The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1902-11-21

She had gathered all her strengtn
for that question. She did not dare 70
look across at Phineas. His reply
rumbled deeply in his throat, put she
could make out all the words. f'1ty
years she had lived with Phlneas
Quimby.
81 said we'd lave Jerry's folks here
to Thanksgivin' dinner. We anu nao
'em for some time, and this is a klhu ol
a extry year, bcin' our anniversary"
II know, father-our tiftieth ann
versary. That's why l wanted
wanted-John's-" :.
You better write to Jerry right on.
Better do it to-day, and Silas Bluntli
mail it FOR We tonight. It's Sis nlgh1
to go to lodge"
Nothing more,a and when she had said
"father," Amelia Quimby had played
her last card-her trump. She had not
called him father" since Jerry and
John were great brown boys anditha
happened. Twenty-seven years ago.
was that? All, the heartbreak a
mother can hide in 81 years! When
she has had twin sons laid in her arms
and held them one on one side and one
on the other, and gazed for long, weak
days from one little pink face to the
othcr,-when she has watched them
grow out of pinafores into trousers,
out of childhood into tall, splendid
strength, when she had fed them and
patched them and loved them-ah, to
lose one of them, then! Mothers know.
At first she had hoped for a recon
citation. Year after year, at Thanks
giving time, she had hoped. For, odd
ly enough, it was on Thanksgiving day
she had married Phineas Quimby, and
two years later, on the day after, that
they had laid his twin sons in her arms.
The day was doubly momentous to her.
only, I'd hoped so much from
this Thanksgiving!" Amelia Quimby
mourned. ''Why, it's going to be our
fifticth anniversary-you'd think a
each other on the golden wedding day!
1t was too o o to hope for it OF the
silver one; but now, after all these
years, you'd think had a right to hope
for it!"
"Jerry's felix's" meant Jerry and his
wife and the two grown girls. But
Johns folks--the mother smiled visit
fully as she counted up the little names
on her fingers. There were so many;
it took all her fingers but two! John
had not been married as long as Jerry.
His folks" were little folks.
"And this year there's the twins.
They'd be big enough to come. And to
think they're both boys, and their
names"- Suddenly the wistful voice
quivered and Johns mother cried over
the names of hislittle twin sons. The
pathos of them and Of her empty arms
that yearned for them broke down her
patient endurance.
81 want them-oh, I want them! 1
want Johns little baby boys!" she
cried out. aloud. But there was no one
to hear. Phineas had gone away to
his work. She sat down, as she had
done SO many times, to write to John.
That was her only comfort, and it had
never been denied her. Two sacred
things there were in the life of Phineas
Quimby and his wife. Amelia, that had
v been violated. even by the quar-
rel that long ago had separated father
and son. The father had never denied
the mother the solace of her letters to
her boy, and by word or intima-
ton had Amelia Quimby complained of
herThusband. To-day, as always, she
said only. kind words of him. There
was no mention of Thanksgiving day,
or of the disappointment that ranked
in her breast.
kiss both the babies for me-frst
n and then the other. a hundred
times!" she wrote. "Tell little Jerry
I love him, and tell little John. An
tell me about their eyes-you forgot
to say the color-and their hair, and
their little fists. Does little Jerry
keep his thumb between his first and
second fingers when his fist is shut up
tight? Little John?-then you've
named them wrong. You've mixed
those children up! Before it is too late,
you'd better let them swap Names"
The letter ran on lovingly, with a
message in it for one child after an
other. And for John himself there was
the old message-"Your mother is
lovingyou, john" 1t was always there,
To Jerry she wrote briefly. Jerry
was a busy man, with a hundred out
side interests-outside of mother. His
letters to her were wont to be rare and
short, but there was always a message
to father in them. She missed that in
Johns long, tender letters.
I'm half afraid to write" she
thought, as she took up her pen; "Jer-
rvs folks have SO many rich friends,
and SO many places to go to-I'm afraid
they won't want to come.' But she
dipped her pen in the ink and began.
My dear boy"-she always began
her letters to both sons that way-"My
dear boy. your father says to put on
all your bonnets, every one of you, and
come to the old home to keep Thanks
giving. He's quite set upon it. You
know-you haven't forgotten, dear?-
that it is our golden wedding Thanks
giving, and it's time you came! Think
of having a father and mother so wears
married and not coming! Your father
says to say he has waited as long as he
can-and you must come home or he
will disOWn you! And he is in earnes+