Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 173: what you’re looking at

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

BING, BANG, BOOM! , ‘That there spring,” David went on, “ the one I used to drink from when I was a gardener at the Majestic. You know what I was then, an’ you know what I am now, an’—” “ David!” shouted Bert, throwing his arms into the air. “It makes fat people thin!” “‘ Son,” said David dryly, “ you ought to go on the stage, you’re such a won- derful mind-reader! That’s what it does. That there water ’ll take off from three to five pounds o’ fat a week.” He paused. “ Let’s go inside an’ sit down.” Dazedly, Bert followed the station-mas- ter into the dusk:pervaded waiting-room David pulled a pendant chain, and the light above sprang out and routed the murk. ‘Fhey seated themselves, facing each other. “ David,” said Bert, calm now in the face of ‘the glorieus truth, “it’s the most wonderful thing I ever heard. Within a week after the news of it gets around, the Majestic will be crowded to the doors; and if I had ten hotels—twenty hotels— like it, they’d all be filled. Why, every fat person would give a fortune to get thin.” David grunted. “I told you somethin’ on that order b’fore.” - _ “Just to think,” said Bert, thoughtfully, ‘“‘ that you knew this secret all these years and couldn’t say anything! Why didn’t you try to get money somewhere and buy the place from Turner yourself?” : “You can’t git fifteen or twenty thou- sand dollars jest ‘ somewheres,’ son. Meb-— be I could ’a’ triede to borry it on the strength o’ knowin’ o’ that spring, but I’d have to tell the secret fust—an’ then, most likely, I’d git nothin.” ‘“ But you told me!” “U-m! So I did.” Bert leaned forward and caught the sta- tion-master’s rough harid, pressing it be- tween his own. “ David, why did you tell me? Why have you helped me ever since I came here? You kept me away from that dance that night, and I realize now that it was best that I didn’t go. You got me out of jail— © saved me from the penitentiary, just as sure as I’m sitting here. I don’t know how you could have done it, but you did/ You 739 let me fight my own battles most of the time so as to help make a man of me, but—. and I’m just aware of it now for the first time—you were always behind me, ready to help me out. And now you've told me this wonderful secret. Why have you done all this for me, David?” | '“ Son,” David returned slowly, “a long time ago when I was a young man, I baught a leetle farm an’ decided to make farmin’ my profession, so to speak. Well, I didn’t know anythin’ about farmin’ at that time, b’cause I’d spent the most o’ my life b’fore that workin’ in the coal-mines down in- Oklahoma, an’ I wasn’t havin’ much suc- cess with my crops right off. ‘‘ Well, one day a man come ridin’ past am’ he drops off at my house to git a bite to eat, an’ afterward he takes a look over my leetle farm. That there feller knew a jot about farmin’, an’ he seen right off that I had a fertile piece of land, but I wasn’t farmin’ it night. So he stays on with me a week, puttin’ me straight about _ things, an’ showin’ me how to make a big success of it. ‘““Nacherly, I asked him why he helped me the way he did—jest like you asked me —an’ he says: ‘ Young man,’ he says, ‘ my hobby is farms an’ farmin’. I know enough about it so’s I kin tell a good piece o’ land from a bad piece; an’ when I see a good piece bein’ worked the wrong way, I like to make my knowledge of some use. When I see that I’ve made things grow where they wasn’t growin’ b’fore—even if the land ain’t mine an’ it’s nothin’ in my pocket—why,.my payment,’ he says, ‘ is the satisfaction o’ knowin’ that my jedgment o’ that there land was correct.’”’ — paused. “ My hobby,” he told Bert, “ human nature.” Bert flushed gratefully. ‘‘ And’ you’ve certainly kept me from being a failure, David. Now that I look back upon it, I realize how much I’ve learned from you since I came-to Selma. I haven’t made use of it yet, but I surely will in the future. I’m not going to forget what you’ve done for me, David. Now’s the time for me to show those who’ve helped me how grateful I am. You—and Fred Patterson, David. Fred’s been the best friend to me that a nn GDoOo (C(O) S (C(O) nn