The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-07-30
FAREWELL to the DOBSONS F.:

NOhoANlCl GU DCuCIUu lu6 SUClul l6Nel.
Their lower rank does not come from
any difference OF wealth, intellect or
morality, but is due, almost entirely,
to the general shiftlessness of the
neglected family. Often the iudg-
ment of the neighborhood is just, but
it is not always SO.
Mrs. DObson once said, Chow do
they know? We never had any chance
here in Nebraska. We were as good
as the best where we come from, and
Pm sure I've worked hard enough to
be somebody; but what can a woman
do with seven children, and man as
lazy as the Platte river?"
Mr., Dobson looked up with o good.
netured grin, but said nothing. APP
pOrently, he took no more notice of
his wife, who went off to spread her
meagre washing on the gum-weeds.
He tilted his rude chair back against
the trunk of a giant cottonwood, and
looked over the landscape with lazy
enjoyment. From his position, he
could see down long yistas of dark,
shining, blue-green corn-stalks and
beyond them the Platte.
'Meanest, dirtiest water I ever
saw" he thought, obviously. '"Taint
no good to anybody. Don't fetch
down any mill power; can't tote any
trade boats; isn't ever two days alike,
it's so shifty and sneaking. AS lazy
as the Platte Well! wellr'
He sighed, and glanced sheepishly
at his wife, who was shaking out the
last tattered garment of the washing.
He watched her uneasily a moment,
and then his eyes wandered vaguely
to the far-of purple bluffs across the
river; but what he saw was distance
OF years instead of miles.
"Abner, called his wife, plaintively,
lust look at me. Ireckon Mrs. Bar
nard hasn't got any such sand-burs as
we have. She don't get pricked to
pieces when she goes to spread her
washing. 1 do wish you'd" but she
stopped hopelessly.
"Mis' Barnard don't have to spread
her washing" corrected Abner, dog
gedly; "she's got yards and yards of
clothes-line and pins and baskets and
o machine"
Melyina Dobson glanced at her hus-
band anxiously. Never before had he
seemed uneasy OF envious. 81 reckon
Mis- Barnard has her drawbacks, "she
admitted, generously.
Yes" answered her husband,
modify, "and Barnard amt no more
willing than I'd be if l was him. His
paw left him money, and mine didn't.
know one thing, though, if I was
Barnard, Mis- Barnard wouldn't wash,
If she did have a machine. I'd sell
the pigs first"
Melvina looked at him gratefully.
II know it, Abner," she answered,
soothingly, ''you always have been
good to me. If there amt money
enough for both, you always want me
have it. reckon faint your fault
that we are so poor; [ don't care for
myself, but the children.
She broke off suddenly, and went
IN to get the scanty dinner. Abner
sook down his rusty hoe, and passed
'eluctantly into the neglected patch.
He was working with great deiibera-
lion when his half-grown daughter
passed, without speaking.
"Sallie," he called.
The girl seemed not to hear him.
She held her head with an air of
offended dignity, and looked neither
o the right nor to the left. A second
lall from her father brought her to
lefant pause.
81 say" he called, lazily, "what
Ills you? Have ! done anything?"
"Reckon not, she answered, sui
emily.
"And your NAV don't seem natural,
S she ailing?"
The girl looked him full in the face,
nd her eyes We're not pleasant. "Oh, |
naw," she answered, sharply, "why,
nav is kind of worn out with church |
ocials and things, NAV is. It's most
lade her sick, sewing on her new silk
ress and doing up her hair. And
ow there's the party at Sansen's."
"Sansen's?"
eyes, when they move into the new
ouse. Everybody has been asked,
ven Mis- Jenkins, 'cepting NAV. Nav
as such fine clothes and is so stuck
p, that she wasn't bid.
Abner turned the hoe in his hands.
nd watched a potato-bug travel calm
from one hill to another. Some
ming in his attitude touched the
hid. Suddenly she lost her look of
efance, and said brokenly:
"Maw couldn't go anyway, she's
OF nothin' to wear. Her old gray
ress turned yellow in the sun years
go. Mrs. Barnard gave me some dye
II Easter eggs, and when 1 heard
bout Sansen's party, l thought I'd
Dior maw's dress and have it ready"
A tragic silence followed. Abner
'oked up questioningly.