THE STRAWBERRY JANUARY 1907 



to pay out their nione.v, and so allowed 

 the pickers the use of their ponies through 

 the berry season to pay for the picking in 

 the early mornings. 



This year, after supplying their cus- 

 tomers in Skokomish and selling their 

 father the season's supply, they carried 

 their fruit to Puyallup and shipped it 

 direct to Tacoma, thus making a few 

 cents more on a box than when it was 

 handled by a middleman. 



When their third crop was marketed 

 Mr. Fielding (juizzed them pretty closely 

 as to how much they had to their credit 

 in the bank, but they were discreetly si- 

 lent as to the sum of their deposits. 



'How would you like to ha\e me take 

 your savings and buy up a bunch of 

 calves.''" he said to them one day. "They 

 would double your money in another 

 year and I think it would be a pretty 

 good investment." 



The children looked at their father a 

 little doubtfully. 



"We'll think about it," said Gretchen; 

 and then they ran down to their straw- 

 berry patch to talk the matter over. 



"It would be all right," said Dick, if we 

 were sure of father handing us over the 

 money when he sold the steers. But you re- 

 member how it was with poor old Baldy, 

 after I had nursed and cured his broken 

 leg and he had got so nice and fat, father 

 sold him and kept the money — all but 

 one dollar." 



'Yes, I remember. They would very 

 likely be our calves and father's steers, 

 and anyway we would just better keep 

 our money in the bank and then we will 

 be ready for the rainy day when it comes. 

 And oh, Dicky boy, it can come any time 

 now, and ain't you glad, glad, glad.'" and 

 Gretchen flung her sunbonnet far out into 

 the green strawberry vines in the exuber- 

 ance of her jo}', while Dicky boy stood 

 on his head until his face looked like an 

 enormous beat with leaves of wildly 

 waving legs, and then they both went 



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soberly back to the house and told Mr. 

 Fielding that they thought they would 

 leave their money in the bank so as to be 

 prepared for the rainy day if it should 

 happen to come. 



When the fall term of school began, 

 Gretchen and Dick quietly took up their 

 studies, but when they were riding their 

 ponies into Skokomish or returning home 

 they indulged in secret and most exciting 

 controversy. Plans were laid and then 

 set aside while others were formulated, 

 and at last one Saturday they both rode 

 into Puyallup and had an interview with 

 a business man who had been recom- 

 mended to them by Mr. Hill. 



They had planned to go again to Puy- 

 allup a little before Christmas, but the 

 rainy season set in with such copious 

 showers as to make a trip of that distance 

 entirely out of the question. 



Mr. Fielding came home to spend the 

 holidays and there were Christmas gifts 

 for the children and for Ning Poo. Mrs. 

 Fielding always saw to it that her children 

 had a merry Christmas, and usually they 

 had some little gift for her, but this year 

 there were no gifts forthcoming from her 

 children; and while she did not in the 

 least show her feelings, she could not but 

 wonder a little sadly if they were growing 

 to be as penurious as — and then her loy- 

 alty to her husband hushed the thought, 

 and she turned a smiling face to her little 

 household. 



The day after Christmas was clear and 

 sunshiny, and (jretchen and Dick mounted 

 their ponies in the early morning for a ride 

 over to Pujallup. They returned late in 

 the evening and for the next few days the 

 Rainy-Day Strawberry Patch seemed to 

 need more than usual attention from two 

 excited young people. 



''Do you think it will rain tomorrow.?" 

 asked Gretchen anxiously of her father, 

 the day before New Year's. 



"Well, it looks very much as though 

 we might have a soaker," answered Mr. 

 I'ieldiiig. 



Page II 



And sure enough, on New Year's 

 morning the rain came drizzling down. 

 The children wandered restlessly about 

 the house and by the middle of the after- 

 noon they were watching from the hay 

 loft in the barn the road that led to Puy- 

 allup. 



Suddenly around the turn of a little 

 hillock came a stout tea.-n with a covered 

 wagon loaded with an enormous canvass- 

 covered box. It drew up in front of the 

 ranch house and as Mr. Fielding came 

 hospitably to the door the man on the 

 jeat said cheerily: 



"How de do, Mr. Fielding. I've got 

 something here that I think we had best 

 set in out of the rain as soon as possible. 



Mr. Fielding looked at the box suspi- 

 ciously. 



"I think you are mistaken," he said; I 

 haven't ordered anything that I know of." 



"Oh, I guess it is all right, anyway," 

 answered the man, cheerfully, winking at 

 the children, who at that moment entered 

 at the back door from their retreat in the 

 hay loft. 



Mrs. Fielding looked from the man to 

 her children and then at her husband in 

 wondering amazement. 



"I guess you'll have to lend a hand,' 

 said the man to Mr. Fielding after he and 

 the driver had adjusted boards and backed 

 the wagon up to the door. 



Gretchen flew into the sitting-room and 

 begun frantically to move chairs and 

 tables while Dick lent a hand with the 

 big box, and in a few moments the beau- 

 tiful new piano was standing in the rather 

 shabby little room, and the men who had 

 brought it were driving away through the 

 warm Washington drizzle. 



"It's yours, mamma, a New Year's 

 gift from Dicky boy and me," cried 

 Gretchen as the two children danced 

 around the room too excited and happy to 

 stand still. 



".My dear, good children," was all 

 Mrs. Fielding could say, as she gathered 

 them into her arms with happy tears run- 



