The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-10
MRS. DOLBY'S TALKS.
She Tries to Find Out Certain Things,
but the Deacon Is Too Busy.

but the Deacon Is Too Busy
Deacon Dolby had been down to the
village store to get quarter of a pound
of the best tea, bar of soap and two
nutmegs. Upon his return he placed
his purchases on the kitchen table and
sat down and removed his shoes and
stockings. 1t had occurred to him on
his way home that his toe nails needed
trimming and he had opened his jack
knife and was prospecting around when
Mrs Dolby came in from calling at
neighbours. She had something to say
to him. and she didn't lose a minute in
beginning.
see if she was going to make soft soap
next fall and she felt it her duty to
tell me what she saw last Tuesday
afternoon. She is woman who never
gossips about any one, and she never
tells anything unless she thinks it her
duty as a Christian woman. Deacon,
where were you last Tuesday afternoon
al o'clock?'
Deacon Dolby had begun the work OF
cutting off a generous section of his
big toe nail, and he paused in his work
a moment and puckered his eyebrows in
thought. Mrs. Dolby kept her eyes on
him and waited but he returned to the
attack on the nail without having re-
piled to her question.
Il can tell you where you We're" she
went on in an accusing voice. There
was a stranger in town with a lung
testing machine It was cents to blow
through a tube and test your lungs.
You stood around awhile and then paid
your money and blew. Mrs. White was
passing al the time and she says your
eyes bulged out and your hair stood up
and your face was as red as a beet. l
remember that your face was still red
when you got home, and wondered II
you had been rubbing it against the
fence. Yes, you blew and blew and
~ nd ha lungs
all right. Do you deny it, deaconY'
The deacon didn't He had blown so
hard that his heels were lifted off the
ground and his necktie showed up under
his ears, but why affirm or deny?
1T isn't your blowing I complain oc,
but your display of selfishness. All you
cared about were your own lungs. You
never thought of mine. You didn't seem
to care whether I had any lungs or MOI.
You knew I had had a hacking cough
for a year or two and that I had wOr
ried a good deal. and yet you came
sneaking home and never said word
for suspecting that you no longer care
fer ne"
The deacon had now finished with the
| big toe. and as no direct question had
been asl-ed he did not feel called upon
to discuss things in the abstract. One
can't enter into heated discussion and
cut his toe nails at the same time.
But we will let tat CO. said Mrs
I Dolby AFTER a nlnute-'We Will let tnaI
GO and I will ask you if it is true that
while you were down at the cooper
shop the other day to get a new bung
for our vinegar barrel there was a fight
/ between lightning rod man and a tin
peddler. Mrs. Richmond says there was
/ She says those two men called each
other liz rs and thieves and villains and
finally pitched into each other and rolled
all over the street She was scared half
to death, but she remembers seeing you
I there and she says you just looked on
and seemed to enjoy it. Is it true, or
has she got things mixed up? 1t doesn't
seem possible that I'm married to a man
who'll stand by and see two human be-
ings kicking and biting and scratching
each other. but maybe it's true, deacon
maybe it's true
While Mrs Dolby was swallowing the
! lump in her throat and wiping away her
/ tears the deacon shifted his feet to get
at the other big toe and let his mind go
back to the incident referred to. It was
true tnat there was rough language,
! followed by fight in which the peddler
got the best of it, but it had been u
sudden affair, and no one had had time
to interfere. AS a deacon he would have
mediated if there had been an oppor-
tunity; as a man he was glad that the
peddler had licked. He did not give
Voice to MS thoughts, however, but was
lndustriously handling the knife when
Mrs. Dolby started off again.
Il don't want to accuse you of wrong
doing, and l don't want to say that it
looks as if you were backslidng, but it
was only n few days ago that I sent
down to the store for a yard of black
cambria. Mrs Hanley was in the store
tbuying ten yards of calico, and you sat
down on the box while waiting. There
was a nail in the box. and you jumped up
with whoop and danced around and said
things. Mrs Hanley won't tell me what
you said. Every time I ask her she breaks
down and cries. I have tried to get it out
of you in your sleep. but you only groan
and Srlt your teeth and draw up your
legs. Deacon Dolby. am I living with a
plTateY Have you got to using such words
cus?'
The deacon could have made defense.
ANY man who sits down a wire nail
IS apt to rise up suddenly and express his
opinion in plain English. and any Jury II.
the land will bring in a verdict of tenn
porary insanity. The incident had come
and gone. however. and why discuss it
now. when he could not remember where
he put in his exclamation points? He
simply pared away and ignored the 'aues-
ton, and Mrs. Dolby heaved sigh and
observed:
There is one more thing. The other
day 1 asked YOU to whitewash the cellar.
All cellars ought to be whitewashed at
least once year It sweetens things up
ana keeps the bugs out You didn't seem
TO want to do il. but you finally fixed up
pail of whitewash and went at it. You
WIZ work ng away when went over TO
Mrs. Saunders to see if she could lend me
her hatirons next day. While I was gone
man called here to see about selling
truit trees. I was on my way back when
ne came out of the gate on the run. hts
face as white as a sheet He gave me one
look, but did not ston. That man was
scared almost to death. deacon, and I
want to know what scared him. What
had he seen OF heard?''
A smile crept over the deacon's face.
ana there was chuckl.ng noise in his
throat but he had Just struck broken