt, a close-fisted old fellow who had struggled upward from being a day laborer, and was hard at work clearing off the last of his debts. He was as uncommunicative as Dowser and, once acquainted, the two be- came good friends. Once, during the rush of work on the Bottom farm, when Dowser was short of help, De Witt arrived with his team, helping till the rush was over and refusing any pay for his services. ‘“Reckon you’d do the same by me,”’ he said. De Witt laughed at Dowser’s ‘‘new- fangled” notions, ridiculing his cow tester. “Them there professors has got you fooled, neighbor, with their highfalutin idees,”’ he said. “Don’t doubt it, De Witt. You’re the sort would still be hoisting double tops’ls and setting up lanyard rigging—no ques- tion of that.” “T ain’t bin to none o’ them places you speaks of; but I do reckon to hev run a string 0’ cows.” “How d’ you reckon I get the prices for my calves I do?”’ Dowser, who had stocked his farm with registered cattle, would ask. “Neighbor, you got ’em all fooled with your highfalutin idees—that’s what there is to that; just like you falls fer them pro- fessors yourself.”’ Thus they argued, remaining excellent friends. Mrs. De Witt, a woman with one son, ever longing for a daughter, came over to see Nance once or twice. Out of Nance she got but small satisfaction, while Nance appeared indifferent as to whether she came or not. Invited to go to the Upland farm, she returned home disgusted with the dirt, the smells, and the countless swarms of flies about the place. Dowser had hired a foreman, a quiet man, Adventure of past middle age, recommended to him by the people at the creamery in town. He left the management of the farm to him; watch- ing him closely, and constantly making suggestions. When he had been one year on the place the River Bottom farm was totally changed; flowers blossoming about the house, and the long neglected fruit trees behind the house as well as the thirsty cottonwoods at the gate taking on a new lease of life. Moses had early built a boat, a fiat- bottomed affair, in which he and Nance spent many hours on the wide sloughs bor- dering the river, fishing and rowing. In Summer, after the snow-water had subsided with the passing of the June heat-wave, Nance swam in the deep holes alongside the bank in the shade of the overhanging wil- lows and box elders. The foreman, putting the calves in her charge, and Moses teaching her to cook and to keep house, she was never idle from the time she arose, soon after dawn, until she had fed. the calves after the evening milking. Immediately after the purchase of the farm the Fancy Nan was away for four years on foreign charters. On returning to the coast she went to Portland, with general cargo from Europe, and Dowser, going to see her and her skipper, found her trimmer than ever; glistening fore and aft, and the talk of the water-front. Tattersall already had her chartered for the Cape with grain, and was hastening her discharge. Upon Dowser’s return to the farm Nance was eager for news of the ship. But for her preoccupation with an ailing calf she would have insisted upon accompanying him to Portland. He told her that the Fancy Nan was at sea again and would probably be away for some years. Nance, busy with her pets and her schooling, seemed to forget the sea. Letters came from Tattersall from the Cape. The Fancy Nan had made the run in fifty days, beating the Liverpool Gleesslin by a full week. ‘How was that?” he asked, adding—“‘she has never lost a rope yarn yet.” Dowser, replying, asked, “‘What’s the matter with changing a ship’s name now?” And got word from Melbourne, saying that she was matched against the London clip- per Brilliant for the run to Falmouth. Nance wrote to him, telling him to bring the bark to San Francisco. COIN Clooolkks (C@