Hiram in the Middle West

ILLUSTRATIONS

[The two teams cleaned up the Sunnyside cornpatch in a week.]

[Orrin ... flung the cape over the bull's head]

[Two of his helpers had to hold the ladder steady while the other handed him the end of the wire cable]

[Everybody about the place—even Sister—worked in the wheat fields]

CHAPTER I

THE MAN WHO WAS AFRAID OF RATS

For an hour before the accommodation train stopped at Pringleton the rain had etched zigzag lines upon the windowpane beside Hiram Strong's seat; so to find the platform aglitter with puddles in the dull lamp light and the water dripping drearily from the station eaves did not surprise him. What was rather astonishing was to find Pringleton such a very lonely place.

As far as he could see, when he had walked around the bungalow-built station the light in the stationmaster's ticket office was the only light visible save the switch-targets and the disappearing green lamps on the end of the train. Hiram, with his heavy bag, was the only passenger who had got off the evening train.