The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1906-08-18
Am
Little Mary's Bachelor Father.
islH VF'zy q lsy sSsy Z
BIZ CLARENCE C. cHEADLE.

Simmons leaned back IN his chair,
drew couple of long puffs from the
1neerschaum, and smiling at his COM
panion, began:
You know me, Tom. You know
blamed well that | never was very
fond of children, as rule bachelors
never are; and when a fellow like
me, without kith or kin, gets such
a letter as / received, why, 1t nat
urally takes his breath away. Here
is the precious missiVe itself
Simmons presented a crumpled
sheet Of paper, from which he read:
"eDear Papa: I want to Sc you 80
bad I can't wait no longer SO 7 am
coming to Sc you tomorrow mite
Peas stay at home and I will com
about o'clok. With lots Of Low. /
remain, Your little Mary
How would you like to get some
thing like that, Tom, old boy?
Wouldn't it kind of make your breath
come short for few seconds? Well,
1 wonder! Sure, you'd stop to think,
and more than that. you'd begin fig
uring what to do with that kid when
she showed up to see her papa.
"Of course you'd think Of getting
detective to look after her when
she showed up. That's Just what l
thought, but, then, detectives some
times have the habit of telling things
that the newspapers get hold OF, and
| had no relish for seeing faring
headline proclaiming that: John
George Simmons spurns His Baby
daughter or any such. tell you, I
did some pretty hard thinking.
'.Tom, you old numskull, certainly |
thought of going to see her and pre-
vent her coming; but this was wise
little girl, and she forgot to put her
address on the note.
"Oh, your suggestions are all right,
Tom, but thought Of all Of them. But
lers and babies don't mix well, and
you can imagine what a nice spec
tacle it would have been to have that
kid standing on my front step yelling:
4 want to see my papa, and the but
Ter trying to argue her out OF it.
Say, Tom, you know how fellow
feels the morning after; well that
was me the day after got that note;
/ was simply yelling for help. And
the worst feature of the whole bust
ness was that had invited a few
of the boys up for a quiet game that
night-that tomorrow night in Mary's
note.
well, by afternoon was most all
in, and the more | tkought Of it the
hotter | got; until decided to go
ahead with that game, If all the kids
in town came tearing into the house
yelling Hello, papa, we've come to
see YOU
When it got to be ha1f-past seven
o'clock and that kid had not shown
up, was about as near crazy man
as T ever want to be.
and every time one Of them rang the
bell at the front door il was like pour
ing a pitcher of ice water down my
back. You know. q fellow can't tell
what a woman will do, and it occurred
to me that maybe Mary had decided
to call later.
fTa1k about trouble! I'd got my
self in such a devil Of state that
the boys took it up, and the way they
handled me during the evening was
nothing small.
When they had all gone, and ]
finally went to bed, | lay there hoping
and praying that as Mary had not
put in an appearance that night, she
never would; and easing myself with
that, Esdropped off to sleep.
LOT course, / heard from her again.
I Heard from her again-well,
should say I did. The first thing
that caught my eye when got to
the Office next morning was a letter
addressed to me in that same big,
round, uncertain hand. Everything
of TIE past two days came rushing
back to me in that second, and, say,
Tom, 1 guess the Office boy thought
I'd gone cranky the way grabbed
that letter and ducked. Once outside
and alone, concluded to face the
worst and tore open the envelope.
Here it is:
Dear Papa: ] couldn't come last
mite becaus I was six. am not well
vet and SO want you to come and sc
me Hoping to Sc you tonite, I am,
Your little Mary.
s'No. 1856 Blank St
Yves, and down here in the corner
she had bunch Of crosses and the
information that they represented
kisses for me.
tom, did go? OF course did.
made up my mind to say some
things that a gentleman ought really
not say to a lady; but, then, IA
Their has some privileges, and pro-
posed to teach this unknown daugh-
ter of mine something before I got
through with her.
"o1d pal, have you ever, as a boy,
been promised that you could &C
somewhere-some place that you had
always wanted to go torand you
| could hardly wait until the time had
,s'2fA~ss-as'9Ns ass-aesa fsss-aasA ess-sse