The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1883-06-20
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LIKE A MAN.

40cIo Is bOutJlluR SuDlllu6 III u
Niagara of trouble that roars and
crashes through the world with a
heroic fuss that one can brag about
but this constant drizzle of petty an
noyances, drip, drip, dripl
To begin with, am a long, young
person, with big bones, and plenty of
them, and don't care button if my
hair is red
have good reason to know that
am not considered beautiful; that my
nose, for instance-but there's really
nc need for such distressing details.
My father, Peter Brown, the best
farmer in all Fairfax, be the Cead one
who he may is the unfortunate posses
sor of thirteen children, every single
e one of them pirls-and the married
ones, too. for that matter.
OF c urse, girs are all very well as
far they go, but one gets too much
of a good thing sometimes, and so when
poor pa takes a notion to upbraid Fate
because all his boys turned out girls, l
must say l rebel against the decree
that condemns me to slavish frocks
and frizzes.
Most good folks sing out that they
want to carry harps and be angels, but
I--if only 1 were Peter Brown, junior,
and had farm like pal
l don't blame ma, of course, but l
really do think the even dozen ought
to have contented her-and. what's
more, say so, when pa and 1 get be-
yond the subduing influence of her eye
for there's nothing triiing about
mas eyel
When pa and mas love was young,
and their future a rose-colored rose
there ! I've heard pa say it a dozen
times, but when girl happens to be
shackled with memory like a boys
pocket upside down, and the middle
nowhere, and gets that memory from
her ma, suppose there's to be allow
ances-anyhow, the first girls got the
benefit of it all in the way of mugs,
and corals, and names as fine as tiddles;
then there came such disastrous lull
in pas enthusiasm that ma says, when
he painted up from the fields one hot
noon and found our dear old twins
, waiting instead of his dinner, it set
him so frantic that he threatened TO
bunch the whole family together like
a string of fish and do a dark and
desperate deed.
But ma just kept on having her own
way-which meant girls-until by the
time she wound up the home circle
with meat your service-she had so
worn her intellect down at the heels
thinking up double-barreled names for
the other dozen, that she hande my
christening over to pa, and pa ever
lastingly uisgraced himself. in my es-
timation, by heartlessly calling me
Sis-absolutely nothing but Sis.
If / had been a boy this indignity,
at least-but there are some wrongs 50
great that the only thing one can con-
veniently do is forgive them.
But, though pa has been cheated of
his bishops anu senators and things
(poor dear, he never dreams that sons
of his might have turned out farmers
like himself, only not half so good
the girls have certainly made up his
loss in husbands. Indeed, pa seems to
have more sons-in-law than he quite
knows what to do with-and as to
grandsonsl
'If one could only feed them like
chickens !" sighs poor ma, plaintiyely
eff one could only kill them like
chickens, you mean" )" l retort, vindic-
lively.
After that little business talk pa and
had behind the barn, I've settled in
my mind that the Browns have got tC
economize-and 1 mean to start with
the grandchildren, by way of a noble
beginning.
"Now, look here, ma, say to the
dear old soul who is already staring al
me with big, anxious eyes, like her
with her feathers ruflied, "this thing
has gone on long enough, and l just
mean to hitch old Calico to the car
and dump every scrap of grandchilC
at his own lawful door, do! IT.
downright mean in the girls TO impos
on us in this everlasting way-as /
there wasn't work enough of ou
own"
"There, there, sis" interrupts ma
pathetically, "they only mean TO pleas
pa" =.
"And a nice way they take to doit
PAS an old man now, and after pincf
ing and shaving all his life for us arm
of girls, what right have they to kee
him pinehing and shaving to the last