The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1902-05-03
A Scientific
Abstraction.
BY Mrs. w. A. Owens.
copyrighted by Daily Story Pub Co.,

ans heroisni, sassA persecution WI
make her strong in Esvs.
Lena Raymond had always bee
just heart high to Franks Rowland
son. In their Juvenile days they ma
swung on the same grapevine an
then fought over the fruit; rOooc'
birds nests Of eggs as well as In
helpless young, and then sobbed re
pentairee in mutual embrace are
. pareutss chastiSement-
As time uassed they grew in stat
nre ans disfa -or with the comnss'nl
~. "The neighbo. -hood scourge wa v.
sample epithet besso'veo upon 49,
pair. Destroying angels was .n
best which even tkeir fsspecs I've pan
ents coHid efideaf them. uns enes
able were some 0f their antics. Ian
ing over uncovered and abandons
wells Just to see how far without
falling in; riding, circus styfs, twe
horses at the time (which horses
they had led out of neighbours u''
guarded stable without SO much ~
'by your leave''); climbing telegraph
poles and touching the wire with the
tip Of their noses to see If the wire
were "alive," were some of their
calmer diversions.
Never had Lena a sound garment
or Francis whole skin. These tri-
fling incidents happened before the
girl was IA. Francis lived next door
to the Raymonds. Youthful ameni-
ties and disseusions were stopped
without warning one summers day
when the girl walked out on the lawn
braided neatly and looped up with a
blue ribbon. I'm getting a big girl
now, Frank. You kids can continue
to play marbles in my back yard and
spin your top on the side hall floor"
And that finished it. There was more
in the delivery than the phraseology.
Frank stared and swallowed his rap
idly enlarging Adams apple and
dropped on the grass. One expletive
escaped as he took it in that clearly
reached Lena's accustomed compre-
hension: "Well, I'll be durned!" He
felt estranged from his old comrade,
alienated from the object of his boy
ish devotion, expatriated from home
and country!
Then he braced up. He took sud-
denly to long trousers, thought deep
ly in neckwear lore, passed into a
heavy voice with embarrassing indie
cision between tenor and bass, and
ultimately left for college. The two
following vacations found Lena abb
sent from home. The third brought
him home from his military school
with shoulder straps and his final ses-
sion left him covered with more hon
crs than he honestly came by" ac-
cordinQ to Lena's verdict.
That young miss had arrived at the
diary-kceping age. Here is an OK
tract. She had views about this
young fellow whom she had always
bullied but secretly feared:
s'June 30.--Old Frank is home now,
a Man. Good enough to look at, some
thing better to talk to, but as diff
cult to lasso as Texas broncho. As
he babe me good night he leaned
over and told me / was still Just
heart high to him. I'm glad / stopped
there, for he has taken on SIX feet
now (not literally, but by measure
ment), and ! don't aspire to his mans
prerogativc."
Francis. sat in his room reading a
love story and scribbling LENA" on
the margin as he romanced out of its
text. The next page or so found this
marginal note: Pretty enough to
make a man throw brickbats at his
wife, is Lena" One other: "As un-
certain as game OF pigs In the
clover His thoughts were run.
ming back over his 20 summers, mixed
with all his escapades and escapes
He recalled how his mother had
sighed over his incorrigible boyhood
and lamentcd his dead fathers guild.
ance and control. Then how DIR. John
son had come ON the scene and de.
clared that he was beyond father;
that it was stepfather he needed
He recalled the~lack of ceremony with
which he collared the beginning to
take notice" widower, DIR. johnson
and forthwith kicked him out of the
house. lad though he was. AS he
unused he colored with rage at the
monotony of the occasion. His moth.
er had gone to ''wherc there Is
peace" but DIR. johnson was still
above the daisies. Between his life's
retrospection, scribbling random
thoughts of Lena and persistent men
tai vision of DIR. johnson, the evening
passed. The summer was spent in
running over the "ifs" and lands" OF
tho several professions. He chose
medicine. His patrimony was accu
,nulated and banked, and he depart
I'd for New York. In due course OF
time he returned to his native south
err home and opened an Office. He
was magni6cently equipped in learn
inr.. but shy on Office fixtures and in.
utruments. And then DIR. johnson
came ON the scene again. He was
1Sulous Of his young professional ri
~, I'D began an organized persecu'
- propitious sabbath TIE
handed : note - he a.
and yeouested -