Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-03-16

in laffS Nv mine-Oh, l tell We, L was
the worst Teller for hecterin' folks you
ever seen! But / meant it all in fuo,
for when 1 suspicioned they didn't like
my funnin, I sez: BILL" SEE ], 'aD'
Marthy, there's only one name I'd love
above all the rest to call your little
Iambkin' AN that's the dearest name on
earth to me-the name Nv Lizzie, my
wifer'
That just suited 'em to T, an al
ways after that she wuZ called leetle
Lizzie, an it sot on her, that name did,
like it was made for her and she for it.
We made it up then-perhaps more in
fun than in anything else-that when
the children growed up, Cyrus and
leetle Lizzie, they should get married
together an have both the farms an
be happy, an be blessin' to us in our
old age.
They played together, they lived to-
gether;' together they tended the does
trick school an went huckleberryin';
there was huskin's an spellin' bees an
choir meetin's an skatin' an slidin'
down hill-oh, the happy times Nv youth!
an all those times our Cyrus an leetle
Lizzie went lovin'ly together!
What made me start So-What made
me ask of Bill one time: care we a-get-
tin old, Bill?" That wuz the Thanks
givin' night when, as we set round the
fire in Bills front room, Cyrus come to
US, holdin' leetle Lizzie by the hand,
an they asked US could they ger mar
red come next Thanksgivin' time?
Why, it seemed only yesterday that
they wuz chicks together! God! how
swift the years go by when they are
happy years!
Reuben" sez Bill to me, '1e's US go
| down cellar an draw a pitcher of eli
! der!'
You see, that bein' men, it wuzn't for
us to make a show Nv ourselves. Mar
| thy an Lizzie just Rugged each other
an laughed an cried-they wuz so
glad! Then they Rugged Cyrus an
| leetle Lizzie an talked an LATED! Well
/ it did beat all how them women folks
! did talk an laff, all at one time! Cyrus
! LATED, too, an then he said he reckoned
! he'd go out an throw some fodder in to
! the steers, an Bill an well we went
down cellar to draw that pitcher Nv
/ cider
1t amt for me to tell now Nv the mel
! Ter sweetness Nv their courtin' time;
couldn't do it if l tried. Oh, how we
loved 'em both! Yet, once in the early
| summer time, our boy Cyrus he come to
| me, and said: Father, l want you to
let me go away for a spell"
"Cyrus, my boy! Go away?''
Eyes, father; President Linkern has
/ called for soldiers; father, you have al
ways taught me to obey the voice of
duty. That voice summons me now.''
God in heaven" 1 thought, "you
! have given us this child only to take
| him from usr'
But then came the second thought:
STEADY, Reuben! You are a man: be a
man! Steady, Reuben; be a mani
Eyer mother" SEE 1; yer mother-it
will break her heart!"
"'She leaves it all to you, father
'But-the other-the other, Cyrus
leetle Lizzie-ye know!'
"She is content" seq he.
A storm sweep through me like a cy-
clone. 1t was all Bills fault; that war
| rior-like name had done it all-the cy-
clopeedy with its lies had pizened Bills
mind to put this trouble on me an
mine! No, no, a thousand times no!
These wuZ coward feelin's an they
misbecome me; the ache here in this
heart Nv mine had no business here. The
better part Nv me called to me and
said: pull yourself together, Reuben
Ketcham, an be man.
We'll. after he went AWAY. leetle Liz.