Main Street

their house to meet us, tonight," said

is nice

n earth. Uh, Carrie--Would you mind if I sneaked down

ot. I know you're kee

ou don'

t of my way. L

and its full dismalness crawled over her: the awkward knuckly L-shape of it; the black walnut bed with apples and spotty pears carved on the headboard; the imitation maple bureau, with pink-daubed scent-bo

y smothering. The tottering brocade chair squeaked, "Choke her-choke her-smother her." The old linen smelled of the tomb. She was alone in this h

old home in Lac-qui-Meurt. "Stop it! They're perfectly comfortable things. The

e HAS to see how thing

luxury in St. Paul was an extravagant vanity here. The daring black chemise of frail chiffon and lace was a hussy at whic

she saw was the side of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church-a plain clapboard wall of a sour liver color; the ash-pile back of the church; an unpainted s

that out, but-I'd hate it! I'd be scared to death! Some day but--Please, dear nebulous Lord, not now! Bearded sniffy old men sitting and demanding that we bear children. If THEY had to bear them--! I wish they did have to!

from th

tion. What would they come to mean? How would they look six months from now? In which of them would she be dining? Which of these people whom she

celery on a slanted platform in front of his store. Would she ever talk to him? What would he say if she stopped and stated, "I am Mrs

that she was slipping through the streets invisible; but when she had passed, Mr. Ludelmeyer puffed into the store and coughed at his clerk, "I seen a young woman, she come along the side street. I bet she iss Doc Kennico

covered the town, east and west, north and south; and she stood

s let in the grasping prairie on every side. She realized the vastness and the emptiness of the land. The skeleton iron windmill on the farm a few blocks away, at the north end of Main Street, was like the ribs of a dead cow. She thought of the comin

d the lawns had been nursed with love. But the thought would not hold. At best the trees resembled a thinned woodlot. There was

It was a tall lean shabby structure, three stories of yellow-streaked wood, the corners covered with sanded pine slabs purporting to symbolize stone. In the hotel office she could see a stretch of bare unclean floor, a li

ore at the Minn

a while, sighed, and in a bored way gossiped with a man tilted back in a chair. A lumber-wagon, its long green box filled with large spools of barbed-wire fencing, creaked down the bloc

ther sound nor

f a great city. Her dreams of creating a beautiful town were ludicrous. Oozing ou

. It was a private Seeing Main Street tour. She was within ten minutes beholding not only t

d-yellow mosaic shade. Pawed-over heaps of tooth-brushes and combs and packages of shaving-soap. Shelves of soap-cartons, teething-rings, garden-seeds, and patent medicines in yellow "

sign "W. P. Kennicott, Phys.

ed "The Rosebud Movie Palace." Lithographs

ing. Shelves lined with red crepe paper which was now faded and torn and concentrically spotted. Flat against

s Meat Market-

atches for women. In front of it, at the

and thick voices bellowing pidgin German or trolling out dirty songs-vice gone feeble and unenterprising and dull-the delicacy of a mining-camp min

g men shaking dice for cigarettes. Racks of magazines, an

-dog toes." Suits which looked worn and glossless while they were st

brick. One window of excellent clothes for men, interspersed with collars of floral pique which showed mauve daisies on a saffron ground. Newness and an obvious notion of neatness and ser

sateens, badly woven galateas, canvas shoes designed for women with bulging ankles, steel and red glass buttons

metallic enterprise. Guns and churns and barre

orium. A vista of heavy oak rockers wit

overed counter. An odor of onions and the smoke of hot lar

r of cream and potatoes.

and new cars on grease-blackened concrete floors. Tire advertisements. The roaring of a tested motor; a racket

old wheels, of shafts and sulky seats, belonging to machinery of which Carol knew not

h the dust of bran, a patent medicin

mitate tree-trunks but running off into blobs of gilt-an aluminum ash-tray labeled "Greetings from Gopher Prairie"-a Christian Science magazine-a stamped sofa-cushion portraying a large ribbon tied to a small poppy, the correct skeins of embro

leeves, presumably Del Snafflin the proprieto

one-story building. A fashion-plate showing human pitc

red-brick Catholic Church w

mildewed room which must once have been a shop. A tilted writing-shelf against a

ck schoolbuilding in

nk, stucco m

le of marble. Pure, exquisite, solitary.

ilar shops and

s, meek cottages or large, comfortable, so

buildings which suggested that, in the fifty years of Gopher Prairie's existence, the citizens had rea

oline pumps for motor cars, boxes of goods. Each man had built with the most valiant disregard of all the others. Between a large new "block" of two-story brick shops on one side, and the fire-brick Overland garage on the other side, was a one-story cottage turned into a m

rom Main Stre

holding the cord of an awning; a middle-aged man who had a way of staring at women as though he had been married too long and too prosaic

the prairie, surely there's nothing to pre

ere. It CAN'T be as ugly as-as I know it is! I must be

for her, and exulting, "Have a walk? Well, like the town? Great lawns and trees, eh?" s

I

rol to Gopher Prairie also

life, and the way to enjoy city-life was, she had decided, to "go get a yob as hired girl in Gopher Prairie." She contentedly lug

come to town

et a yob,

. You got a

im Yac

see you. How much

dol

ott, I t'ink he marry a girl from de Cities.

said

ott and Bea Sorenson were viewi

wn larger than Scandia Crossing,

he same time. My! It would take years to get acquainted with them all. And swell people, too! A fine big gentleman in a new pink shirt with a diam

ere were at Scandia Crossing, b

n or eight clerks all looking at you. And the men's suits, on figures just like human. And Axel

u ever saw-all different kinds colored glass stuck together; and the soda spouts, they were silver, and they came right out of the bottom of the lamp-s

right on top of another; you had to stick your head back to look clear up to the t

lf; she wore a dandy new gray suit and black pumps. She almost looked like she was looking over the town, too. But you co

y there'd be lovely sermons, and c

movi

With the sign "Change of bill ever

rive in-papa was such a tightwad he wouldn't get a Ford. But here she could put on her hat any evening, and

ne, and one (a lovely one-the Art Shoppy it was) for pictures and vases and

time-and one of 'em was a great big car that must of cost two thousand dollars-and the 'bus was starting for a train with five elegant-dressed fellows, and a man

wed to stay here. And think how it would be in the evening, all lighted up-and not with no lamps, but with

rudge

lak it?"

t'ink maybe Ay st

largest in Gopher Prairie. It had a clean sweep of clapboards, a solid squareness, a small tower, and

rolled to the door and shouted, "Welcome,

he guests. They were WAITING so! They were waiting for her! The determination to be all one pretty flowerlet of appreciation lea

you-same as I would if I didn't th

o the right of me, faces in f

uckled, "Now you just cuddle under Sam's wing, and if anybody rubbers at you too long, I'll sh

es, the bride! We won't introduce her round yet, because she'll neve

t move from the social security of thei

k was an ingenue slip of lawn, with a wide gold sash and a low square neck, which gave a suggestion of throat and molded shoulders. But as they looked her over she was certain that it wa

cle. Her voice mechanical

st time in Colorado-mountains," and "Yes, I lived in St. Paul several years. Euclid

whispered, "Now I'll introduc

about the

Dave Dyer the druggist-you met him this afternoon-mighty good duck-shot. The tall husk beyond him is Jack Elder-Jackson Elder-owns the planing-mill, and the Minniemashie House, and quite a share in the

y? A t

t we are democratic. I go hunting wi

rming to meet one and not have to think about what you owe

d besides, he's a mighty good shot and--That's the way it is, see? Next to Nat is Chet Dashaway. Gr

Dashaway, a tan person with a wide mouth. "Oh, I know! He's

taker. You'll like him. C

he embalming and all that-himself? I c

ds with a great surgeon, just after h

ou're right. I want-oh, my dear, do you know how much I want t

m as they are! They have the stuff. Did you know that Pe

snah

ompany of Boston, Mass.-make the Velvet Twelv

I've hear

lack-bass fishing almost every summer, and he says if he could get away from business, he'd rathe

e everybody! I'll be t

er to th

ir, bleached voice, and a bleached manner. She wore her expensive green frock, with its passementeried bosom, bead tassels, and gaps between the buttons down the back, as though she had bought it second-

e "pleased to meet her," there seemed to be nothing el

er Prairie?" whim

'm going to be

Dawson looked to Mr. Mott for soci

ys-especially the Germans. They hate to pay school-taxes. They hate to spend a cent. But the rest are a fine cla

ard h

nd I went fishing togethe

weary feet, and smiled at Carol with

iments with any of the new educational systems? T

g, but Latin and mathematics always will be the backbone of sound Americanism, no matter what these fa

avant. Carol waited till Kennicott should rescue her. The

e young smart set of Gopher Prairie. She was led to them. Jua

s-dances and everything. You'll have to join the Jolly Seventeen. We

, I d

? In St

been such a

uanita had become patronizing, and she glanced disrespectful

, "How do you think you're

hall like it

lots of chances to go live in Minneapolis, but we like it here.

f bridge. Roused to nervous desire to regain her position she turned on Dr. Terry Gould, the y

utdoors. Can't we all get up a boating party, and fish,

iously at the cream-smooth slope of her shoulder. "Like fishing? F

e rather goo

But her lie was a triumph. Juanita's handsome, high-colored, horsey face showed doubt. Ha

s and rather brittle. She could not distinguish their eyes. They were a blurry theater-audience bef

ut of the motor 'bus that I decided to be Annie Oakley, the Wild Western Wampire, and I bought oh! a vociferous skirt which revealed my perfectly nice ankles to the Presbyterian glare of all the Ioway schoolma'ams, and I

coming shocked, but Juanita Haydock wa

as a respectable practitioner--

hatever he might say in the stress of being witty was not to count against him in the commercio-medical warfare. "There's some people in town that say the doc is a fair to middlin' diagnostician and prescripti

anels and champagne and tulle and crystal chandeliers and sporting duchesses. Carol saw that George Edwin Mott and the blanched Mr. and Mrs. Daw

Mr. Dawson there! I'm sure he's a regular heart-breaker. When w

eatified. He had been called many things-loan-shark, skinflint,

, Mrs. Dawson? Don't yo

," attempted Mrs. Dawson,

er lose his ability to make love to charming women, and that she had a pair of gold stockings. They gaped for more. But she could not keep it up. She retired to a chair behind Sam C

this affair, which brought out the young smart set, the hunting squire set, the respectabl

aymie Wutherspoon was going to send for a pair of patent leather shoes with gray buttoned tops; the rheumatism of

ned, his brows popped up and down. He interrupted himself, "Must stir 'em up." He worried at his w

e some stu

shrieked Jua

at stunt about the Nor

k stunt; do that, Dave!

e Dyer

ps in anticipation of being c

e 'Old Sweetheart of Min

Ionic bank, scratched her dry palms and blushed.

You bet!" a

in terrible s

Come

. She's had professional training. She studied singing and ora

ld Sweetheart of Mine," she gave a peculiarly

one Irish, one juvenile, and Nat Hicks's

es, the Jewish story and the funeral oration twice; but now she was ardent and, because she did so want to be happy and simp

they began to talk naturally, as

-their own shop-talk. She was piqued. She remembered visions of herself as a smart married woman in a drawing-room, fencing with clever men. Her dejection was relieved by speculation

h's ears." She rose with a jeune fille bow. She was self-absorbed and self-approving because she had attained that quality of sentimen

der of the planing-mill, Chet Dashaway, Dave Dyer, Harry

ocratically chatting with but ruling the Ohioans and Illini and Swedes and Germans who had ventured to follow them. But Westlake was old, almost retired; Julius Flickerbaugh had lost much of his practice to livelier attorneys; Reverend (not The Reverend) Peedy was dead; and nobody was impressed in this rotten age of automobiles by the "spanking grays" which Ezra still drove. The town was as heterogeneous as Chicago. Norwegians and Germans owned stores. The social leaders were common merchants. Selling nails was considered as

owbody was piping to Mr. Dawson, "Say, Luke, when was't Bigg

rom Vermont in 1867-no, wait, in 1868, it must have been-an

dy. "He settled first in Blue E

t issue?") Carol whi

an English setter or a Llewellyn. Th

ara Biggins was in town couple days ago? She bought a hot-w

ave a cent. Two dollars and twenty-thirty, was it?-two dollars and thirty cents for

ls, Mr. Stowbody?"

they really so terribly interested in Ella's tonsils, or even in Ella's esophagus?

ouble around here, has there, Mr

me fool thing on you in a minute. Of course, if they have loans you can make 'em listen to reason. I just have 'em come into the bank for a talk, and tell 'em a few things. I don't mind their being democrats,

of these cranky, wage-hogging, half-baked skilled mechanics that start tr

nion labor?" Carol i

a good job. But still, if they come to me honestly, as man to man, I'll talk things over with them. But I'm not going to have any outsider, any of these walking delegates, or whatever

, if I don't like him, he gits. And that's all there is to it. I simply can't understand all these complications and hoop-te-doodles and government reports and wage-scales and Go

of profit-sharing

in tune, like a shop-window of flexible toys, comic mandarins and judg

d the ears yet, and these suffragettes and God knows what all buttinskis there are that are trying to tell a business man how to run his business, and some of these college professors are just about as bad, the

r wiped

imply to hang every one of these agitators, and that would

" agreed

estion of whether the justice of the peace had sent that hobo drunk to jail for ten days or twelve. It wa

and it's a good nineteen miles from there to New Wurttemberg-seventeen and seven and nineteen, that makes, uh, let me see: seventeen and seven 's twenty-four, plus nineteen, well say plus twenty, that makes forty-four, well anyw

s and purposes admitted and just

and said asthmatically, "Say, uh, have you been reading this serial 'Two Out' in Tingling

the Magnolias' by this Sara Hetwiggin Butts, and 'Riders of Ranch Reckless.' Books. But me," he glanced about importantly,

ng I can't check aga

s for believing that the pike-fishing was better on the west shore of Lake Minniemashie than on the east

ike men in the smoking-compartments of Pullman cars. They did not bore Carol. They frightened her. She pant

dy interior, eh? My idea of how a place ought to be furnished. Modern." She looked polite, and observed the oiled floors, hard-wood staircase, unused fireplace with tiles which resembled brown linoleum, cu

ith hesitancy as with a fog. People cleared their throats, tried to choke down yawns. T

"The eats!" They began to chatter. They had something to do. They could escape from themselves. They fell upon the food-chicken sandwiche

tter of coats, chiffo

Kennicott

ike them?"

terribly sw

howing your ankles to schoolteachers and all!" More mildly: "You gave 'em a good time, but I'd watch out

up the party! Was I wron

oming person in the bunch. I just mean--Don't get onto le

ought that the attentive circle might ha

e don't worry

len

is the slickest thing that ever came to this town,' he said; and Ma Dawson-I didn't hardly know whether she'd like you or

, but she was so energetically being sorry for h

anxious shoulder said it, his arm about her said it

they think I'm

rld thought you were this or that or anyt

his sleeve, pinched it, cried, "I'm glad! It's sweet to be w

he house, and with her arms about