Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-05

TRY to do my duty by each and every
in the station to which the Lord has
called me. Hit do look plumb GURUS
II that Proverdunce should have sawn
ft to afhct me with an onregenerate
The voice was fiat and muffied, the tones Of fat
woman sitting bumped in rockingham
"Oh l dunno-I dunno" snapped Uncle Abner
He was small, alert, bright-eyed like grayhaired
old sparrow Reckon hits the same dummed fool
rangement that ficts me with such burned regen-
Aunt Volumnia started and groaned at each mild
expletive though the word had been a sharp
instrument prodded into her ample person sar+ Inars
ably. "You cuss me all you want TO, ADner;
I'm used to hit but for any sakes don't let the Elder
grace" -,
The little old man was an emotoned creature, iras
cible swift to forgive, with veritabe volcano OF
feeling ready to spill upon every trfing matter
He looked at his wfes large, placid vacant counten
ance; he was aware that in her own fashion she rel
shed these scenes, and the knowledge wrought MIN
'What in thunder" (there is nothing particularly
sacred about thunder, one would say, yet volaln i
Wimberly shivered and moaned as her husband TOOK
its name in van), what in thunder would you 90
eff my bein sech devil OF sinner WASH III, Ine
talk of the two Turkey Tracks? Hits your calm
in life to be the suferin wife of the wickedest man
the Lord ever forgot to strike with Ightnln don
need to misbehaye myself before t4e bnvt md
the old mans thin red face grew redder with rage.
"Oh my SOUL" sobbed Aunt Volumnia, quite en-
joying herself, wusht had leadin': long Tor
to know how best to bring this hyer sinful man 10
a knowledge of his sins"
She addressed the generally The small
section of its conscious intelligence there present,
In the person of her erring spouse merely snorted
"Hit's about time for the quarterly" he commented
with biting sarcasm. "I looked for you to chune up
a-yesterday. You an your crowd air settfn out fer
the foteenth quarterly to gyether Abner Wimberly
in Well you'll not do It. From tn }ae samples SO per
chances outside bet a chaw o. terbacker the Old
Boy has got mighty hot skillet ready for the hypo-
critics an amt gwine to jne their crowd III cuss
when get aready, an I'll pay my debts whether IN
ready not. Eff the Lord don't like my kind OF re-
ligion, He kin jest
did not get to suggest that the Dety should lump
his religious views When she was afoot one saw
the contrast between them even more cleary. II he
looked a sparrow with his quick movements and his
bright black eyes, she seemed calico-cad tortoise,
she waddled slowly across the room moaning that
she had merely wished to ask him to attend the first
meeting.
She was dull woman, whose sluggish emotions
needed arousng she liked to have these stirred up,
Just as fat torpid cat loves to have its back rub
bed When she married Abner Wimberly, more than
twenty-five years before. he was not "a professor,
as the mountain phrase goes. But it was supposed
that Volumnia Stotts excellent example would
soon gather her young husband into the fold. How
ever infant Wimberlys began coming thick and FAST
and Volumnia relaxed her grasp upon the church;
she had found something else to apply the needed
spur to her energies Ihus matsers TGcked 6 a1ong
somewhat quick tempered, good provfder, an ex-
cellent farmer fond and devoted father Occasion
ally travelling exhorter would look upon the
well-kept WimberIy place. behold how goodly it was,
and regret that its proprietor was not among the
chosen; he would make dead set to gather Abner
in; Volumnia would ponderousy second him; but it
not till they had both come to late middle
age, and their children were married or that, with
the falling away OF other employments and interests,
she definitely undertook the role of prosecuted WIFE,
It might have been easier had the attempt been
earlier made. 1t has been said that the little
a fond father; there were tall sons and married
daughters who looked to him for counsel and who
thought his word almost good that of Elder JUS
tice. That he should be brought low before his
children at every quarterly held up to them, officially,
as the most abandoned Of sinners, intolerable.
But in the mountains, to be profane swearer is
the limit of human vileness. Swearing is the
sin which there retains the generic term Of wicked
You are told that man is mighty wicked"
You need not ask if he is honest, a good hus-
band, kind father; the word thus used touches
none Of these human relations He may be all that
a moralst could ask, and yet merit this reproach
If he be man who uses profane expletives.
Now, under the smothering aggravation of Aunt
Voumnia's martyrdom, Uncle Abner had developed
free, fiery and forcible vocabulary. 1t was his
one outlet, and in this straightlaced little commu-
nifty 1t speedily making him social outlaw, earn