The nonpartisan leader. [volume], October 28, 1915, Image 14

About The nonpartisan leader. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1915-1921

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
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MAMA
THOMPSO
DAVIESS
AUTHOR
or
•THE MELTINFL
OPMOLI^
Copyright
Please, God, if I seem to be calling
you into a profane situation I can't
help it I must have help! Show me
me way to assist Caroline to make
into a real man and then get him
lor herself. She must have him, and
fe» needs her. And show me a way
l0u!ck] Amen!
fane, I hope yon will be able to pick
{be data out of this jumble, but I
doubt it Anyway, I'm grateful for
the lock and key on this book.
As I stood at the gate and watched
Lee and Caroline saunter down the
moon flecked street a mockingbird in
the tallest of the oak twins that are
my roof shelter called wooingly from
one of the top boughs and got his an
swer from about the same place on
the same limb.
If a woman starts out to be a train
ed nurse to an epidemic of love mak
ing she is in great danger of doing
something foolish her own self. I am
even glad It Is prayer meeting night
for Mr. Haley. He is safe in perform
ing his rituals. He might mlsunder
stand this mood.
I wonder if ever was really over
In sunny France being wooed and
happy!,
Of course I decided the first night
I was hero that as circumstances over
which I had no control had decreed
"Whit did Dodson have to «ay—is he
coming across?"
that Cousin James should stand in the
position of enforced protector to me,
decent communistic femlno-masculine
{honordemands that I refrain from any
maneuvers in Ills direction to attract
his thoughts and attention to the femi
nine me. I can only meet him on the
ordinary grounds of fellowship. And
suppose the glad to see him coming
MP the street was of the neuter genter,
flmt it was very interesting.
".What did Dodson have to say—is
across?" I demanded of
'tflm before he got quite to my gate,
"Mot If he can help it" he answered
ha came,close and leaned against
jipos of the tall stone posts, so that his
jjjandly shaped head with its ante-bel
lam
sqalrls of hair was silhouetted
Mpriast the white starred wistaria vine
|n a way that^ made me frantic for
PAGE FOURTEEN THE NONPARTISAN LEADER
'o'noany,
seven: 1 Tiui-keis "oT "monocErome. w'a-:
rolors ui(i a couple of brushes as|
big
:ts
In iiliotit ten great splotches I could
have done a masterpiece of him tliat|
would have drawn artistic fits from the
.public of gay Paiis. I never see him
that I don't long for a box of pastels',
or get the ghost of the odor of oil paint
hanging on his shoulder. However, I I up the clothes.
controlled myself and listened to him. I "Never," 1 answered.
"There is to be a'meeting of the di
rectors of both roads over in Bolivar
in a few weeks, and they are te come
to some understanding. The line across
the river is unquestionably tljp cheap
est and best grade, and there is no
chance of getting them to run along
our bluff unless we can show them
some advantage in doing so, and 1
can't see what that will be."
"What makes it of advantage for a
railroad to run through any given
point in a rural community like this.
Cousin James?" I asked, with a glow
of Intellect mounting to my head, the
like of which I hadn't felt since I de
livered my junior thesis in political
economy with Jaae looking on, con
sumed with pride.
"Towns that have good stoek or grain
districts around them with good roads
for hauling do what is called 'feeding1
a railroad," he answered. "Bolivar can
feed both roads with the whole of the
Harpeth valley on that side of the riv
er. They'll get the roads, I'm thinking.
Poor old Glendale!"
"Isn't there anything to feed the
monsters this side of the river?" I de
manded, indignant at the barrenness
of the south side of the valley of old
Harpeth.
"Very little unless it's the scenery
along the bluff," he replied, with the
depression sounding still more clearly
in his voice, and his shoulders drooped
against the unsympathetic old stone
post In a way that sent a pang to my
heart
"Jamie, is all you've got tied up to
the venture?" I asked softly, using the
name that as very small I bad given
Mm in a long ago when the world was
young and not full of problems.
That's not the worst Evelina," he
answered in a voice that was positive
ly haggard. "But what belongs to
the rest of the family is all in the
same leaky craft Carruthere put Sal
lle's in himself, but 1 invested the
mites belonging to the others. Of
course, as far as the old folks are con
cerned,-! can more than take care of
them, and if anything happens there I
Anyway, men are just
o-* rf v*
^KU3 *S
his playing a watelulog of ?radiflon
across the road to an emancipated wo
man like myself.' The situation both
keeps me awake and puts me to sleep,
and it is sweet, though don't know
why.
God never made anything more won
derful than a good man-^even a stupid
one. Lights out!
CHAPTER VIII.
I
hose used for whitewashing.
Man and tKe Asafeticja Spoon.
DO wish the great man who iS dis
covering how to put people into
some sort of metaphysical pickle
that will suspend their animations
until he gets ready to wake them up
would hurry up with his.Investigations,
so he can catch Sallie before she be
gins to fade or wilt Sallie, just as she
is, brought to life about five generations
from now would cause a sensation.
Some women are so feminine that
they are sticky unless woil spiced with
deviltry. Sal lie's loveliness hasn't
much seasoning. Still, 1 do love her
dearly, and I aiu just as much her
slave as are any of the others.
I
can't
get out-of It
Do you~sufpose~we will ever get all
of the clothes done for the twins?"
Nel1
in my nose. porch whipping yards of lace upon
"The whole thing will be settled in a I white ruffles and whipping up our own
month," he continued, with a sigh that I spirits at the same time. Everybody
had a hint of depression in it, and an I in-Glendale sews for'Sallles children,
astral shape of SaUie manifested Itself I an* takes
sighed gently as we sat on my
ber a11 ber time
think
"She's coming, and I do believe she
has got more of this ruffling. I see it
floating down her skirt," Nell fairly
groaned.
Nell ought to like to sew. She isn't
emancipated enough to hate a needle
as I do. But the leaven is working,
and she's rising slowly. It might be
well for some man to work the dough
down a little before she runs over the
pan. That's a primitively feminine
wish and not at all in accordance with
my own advanced ideas.
I was becoming slightly snarled with
my thread, and I was glad when Sallie
and her sweetness seated itself in the
best rocker in the softest breeze, which
Nell had vacated foe her.
"Children are .the greatest happiness
in life and also the greatest responsi
bility, girls," she said in her lovely rich
voice that always melts me to a solu
tion of sympathy whenever she uses it
pensively on me. "Of course I should
be desolate without mine, but what
could I do with them if I didn't have
all of you dear people to help me with
them?"
Her wistful dependence bad charm.
I looked at the twin with the yellow
fuss on the top of its head that has
hall marked it as the kitten in my
mind, seated on Sallle's lap with her
head on Sallle's shoulder, looking like
a baby bud folded against the full
rose, and I couldn't, help laughing.
Kit had been undressed three times
after her bath this, morning, while
Cousin Martha, Cousin Jasmine and
I Mrs. Hargrove argued with each other
whether Bhe shou
,d
rnn QeTe]
enough life insurance and to spare for fvrtns, and Henrietta often has to fln
them. I don't feel exactly responsible their toilets thus, by force. Aunt
for Sallle's situation, but I do feel the I jjjjgjg being reduced -by her phthisic
responsibility of their helplessness. I
a
Sallie Is not fitted to cope with the 1 omental, Henrietta's strength of char
world,. and she ought to be well pro-r |g y,e qgjy thing that has made
vided for. I feel that snore and more
every day. Her b^Ipteswiess is veryj themselves or o$Jier people.
beautiful and tender, but in. a wayl As have said-liefone, I liio'wish that
tragic, don't youthink?" [some day in the-future you will come
I wish I had dared tell tam for ttel me direct rays-of Henrietta's in
second time that day 3$hatl did think gaencei jane, dear.
on the subject, but I denied myself «yeS) gam^ should call them a re
such frankness. ... I sponsibility," I answered her, with a
8tuPI^»
ful children—some of them faithful, I
mean-
or shouldn't have
a scrap of flannel put on over her fat
little stomach. Henrietta finally decld
ed the matter by being impudent and
sensible to them all about the temper
ature.
"Don't you all 'spose God made the
sun some to beat up kit's stomach?"
she demanded scornfully as she grab
bed the little roly-poly bone of conten
tion and marched off with her to finish
dressing her on the front porch' in the
direct rays ot her instituted heater.
The household at large at Widegabies
agree on the clothing of the
position that is almost entirely or-
thee
ristence
0
the twins bearable to
"I laugh, as I reached up my arms for
the klttelL
Then, as the little yellow
_•, I head snuggled in the hollow that was
I felt that if IT stood niere talking instituted in the beginning between a
with the Crag any- longer I might grow I ynTtll11»g,breast and arms for the pur
pedagogical and teach him a few ©f Just such nestlings, I whis
things, so I sent him home across the] pgred 'as "I laid my lips against her
road. I knew all six women
wou,4
stay awake until-they beard, him 'lock
them in, come down to t^ejodge. ^nd
lock his own door.
_It isVery unvcorthy^ofme' to enjoy
little ear, "and a happiness, too, dar
lin*'
And as Sallle rtfcked1 aid recuperat
ed her breath Nell eyed the ruffle ap
pi^ensively.^J
"Are you going to Jet us make an
other dress for the kiddies, Sallie,
dear?" she finally was forced by her
uneasiness to ask,' though with the
deepest sweetness and consideration
in her voice.
If I am ever a widow with young
children I hope they will burn us all
up with the deceased rather than keep
me wrapped in a, cotton wool, of sym
pathy, as all of us do, Sallie.
"It's lovely of you, Nell, to want to
do more for the babies after all the
beautiful things you and Bvelina have
made them, and I may be able to get
another white dress apiece for them
after I give. Cousin James the bills
that are awful already, but this is
some ruffling that I just forced Mamie
Hall to let me bring up to you girls to
do for her baby The poor little dear
is two months old, and Mamie is. just
beginning on his little dress for him.
He has been wearing the plainest lit
tle slips. Mamie says Ned remarked
on the fact that the baby was hardly
presentable, when you girls stopped in
with him to see it the other day, Nell.
I urged her to get right to work fix
ing him up. It is wrong for children
not to be kept as daintily as their fa
ther likes to see them."
How any woman that is as spiritual
ly minded as I am and who has so
much love for the whole world in her
heart and such a deep purpose always
to offer it to her fellow men accord
ing to their need of it can have the
vile temper I possess I cannot see.
"And the sight that would please
me better than anything else I have
even thought up to want to see," I
found myself saying when I became
conscious—I hope I didn't use any of
the oaths of my forefathers which
must have been tempting my refined
foremothers for generations and which
secretly admire Henrietta for in
dulging in on occasions of impatience
i^ith Sallie—"would be Ned Hall left
entirely ftlone. with that squirming
baby that looks exactly like him when
it is having a terrible spell of colic
and Ned is in the midst of a sick head
ache, with all the other children cold.
hungry and cross, the cook gone to a
funeral and the nurse in a grouch be
cause she couldn't go and—and he
knowing that Mamie was attired in a
lovely, cool muslin dress, sitting up
here on the porch with ns sipping a
mint julep and smoking a ten cent
cigar, resting and getting up an appe
tite for supper. I want him to have
about five years of such days, and
then he would deserve the joys of
parenthood that be now does not ap
preciate."
"Oh, Mamie wouldn't smoke a ci
gar!" was the exclamation that show
ed how much Sallie got of the motif
of my eruption.
"Glorious!" exclaimed Nell, with
shining eyes.
I must be careful about Nell. She
is going this new gait too fast for one
so young. Women must learn to
fletcherize freedom if it is not to give
them indigestion of purpose.
"Still Ned provides everything in the
world he can think of to help Mamie,"
said Caroline, who had come up the
walk just in time to fan the flame in
me by her sweet wistfulness, with a
soft judiciousness in her voice and
eyes. "And Mamie adores the children
and him."
If one man is uaattainable to a wo
man all the other creatures take on
the hue of beings valuable from the re
flection.-Caroline is pathetic!
"It would be robbing a woman ot a
privilege not to let her trot the colic
out of her own baby," Sallie got near
enough in sight of the discussion to
shout softly from the rear.
I have often seen Cousin Martha on
one side of the fire trotting the pup
and CouBin Jasmine on the other min-'
lstrating likewise to the kit so Sallie
•could take a good nap, which she didn't
at all need, on the long sofa in the
living room at Widegabies.
"Ned is a delightful man. and, of
course. Mamie adores him," Nell agreed
with an-attitude of mind like to the
attitude of a hndy sustained on thef
top rail of a shaky fence. I
"He doubtless would be just as de-^
lightfnl to Mamie standing by drop
ping asafctida into a spoou to admin
later to the baby as he is dancing, with
you at the assembly, Nell."
I
/5!SSS
HIS
mm
WSB-:
said,
frothy around the temper.
"He'll never do it again," was the^js^g
prompt result I got from my shot
"The trouble with yon, Evelina," said^w^^
Sallie, with ruminative reflectiveness
in her eyes, "is that you have never^
been married and do not understand•
how, jioble a man can be under"-*
(Continued on page 15)
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