The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-01-09

would kind Nv toss her around am trot
her-so-on their knees pat her-so-on
the back when she wuZ colicky like the
wimmin folks seq all healthy babies is afore
they're three months old
You're gOin' to have the namin' NV her,
self Bill 10 me.
Yes" seq Marthy, Eve made it up
atween us long ago that you should have
the namin' our baby like had the
namin' NV yourn.'
What made me start so-what made me
ask of Bill one time: Are we a-gettin'
old, Bill?' That wuz the Thanksgivin'
night when, set round the fire in
Bills front room, Cyrus come to us hodlin
trieetle Lizzie by the hand, an they asked US
could they get married come next Thanks
svin' time? Why, it seemed only yester-
day that they wuz chicks together! God!
how swift the years go by when they are
happy years!
Reuben SEE Bill to me, lies go down
cellar an draw pitcher NV cider
You see. that bein' men, it wuznt for US
TO make a show NV ourselves Marthy an
Lizzie just Rugged each other an laughed
an cred-they wuz glad Then they
Rugged Cyrus an leetle Lizzie an talk an
laff. Well it did beat all how them women
folks did talk an laff, all at time!
Cyrus LATED, too, an then he said he
reckoned he'd go out an throw some fod-
der in to the steers, and Bill an I-well,
went down-cellar to draw that pitcher
cider.
1t amt for me to tell now NV the meller
sweetness NV their courtin time;I couldn' t
do it If l tried. oh, how 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?"
Yes. father; President Linkern has
called for soldiers; father, you have always
taught me to obey the voice Of duty. That
voice summons me now.
God in heaven" l thought, you have
given us this child only to take him from
usr'
Then, kind NV hectorin' like-for 1 was
always a powerful tease-I sez:" How would
Cleopatry do for a name? Or Vents?
have been readin' the cyclopeedy, myself,
I'd have you known
An then / LATED one on them provokin'
laffs of mine-oh. l tell We, l was the
worst Teller for hectorn' folks you ever
seen! But I meant it all in fun, for when
j suspicioned they didn't like my funnin
j seq: BILL, SEE /. IAN Marthy, there s
only one name I'd love above all the rest
10 call your little lambkin', an that's the
dearest name on earth to me-the name
NV Lizzie, my wife,
That just suited 'em to a T. an always
after that she wuz called leetle Lizzie.
an it sot on her, that name did. like it
was made fos her an she for it. We made
1t up then-perhaps more in fun than any
thing 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
all in our old age. We made it up in fun,
perhaps, but down in our hearts it wuz
our prayer jest the same, and God heard
the prayer an granted it to be so.
They played together, they lived together:
together they tended the deestrick school
an went huckieberrfn'; there wuz 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
boy Cyrus an leetle Lizzie went lovinly
together!
But then came the second thought
Steady, Reuben! You are a man; be a
man! Steady. Reuben, be man.