River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-04-06

At times, when you have been unusu-
ally mean, / have thought / hated
you. but when / have said something
ugly to- you, and have laid awake all
Right regretting it, it has occurred to
me that you were about the best
friend | had. | think it makes an old
man forget his years, to be chummy
with live boy, full of ginger, and |
do like you, condemn you, and l can't
neip it, Now I want you to- write me
every little while, on your trip, and
| will read your letters to the custom
ers here in the store, who will be lone
ly until they can hear that you are
dead The neighbors will come in to
read your letters, and it will bring me
custom. Will you write to me, boy,
anG pour out your heart to me, and tell
ME of the different troubles you get
your dad into, for surely you cannot
Eelp finding trouble over there if you
go hunting for it. Promise me, boy"
"You bet your life | will, old pard, .
said the bad boy. 81 shall have to
have some escapes valve to keep
from busting. | was going to
write to my chum, but he is in love
with a telephone girl, and he don't
taEe any time for pleasure. | will
write you about every dutch and
duchess we meet, every prince and
pauper, and everything. You watch
luy smoke, and you will think there is
a train afire / hope dad will try and
restrain himself from wanting to fight
everybody that belongs to- any coun-
try but America. He has bought one
Of these little silk American flags to
wear in his button hole, and he swears
if anybody looks cross-eyed at that
flag he will simply cut his liver out,
and toast it on fork, and eat it. He
makes me tired, and / know there is
going to be trouble
Don't you think your dads mind
sort of wanders?" said the old grocery
man, in whisper. 1T wouldn't be
strange, after all he has gone through,
in raising you up to your present size,
if he was little off his base
well, ma thinks he is bug-house,
and the hired girl is willing to go into
court and swear to it, and that expert
ence we had coming home from the
Yellowstone park made me think if he
was not crazy he would be before long.
You see, we had a hot box on the en-
CINE, and had to stay at station in
the bad lands for an hour, and there
were a mess of COW boys on the plat
form, and | told dad we might as well
there, and that brakeman told me
the COW boys were great dancers, but
you couldn't hire them to dance, but
if some man with a strong personality
would demand that they dance, and
pat his hand on his pistol pocket, they
would all jump in and dance for an
hour. That was enough for dad, for
he has a microbe that he is a man of
strong personality, and that when he
demands that anybody do something
they simply got to do it, SO he walked
up and down the platform a couple of
times to get his draw poker face on,
and l went up to one of the COW boys
and told him that the old duffer used
to be ballet dancer; and he thought
everybody ought to dance when they
were told to, and that if the spell
should come on him, and he should
order them to dance, it would be a
great favor to me if they would just
give him double shuttle or two, just
10 ease his mind.
well, pretty soon he came along to
where the cow boys were leaning
against the railing, and, looking at
them in a naughty manner, he said:
Dance, you kiotes, Dance and he put
his hand to- his pistol pocket Well,
sir, l never saw SO much fun in my
life. Four of the cow boys pulled re-
vOlvers and began to shoot regular
bullets into the platform within an
inch of dads feet, and they yelled to
Kim: Dance your own self, you
ancient maverick; whoop 'er up!" and
by gosh! dad was so frightened that
he began to dance all around the plat
form, and it was ike battle, the bull