Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-11-26

his irresponsible bachelor existence
and laying down any sort of law. or
chalking any sort of mark for him to
toe, was a maddening one.
But even sacred legacies can be, at
times, trying. Not that the major had
had the fact borne in upon him, as it
grown, Teddy had started to college
and joined the rabble, and Kittie had
shown a decided and unblushing pref
erence for certain sophomore whom
he had caught on his way back from a
stolen visit to Teddy's room sliding down
one Of the pillars that supported his (the
major's) porch, and whom he had there
after forbidden the premises.
Granted these children tried him, and
that he made them aware of the fact
by the use of language peculiar to the
major; for all that they felt that their
uncle loved them as dearly as they
loved him, and when Teddy preferred
his request, rash though it had been
considered at the first blush, they were
quite confident that he would not re-
fuse them so innocent and eminently
praiseworthy desire. They had talked
it over together so often, this sister and
this brother, that it had, by degrees,
because Of the increasing familiarity Of
the idea, lost its first impossible aspect.
It did not occur to them that what they
had talked and dreamed over until it
had grown to seem almost thing ac-
complished might burst upon their
fond uncle with all the unexpectedness
of thunder clap out of clear sky.
The very moment poor Teddy had
chosen was unpropitious; the major had
but just discovered fresh traces Of
collegiate usurpation upon the person
Of his beloved war horse, Sultan, and
his rage, in consequence, was at pro-
nounced pitch.
Invite your college friends to eat a
Thanksgiving turkey, is it?-a Thanks
giving divil! Ill tache them to give
thanks in my house! Would ye pour
wine for the murdherers of your uncle,
and shtir sugar in it to their liking?
Tare an ours, ;but you're a cool-faced
lot, wild the chalze Of grinning
chimpanzee! Invite the bloody beg
gars, say you-oh, no, yen not! l be-
lave I'll reserve the right to do what
invitations done in me own house, or
know the raison why! And I'd rather
nave tAC COA p0Ay "a VI dhE y .
mind that-the poor, meeserable
niver lift a finger to do anyone mean
turn, thorough, honest, daycint min,
that lave citizen in pace, lave the
gates on their hinges, the shingles on
the roof"-here the majors anger
roars amain-''and the roof on the
house! No, sir! To perdition wild your
college monsthers-but ye may ask
livery tramp ye mate in the sthreet to
come and dine. wild Maj. McCalligan-
say that he-is their friend, and that
turkeys shall be roasted in honor of
them-that the deserving hungry shall
be fid at the ixpinse of Maj. Nc
Calligan, and that bread and wather's
too good for the likes of'-here fol-
lowed untranslatable, but unquestion-
ably vigorous, Celtic epithets-''college
companions
. Poor children! Teddy's notion of
doing the hospitable was nipped in the
bud, SO green that there was no means
of determining just how rich in hue or
how beautiful a flower it might have
become: and Kittie's little dream Of a
period of bliss wherein a most enchant-
ing gown of peach blossom tinting
shared equal honors with the figure
of tall and rather awkward youth
known to the college world as Jim
Junior"-this delightful dream vanished
in the miserable dawn of her uncle s
tempestuous mood. and the wretched
sun Of a day of disappointment shone
through mists of big unshed tears.
. 'sUncle, you haven't forgotten your
proposition concerning Thanksgiving
-in other wortls-tomossowf'