But, then, as If fate, too, were
nirHitist him, the railroad .was built,
Ezcsimnziys byiav rmsav
rressel farm lay directly between it
and him, and of course the "life" went
more and moro in the direction of the
station left him more and more "out
of it" and made him poorer and poor
er, and Pressel richer and richer. And,
when the store laughed at that, Baum
gartner swore that ho would possess
half of the farm before he died; and
as Pressel and his wife died, and Seffy
grew up, aud as he noticed the fond
ness of the little red-headed girl for
ills little tow-headed boy, he added to
his adjuration that he would be har
rowing that whole farm before he
died without paying a cent for it!
But both Seffy and Sally had grown
to a marriageable age without any
thing happening. Seffy had become in
ordinately shy, while the coquettish
Sally had accepted the attentions of
Sam Fritz, the clerk at the store, as
an antagonist more worthy of her,
and in a fashion which sometimes
made the father of Seffy swear and
lose his temper with Seffy. Though,
of course, in the final disposition of
the matter, he was sure that no girl
so nice as Sally would marry such a
person as Sam FrRz, with no ex
tremely visible means of support a
salary of $1 a week, and an odious rep
utation for liquor. And it was for
those things, all of which were known
(for Baumgartner had not a single
secret) that the company at the store
detected the personal equation in Old
Baumgartner's communications,
Seffy had almost arrived by this
time, and Sally was in the store! With
Sam! The situation was highly dra
matic. But the old man consummate
ly ignored this complication and di
rected attention to his son. Far him,
the molasses-tapper did not exist.
