The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-04-21
A FAMILY AFFAIR.
BY N. QUAD.

broke with a smash, and after spend- ing ten minutes in solemn thought, the driver said:
 "Well, I'll have to get the consarned thing down to Tompkinsville for re- pairs, and you'd better stay all night at yon cabin"
 "Perhaps they can't accommodate me-"
 "There's no perhaps about it. Folks as has got house are bound to keep folks as has broke down."
 Iwent over to the cabin, which was a rude log structure, and the only one within four miles. The woman saw me coming and stood in the open door. Her husband saw me coming and sat down on a log. The five or six chil- dren saw me coming, and arranged themselves along the opening in the brush fence which answered for gate. As came up l approached the man and explained the nature of the acci- dent and asked to stay all night.
 Stranger, if it depended on me, I'd say yes," he replied as he crossed his look. "But it don't depend on me, l aOOn dHlOuHI tO sHucks drouuu yeIe no mo-"
 "Now, Zekiel what dye talk like that fur?" demanded the barefooted wife as she came down to the log. "Who's said you wasn't boss Who's tried to take the lead over you?"
 ''You hev, an right afore the chil- dren, too. You said wasn't fitten to drive hogs!"
 "Shoo, Zekiel you began it by say ing was extravagant."
 "Oh, yes, begun it! allus begin everything Nobody else never begins nuthin', and nobody else is never to blamew
 "But this 'ere stranger wants to we can't say mo-"
 "Well, 1 calkerlate he kin stay. A month ago 1 could hev taken him by the hand and told him to make my house his home, but now 1 hain't got no more rights round we're. Pm only sighpher now"
 The wife took my satchel into the cabin and I sat down on the log with Zeke and offered him cigar. At the same time the seven children came and stood in a row before us, and called out as in one voice:
 "The feller has dun gin pap a cigar!"
 "Yes, children" said the old man as he scratched match on his starboard quarter and lit the weed, "your pap has got cigar. It's the fust cheerin' thing that has come to him fur twen- ty-one years, and it's proof that he hain't quite forgotten by all the world. What are ye standin' here lookin' at2 Whar's yer manners?"
 "Hain't got none!" called three of them at once.
 "No, I s'pose not, and can't blame ye-not bit. Children as come up without any father can't be s'pected to hev manners. Whar ye from, stran- ger?"
 "Bristol."
 "Right smart huddle, l've heard, but Pve never bin thar. Hear lem say anything about me?"
 "No."
 "No? We'll, spose they've heard of me, but didn't want to say anything to stranger. Pm the man who had forty-two piles on his back in one winter"
 "You didi'
 "Yes; and I never got the least sympathy from my family. Pve also had rheumatism, lung fever, lame back, fever-sore, consumption and yal- Ter fever. Not one of the family shed tear"
 "Is 1t possible1"
 "And I broke my leg, lost a two hundred-dollar mule by pizen, he'd my barn burned up, lost a farm on a mortgage, and buried two children" "Well, you have suffered"
 Suffered? Stranger, excuse these tears; but yours are the first kind words I've heard since the war closed" 4"Fap is bellerin', ma l" shouted the children, as they ran for the house, and the woman presently rushed out and said:
 "Now thar, Zekiel, you git, and you thar, stranger, come in to smackw
 "Didn't I tell you sop exclaimed woods. "Pm the discouragedest, unfortumtest man in all creation, and Pm going to hang myself"
 "You dass'n't, and you know you dass'n'tw shouted the wife
 "You dass'n't hang nuthing," added the children.
 While I was eating "smack" the woman stood before me, arms a-kimbo, and the children completed the circle around the table.
 "From fur?" queried the woman as . starter.
 From Bristol"