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As my heart began to throb with slightly less violence I looked about me for the abandoned farmhouse. I had conceived that it would be white with green blinds and that it would stand among trees. It was not in sight; neither were the trees. The entire landscape presented an aspect that was indeed remarkable. Small numbered stakes, planted in double lines at regular intervals, so as to form aisles, stretched away from us in every direction. Also there were twin rows of slender sticks planted in the earth in a sort of geometric pattern. Some were the size of switches. Others were almost as large as umbrella handles and had sprouted slightly. A short distance away an Italian was steering a dirtscraper attached to a languid mule along a sort of dim roadway. There were no other living creatures in sight. Right at my feet were two painted and lettered boards affixed at cross angles to a wooden upright. The legend on one of these boards was: Grand Concourse. The inscription on the other read: Nineteenth Avenue West. Repressing a gasp, I opened my mouth to speak.
Ahem! I said. There has been some mistake
There can be no mistake! he shouted enthusiastically. The only mistake possible is not to take advantage of this magnificent opportunity while it is yet possible to do so. Just observe that view! He waved his arm in the general direction of the horizon from northwest to southeast. Breathe this air! As a personal favor to me just breathe a little of this air! He inhaled deeply himself as though to show me how, and I followed suit, because after that ride I needed to catch up with my regular breathing.
Thank you! I said gratefully when I had finished breathing. But how about
Quite right! he cried, beaming upon me admiringly. Quite right! I dont blame you. You have a right to know all the details. As a business man you should ask that question. You were about to say: But how about the train service? Ah, there spoke the true business man, the careful investor! Twenty fast trains a day each way twenty, sir! Remember! And as for accessibility well, accessibility is simply no name for it! Only two or three minutes from the station. You saw how long it took us to get here to-day? Well, then, what more could you ask? Right here, he went on, pointing, is the country club a magnificent thing!
I looked, but I didnt see anything except a hole in the ground about fifty feet from us.
Where? I asked. I dont see it.
Well, he said, this is where it is going to be. You automatically become a member of the country club; in fact, you are as good as a member now! And right up there at the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Washington Parkway, where that scraper is, is the public library the site for it! Youll be crazy about the public library! When we get back Ill let you run over the plans for the public library while Im fixing up the papers. Oh, my friend, how glad I am you came while there was yet time!
I breasted the roaring torrent of his pouring language.
One minute, I begged of him One minute, if you please! I am obliged to you for the interest you take in me, a mere stranger to you; but there has been a misunderstanding. I wanted to see the Prewitt place.
This is the Prewitt place, he said.
Yes, I said; but where is the house? And why all this why all these- I indicated by a wave of my hand what I meant.
Naturally, he explained, the house is no longer here. We tore it away it was old; whereas everything here will be new, modern and up-to-date. This is or was the Prewitt place, now better known as Homecrest Heights, the Development Ideal! Having begun to capitalize his words, he continued to do so. The Perfect Addition! The Suburb Superb! Away From the Citys Dust and Heat! Away From Its Glamor and Clamor! Into the Open! Into the Great Out-of-Doors! Back to the Soil! Villa Plots on Easy Terms! You Furnish the Birds, We Furnish the Nest! The Place For a Business Man to Rear His Family! You Are Married? You Have a Wife? You Have Little Ones?
Yes, I said, one of each one wife and one little one.
Ah! he cried gladly. One Little One How Sweet! You Love Your Little One Ah, Yes! Yes! You Desire to Give Your Little One a Chance? You Would Give Her Congenial Surroundings Refined Surroundings? You Would Inculcate in Her While Young the Love of Nature? He put an entire sentence into capitals now: Give Your Little One a Chance! That is All I Ask of You!
He had me by both lapels. I thought he was going to kneel to me in pleading. I feared he might kiss me. I raised him to his feet. Then his manner changed it became domineering, hectoring, almost threatening.
I will pass briefly over the events of the succeeding hour, including our return to his lair or office. Accounts of battles where all the losses fall upon one side are rarely interesting to read about anyway. Suffice it to say that at the last minute I was saved. It was a desperate struggle though. I had offered the utmost resistance at first, but he would surely have had his way with me only that a train pulled in bound for the city just as he was showing me, as party of the first part, where I was to sign my name on the dotted line A. Even then, weakened and worn as I was, I should probably not have succeeded in beating him off if he had not been hampered by having a fountain pen in one hand and the documents in the other. At the door he intercepted me; but I tackled him low about the body and broke through and fled like a hunted roebuck, catching the last car just as the relief train pulled out of the station. It was a close squeeze, but I made it. The thwarted Mr. Pickerel wrote me regularly for some months thereafter, making mention of My Little One in every letter; but after a while I took to sending the letters back to him unopened, and eventually he quit.
I reached home along toward evening. I was tired, but I was not discouraged. I reported progress on the part of the committee on a permanent site, but told my wife that in order to find exactly what we wanted it would be necessary for us to leave the main-traveled paths. It was now quite apparent to me that the abandoned farm-seeker who stuck too closely to the railroad lines was bound to be thrown constantly in contact with those false and feverish metropolitan influences which, radiating from the city, have spread over the country like the spokes of a wheel or an upas tree, or a jauga-naut, or something of that nature. The thing to do was to get into an automobile and go away from the principal routes of travel, into districts where the abandoned farms would naturally be more numerous.
This solved one phase of the situation we now knew definitely where to go. The next problem was to decide upon some friend owning an automobile. We fixed upon the Winsells. They are charming people! We are devoted to the Winsells. They were very good friends of ours when they had their small four-passenger car; but since they sold the old one and bought a new forty-horse, seven-passenger car, they are so popular that it is hard to get hold of them for holidays and week-ends.
Every Saturday nearly some one of their list of acquaintances is calling them up to tell of a lovely spot he has just heard about, with good roads all the way, both coming and going; but after a couple of disappointments we caught them when they had an open date. Over the telephone Winsell objected that he did not know anything about the roads up in Connecticut, but I was able to reassure him promptly on that score. I told him he need not worry about that that I would buy the road map myself. So on a fair Saturday morning we started.