Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-02-27
Ise it, nv child. nothing"

rant Sannle," SAID Elm. Ihere was q
little shade of WEAKNESS in the voice.
s'Not suit every one!" said Tant' San
ME. IF the beloved Redeemer didn't
mean men to have wives, what did he
make women for? That's what say.
If a woman's old enough to marry and
doesn't, she's SHINING against the Lord.
It's wanting to know better than
him. What. Does she think the Lord
took all that trouble in making her for
nothing? It's evident he wants babies.
Otherwise why does he send them?
Not that I've done much in that way
myself" said Tant' Sannie sorrowful-
~, 4but I've done my best"
She rose with some difficulty from
her chair and began moving slowly to-
ward the door.
IT'S strange thing" she said, "but
you can't love man till you've had a
baby by him. Now, there's that boy
there. When we were first married, if
he only sneezed in the night / boxed
his ears. Now If he let's his pipe ash
come on my milk clothes l don't think
OF laying finger on him. There's moth
ing like being married" said Tant'
Sannie as she pulled toward the door.
'If a woman's got a baby and hus-
band, she's got the best things the Lord
can give her, if only the baby doesn't
have commissions. As for a husband,
it's very much the same who one has.
Some men are fat, and, some men are
thin, some men drink brandy, and some
men drink gin, but it all comes to the
same thing in the end; it's all one. A
mans man, you know"
Here they came upon Gregory, who
was sitting in the shade before the
house. Tant' Sannie shook hands with
him.
"I'm glad you're going to- get mar
ried," she said. Il hope you'll have as
many children in five years as COW
has calves, and more too. think I'll
just so and have look at your soap
pot before start" she said, turning to
En-. Not that I believe in this new
plan of putting soda in the pot. If the
dear Father had meant soda to be put
into soap, what would he have made
milk bushes for and stuck them all
over the weld as thick as lambs in the
lambing season."
She waddled off after EN- in the di-
rection Of the built in soap pot, leaving
Gregory as they found him, with his
dead pipe lying, on, the bench beside
him and his blue eyes gazing out far
across the fiat, like one eIho sits on the
seashore watching that which is fad
ing, fading from him. Against his
breast was letter found in a desk adj
dressed to himself. But never posted.
1t held only four words, You must
marry EN-" He wore it in a black
bag round his neck. 1t was the only
letter she hadever written to him.
you see If the sheep don't have the
scab this year, said Tant' Sannie as
she waddled after Elm. Its with all
these new inventions that the wrath Of
God must fall on us. What We're the
children of Israel punished for If it
wasn't for making golden calf? l
may have my sins, but do remember
the Tenth Commandment, Honor Thy
father and thy mother, that it may be
well with thee, and that thou mayst
live long in the land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee It's all very well to
say we honor them and then to be fiad-
ing out things that they never knew
and doing things in a way that they
never did them. My mother boiled
soap with bushes, and will boil soap
with bushes. II the wrath of God is to
fall upon this land" said Tant' Sannie,
with the serenity Of conscious virtue,
ut shall not be through me. Let them
make their steam wagons and their
fire carriages; let them go on as though
the dear Lord didn't know what he
was about when he gave horses and
oxen legs. The destruction of the Lord
will follow them. don't know how
such people read their Bibles. When
do we hear of Moses or Noah riding in
a railway? The Lord sent fire ear
riages out of heaven in those days.
YES" said Tant' Sannie; 81 had al
most forgotten to tell you. By the Lord
If l had him here's We were walking
to church last sacrament Sunday, Piet
and l. Close in front of us was old
Tant' Trana, with dropsy and cancer
and can't live eight months. Walking
by her was something with it's hands
under its coattails, flap, flap, flap and
it's chin in the air, and a stick up collar,
and the black hat on the very back
of the head. knew him! Who's
that?' l asked. The rich Englishman
that Tant' Trana married last week.
Rich Englishman! III rich English
man him. said. IN tell Tant' Trana
thing or two My fingers We're just
in his little white curls. If it hadn't
been the blessed sacrament. he would
not have walked so 'sourka. sourka,
sourka. any more. But | thought
wait till Eve had it, and then But
he, sly fox, son of satan. seed Of the
Amalekite, he saw me looking at him
in the church. The blessed sacrament
wasn't half over when he takes Tant'
Trana by the arm. and out they go. |
clap my baby down TO its father. and
go after them. But said Tant' San
ME regretfully, 81 couldn't get up to
them. am too fat. When got to the
corner Tia wos n,Iiinp Tant' 'Trana IN