pe for is to sell provisions and farm machinery and
automobiles to the rich farms where that first crop of stalwart Bohemian
and Scandinavian girls are now the mistresses.

The Black Hawk boys looked forward to marrying Black Hawk girls, and
living in a brand-new little house with best chairs that must not be
sat upon, and hand-painted china that must not be used. But sometimes a
young fellow would look up from his ledger, or out through the grating
of his father's bank, and let his eyes follow Lena Lingard, as she
passed the window with her slow, undulating walk, or Tiny Soderball,
tripping by in her short skirt and striped stockings.

The country girls were considered a menace to the social order. Their
beauty shone out too boldly against a conventional background. But
anxious mothers need have felt no alarm. They mistook the mettle of
their sons. The respect for respectability was stronger than any desire
in Black Hawk youth.

Our young man of position was like the son of a royal house; the boy who
swept out his office or drove his delivery wagon might frolic with the
jolly country girls, but he himself must sit all evening in a plush
parlour where conversation dragged so perceptibly that the father often
came in and made blundering efforts to warm up the atmosphere. On his
way home from his dull call, he would perhaps meet Tony and Lena, coming
along the sidewalk whispering to each other, or the three Bohemian Marys
in their long plush coats and caps, comporting themselves with a dignity
that only made their eventful histories the more piquant. If he went to
the hotel to see a travelling man on business, there was Tiny, arching
her shoulders at him like a kitten. If he went into the laundry to get
his collars, there were the four Danish girls, smiling up from their
ironing-boards, with their white throats and their pink cheeks.

The three Marys were the heroines of a cycle of scandalous stories,
which the old men were fond of relating as they sat about the
cigar-stand in the drugstore. Mary Dusak had been housekeeper for a
bachelor rancher from Boston, and after several years in his service
she was forced to retire from the world for a short time. Later she
came back to town to take the place of her friend, Mary Svoboda, who was
similarly embarrassed. The three Marys were considered as dangerous as
high explosives to have about the kitchen, yet they were such good cooks
and such admirable housekeepers that they n