LISTENING HILL
The Holton farmhouse, a pretentious place in the day of Frederick
Holton's grandfather, was now habitable and that was the most that could
be said for it. When the second generation spurned the soil and became
urbanized, the residence was transformed from its primal state into a
country home, and the family called it "Listening Hill Farm." Its
austere parlor of the usual rural type was thrown together with the
living-room, the original fireplace was reconstructed, and running water
was pumped to the house by means of a windmill. The best of the old
furniture had been carried off to adorn the town house, so that when
Fred succeeded to the ownership it was a pretty bare and comfortless
place. Samuel had never lived there, though the farm had fallen to him
in the distribution of his father's estate; but he had farmed it at long
range, first from Montgomery, and latterly, and with decreasing success,
from Indianapolis after his removal to the capital. The year before
Fred's arrival no tenant had been willing to take it owing to the
impoverished state of the land.
Most of the farms in the neighborhood were owned by town people, and
operated by tenants. As for Fred, he knew little about agriculture. On
the Mexican plantation which his father and Uncle William had
controlled, he had learned nothing that was likely to prove of the
slightest value in his attempt to wrest a living from these neglected
Hoosier acres. His main qualifications for a farming career were a
dogged determination to succeed and a vigorous, healthy body.
The Holtons had always carried their failures lightly, and even Samuel,
who had died at Indianapolis amid a clutter of dead or shaky financial
schemes, was spoken of kindly in Montgomery. Samuel had saved himself
with the group of politicians he had persuaded to invest in the Mexican
mine by selling out to a German syndicate just before he died; and
Samuel had always made a point of taking care of his friends. He had
carried through several noteworthy promotion schemes with profit before
his Mexican disasters, and but for the necessity of saving harmless his
personal and political friends he might not have left so little for his
children. So spake the people of Montgomery.
Charles Holton was nearing thirty, and having participated in his
father's political adventures, and been initiated into the mysteries of
promotion, he had a wide acquaintance throughout central Indiana. He had
been graduated from Madison, and in his day at college had done much to
relieve the gray Calvinistic tone of that sedate institution. It was he
who had transformed the old "college chorus"--it had been a "chorus"
almost from the foundation--into a glee club, and he had organized the
first guitar and banjo club. The pleasant glow he left behind him still
hung over the campus when Fred entered four years later. Charles's
meteoric social career had dimmed the fact (save to a few sober
professors) that he had got through by the skin of his teeth. Fred's
plodding ways, relieved only by his prowess at football, had left a very
different impression. Fred worked hard at his studies because he had to;
and even with persistence and industry he had not shone brilliantly in
the scientific courses he had elected. The venerable dean once said that
Fred was a digger, not a skimmer and skipper, and that he would be all
right if only he dug long enough. He was graduated without honors and
went South to throw in his fortunes with his father's Mexican projects.
He was mourned at the college as the best all-round player a Madison
eleven had ever boasted; but this was about all.
When he accepted Listening Hill Farm as his share of his father's
estate, Fred had a little less than one thousand dollars in cash, which
he had saved from the salaries paid him respectively by the plantation
and mining companies. This had been deposited as a matter of convenience
in an Indianapolis bank and he allowed it to remain there. He realized
that this money must carry him a long way, and that every cent must go
into the farm before anything came out of it. He had moved to the farm
late in the summer--just in time to witness the abundant harvests of his
neighbors.
One of the friendliest of these was a young man named Perry, who had
charge of Amzi Montgomery's place. Perry belonged to the new school of
farmers, and he had done much in the four years that he had been in the
banker's employ to encourage faith in "book farming," as it had not yet
ceased to be called derisively. He was a frank, earnest, hard-working
fellow whose ambition was to get hold of a farm of his own as quickly as
possible. He worked Amzi's farm on shares, with certain privileges in
the matter of feeding cattle. Amzi picked him up by chance and with
misgivings; but Perry had earned the biggest dividends the land had ever
paid. Perry confided to Fred a hope he had entertained of leasing the
Holton farm for himself when his contract with Montgomery expired. Now
that Fred had arrived on the scene he explained to the tyro exactly what
he had meant to do with the property. As he had seriously canvassed the
situation for a couple of years, witnessing the failures of the last two
tenants employed by Samuel Holton, Fred gladly availed himself of his
advice.
Fred caught from Perry the spirit of the new era in farming. It no
longer sufficed to scratch the earth with a stick and drop in a seed;
the earth itself must be studied as to its weaknesses and the seed must
be chosen with intelligent care. One of the experts from the state
agricultural school, in the field to gather data for statistics, passed
through the country, and spent a week with Fred for the unflattering
reason that the Holton acres afforded material for needed information as
to exhausted soils. He recommended books for Fred to read, and what was
more to the point sent a young man to plan his work and initiate him
into the mysteries of tilling and fertilizing. The soil expert was an
enthusiast, and he left behind him the nucleus of a club which he
suggested that the young men of the neighborhood enlarge during the
winter for the discussion of new methods of farm efficiency.
Fred hired a man and went to work. He first repaired the windmill and
assured the water-supply of the house and barn. A farmer unembarrassed
by crops, he planned his campaign a year ahead. He worked harder on his
barren acres than his neighbors with the reward of their labor in sight.
He tilled the low land in one of his fallow fields and repaired the
fences wherever necessary. His most careful scrutiny failed to disclose
anything on which money could be realized at once beyond half a dozen
cords of wood which he sent to town and sold and the apples he had
offered for sale in the streets of Montgomery. These by-products hardly
paid for the time required to market them. Perry had suggested that
winter wheat be tried on fifty acres which he chose for the experiment,
and in preparing and sowing the land Fred found his spirits rising. The
hired man proved to be intelligent and capable, and Fred was not above
learning from him. Fred did the cooking for both of them as part of his
own labor.
Some of his old friends, meeting him in Main Street on his visits to
town, commiserated him on his lot; and others thought William Holton
ought to do something for Fred, as it was understood that he was backing
Charles in his enterprises. Still other gossips, pointing to the failure
of the Mexican ventures, inclined to the belief that Fred was a dull
fellow, and that he would do as well on the farm as anywhere else.
On a Sunday afternoon in this same November, Fred had cleaned up after
his midday meal with the hired man and was sprawled on an old settle
reading when a motor arrived noisily in the dooryard. Charles was
driving and with him were three strangers. Fred went out to meet his
brother, who introduced his companions as business men from
Indianapolis.
"We're taking a run over the route of the new trolley line you've
probably read about in the papers. Hadn't heard of it yet? Well, it's
going to cut the Sycamore line at right angles in Montgomery, and run
down into the coal fields. We're going to haul coal by electricity--a
new idea in these parts--and it's going to be a big factor in
stimulating manufactures in small centers. It's going to be a big thing
for this section--your farm is worth twenty dollars more an acre just on
our prospectus."
"No doubt you'd be glad to take that twenty right now," remarked one of
the strangers.
"Oh, I'll wait for it," replied Fred, laughing.
"Are you implying that you're likely to have to wait?" demanded Charles.
"My dear boy, we're doing this just for you farmers. In the old days the
railroads were all in league against the poor but honest farmer; he was
crippled as much as he was helped by the railroads; but with the trolley
the farmer can be in the deal from the jump. We want every farmer on
this line to have an interest; we're going to give him a chance to go
in. Am I right, Evans?"
Evans warmed to the topic. He was a young broker and wore city clothes
quite as good as Charles's. It was going to be a great thing for the
country people; the possibilities of the trolley line had not yet been
realized. Social and economic conditions were to be revolutionized, and
the world generally would be a very different place when the proposed
line was built. Charles allowed his friends to do most of the talking
and they discussed the project eloquently for an hour.
The men refused Fred's invitation to go indoors, and said they would
walk to the highway and the machine could pick them up.
When the brothers were alone, Charles spoke of the farm.
"I see you've got to work. The whole thing looks better than I ever saw
it. I'm glad you've painted the barn red; there's nothing like red for
a barn. I must make a note of that; all barns should be painted red."
With a gesture he colored all the barns in the world to his taste. Fred
grinned his appreciation of his brother's humor.
"I thought that on Sundays all you young farmers hitched a side-bar
buggy to a colt and gave some pretty girl a good time."
"I'd be doing just that but for two reasons--I haven't the colt or the
side-bar, and I don't know any girls. What about this trolley line? I
thought the field was crowded now."
"Oh, Uncle Will and I are going to put this one through and we're going
to make some money out of it, too. There's money in these things if you
know how to handle 'em. It's in the promotion, not the operating."
"But I heard in town that the Sycamore line isn't doing well. There are
rumors--"
"Oh, I know about that; it's only a fuss among the fellows who are
trying to control it to reorganize and squeeze the bondholders. If
father had lived he'd have kept it level. But we're all out of it--away
out and up the street."
"Glad to hear it," Fred remarked. The gift of easy and picturesque
speech had been denied him. All his life he had heard his father talk in
just this strain; and his Uncle William, while less voluble, was even
more persuasive and convincing. Charles did not always ring true, but
any deficiencies in this respect were compensated for by his agreeable
and winning manners. Fred had the quiet man's distrust of ready talkers;
but he admired his brother. Charles was no end of a bright fellow and
would undoubtedly get on.
"I tell you what I'll do with you, old man," Charles continued. "I
suppose you already know some of these farmers around here. We're going
to give them every chance to go in with us--let 'em in on the ground
floor. We feel that this should be the people's line in the broadest
sense,--give 'em a share of the benefits,--not merely that they can flip
a can of milk on board one of our cars and hustle it direct to the
consumer and get back coal right at their door, but they shall
participate in the profits they help to create. Now listen to this;
there's not much you can do this winter out here and I stopped to make
you an offer to solicit stock subscriptions among the country people. A
lot of these farmers are rich fellows,--the farmers are getting
altogether too much money for their own good,--and here's an ideal
investment for them, a chance to add to the value of their farms and at
the same time earn a clean six per cent on our bonds and share in the
profits on a percentage of common that we're giving bondholders free
gratis for nothing. What do you say to taking a hand with us? We'll put
you on a salary right away if you say so. The very fact that you've
chosen to come here to live and take up farming will give you standing
with the country folks."
Fred smiled at this.
"On the other side of the sketch the fact that I'm as ignorant of
farming as the man in the moon is likely to rouse their suspicions. I'm
much obliged, Charlie, but my job's right here. I'm going to try to
raise something that I can haul to town in a wagon and get money for. I
haven't your business genius. It would seem queer to me to go about
asking people to take their money out of the bank to give me in exchange
for pieces of paper that might not be good in the end. And besides, a
good many of these country people swallowed the same hook when it was
baited with Sycamore. It's not a good time to try the same bait in this
neighborhood,--not for the Holton family, at any rate."
"Mossback! I tell you we're out of Sycamore with clean hands. Don't you
know that the big fellows in New York are the men who get in on such
promotions as this and clean up on it! I'm giving you a chance that lots
of men right here in this county would jump at. It's a little short of a
miracle that a trolley coal road hasn't been built already. And think,
too, of the prestige our family will get out of it. We've always been
the only people in Montgomery that had any 'git up and git.' You don't
want to forget that your name Holton is an asset--an asset! Why, over
in Indianapolis the fact that I'm one of the Montgomery Holtons helps me
over a lot of hard places, I can tell you. Of course, father had plowed
the ground, and the more I hear about him the more I admire him. He had
vision--he saw things ahead."
"And he came pretty near dying busted," observed Fred.
"But no man lost a cent through him!" Charles flashed. "That makes me
swell up with pride every time I think of it--that he took care of his
friends. He saw things big, and those Mexican schemes were all right. If
he'd lived, they would have pulled through and been big moneymakers."
They had been walking slowly towards Charles's machine.
"I'm not saying anything against father," said Fred; "but the kind of
things he took up strike me as dangerous. I know all about that
plantation and the mine, too, for that matter. I don't blame father for
sending me down there, but I wish I had back the years I put on those
jobs."
"Oh, rot! The experience was a big thing for you. And you got paid for
it. You must have saved some money--wasn't any way to spend money down
there."
"I don't keep an automobile," remarked Fred ruefully.
"By Jove, I can't afford it myself, but I've got to make a front. Now
those fellows--"
His companions were hallooing from the highway to attract his attention.
He waved and shouted that he was coming.
"Those fellows are in touch with a lot of investors. Nice chaps. I
promised to get 'em home for dinner, and I must skip. You'd better think
over my proposition before turning it down for good. I don't like to
think of your being out here all winter doing nothing. You might as well
take a hand with us. I'll guarantee that you won't regret it."
"I don't believe I care to try it. I'm a born rube, I guess; I like it
out here. And I'm going to stick until I make good or bust."
Charles had cranked his machine and jumped in.
"Look here, Fred," he said, raising his voice above the noise of the
engine, "when I can do anything for you, I want you to call on me. And
if you need money at any time, I want you to come to me or go to Uncle
Will. In fact, he's a little sore because you don't drop in on him
oftener. So long!"
The machine went skimming down the road, and when it reached the pike
and Charles picked up his friends, Fred watched its slow ascent of
Listening Hill, and waited for it to disappear beyond the crest.