IV

Though the town seemed to Carol to change no more than the surrounding fields, there was a constant shifting, these three years.  The citizen of the prairie drifts always westward.  It may be because he is the heir of ancient migrations—­and it may be because he finds within his own spirit so little adventure that he is driven to seek it by changing his horizon.  The towns remain unvaried, yet the individual faces alter like classes in college.  The Gopher Prairie jeweler sells out, for no discernible reason, and moves on to Alberta or the state of Washington, to open a shop precisely like his former one, in a town precisely like the one he has left.  There is, except among professional men and the wealthy, small permanence either of residence or occupation.  A man becomes farmer, grocer, town policeman, garageman, restaurant-owner, postmaster, insurance-agent, and farmer all over again, and the community more or less patiently suffers from his lack of knowledge in each of his experiments.

Ole Jenson the grocer and Dahl the butcher moved on to South Dakota and Idaho.  Luke and Mrs. Dawson picked up ten thousand acres of prairie soil, in the magic portable form of a small check book, and went to Pasadena, to a bungalow and sunshine and cafeterias.  Chet Dashaway sold his furniture and undertaking business and wandered to Los Angeles, where, the Dauntless reported, “Our good friend Chester has accepted a fine position with a real-estate firm, and his wife has in the charming social circles of the Queen City of the Southwestland that same popularity which she enjoyed in our own society sets.”

Rita Simons was married to Terry Gould, and rivaled Juanita Haydock as the gayest of the Young Married Set.  But Juanita also acquired merit.  Harry’s father died, Harry became senior partner in the Bon Ton Store, and Juanita was more acidulous and shrewd and cackling than ever.  She bought an evening frock, and exposed her collar-bone to the wonder of the Jolly Seventeen, and talked of moving to Minneapolis.

To defend her position against the new Mrs. Terry Gould she sought to attach Carol to her faction by giggling that “Some folks might call Rita innocent, but I’ve got a hunch that she isn’t half as ignorant of things as brides are supposed to be—­and of course Terry isn’t one-two-three as a doctor alongside of your husband.”

Carol herself would gladly have followed Mr. Ole Jenson, and migrated even to another Main Street; flight from familiar tedium to new tedium would have for a time the outer look and promise of adventure.  She hinted to Kennicott of the probable medical advantages of Montana and Oregon.  She knew that he was satisfied with Gopher Prairie, but it gave her vicarious hope to think of going, to ask for railroad folders at the station, to trace the maps with a restless forefinger.

Yet to the casual eye she was not discontented, she was not an abnormal and distressing traitor to the faith of Main Street.