The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-20
LIKE A MAN.

There is something impressive in a big
trouble that you can brag about. but the
nagging little daily worries that you are
ashamed of, just as you would be asham-
ed of an untidy collar or frayed skirt
! / always did resent. and everlastingly
shall
To begin with. used to be long young
person with more bones than / quite
knew what to do with. and while I should
dearly love TO announce that was beau
| tiful in those girlish days no one who
knew me then or knows ne now. would
heiieve me-so where's the use?
Ny father Brent Garner. the most
courtly gentleman and about the worst
| farmer, God bless him. in all Southern
| Maryland. in these days was the I'M
! fortunate possessor of thirteen children.
! every single one of them girIs-and the
married ones too, for that matter,
| OF course. girls are well enough to a
! certain extent, but one gets too much OF
good thing sometimes. so when pap
! took a notion to upbraid Fate because all
his boys turned out girls must say that
went him one better by rebeuing openly
! against the decree that condemned me to
! siav.sh frizzes and frocks.
am not blaming ma, mind, but speak
! ing disinterestedly / do think she ought
! TO have been cOntented with an even doz-
| en-and what's more I said so when pap
| and ! We're beyond the subduing influence
! of mas eye-there was nothing trifiing
! about mas eyes when she had the girls
! to defend.
|
! and their future a rOSe-colorsL some
| thing or other-it is So long ago / forget
| exactly how pap used to pat it-anyhov5
| the first girls got the benefit of it all in
/ mugs and cOrals and doubie-barreled
| names, which / am fair enough TO allow
| was perfectly natural. Then there came
| such disastrous Iull in pans enthusj-
asm that ma said once when he had pant
| ed Up from the field where he had been
| working in the hot sun all day, helping
| the hands worm tobacco and found the
| dear old twins waiting for him instead Of
| his dinner, welcome to think of it.
| though, if dear pap were living I don't
believe he would take kindly to seeing
his emotions in print.
| But ma kept on having her way-whfch
| meant girls-untn at the time she wound
| up the family circle with me she had so
| worn her imagination down at the heels
| thinking up fine names, and so exhausted
the Bible, Shakespeare and miscellaneous
| fiction in behalf of my elders. that she
| left my christening to pap, and pap called
me Sis. Absolutely nothing but Sis
If l had been a boy this iHdignity, at
| least, would have been spared me: but
there are some wrongs so great that the
| only thing we can conveniently do is to
forgive them, so I forgave pap, years ago
| l prefer not to mention how many. But
though pap had been cheated clean out
| of h pro nd f0-
and bishops and things poor dear, It
| never entered his head that his sons might
have turned out farmers like himself, only
not half so good, the girls certainly made
| up his loss in sons-in-law, and as to
| grandsonst,,
IF one could only feed them like chick
| ems sighed poor ma, plaintively, one day
when they had come down on US, like the
| locusts of Egypt, only worse.
| IF one could only kill them like chick
| ens!" | admit the general viciousness Of
| the wish but, verify, the temptation was
| great. You see, il was that very week
| that pap and | had little business talk
J down at the barn and when it was over
| settled it in my mind that the Garner
| family would have to ecouOmiZe and that
| l would weed out the grandsUns by way
| of q laudable beginning
Now. look here ma" I went on, the
poor dear already on the defensive
| IKE a mother men with per IelLheTS ruL-
| fed and wings spread-"this impo-
| sition has gone on long enough.
and I just intend TO hitch old
| Calico TO the cart and dump every scrap
| of Erandchild at its own lawful fence
| gate, / do 1t is nothing short of selfish
| ness in the girls to inf1ict their Toms.
| Dicks and Harrys on US as if We hadn Z
| work enough of our own"
! There, there, Sis, they only mean TO
| please your father-he's so fond of boys
| Mice way they take to please him
| Pap's an old man, now, ma, and after
| shaving his life away and wearing the
! farm out 10 raise US army of girls what
| right have they to keep him shaving to
| the last. Oh, you needn't look at me
| like that ma, dear. and your tears are
| so much pathOs simply gone to waste
| Children, like good manners. ought to be
| found at home-hi. here YOU youngsters"
| and when at last I had packed them in
| the wheeZy old cart and we went laugh
| ing. scratching and squalling down the
road I felt like the piper of HamIein on
| ly there were no wide open. greedy jaws
at the end of the trip to swallow the
| batch-more's the pity,
| That bit of Renaissance sounds as if
| Miss Garner were not so fond of
| children l am. I am so honestly fond
of children that if they could be legislat-
| ed for like pensions, l would immediate
|
| redeemed my character. / proceed:
| When l had impartially divided their
| bowling household gods between the
| five sisters who lived so uncomfortabIy
| adjacent, the sun was sinking behind
the trees in a blaze of glorious gold.
There was a long road, with many
leafy turnings, that Calico knew as well
as l. and while she dawdled along it
with a lanEuid elegance that suited us
both, l sat behind her. thinking. think
| ing, regardless of whip or rein. | read
a story once about a devilfish that crawl
| ed over the roof of cottage by some
Southern seal don't suppose there was
the first word of truth in it. but some
| way. when pap made a clean breast of
his troubles. that shiny black monster
came in my mind. and 1 couldn't get him
| out for many a night and day. Indeed.
| it seemed to me then that mortgage
| like ours was a tritle the worse of the
| two because money was the only wea-
| pom to fight it with-and where. on the
| top of the earth. were we TO get a
| thousand dollars? If only he had owned
| up in time. l might have done some
| thing heroic with my poultry-a flock of
| geese did grand things for Rome once
| on a time-but, no; he kept as mum as
| Cheops, until 1 found it out for my
| self, and no thanks to anybody. and tho
| way of il was this
Ma had started me down to the
| meadow to see what pap meant by keep
| ing supper waiting. and when | found
| him leaning against the barn. as gray
| and quiet the twilight shadows about
! him, why, | think. the zone who doeth
| all things Well must have put II into
my heart to make him up and tell me
| what was wrong. There is no woman
| in the world so weak as Sampson with
| his head shaved, and so pap. shorn of
| his youth and VigOr, told me between
| sobs-it makes me cry to think of it