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ley up but ing Ramseij Milholland •g by Booth Tarkington • i> Illustrations by Irvin Mqers a he to Copyright by Doubleday, Page A Co. 8YNOP8I8 CHAPTER I.—With hie grandfather, small Ramsey Mllholland is watching "Decoration Day Parade" in the h town. The old gentleman, a veteran of the CivU war, endeavors to Impress the youngster with the significance of the great conflict, and many years afterward the boy was to re m e m ber his words with startling vividness. CHAPTER II.—In the schoolroom, a few years afterward, Ramsey was not distinguished fpr remarkable ability, though his two pronounced dislikes were arithmetic and "Recitations." In sharp Cpntrgst to Ramsey's backwardness Is the precocity of little Dora Yocum, a young lady whom in bis bitterness he de nominates "Teacher's Pet" CHAPTER III.—In high school, where hp and Dora are classmates. Ramsey Continues to feel that the girl delights to manifest her superiority, and the vindic tiveness he generates becomss alarming, Culminating In the resolution that some «Jy he would "show" her. CHAPTER IV.—At a class picnic Ram sey. to his intense surprise, appears to attract the favorable attention of Mlee Mllla Rust, a young lady of about ble own age and the acknowledged belle of the class. MUla has the misfortune to fall Into a creek while talking with Ram sey, and that youth promptly plunges to the rescue. The water Is only some three feet deep, but Mllla's gratitude for his heroic act is embarrassing. He Is In fact taken captive by the fair one, to his great consternation. the ome 0 j o' in a BETTER PACKING FACILITIES i Economical Handling of Boxed Frulti Demand Construction of Well Equipped Houses. I (Prepared by the United State* Department | at Agriculture.) j "The construction of well-planned and well-equipped packing bouses li essential to the economical handling of boxed apples In the northwest The recent building program has not kept pace with the demand of tht industry and severe losses have bees sustained on account of limited facil ities for packing and for storing un packed fruit temporarily. The situa tion hag bees aggravated by the enor | mous increase in production during j the past few years, as well as by the serious shortage of transportation j equipment." Specialists of the bureau of mar j kets and crop estimates, United Statei Department of Agriculture, thus sum ! up the results of their study of meth l ods and practices which have given the greatest satisfaction in commer 1 dal operations. Full details of the ! work are contained in Farmers' Bui t letin 1204, Northwestern Apple Pack 1 lng Houses, recently issued by the de ! partment. Apple packing bouses may be clas i slfled in two groups, individual packing a m .. JiS&SEr £83i H r i m * s&f A Movable Type of Paoking House. houses, which are more commonly ; known as ranch packing houses, and community houses, operated either bj , co-operative associations or by Indi viduals. The percentage of the crop packed In community houses is in creasing steadily, and though no defi nite figures are available, careful es tlmates show that the amount In creased from about one-fourth of the total crop In 1916 to approximately one-half of the crop In 1616., FALL PLOWING QF ORCHARDS Growing Practice With Thoae Who Have Many Acres, but Leaves Soil Bare In Winter. FaU plowing of orchards is a grow ing practice with those who have many acres. It leaves the soil bare elver winter, which is not desirable, jjnt this Is better than to put off the plowing until so late in the spring that the cover crop has made too much growth. This was at the bottom of the fight between Rqtnsey Mllholland and Wes ley Bendes, and the diplomatic ex changes immediately preceding hostili ties were charmingly frank and un hypocritical, although quite as mixed up and off-the-issue as if they had been prepared by professional foreign office men. Ramsey and Fred Mitchell and four other boys waylaid young Bender on the street after school, in tending jocosities rather than violence, but the victim proved sensitive. "You take your ole hands off o' me!" he said fiercely, as they began to push him about among them. "Ole dirty Wes!" they hoarsely bel lowed and squawked, in their chang ing voices. "Washes his ears!'' . "Washes his .neck!'' . . . Dora Yocum told his mama to turn the hose on him!" Wesley broke from them and backed away, swinging his strapped books in a dangerous circle. "You keep off!" he warned them. "I got as much right to my pers'nal appearance as anybody!" This richly fed their humor, and they rioted round him, keeping outside the swinging books at the end of the strap. "PersYml appearance' I" . . . "Yow! Ole dirty Wes, he's got per s'nal appearance!" . . . "Who went and bought it for you, 'West" . . . "Nobody bought it for him. Dora Yocum took and give him one!" "You leave ladles' names alone!" cried the chivalrous Wesley. "You ought to know better, on the public street, you—pups!" Here was a serious affront, at least to Ramsey Milholland's way of think ing; for Ramsey, also now proved sensitive He quieted his friends— "Shut up!''—and advanced toward Wesley. "You look here! Who you callin' 'pups'?" "Everybody!" Wesley hotly re turned. "Everybody that goes around mentioning ladles' names on the pub lic streets are pups I" "They are, are they?" Ramsey as hotly demanded. "Well, you just look here a minute; my own father men tions my mother's name on the public streets whenever he wants to, and you just try callin' my father a pup, and you won't know what happened to you I" "What'll you do about it?" "I'll put a new head on you," said Ramsey. "That's what I'll do, because anybody that calls my father or moth er a pup— "Oh, shut up! I wasn't talkin' about your ole father and mother. I said everybody that mentioned Dora Yo cum's name on the public streets was a pup, and I mean it! Everybody that mentions Dora Yocum's name on the li pub— Dora Yocum!" said Ramsey. "I got a perfect right to say it anywhere I want to. Dora Yocum, Dora Yocum, Dora Yocum!—" "A1I right then, you're a pup!" Ramsey charged upon him and re ceived a suffocating blow full in the face, not from Mr. Bender's fist but from the solid bundle of books at the end of the strap. Ramsey saw eight or ten objectives Instantly: there were Wesley Benders standing full length In the air on top of other Wesley Ben ders, and more Wesley Benders zig zagged out sidewise from still other Wesley Benders; nevertheless, he found one of these and it proved to be flesh. He engaged It wildly at fisti cuffs ; pounded it upon the countenance and drove It away. Then he sat down upon the curbstone and, with his dizzy eyes shut, leaned forward for the bet: ter accommodation of his ensanguined nose. Wesley had retreated to the other side of the street, holding a grimy handkerchief to the midmost parts of his pallid face. "There, you ole d—n pup!" he shouted, in a voice which I guess that'll threatened a sob. teach you to be careful how you men tion Dora Yocum's name on the public streets!". At this, qpmsey made a motion as if to rise and pursue, whereupon Wes ley fled, walling back over his shoulder as he ran, "You wait till I ketch you out alone on the public streets and nm-" His voice was lost in an outburst of hooting from his former friends, who sympathetically wounded Ramsey. But in a measure, at least, the chivalrous fugitive had won his point. He was routed and outdone, j - et what survived the day was a rumor, which became a sort of tenuous legend among those interest ed. There had been a fight over Dora Yocum, it appeared, and Ramsey Mll holland had attempted to maintain something derogatory to the lady, while Wesley defended her as a knightly youth should. The boys, unmindful of proper gal lantry, supported Ramsey on account of the way he had persisted in lickin' the stuffin' out of Wesley Bender after receiving that preliminary wallop from Wesley's blackjack bundle of books. The girls petted and championed Wes ley; they talked outrageously of his conqueror; fiercely declaring that he ought to be arrested; and for weeks they maintained a new manner toward him. They kept their facial expres sions hostile, but perhaps this was more for one another's benefit than for Ramsey's; and several of them went so far out of their way to find even private opportunities for reprov ing him that an alert observer might have snspected them to have been less Indignant than they seemed—but not Ramsey. He thought they all hated him, and said he was glad of It. Dora was a non-partisan. The little prig was so diligent at her books she gave never the slightest sign of com prehending that there had been a fight •bout her. Having no real cognizance •f Messrs. Bender and Mllholland ex surrounded the and bj crop in defi es In the bare the that cept as Impediments to the advance of learning, she did not even look demure. CHAPTER IV. With Wesley Bender, Ramsey was again upon fair terms before the wlu ter had run its course; the two were neighbors and, moreover, were drawn together by a community of Interests which made their reconciliation a ne cessity. Ramsey played the guitar and Wesley played the mandolin. All ill feeling between them died with the first duet of spring, yet the tinkling they made had no charm to soothe the savage breast of Ramsey whenever the Teacher's Pet came Into his thoughts. He day-dreamed a thou sand ways of putting her in her place, but was unable to carry out any of them, and had but a cobwebby satis faction in Imagining discomfitures for her which remained imaginary. "Just once!" he said to Fred Mitchell. "That's all I ask, just once. Just gimme one chance to show that girl what she really Is. I guess If I ever get the chance she'll find out what's the mat ter with her, for once In her life, any way." Thus it came to be talked about and understood and expected In Ram sey's circle, all male, that Dora Yo cum's day was coming. "You'll see!" said Ramsey. "The time'll come when that ole girl'll wish she'd moved out o' this town before she ever got appointed monitor of our class! Just you wait!" They waited, but conditions appeared to remain unfavorable indefinitely. Perhaps the great opportunity might have arrived if Ramsey had been able to achieve a startling Importance In any of the "various divergent yet parallel lines of school endeavor"—one of the phrases by means of which teachers and principal clogged the minds of their unarmed auditors. But though he was far from being the dumb driven beast of misfortune that he seemed in the schoolroom, and, in fact, lived a double life, exhibiting in his out-of-school hours a remarkable example of "secondary personality"— .a creature fearing nothing and capable of laughter; blue eyed, fairly robust, and anything but dumb—he was never theless without endowment or attain ment great enough to get him distinc tion. He "tried for" the high-school eleven, and "tried for" the nine, but the experts were not long In elimi nating him from either of these com petitions, and he had to content him self with cheering instead of getting cheered. He was by no manner of means athletic, or enough of anything else, to put Dora Yocum in her place, and so he and the great opportunity were still waiting in May, at the end of the second year of high school, when the class, now the "10 A," revert ed to an old fashion and decided to entertain itself with a woodland plc DlC. They gathered upon the sandy banks of a creek in the blue sbade of big, patchy-barked sycamores, with a danc ing sky on top of everything and gold dust atwinkle over the water. Hither the napkin-covered baskets were brought from the wagons and assem bled in the shade, where they ap peared as an attractive little meadow at white napery, and gave both sur prise and pleasure to communities of ants and to other original settlers of the neighborhood. From this nucleus or headquarter? of the picnic, various expeditions set forth . up and down the creek and through the woods that bordered it; Two envied boy fishermen established themselves upon a bank up-stream, with hooks and lines thoughtfully brought with them, and poles which they fashioned from young saplings. They took mussels from the shallows, for bait, and having gone to all this trouble, declined to share with friends less energetic and provident the per quisites and pleasures secured to themselves. Albert Paxton was one person who proved his enterprise. Having vis ited the spot some days before, he had hired for his exclusive use throughout the duration of the picnic an old row boat belonging to a shanty squatter; it was the only rowboat within a mile or two and Albert had his own uses for it. Albert was the class lover and, after first taking the three chaperon teachers "out for a row," an excursion concluded in about ten minutes, he dis embarked them; Sadie Clews stepped into the boat, a pocket camera in one hand, a tennis racket in the other; and the two spent the rest of the day, ex cept for the luncheon Interval, solemn ly drifting along the banks or ground : ed on a shoal. Now and then Albert would row a few strokes, and at al most any time when the populated shore glanced toward them, Sadie would be seen photographing Albert, Albert would be seen photograph ing Sadie, but the tennis racket re mained an enigma. They were six teen, and had been "engaged" more than two years. On the borders of the little meadow of baskets there had been deposited two black shapes, which remained un : disturbed throughout the day, a closed guitar case and a closed mandolin case, no doubt containing each its proper instrument. So far as any use of these went they seemed to be of the same leisure class to which Sadie's tennis racket belonged, for when one of the teachers suggested music, the musicians proved shy. Wesley Ben der said they hadn't learned to play anything much and, besides, he had a couple o' broken strings he didn't know as he could fix up; and Ramsey said he guessed it seemed kind o' toft hot to play much. Joining friends, they or ganized a contest in marksmanship, the target being a floating can which they assailed with pebbles; and after that they "skipped" flat stones upon the surface of the water, then went to a ex or a Join a group gathered about Willis Parker and Helnie Krusemeyer. No fish had been caught, a lack of luck crossly attributed by the fisher men to the noise made by constant ad vice on the part of their attendant gallery. Messrs. Mllholland, Bender, and the other rqck throwers came up shouting, and were 111 received. "For heaven's sakes," Helnie Kruse meyer demanded, "can't you shut up? Here we Just first got the girls to keep their mouths shut a minute and I al most had a big pickerel or something on my hook, and here you got to up and yell so he chases himself away! .<* or VT&i * & g&JjV 0 M k xm lV > m ■h fX* 1 i "For Heaven's Sakes," Helnie Kruse meyer Demanded, "Can't You Shut Up?" Why can't nobody show a little sense sometimes when they'd ought to? A fish Isn't goin' to bite when he can't even hear himself think! Anybody ought to know that much." But the new arrivals hooted. "Fish!" 'I'll bet a hun Ramsey vociferated, dred dollars there hasn't been even a minny in this creek for the last sixty years! "There is, too!" said Helnie, bitter ly, "But I wouldn't be surprised there wouldn't be no longer if you got to keep up this noise. If you'd shut up just a minute you could see yourself there's fish here." Ramsey leaned forth over the edge of the overhanging bank, a dirt preci pice five feet above the water, and peered into the indeterminable depths below. The pool had been stirred, partly by the inexpert pokings of the fishermen and partly by small clods and bits of dirt dislodged from above by the feet of the audience. The wa ter, consequently, was but brownly translucent and revealed Its secrets re luctantly; nevertheless certain dim lit tle shapes had been observed to move within it, and were still there. Ram sey failed to see them at first. "Where's any ole fish?" he inquired, scornfully. "Look 1" whispered the girl who stood nearest to Ramsey. She point There's one. Right down there by Willis' hook. Don't you see him?" Ramsey was impressed enough to whisper. 1 I can't—" The girl came closer to him and, the better to show him, leaned out over the edge of the bank and, for safety in maintaining her balance, rested her left hand upon his shoulder while she pointed with her right. Thereupon something happened to Ramsey. This touch upon his shoulder was almost nothing, and he had never taken the slightest interest in Mllla Rust (to whom that small warm hand belonged), though she was the class beauty, and long established in the office. Now, all at once, a peculiar and heretofore en tirely unfamiliar sensation suddenly became important in the upper part of his chest. For a moment he held his breath, an involuntary action—he seemed to be standing in a shower of : : a to or to ed. Is there? I don't see him: flowers. "Don't you see it, Ramsey?" Mllla whispered. Why, it must be as long as—as your shoe! Look 1" Ramsey saw nothing but the thick round curl on Mllla's shoulder. That curl was shot with dazzling fibers of sunshine. He seemed to be trembling. "I don't see It," he murmured husk ily, afraid that she might remove her hand. "I can't see any fish, Mllla." She loaned farther out over the bank. "Why, there, goosle 1" she whis pered. It's a great big one. Right there." "I can't see It." She leaned still further, bending Why, right th—" down to point. At this moment she removed her hand from his shoulder, though unwill ingly. She clutched at him, in fact, but. without avail. She had been too amiable. A loud shriek was uttered by throats abler to vocalize, Just then, than Milla's, for in her great surprise she said noth ing whatever—the shriek came from the other girls as Mllla left the crest of the overhanging bank and almost hor izontally disappeared into the brown water. There was a tumultuous splash, and then of Mllla RuSt and her well known beautifulness there was noth ing visible in the superficial world, nor upon the surface of that creek. The vanishment was total. "Save her!" Several girls afterward admitted having used this expression, and little Miss Floy Williams, the youngest and smallest member of the class, was unable to deny that she had said, "Oh, God!" Nothing could have been more natural, and the matter need not have ". ' to a been brought before her with such in sistence and frequency, during the two remaining years of her undergraduate career. Ramsey was one of those who heard this exclamation, later so famous, and perhaps It was what roused him to heroism. He dived from the bank, headlong, and the strange thought Id his mind was "I guess this'll show Dora Yocum!" He should have been thinking of Mllla, of course, at such a time, particularly after the little enchantment Just laid upon him by MUla's touch and Mllla's curls; and he knew well enough that Miss Yocum was not among the spectators. She was half a mile away, as it happened, gathering "botanical specimens" with one of the teachers—which was her Idea of what to do at a picnic! Ramsey struck the water bard, and In the same instant struck something else harder. Wesley Bender's bundle of books had given him no such shock as he received now, and if the creek bottom had not been of mud, just there, the top of his young head mtght have declined the strain. Half stunned, choking, spluttering, he somehow floun dered to his feet; and when he could get his eyes a little cleared of water he found himself wavering face to face fi 0\ s * IE®, y, W ,. % V ft i q.11 / % I r A .<^1 II 7 o She Had Risen Up Out of the Pool and Stood Knee Deep, Like a Lovely Drenched Figure in a Fountain. with a blurred vision of Mllla Rust. She had risen up out of the pool and stood knee deep, like a lovely drenched figure in a fountain. Upon the bank above them, Willis Parker was jumping up and down, gesticulating and shouting fiercely. "Now I guess you're satisfied our flshin' is spoilt! Why'n't you listen me? I told you It wasn't more'n three foot deep! I and Helnie waded all over this creek gettin' our bait You're a pretty sight!" Of Mllla he spoke unwittingly the literal truth. Even with her hair thus wild and sodden, Mllla rose from Im mersion blushing and prettier than ever; and she was prettiest of all when she stretched out her hand help lessly to Ramsey and he Jed her up out of the waters. They ,had plenty of assistance to scramble to the, top of the bank, and there Mllla was sur rounded and borne away with a great clacketlng and tumult, Ramsey sat upon thd grass In the sun, rubbed bis head, and experimented with his neck to see If It wobld'"work." The sun shine was strong and hot; In half an hour he and his clothes were dry—or at least "dry enough," as he said, and except for some soreness of head and neck, and the general crumpledness of his apparel, he seemed to be In all ways much as usual, when shouts and whistlings summoned all the party to luncheon at the rendezvous. The change that made him different was invisible. Yet something must have been seen, for everyone appeared to take It for granted that he was to sit next to Mllla at the pastoral meal. She her self understood it, evidently, for she drew in her puckered skirts and with out any words made a place for him beside her as he drlftingly approached her, affecting to whistle and keeping his eyes on the foliage overhead. He still looked upward, even in the act of sitting down. "Squirrel or something," he said feebly, as if in explanation, "Where?" Mllla naked. "Up there on a branch." He ac cepted a plate from her (she had pro vided herself with an extra one), but he did not look at it or at her. He continued to keop his eyes aloft, be cause he imagined that all of the class were, looking at him and, Mllla, and he felt unable to meet such publicity. It was to him as if the whole United States had been scandalized to atten tion by this, act of his in going to sit beside Mllla; he gazed upward so long that his eye-balls became sensitive urn der the strain. He began to blink. "I can't make out whether it's a squirrel or just some leaves that kind o' got fixed like one," he said, '1 can't make out jet which it is, but I guess when there's a breeze, if it's a squirrel he'll prob'iy hop around some then, If he's alive or anything." It had begun.to seem that his eyes must remain fixed in that upward stare forever; he wanted to bring them down, hut could not face the glare of the world. But finally the brightness of the sky between the leaves settled matters for him; he sneezed, wept, and for a little moment again faced his fellowmcn. No one was looking at him; everybody except Milia had other things to do. Having sneezed involuntarily, he ' • added a spell of coughing for which there was no necessity. "1 guess I must been wrong," he muttered thickly. "What about, Ramsey T" "About It's bein' a squirrel." With Infinite timidity he turned his head and encountered a. gate so soft, so hal lowed, that It disconcerted him, and he dropped a "drumstick" of fried chicken, well dotted with ants, from his plate. Scarlet he picked It up, but did not eat it For the first time in his life he felt that eating fried chick en held in the fingers was not to be thought of. He replaced the "drum stick" upon his plate and allowed it to remain there untouched, in spite of a great ^hunger for it. Haflng looked down, he now found difficulty in looking up, but gazed steadily at his plate, and tnto this limited circle of vision came MUla's delicate and rosy fingers, bearing a gift. "There," she said in a motherly little voice. "It's a tomato mayonnaise sandwich and I made it myself. I want you to eat It, Ramsey." His own fingers approached tremu lousness as he accepted the thick sand wich from her and conveyed it to his mouth. A moment later his soul filled with horror, for a spurt of mayonnaise dressing had caused a catastrophe the scene of which occupied no Inconsider able area of his right cheek, which was the cheek toward Mllla. He groped wretchedly for his handker chief but could not find it; he had lost It Sudden death would have been re lief; he was sure that after such gro tesquerie MUla could never bear to have anything more to do with him; he was ruined. In his anguish he felt a paper nap kin pressed gently into his hand; a soft voice said in his ear, "Wipe it off with this, Ramsey. Nobody's notic lng. So this incredibly charitable creature was still able to be his friend, even after seeing him mayonnalsedl Hum bly marveling, he did as she told him, but avoided all further risks. He ate nothing more. He sighed his first sigh of tnexpress* lbleness, had a chill or so along the spine, and at Intervals his brow was bedewed. Within his averted eyes there dwelt not the Mllla Rust who sat beside him, but an Iridescent, fragile creature who had become angelic. He spent the rest of the day daw dling helplessly about her; wherever she want he was near, as near as pos sible, but of no deliberate volition of his own. Something seemed to tie him to her, and Mllla was nothing loth. He seldom looked at her directly, or for longer than an instant, and more rarely still did he speak to her except as a reply. Wbat few remarks he ventured upon his own initiative near ly all concerned the landscape, which he commended repeatedly in a weak voice, as "kind of pretty," though once he said he guessed there might be bugs in the bark of a log on which they sat; and he became so immoderately per sonal as to declare that if the bugs had to get on anybody he'd rather they got on him than on Mllla. She said that was "Just perfectly lovely" of him, asked where he got his sweet nature, and in other ways encouraged him to continue the revelation, but Ramsey was unable to get forward with it, though he opened and closed ills mouth a great many times in the effort to do so. At five o'clock everybody was sum moned again to the rendezvous for a ceremony preliminary to departure; the class found itself in a large circle, standing, and sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Ordinarily, on such an open air and out-of-school occasion, Ramsey would have joined the chorus uproar iously with the utmost blatancy of which his vocal apparatus Was capa ble; and most of the other boys ex pressed their humor by drowning out the serious efforts of the girls; but he sang feebly, not much more' than humming through his teeth. Standing beside Mllla, he was Incapable of his former Inelegancies and his voice was in a semi-paralyzed condition, like the rest of him. Opposite him, across the circle, Dora Yocum stood a little in advance of those near her, for of course she led the singing. Her clear and earnest voice was distinguishable from all others, and though she did not glance toward Ramsey he had a queer feeling that she wns assuming more superior ity than ever, and that she was icily scornful of him and Milia. The old resentment rose—he'd "show" that girl yet, some day! When the song was over, cheers werq given for the class, "the good ole class of Nineteen Fourteen," the school, the teachers, and for the pic nic, thus officially concluded; and then the picnickers, carrying their baskets and faded wild flowers and other sou venirs and burdens, moved toward the big "express wagons" which were to take them back into the town. Ram sey got his guitar case, and turned to Mil,la. "Well—g'by." "Why, no," said Milia. "Anyway, not yet. You can go back in the same wagon with me. It's going to stop at the school and let us all out there, and then you could walk home with me If you felt like It." "Well—well, I'd be perfectly will ing," Ramsey said. "Only I heard, we all had to go back in whatever wagon we came out in, and I didn't come In the same one with you, so—" Mllla laughed and leaned toward him a little. "I already 'tended to that," she said confidentially. "I asked Johnnie Flske, that came out in jny wagon, to go back in yours, so that makes rooifi for yom" ••Well—then I guess I could do It" He moved toward the wagon with her. "I expect It don't make much differ ence one way pr thf Other." "And you can 'Patty iny basket If Confined on pags 7