St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1893-09-23

short. just such . man Is You would
address. in~tinctively, IS Major"
We pulled tentatively 1t the cigars
until satisfied of their excellence.
Then I asked the major what had BE-
come Of his two nephews, Of whom he
used to tell me so much He indulged
in some reminiscent chucklcs, and said:
''Wcll, we'll! So l never told you
how they settled down? Quite = fam
lily affair it was Let me Scum
when you last heard of the boys, Leo,
the elder, was drinking very hard.
where the fellow ever got his ap-
petite for liquor no one knows, but he
had it. and it was appalling. and there
did not seem to be any way Of spelling
it for him. He was one of the bright
est boys I ever knew, one of these
plausible, ingratiating scamps that
you can't help but like, and wish you
could. George was just the opposite, .
quiet. studious sort Of . chap, who kept
TO himself. mostly. Somehow, he never
seemed to get along with people the
way Lee did-he didn't have that
bright sort of tact that makes young
men agreeable and taking. He didn't
care any more for society than society
cared for him; the two weren't suited to
each other; all he wanted was to be let
alone. The boy was al right 1t bot
tom. rs he's shown since; but the per.
son to draw him out hadn't come along
yet
swell, four years ago this fall, there
came to the house one day . hundred
and twenty pounds of Is pretty, blue
eyed meckness rs you ever saw. Il was
the daughter of . sort of second cousin
of brother Eds and mine. Her parents
were dead. and Ed was her guardian.
90 she came here to live. She was one
of this little. canary bird sort Of girls.
AT the time she arrived. Lee was
just . little this side Of delirum tre-
mems, and I really believe abe STAYED
'em of. Julie was her name. She
hadn't been in the house two weeks
before every body was in love with her.
including both of the boys II was the
most astonishing thing in the world,
the wav she drew that fellow George
out From being moody and self-con-
tanned, he just expanded into q jovial
and agreeable young man - you'd
wish 10 meet Julie and he seemed to
take to each other from the start I
can tell you, old boy, to see them To-
gether,' with 50 much confidence and
good will between 'em, and 20 much of
something else that seemed too big to
exprcss-well. sometimes IL made me
feel that possibly I'D missed something
In life by knocking around single
"But, however-well. Lee didn't ret
along SO well with Julie. When he
was sober, and devoted himself 70 her.
he seemed to sort of awe her. don't you
know-she wasn't free and happy as
she was with George. but always re-
strained, and half afraid of him. But
they were both dead in love with her,
and each was determined to have her.
Now, You would have thought that !
Ed and his wife would have put their
influence on Georges side, wouldn't
you. Not . bit of it. They wanted
her to marry Lee, and why? Because
they told her she was the one person
who could reform him-save him from
. drunkard's grave, you know, and
al that rot. Well. I'm blamed IL they
didn't hornswoggle the girl into say
ing she would marry him. He had |
grace enough to take it with = good |
deal Of shame-facedness, and she
well. she looked IS If she hadn't . |
friend left on earth But they had |
dinned her SO much about her duty |
and what . man she could make Of !,
Lee that she didn't havenerve enough |
20 come ont Aat-footed and say no.
zone evening George came to me.
down looking IS could be. and
wanted should take dinner with him I
down town l knew how he was feel
Ing and thought l might chirl< him up
: hit possibly. 50 we had dinner to-
eether Long before we'd finished I
could see he'd some new purpose in his
head. and finally out he came with it.
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