St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-10-10
But Not
Without Love
Copyright, fsos. By Daily story Pub. Co.
BY r. H. LANCASTER


OUISIANA has passed a law prohib.
iting marriage between cousins.
C'est bon! But year ago this was not
so? No! Then 1t was quite possible
among the 'Cajan population, quits
probable for man to be his sons sec
0nd cousin; his cousins brother; his
niece's nephew, or his grandmother
father-in-law. Do not laugh, mon ami;
IL est vrai. And, this is how it hap
pened-so the wise one tells us-that in
nine families out of every ten there was
at least one child extremely dull of wit
AS the parents cheerfully put 1t, I'll n
q pas une tete."
This was what was the matter with
ZoZeph Grfmmeure; he had no head
The teacher, not being native of Louis
Jana, did not understand. She tried to
teach Zozeph his letters. He learned
readily, but-he forgot even more read
lily than he learned. 1t was as though
a hand with sponge followed the hand
that wrote The teacher looked into
those eyes bright as wild animals.
and blamed her methods. She read up
on memory culture; she tried coaxing
and coercion. Then madam, his moth
er, explained:
my Zozeph dom learn moch? No!
got no head, heem."
And after long trial the teacher was
forced to accept the explanation. The
teachers that succeeded her. one by
one. did the same. Zozeph was always In
his place, very neat. with his hair slicked
over his ears and his trousers tied up
with a string. Always carrying with
careful pride his well-worn primer. Ac-
cording to her moral makeup, the
teacher found him pitiful or exasper-
ating.
So the boy without head grew to tall
ladhood and fell in love. Fell in love
with beautiful Madeline, the belle of
the school and its brightest scholar.
Comment done. Do not boys gener-
ally fall in love with pretty girls? 70
xeph's hair was slicked down with more
slick precision, his trousers were tied
up with more trig tightness, and won
derful. wistful light grew in those beau
tiful bright eyes Of his. He brought
Madeline daily great handfuls of flow
ers, and showed her all the pictures
in his precious primer. The other girls
laughed, but Madeline was kind-too
kind, 1t would seem, to be quito right.
All, mon ami, 1t is in love much as 1t is
in politics-you vote not to please your
friend, but to punish your enemy. And
Madeline had IN enemy? Dame. How
else could you call him? A boy who
will not make love as he expected to do.
Who stares stupidity at his geography
when he might know one is longing TO
show OF his devotion before the other
girls. Naturally one detests q SELF
contained lover, who does all his love-
making behind the house or in lone
some places, where there is no one to
see. Mails ciel, that is stupid. But
that is just what the big Alphonse did.
He was ready enough to kiss his pretty
cousin when they sat upon the steps to-
gether in the moonlight and to hold
her hand then. But to hold it-or try
to hold 1t in class before all those gig
Cling girls All que, nom! Alphonse
AGlL SuCA IAAu6os ~ uOyD WHO uau no
heads. En- bfen, the boy who had no
head was willing enough to do them.
Too willing, for his own good. poor fell
low! His devotion was pitiably pa-
tient. He carried her books and buck
ct, sharpened her pencils and ruled her
slate. Madeline smiled sweetly and
talked to him over the fence at recess.
but the big cousin remained. obdurate.
The days of blue and gold" came on
apace, bringing that soft, awakening
springtime that Hindu poets love to
sing about, and the time between re-
cesses grew very long for Zozeph. The
teacher was astonished when he held
up his hand to speak; he had never done
such thing before. OF course, Zozeph
spoke to Madeline. Didn't she want
her pencil sharpened?" And. Of course.
Madeline did, giving him the pencil
aud kind smile also. Because Of this