The Bismarck Tribune

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SALLY FORD IN CHAPTER I She was left at the state orphanage when she was four by a woman who said she was the child's mother but who never returns. At 10 Sally is "farmed out" to CLEM CARSON and goes to her new home with the status of servant. Sally forgets her cares when she meets DAVID NASH, handsome young student of scientific farming, who is working on the Carson farm for the summer. PEARL, Clem's daughter, hates Sally because David plainly prefers Sally to her and heaps insults on the defenseless orphan. David asks Sally to go for a walk with him so he can show her how lovely the farm is by moonlight. On a sudden impulse she tells him that Clem Carson has warned her to have nothing to do with David as he and Pearl are practically engaged. David stoutly denies this and sees in Clem's remarks a scheme to unite his grandfather's place with the Carson farm. As they talk quietly, they are startled by Carson's voice. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER X David and Sally had been sitting at the end of the corn field, in plain sight of anyone who cared to spy upon them. When Clem Carson's harsh bellow startled them out of their innocent confidences, David jumped to his feet, offering a hand to Sally, who was trembling so that she could scarcely stand. "We're not in the corn, Mr. Carson," David called, his voice vibrating with indignation. "I'll have to ask you to apologize for what you said, sir. There's no harm in two young people watching the moon rise at 10 o'clock." Carson came striding out of the corn. David, feet planted rather far apart, looked as if he were braced for attack, and the farmer after an involuntary shrinking toward the shelter of the corn, advanced again, an apologetic smile on his brown face. "Reckon I spoke hasty," he conceded, "but Jim said he seen you two young-uns sneaking off into the corn and it got my dander up. I'm responsible to the orphanage for Sally, and I don't aim to have her going back in disgrace. Better get back to the house, Sally, and go to bed, seeing as how you've got to be up at half-past four in the morning. You stay back a minute, Dave. I want to have a little talk with you." "I'm taking Sally to the house, Mr. Carson," David said grimly. On the walk back to the house there was no opportunity for David to reassure the frightened, trembling girl, for Carson plowed doggedly along behind them, as they walked single file between the rows of corn. When they reached the kitchen, where Mrs. Carson was setting great pans of yeast bread to rise on the back of the range, Sally ran to the stairs, not pausing for a good-night. The next morning at breakfast it was plainly evident that David had said one or two other things to Clem Carson, and that he in turn had passed them on to Pearl. For Pearl's eyes bore traces of tears shed during the night, and the high color of anger burned in her plump cheeks. Carson's anger and chagrin at losing all his hopes of David as son-in-law and of acquiring, through his marriage to Pearl, the neighboring farm for his daughter, expressed itself in heavy "joshing," each word tipped with venom: "Well, well, how's our Sally this morning? What do you know about this, Ma? Our little orphan Annie is stepping out! Yes, sir, she ain't letting no grass grow under her feet! Caught herself a feller, she has!" "Eat your breakfast, Clem, friend.