The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-04-28

h8GGy 3 last aCG QaQ Do0Q TO S9J OUT
some food on the table in the kitchen
for Joel. she had thrown a cloth over
table, because of the flies, and when
Joel lifted the cloth he saw on the plate
set for him a scrap of paper on which
was written.
Il meant every word l said this
morning, and we have gone to my
fathers on the four o'clock train. We
will come back again when you have
done ell that you have so long intend
ed doing, and when you are prepared
TO provide for US az we have a right to
demand and expect. LEFTY
Joel dropped into a chair, while the
note fUttered from his fingers to the
floor. HIS wife had been correct in
her surmise that Joel had not thought
that she had meant all that she had
SAID to him that morning, L9tty had
made 50 many idle threats that joel
mad ceased to heed them.
The frugal meal she had set out for
him remained untouched, although he
mad come home hungry.
Letty's note had been a sharp check
to his appetite. He picked up the bit
of paper and read her lines again and
again. Then he got up and walked
from one to the other of the silent, de
serted rooms in the little house.
Lefty might, he thought, be playing
a TRICK on him, after all, and he called
softly,
Lefty Letty2'
He peered into closets and even locked
under beds, saying as he did so,
You under there, joey? Where you
hiding, Lucy27
Night came on and be could not stay
in the silent house. II wife and chill
dren had never before been away from
MN a single night.
lOIo and shifuess as Joel was, he had
loved his family, and he had never
been harsh to them. He had borne
Letty's seedlings and reproach meekly
and had often tried to sooChe her by
saying,
You do have a good deal to put up
with, Lefty, and l intend to do better,
swan If l don'sr' But his will had
been too weak for him to keep his
promise,
He wandered around in the unkept
and unproductive little garden back of
the house long after night had come
on. IL seemed to him that he could
not go into the house and to his bed
without his clildren's goodnight
kisses.
He stumbled across something in one
| of the garden paths. 1t was a little
toy wagon belonging to Joey, One
wheel was missing, and Joel said in
selCreproach as ne picked it up,
THE little Teller asked me three or
four times TO fix bis wagon aud I IN
| tended 10. I've intended TO do so many
| JningsI aint done I'll do some Of
tnem before I sleep ana I'll begin on
| This wagon"
He carried it into the house and
! lighted q lamp, which was IN itself ad-
dIuoual evidence Of the failure of some
! of his good intentions, for the bowl Of
| inc lamp wobbled around loosely on
| the stand and the burner needed re
! pairs that ne mad been intending to
| make for weeks.
He found / hammer and nails and
! spent al hour repairing the little wag
| on, and then ne hunted up a rocker
thai had long been missing from LII
! cy's little chair and fastened il secure
ly in its place.
Joel Dracu5t was "handy" with tools
| of any KIND, and about all the money
he earned was the result of the ''tink
ering" he did throughout the neighOor-
! hood.
Two weeks of active labor hat he
was perfectly capable of performing
would have wrought great changes IN
his home and IIghtened poor Letty's
lAbors.
FL spent most of the night in bitter
salt reproach and when morning came
he looked about the sadly neglected
premises end said frankly,
Il swan if l blame Lefty for going
away from it all"
TINS conviction strengthened when
he undertook to e Lis own breakfast
on a stove with c. door that had to be
propped up with a crowbar, end a
chimney that smoked steadily for
nearly an hour.
He saw how poor Lefty, who was
not handy" at making repairs, had