Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1906-07-19


|0olvoa. But when one grabs cat up
&c n she was goiB' 10 eat It and cnd-
dies Il Ia her neck and talks baby-tAlk
"a It, you play her fur bein' sound and
true. Pass up the others, son"
As the train started he swung him
self on with sad little BE good 20
YOURSELF"
THANK the Lord we're under way
at lastln cried Perclval, fervently,
when the group at the station had
been shut from view.
"Isnt It just heavenly" exclaimed
his sister. 'SChink of having all oe
New York you want-being at home
there-and not having to look forward
to this desolation Of a place"
Mrs. Bines was neither depressed nor
elated. She was maintaining that
calm level Of submission to fate which
had been her lifelong habit. The jour
ney and the new life we're to be under
taken because they formed for her the
line Of least resistance along which all
energy must flow. Had her children
elected to camp for the remainder Of
their days In the center of the desert
Of Cobb, she would have faced that life
with as little sense OF personal COM
Germ and with no more misglvlngs.
Down out of the maze Of hills the
train wound; and then by easy grades
after two days Of travel down on the
great plateau to where the plains OF
Nebraska lay away to q far horizon In
brown pillows OF withered grass.
Then came the crossing OF the sullen,
sluggish Missouri, that highway Of an
earlier day to the great northwest; and
after that the better wooded and bet
ter settled lands Of Iowa and Illinois.
Nov we're getting where Christians
live" said Percival, with warm appre-
citation.
"Why, Percival," exclaimed his moth
er, reprovingly, "do you mean to say
there aren't any Christians in Mon
tsna City? How you talkE There are
lots of good Christian people there"
And even Mrs. Bines was not with
out a sense of quiet and rest induced
by the gentler contours Of the land
scape through which they now sped.
THE country here does seem a lot
cozier," she admitted.
The hills rolled away amiably and
reassuringly;, the wooded slopes in
their gay coloring of autumn invited
confidence. Here were no forbidding
stretches Of the gray alkan desert, nc
grim bare mountains, no solitude OF
desolatlon. 1t was a kind land, fat
with riches. The shorn yellow fields
the capacious red barns, the well-con-
ditioned homes, all told eloquently Of
peace and plenty. So, too, did the vii
lages--those lively little clearing
houses for immense farming districts
To the adventurer from New York they
seem always new and crude. To oul
travellers from q newer, cruder region
they were actually aesthetic In theiI
suggestions of an old and well-estab
lished civilization.
4 In due time they were rafting over
a tangled maze OF switches, dodgine
!, interminable professions of freighi
cars, barely missing crowded passen
ger trains whose bells struck clear ant
then iiatted as the trains few by; de.
fling by narrow waterways, crowded
with small shipping; winding through
streets lined with high, gloomy ware
houses, amid the elang and clatter, this
fstrangely sounding bells and whistles
OF q thousand Industries, each sending
up IFS just contribution of black smoke
to the pail that lay always spread
above; ana steaming at last into {
great roomy shed where all was sys.
tenn, and where the big engine trem
bled and painted as If in relief at hav
ing run in safety gauntlet SO hazard
Gus.
Anyway, I'd rather live in Montanf
City than Chicago" yentured Mrs
Bines.
Whatever pride you may feel II
your discernment is amply justified,
replied her son, performing before tn,
amazed lady a bow that indicated thl
lowest depths Of slavish Difference.
81 am now" he continued, going
out to pace the floor Of this locomotive
boudoir for few exhilaratlng breathi
OF smoke, and pretend to myself tina
I've got to live In Chicago forever.
, little discipline like that is sslutary b
keep one from forgetting the grea
. blessing which mereiful Provio 3ncI
has conferred upon one"
''Tll walk a BIT with YOU" said hi
J sister, donning her Jacket and cap
Lest my remarks have seemed in
determinate, madam" sternly contin
ued Percival at the door Of the car
permit me to add that II Chicago wer
Heaven should at once enter upon
life Of crime. DO not aMeet to misun
derstand me, beg Of you | shout,
leave no avenue OF salvation open {,
my precious soul. / should incur NJ
: risk Of being numbered among tn
saved should be bad, and / shouli
sit mp nights to invent new ways 0
eVil. II had any leisure left iron
being as wicked as / could be, shoulI
~ 4