The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-04-21
CHAPTER L

&Ak
10 talked, his hearers in the big bare
room drowsed, nodded or stared at
him with lack-luster eyes. He usually
held forth on Sundays when the law
and the Lord prohibited work and there
was nowhere to go.
On this sultry afternoon his theme
was his own misfortune in being bur-
dened with a family that contributed
aaught to his desires. He had never,
In exact words, voiced their shortcom-
ings, but in his secret soul he would
have had them perhaps less like him
self, certainly less like his wife, who
weighed 200 if she weighed pound.
The two girls, Mary Lou, aged is,
and Ann Josephine, 20, threatened, as
their bedslats continued to break, to
aurpass their mother in the flesh they
were heir to, and in addition to this
impeachment to activity and encourager
of sloth, they had come honestly by a
comb ination of their fathers tow-col-
.ored and their mothers red hair, which
little suited their norid compilations.
They had, also, freckles as big as pock-
marks, which a diligent application of
Stump water" had failed to dim.
Fanshaw had two sons. Ronald, the
eldest child, was not in the room.
David, lusty fellow built on his IA
theirs plan, but with more cheerful
face, was lying on the high-posted bed
In the corner of the room. He always
hurled into his fathers TRADES against
his family comments in favor of his
brother, whom he admired intensely.
"You cayn't complain of Ron," he
said this afternoon, as he famed the
aies from his face with his big straw
hat lined with blue calico. "He looks
after his own business. Mr.. Hague
said Saturday before last that he'd
ruther have Ron rent land from i'm
than any man in the country. He
flowed Ron paid every dollar he CON
Eracted to pay an that the niggers
liked i'm SO much that they'd work
twice as hard for i'm as they would for
anybody else"
"That don't do me no good" snarled
Fanshaw.
mo, 1 reckon not" admitted Dave,
Abut you won't ever be ashamed of
i'm, if you are of the rest of us. He's
been readin' and studyin' every spare
minute sence he was knee high to a
grasshopper. For the last six months
Mr.. Redding, the best lawyer in Dan
abe, has been proyidin' i'm with books,
an my idea is that he is goin' to make
lawyer outn hissef. You cayn't
M, hns MI al
an as fur good looks, geewhilikins!
Did l ever tell you-uns what happened
at campmcetin'? l was settin' I'M
der the bush arbor about four benches
from the front last Sunday was a
week when Ron come in dyked out
an his best Sunday clothes. You ort
10 a-seed how the folks turned their
heads. y young dude behisd me axed
man next to I'm who in the thunder
that was, an the fellow said he wasn't
sertain, but he lowed it was some
chap visitin' at Col. Hasbrooke's from
Boston or New York. Then it was my
put in. / bent over an informed 'em
shat it was Ronald Fanshaw, the old
est son of Jason Fanshaw. An YOU
ort to a-heerd 'em giggle. Then the
man that had aXed the question come
back at me fairly slobberin' in the
mouth to keep frum laughin' out loud.
you're away Off, my friend seq
he: you shorely amt acquainted bout
hecr. Old Fanshaw is the daddy of the
sorriest layout on the face Of crea-
ton. l hain't never been to his side
show myself, but know Il heap o folks
that has paid Their way an never aXcd
tur the money back, nuther.' .-
"Then jest punched my face over
to his yccr an said, did: I ort to
know 'im,' ! says, tetchin' the butt
g my pistol. He's my brother. an
when mectin' is over men you'll go
into the sideshow fur minute; the
tents stretched right out thar i'll the
bushes an the latest addition to it is
u Buffalo Bill dead shot
'He wilted an got as white as the
inside of cucumber, an then the
preacher axed everybody 10 kneel down
and pray. / was AKIN the Lord to
bless my purpose when them two riz
an polcd it out over the straw. l half
way gov up, but tllc preacher Dlohe
off in his prayer an begun to talk
about the law agin disturbin' public
worship, an | sunk down on my knees
an seed them two mount an gallop off
like the woods was afire."
''You ort to a-mashed lis teeth down
his throat" said Mrs. Fanshaw.
''Folks has poked too much fun at us
20 suit me. In war times you wouldn't
a-stood it, Jade" She called her hus-
band Jade, not because he was tired
or was a horse, but because it was the
only abbrevation of the name she
knew.
An expression of hot fury lay on
Tanshaw's wrinkled face as he looked
cut into the yard where half a hundred
ducks, turkeys, guinea-hens and pea
cocks were feastng on the remains OF
she watermelon the family had just
eaten. "My Lord" he grunted, "ef
took folks to taw ever time they joked
about you-uns, Id have my hands FULL
"Well, they'd better not let me llee1
Fem THROWN off on u.s." declared Dave
and he stood up and stretched himself
s'Butw when you come to think of it, Ron
is so different from the rest of US that
its no wonder folks take i'm for one
o. that highfalutin' crowd tell you
he's no slouch!"
Dave went out into the back porch
where a stream of water shot from