The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-19
THE EVENING STOR Y
A Realistic Picture.

A Realistic Picture.
Lucy and I had been back from our
! wedding trip but five days when we
had a violent quarrel. Never in my
life had ! been so shocked, so Mortified.
| We had known each other ten years
| with nothing more serious between US
| than few lovers spats, and now that
| we were united for life we lad made
| the discovery that we were incompati-
! BILE. / saw in store for US a series of
outbursts lasting through a lifetime. l
| FASTENED to my friend Merriam-a
| singular friend for man of twenty
| five, since he was seventy-to pour my
What is it. Bil1y?" he asked SYM
pathetically.
I'VE have quarreled,'' Ireplied. almost
in tears.
Well" he said. with a smile, did
you expect to go through life billing
| and cooing?'
NO but 1 have always ibeen used
after quarrel with any friends to be
! the first to offer my hand and make it
| all up. 1 would have despised the man
who would refuse to meet me half
way
meet with such response from wo-
MANI"
IT never had such quarrels with wo-
men. I was not sufficiently intimate
| with any of Them
|
never becomes as intimate with another
man as with a woman. Besides wo-
man is not a man. Sit down, light your
pipe, and I'll tell you what l have never
| confided to any one before.
| My marriage, like yours, was love
| match. I had had a great many men
friends and one man chum. The night
after our return from our wedding trip
I took up my hat to go out. Wnere
are you going? asked my wife. I'm
going round to Tom Noyes' for few
minutes just to say How dyou do?'
after my Absence And you expect me
to spend the evening here alone on the
first night after our return? If Tom is
to take you so early, what will be the
result after you have begun to get tired
of me?' I didn't suppose marriage
meant giving up my best friend But
what need to give dialogue that led
up to violent quarrel?
| 1T was very plain to me that if L
had tried to find the most unreasonable
woman in the world I could not have
: better succeeded. At first after our
quarrels we made a great ado about
! making up, but pretty soon we sulked
, after the paroxysms, growing less and
! less sulky every hour till tranquility
was restored. At times 1 would apollo
gize for what I had done and OCCASION
: ally for what had not done, but after
9 awhile I discovered that the best way
: was to ignore the causes of our difficult
ties entirely. They were all shocks re-
y to blend.
81 did not spring from the grub
> bachelor into the butterfly married
man. 1t took a long while to change
me. AS the years went by l let GO
i more and more my bachelor instincts
and developed those of a husband and
father. A new world was growing into
existence for me. For a time l di6
not realize how fully 1 had become q
part of it, and at times cast longing
V eyes back to my bachelor independ-
i ence. But the daY came at last WheT
: looked upon my bachelorhOod as al
l. undeveloped existence in which the
d heart had no part and my own Swee
e will was the current in which 1 drift
e ed aimlessly.
= children to lose. Each child was like
}. a tender shoot springing from my
:. heart Those who passed from us are
n as dear today as those who lived. II
Il the family, with all its cares, its re
s sponsibilities, its griefs, we found th'
+ only happiness that never died,
l. 'And now that those of our children
e who have lived have left US to form
Y their own worlds we are alone 10
: gether as we were when the curren
n of our lives first met and mingled. d.
i you suppose we never quarrel? II yo'
,. do, you are mistaken. But we know
n that our Cuarrels are part of gu
If imperfect natures, and we accept then
Ie as we accept our other ills. Thus W
l. do not magnify the evil they do, whicl
N is in itself 1nS1gnlncant-
" Frank" called a sharp, querulou
voice from another room, ARE you go
ing to talk all day?
what do you want, DEAR?
''You know very we'll that l nav
% been wanting to speak to you abou
J. something of Importance for half a
s. hour"
'I'll be with you in moment Don
lie get into a stew about nothing.
n I pressed the old mans hand and with
h drew. 1t seemed to me that in his brie
= few words I had heard he had given me
picture of what my life would likely b'
J. The romances I had read of the happ
" period of young love, the beautiful drift
ing together of two souls. gradual de
=, | cline without chafing, all seemed to m
n | to be incompatible with our imperfect ma
u lures. Beautiful examples there doubles
IL are, but when a consciousness OF my oW
a imperfections doomed up before me ha
n no hope that mine would be one of them
wife and said to her: 49,
= Lucy I have just been talking with m
u old friend, Mr.. Merriam. and he has sal
things I expect are true"
At What did he say?"
" "He said that l must gradually get owe
my bachelor habits. 1 must begin to liv
a a far different life"
Il should think So.
"And be says that you and l must ex
meet occasionally to have little tiff, yo
Certainly we will If you continue to &C
| unreasonably. Dinner has been gettin
,s cold for an hour"
. I sighed. There were parts of the burde
,e that I would have to bear alone.
ID SUMNER CHILDS.
he -~--
ee GLOBE SIGHTS.
4