S70 
The Trouble Maker 
{Continued from page 365) 
CHAPTER Vm 
■‘11/ELL, you're doing pretty well 
V V keeping me entertained,” said 
Jim to Bill Mead as they were coming 
down from the now empty wild man’s 
stand. “ Where do we go now? Got any 
more such friends as Brother Harkness 
around here?” 
“Time for the ball game. Let’s go 
over,” said Bill. 
So the two men crossed the track and 
approached the crowd already gathered 
around the ball diamond. 
As Jim crowded through between two 
cars parked as closely as possible to the 
roped-off diamond, he glanced idly at one 
of the automobiles—and then wished he 
had picked out some other place to get 
through the line, for the car was Bradley’s 
flivver, and in it sat Dorothy Ball. 
In as casual a voice as he could muster, 
Jim said: 
“Hello, Dorothy. Having a good 
time?” 
Dorothy took one glance at the speaker, 
and without replying turned away her 
head. 
“Well, I’ll be Kornswoggled!” said 
Bill, looking curiously at his companion. 
But Jim made no comment, and the 
two crowded under the ropes and crossed 
to the other side of the diamond where 
they could get a good view of the game. 
There was delay in calling the game. 
It seemed that Speedtown had pinned its 
faith and some of its money on young 
Greene, but early that morning he had 
sprained his ankle, so that he was now out 
of consideration. 
Jim was too much preoccupied to pay 
much attention to the conversation, but 
Bill gathered from the talk around him 
that Speedtown was put to it to find a 
substitute for Greene. Greene’s injury 
left only Tom Lynch, who was a fairly 
good pitcher, but he was so young his 
judgment was not always to be relied 
upon. The home fans were sorry to have 
to depend upon him for this important 
game. 
T HE crowd had concluded that perhaps 
Speedtown had sent a hurried call for 
a special out-of-town pitcher for the day, 
and that waiting for him had caused the 
delay. 
However, when Archie Van Norman, 
who was lame, but in spite of his lameness 
was the best umpire in that section, 
limped into the diamond and opened the 
game with a gruff “Play ball!” he handed 
the shiny new ball to young Lynch. 
Tom Lynch took it from Archie, 
watched his catcher for the signal, dug in 
his toes, wound himself up, suddenly 
straightened out and released the ball. 
For a split second, the crowd held its 
breath while the Richland batter 
fanned the air. Then Archie held up a 
single finger. 
“Strike!” he said. 
Speedtown fans raised a great cheer. 
“’Atta boy, Tom,” they yelled, “’atta 
boy!” 
“ Just show ’im a little greased lightnm’.” 
“ He missed it by a yard. Tom.” 
“He’s gone to sleep on duty!” 
“Give ’im another hot one, Lynch!” 
The Richland rooters were just as free 
with their advice to their batter. 
“It only takes one to hit it!” 
“Put it over the fence!” 
“Pound the leather off’n ’er, Al.” 
But Al could not find it. Three times 
in succession he fanned the air with 
grunts that made even his own friends 
smile when the lightning went by, and 
then ingloriously released his club to his 
successor. 
But the new man had no better luck. 
R ICHLAND’S third batter “popped” 
a light fly too short, and Richland 
retired from the field without seeing first 
base. But in spite of the advice and the 
both prayerful and swearful encourage¬ 
ment of the home rooters, the Richland 
battery fanned every one of the Speed- 
town batters and the first inning ended 
with even honors, as did all that followed, 
up to the sixth. There were no scores 
and few errors, with no hits on either side. 
In His excitement after one of the 
particularly good plays. Bill Mead 
jumped up from his seat on the ground in 
front of the line, and with tobacco juice 
running down from each corner of his 
mouth, he ran back and forth shouting 
and waving his arms. This shut off the 
view of those behind him, and the crowd 
began to object. Finally, one of them 
was so loudly vociferous of his opinions of 
Bill that he attracted Mead’s attention. 
“Set down and shut up, you big 
lunkhead!” he shouted. 
“Shut up yourself, you big hunk of 
cheese!” Bill retorted. 
At that, the man ducked under the 
ropes and came for Bill, who met him on 
the way and in a half a minute they were 
tearing up the sod in a very earnest 
endeavor to break each other’s nose. In 
a short time the fans lost interest in the 
ball game and began to mill and crowd 
around the fighting men. The players 
left their posts and came running across 
the field to see the scrap. 
T HERE is only one thing that interests 
a crowd of American men more than 
a dog fight, and that is a man fight. 
But it only lasted a few minutes. Old 
Jerry Snaggs saw the commotion, came 
running down the field flourishing his 
club and shouting. The crowd opened, 
letting him through, then closed again. 
The old fellow waded into the fighters 
with his stick so vigorously that they 
gave way before him and finally broke 
loose. 
Turning a belligerent eye on poor Bill, 
the officer said: 
“Twice in the same day is twice too 
many. Come with me!” 
Taking the hired man, he led him back 
through the crowd out to the fair grounds 
gate and said to him as a parting shot: 
“Now you go on home, milk your cows, 
and stay there. The only reason I ain’t 
puttin’ you in jail is that they ain’t none 
on the grounds!” 
Bill glared at the officer a moment and 
then he grinned. 
“Oh, go to h-!” he said. “I told 
you I’d get my dollar’s worth when you 
made me buy that there family ticket, 
and I guess I did all right. If you’d let 
me alone another hour, I’d have busted 
up your danged old fair!” 
Then Bill trudged off up the road, back 
to a hired man’s daily grind. 
{Continued next week) 
Developing the Rural Community 
{Continued from page 357) 
the future. I have of course assumed that 
it will have as its basis a people of sturdy 
virtue and that strong religious faith that 
has always characterized those who live 
nearest to nature and to nature’s God, 
and that there will also be the two other 
fundamental prerequisites of education 
and home-ownership, without which no 
enduring civilization can be built up. 11 is 
on these broad foundations that Den¬ 
mark has built her new rural civilization, 
as everybody there assured me, and so it 
must be here. The importance of educa¬ 
tion I need not argue; and as for home- 
ownership, I would only repeat Dr. Car¬ 
ver’s declaration that next to war, pesti¬ 
lence, and famine, nothing, is so ruinous to 
a rural commonwealth as absentee land¬ 
lordism. When Goldsmith could say of 
what had been his “sweet smiling” rural 
village or community— 
“One only master grasps the whole domain” 
the doom of that hauntingly beautiful bit 
of English rural life was forever sealed. 
But when we have the prerequisites of 
character, education, and home-owner¬ 
ship, the development of such facilities for 
rural organization as I have pointed out 
should insure sooner or later the Rural 
Community and with it a new and 
brighter era in American country life. 
WM. LOUDEN 
holds the first patent 
ever issued by the 
U. S. Government on 
a Manure Carrier. 
The Meanest Farm 
Job MadeEasy 
Cleaning out the bam! How you would like 
to cut out that back-breaking job! You can. 
Install a Louden Manure Carrier. No more 
heavy lifting and shoving of wheel-barrow 
load after wheel-barrow load out onto the 
manure pile, for the Louden takes the equal 
of 5 wheel-barrow loads at one trip—takes it 
clean without dripping and scattering. 
And while this big, easy-lifting, easy- 
running manure carrier is taking the dull 
monotony and hard work out of barn clean¬ 
ing it is saving half the time. 
Easy to Install in Any Barn 
Whether your bam is new or old you can 
install a Louden Manure Carrier and use it 
to profitable advantage. It is one of the big¬ 
gest time savers you can put on the place. 
And, because it takes the meanness out of 
barn cleaning, you have less trouble keeping 
the hired help or your boys on the farm. 
All corners of the Louden Manure Carrier tub are 
soldered—water tight. Ends and sides are welded to the 
steel frame—not riveted. Load is suspended squarely 
under track—no side buckle. These are but a few of 
the reasons why so many Louden Carriers are still 
giving daily satisfactory service after 20 years or more 
of hard usage. 
Write today for full details with illustrations on this 
famous Louden Manure Carrier. No obligation 
at all. Check the coupon now. 
Louden i Steel Stalle and 
Stanchione give cows past¬ 
ure comfort in the barn. 
Water Bowie increase the 
milk flow. Manger Divi - 
eipne,Cupolas, BallStaff. 
Hay Unloading Toole, 
Barn and Garage Door 
Hangers, Hog House 
Equipment, Everything 
for the Barn. ’ ’ Write for 
information on any of these. 
Get Barn Plan Booh — 112 
pages of practical facts that 
save money on barn build¬ 
ing or remodeling. Illustrates 
50 barns with floor plans. 
Check and mail coupon 
today. 
The Louden Machinery Company 
4511 Court St. CEst. 1867) Fairfield, Iowa 
Branches: Albany, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., St. Paul, Minn. 
LOUDEK^oll Court St., Fairfield, Iowa. 
Send me without charge or obligation: 
[ ] Details on Louden Manure Carrier 
| [ ] Details on (what?)... 
■ Name. 
§ Town...... 
■ R. F.D......State. 
1 expect to build (remodel) a bam 
_ h (date)................for (how 
“EVERYTHING FOR THE BARN” S many).horses.cows 
SCI Send me the Louden Barn Plan Book. 
Look for 
this BIG 
“ C” 
‘Nebraska’ 
All Rubber Overshoe 
Wool lined and warm. Rug¬ 
gedly built to stand the hardest 
wear. Extension sole and 
‘Stubgard’ toe and heel. 
Your 
Dealer 
He likes to show Big “C” Line 
rubber footwear. Insist on 
seeing the Big “C” on the White 
Tire Sole—then you know it’s 
genuine. Try on a pair—or 
write for circular and give 
dealer’s name. 
‘Watershed’ 
Waterproof 
Cloth Overshoe 
The only cloth over¬ 
shoe made with a sheet 
of pure gum rubber be¬ 
tween the wool fleece in¬ 
ner lining and the fabric 
outer layer. Extra warm 
and waterproof clear to 
the top! “Stubgard” toe. 
For long wear buy 
“Watershed.” 
CASHMERETTE UPPER 
EXTRA SHEET 
OF RUBBER 
FRICTION VAMP 
CONVERSE RUBBER SHOE CO. Foctory-MALDEN, MASS. 
Boston Chicago New York Philadelphia Syracuse 
