oon think of changing its name as permitting a new grocer to
open up a rival store. And nobody dreams of disloyalty when buying
trifles at the post-office. In fact housewives are openly glad that
Dick, the postmaster, has taken to keeping strictly fresh yeast for
their leisure days and nice bakery things for times of stress and
unexpected company.
Dick Richards is a small, smiling, curly-headed man who looks older
than he should. This is because he wears a big man's mustache and is a
self-made boy. His parents died when he was barely old enough to
realize his loss and since then he has fought the world without a
single weapon unless cheerfulness and a giant patience can be called
weapons. Small, ungifted, he early learned to be content with little.
But side by side with this cheerful content is always the giant hope of
great things to come. And so though Green Valley buys only its yeast
and buns over his little counter he is happy and wraps each purchase up
carefully. And all the time he is thoughtfully, carefully setting out
other handy things and aids to the harassed housewife. For with his
giant patience Dick is waiting,--waiting and planning for a time that
is coming, that he knows must come. He talks these matters over with
no one except Joe Baldwin. He and Joe are great friends. Joe's little
shop is such a restful, hopeful place and Joe himself a gentle rather
than a loud and swearing man. One can talk things over joyfully with
Joe and feel sure of having one's confidence understood and kept. Like
Joe, Dick shrinks a little from the noisy, wholly earthy atmosphere of
the livery barn and blacksmith shop. He and Joe often go together of a
Saturday to the barber shop. They usually stay after closing hours for
the barber is their mutual friend.
This barber, John Gans, is a talker, a somewhat fierce and vehement
little man who lectures on many subjects but mostly on human rights and
politics. Joe and Dick, both silent men, look with awe at John's great
mental and discoursive powers. And because his views are theirs they
listen with something like joyful gratitude to hear their own thoughts
so clearly and fearlessly expressed.
The fiery little barber is thought by some to be a German anarchist and
by others a Russian socialist. Joe and Dick have been repeatedly
warned against him. But they are his loyal friends at all times. This
three-cornered friendship is little understood by the town and
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