Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-08-09

father to hide things from you, after
am sure how things stand. Ruth and
l have thought great deal of each
other for a good while and today we
talked it over and-and everything is
settled between u.s."
"What-what in thunder!" cried Mr..
Hager, surprised into uttering more
than the yea, yea" prescribed by
scripture.
"As l said," Ezra went on, a firmer
ring in his voice, sit is settled between
Ruth and me that we are to marry
each other. OF course no time has
been set, and want you and mother to
feel right about it,"
Have you lost your wits, Ezra? %
cried the man.
Il feel as if I had just found them.
father; so, for pity sake, don't lose
yours. Let Josiah Willard rave if he
wants to but do hold yourself steady.
and be reasonable"
l won't have we marry into that de-
testable breed! Why, you knew that
your mother and jest abominated the
whole Willard tribe, and we had rather
you'd cut your throat than to join
hands with one of themi"
If Ezra had felt any trepidation at
first. the last vestige of the feeling
disappeared as his father grew more
vehement.
Father, you have got to be reason
able" Ezra repeated. "And first,
want you to tell me how the trouble
between you and Josiah Willard began,
so that 1 may judge which of you is
the most to blame"
How it begun; why, it didn't really
begin betwixt us at all. Your grand
father and Ruths-but what is the use
of going into the history of it?
They're detestable tribe, the whole
of them; and Josiah can't even speak
in meeting without flouting at my faith
and garbling Gods word to suit his
notions. But he daren't stand up and
quote scripture against me, line for line
and text for text, as l have challenged
him to do.
between you, after all. And you hold
against each other the old feud of your
fathers, and you hate him and he
hates you for the difference in your
faiths? When it comes to scripture,
father, there is that in it to send you
straight to the Willard dwelling with
a suit of peace and friendship. Agree
with thine adversary quickly"
Mr.. Hager shuffied his big feet on
the braided mat, which his wife would
have in the passage from the inner
door to the outer one for the father
and son to trip over and kick into a
heap. For the first time in is life the
gaze of the older man was unable
steadily to meet that of the younger
Ezra's memory was trained to quote
the phrases whose solemnity and
authority were made more sure by
their associations, and he did not
hesitate now to pursue the advantage
which he had gained.
''If Gods Word is true for one, so it
is just as true for the other" Ezra
went on. Then, as he recalled more
lines, he could hardly help smiling at
their fitness: IS If thou bring thy gift
to the altar, and there remembered
that thy brother had aught against
thee, leave thy gift before the altar
and go thy way; first to be reconciled
to thy brother and then come and offer
thy gift
AssLevi Hager's feet became entangled
in the mat, which had hole in it, and
he kicked viciously to free himself.
But there was a bitter thrall, from
which the kicks of heavy boots would
not liberate him.
81 don't see, father, how you could
be happy all these years, believing as
you do and hating man and his
entire family because your father
hated them before you! l have often
wondered at it. Now the time has
come for making up. Ruth becomes
daughter to you one of these days.
Had you forgotten little Margaret,
father? She would have been 20 if
she had lived-just Ruth's age"
The mans face became so suddenly
pale at the mention of the child who
had died when she was only four that
Ezra became silent. 1t was the one
grief of Levi Hager's life, and 1t
seemed to become fresher as he grew
older. The anxiety to meet again the
one who had slept for 16 years made
him study and ponder the portents of
scroll and sky, which were so precious
TO his faith, with an eagerness that ap-
preached impatience. The wars and
rumors of wars-the swift march OF
events-the drought of one season and
the freshet of the next-the winter
mildness succeeded by the blight of
frosts on his fields when the time of
frosts should have been past-all had
one trend to him. All the predictions
were being fulfilled, it seemed to him,
as they were never were before.
Ezra did not mean to play upon the
tender feelings of his father in a way
to hurt. Yet Levi Hager heard his
son speaking again, and there was an
indescribab'e gentleness in his tones.
Have you never marked how sweet
Ruth Willard is in her way? And
today she said that she had often
thought that her family and mine
would have been reconciled before this
IL my sister Margaret had only lived to
grow up. Can you imagine Margaret