Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1900-02-09
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Z TOMS :
GGGGSGGGsSGG
WOULDN'T do it, Tom

81 wouLN'T do it, Ton"
"You don't know what you'd do IL
y you had Il stcpmother."
maybe 1 don't, but I'm sure of one
thing-I wouldn't be the first to do some
thing wrong if l knew it"
Everybody speaks his mind on Nalen-
tines day. and as for doing wrong. she
was the first. Shed no business to be my
~stcpmothcr."
Come away, Tom, and let's talk it
over. Don't buy one of those hideous
pictures now. Wait until you walk to
my gate and back here"
"4All right, but I'll come back, Just the
same. I'll tell you what's the matter.
Fanny. You don't appreciate the situa-
tion. You don't know how you'd feel to
have some girl, not more than s or 10
years older than yourself. i'll your moth
er's place.
NO, j suppose i don't understand it
all as we'll as you do: but doesn't Aunt
Harriet try TO he agreeable to you and
all the houschold!'
II suppose she tries. if you're a mind
to call her aunt"
'She is my aunt, and mamma says she
makes the house seem like home again.
Your mother said that, and my moth
er her own sister,"
"Yrs. she said t!lat very thing, and she
said. too. when she knew Uncle Horace
was going 10 he married. that she was
ready 10 love Amy woman who would he
kind to you. And didn't Aunt Harriet
give YOU nice Christmas prcsents!"
'Oh, of course. Everybody gives Christ
mas presents. whether they care for pco-
pie or not. There's lots of cheap senti-
mcmt about Christmas. but. as Isaid be-
fore. on Valentines day people tell the
truth"
We'll. then. Tom. Just tell me the plain
truth two days before Valentines day.
Don't Mark and John Farrell say a great
many things to you against you new
mother?"
Say stepmothcr."
well. stcpmotler. Them and Fanny
Driscoll. i'll her carnestncss, stopped and
held her cousin by the sleeve. Now tell
me-"
why. OF course. Mark and John say
if their farther ever brings home a sec
md wife, they'll do Il lot of things and
"Now listen to mo. Don't you remem-
her how nice it used to he to so to Mr..
Farrcll'sw
"Yes-it's nice now"
ooh. no. Tom.'' and Fanny shook her
head slowly, and they walked on. "Mam-
ma doesn't allow Charlie to go there at
all. Yon know it isn't like it used to be,
and it isn't like your own home"
NO; We boys get very noisy sometimes,
hut John and Mark like it, and when
their old auntic objects they make her
go into another room and shut the door"
".And weren't the curtains set on fire
one EVENING""
YES; we didn't mean to do that, but
a %stepmothcr isn't mother. and I'm going
to let Mrs. Kent know it."
by sending her n comic valentine?!'
"How else could II"
"Surc enough! Since she has been Just
as kind to you as she possibly could be
for the four months she has been your
stepnother. Now, Tom, think it over. II
Aunt Harriet has done any willfully
wrong thing besides being your stepmoth-
err; il she has said one single unkind
word"
"Oh, pskaw, Fanny, where's the use!"
"Well, since you mean to tell the truth
OF Valentines day"
But I mean to send that ugly picture
with the verse just to let her know what
I think OF her"
"what is the verse? Do you remem-
her it?"
II think so:
ooh. long-tongued vixen, wiry scold!
l and my little brother g.
Hate you because you're plain and old.
And cause you're our stepmother."
Seems to me there's no truth In that.