The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-08-17


No." she continued in answer to my
mother again, u can live here as CON
tented as I'll ever be. l don't s'pose
you know anything about what it is to
me that my husbands dead'-her
tones We're firm enough now-"and as
for my children, they are good chill
dren if they amt very gifted, and III
leave em fixed in way that suits 'em
well. I've thought9it all OUT
In front of the house was a board
fence-it took the place of decaying
paling, l remembered-and at it's gate
as we rode up stood Cousin BetSey.
She was always Il little woman. and
the years seemed to be making her
smaller. She was thin and dark, with
straight features, black hair still I'M
streaked with gray and the palest and
keenest of light blue eyes-altogether
noticeable figure. She met me with
familiar, undemonstrative kindness,
as if l were still the child she had
known. l think her manner would have
been exactly the same if she had never
seen me at all. 1t was not as an indi-
vidual she thought of me, but as the
daughter and the granddaughter OF
those who belonged to the past. In
my visits south | always find n great
restfulness in this general predomi-
malice of background in what / may
call my pictorial effects.
The house was just as | had seen it
last. l remembered the carpet in Cous-
in Betsey's room, striped wool car
pet woven on a hand loom. and l was
pleased to find l still admired it. The
same andirons had left there sustain
ed the smoldering log in the fireplace;
the same simple minded old colored
prints of properly curled children and
military and political heroes We're on
the walls; the duck legged" chair-it
had sustained surgical operation
still stood in it's old corner. Doubtless
it was a favorite yet with the small
mistress, who had had it cut down for
her convenience in nursing her chill
dren.
! flew to see if even certain specll
ed the years and was filled with unreal
soning wonder and delight on finding
it. 1t had been one of those queer
treasures children develop out of the
most untoward materials, and had
called it my buzzard." heaven only
knows why.
Eyes, here it is" called out to Cous-
in Betsey-"the buzzard Jimmy and
quarreled about once. said it was
mine. and he said it was his, and you
spanked him and told me | was the
one who deserved the whipping, but as
you couldn't give it to me you'd have
to stop the fuss by Furnishing him.
at must have been Mary" said
Cousin Betsey, with grim humor. Jim
my never would have stood up to it if
it had been his. Jimmy is queer son
for me to have. Most of his spankings
were for not sticking up for himself.
They don't seem to have done him
much good. He's as soft and helpless
as men think women ought to be.
don't know where he'd be if I'd "a been
that kind"
| reflected to myself that in all prob
ability he at least would have been a
more assertive person, the law of ac-
ton and reaction appearing with pecul-
lar obviousness in the relations of par.
ents and children.
But" Cousin Betsey proceeded re.
tiectively, 'everything being as it is. it
don't make so very much difference
about Jimmy. Sometimes | worry
about Mary She's gone off, and some
times 1t seems to me as if | might have
done better by her-might have had
her mingle more with other folks and
see more-if I'd known how it was go
ing to be, but l didn't, and what she is
lays with her husband now anyhow.
But for Jimmy, want him to marry a
girl that lives near by. She'll have