The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 229: what you’re looking at

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

THE TAKING OFF musingly a few moments, Mr. Green did a peculiar thing. He walked to the center table, opened the clasps of the album, and looked hurriedly through it for the original of the crayon enlargement. He found it on the third page, quickly slipped it out of the holder, and put it into his inside pocket. When Mrs. Nash returned a few min- utes later with Joel behind her Mr. Green was seated near the window ex- amining a number of documents he had taken from his pocket. “Ah, Mr. Nash!” -he greeted Joel suavely, “I am Mr. Green—you may have heard I was looking at farming property in the neighborhood.” Joel nodded and _ slouched into a chair. His mother seated herself near the door and nervously plaited the corner of her apron on her knee, watching the visitor anxiously. “Yes, Applegate was telling me about it,” Joel said. “I suppose he told you we were willing to sell.” “ He and others,” the land-agent ad- mitted. “I have been told of the— ah — sad circumstances of the case. Your father was a fine-looking man,”’ he added. Involuntarily Joel and his mother raised their glances to the crayon por- trait. Involuntarily Mr. Green hugged the photograph in the inside pocket a little tighter. “Well, he wasn’t any beauty,” Mrs. Nash said; “ but he was a good pro- vider. We never wanted for anything while Mr. Nash was with us.” She touched her eyes with the cor- ner of her apron, and her son, with a side glance at her, turned to Green and lowered his voice confidentially. ‘“That’s why we want to sell the place,” he said; “ mother hasn’t been herself since it happened. We thought it might be a good thing if we moved away off where she could sort of for- get it.” Mr. Green was properly sympa- thetic. “TI understand,” he said; “you're OF MARTIN NASH. 699 thinking seriously of going West, I suppose?” He thought he detected a little in- voluntary start of both mother and son, as though their bodies had stiff- ened for an instant. “No; we hadn’t thought about the West particular,” Joel said almost sharply. “ Any place where the land is good and prices ain’t too high will do for us.” “ Of course,” his visitor acquiesced, “you're quite right, too. I spoke of the West because somehow that’s where one naturally expects a farmer to move. Most of them travel in that direction, you know, when they pull up stakes back here. And what are you willing to sell for, Mr. Nash?” “Well, the place is worth a hundred and twenty-five an acre,” Joel said; “you know that. You've been finding out prices all around here. But we'll let it go for a hundred and ten. There’s eighty acres,” he added. ““A very reasonable figure,” Mr. Green admitted; “Ill take it under advisement and communicate with my people in Chicago. Good morning, Mrs. Nash. You'll hear from me again in a few days, probably.” The next day Mr. J. Derrick Green was driving along the road from Tol- mans in his red-wheeled buggy when he overtook the rural miail-carrier trudging slowly on foot in the dust. _ Mr. Green had made it his practise to develop friendly relations with every one he had met in the neighborhood, and the gray-haired old postman, whom he encountered every day on some highway, was one of his admirers. Now he pulled up his high - stepping horse beside the toiling old man. “ Hello!” he called cheerily. ‘That old nag of yours still sick?” ~ “Yes; he’s still laid up,” the carrier returned. “ ’Pears like something’s the matter with one of his hind legs. Doc Horne says he prob’ly won’t be able to travel for a week. I’ve got to hoof it in. the mean time,” he added with a good-natured grin. COMicdoo S CO@