Evening journal., 1907-04-29

TRY to do my duty by each and every
in the station to which the Lord has
called me. Hit do look plumb Gurus
n that Proverdunce should have
L fit to afiict me with an onregenerate
pardner"
The voice was fat and mufaed, the tones of a fat
sitting bumped in a rocl1ing-chair.
"Oh, ! dunno dunno" snapped Uncle Abner
He was small, alert, brghteyed, like a gray-haired
old sparrow. Reckon hits the same dummed 1901
rangement that 'nicts me with such burned regen-
Aunt Volunnia started and groaned at each mild
expetive as though the word had been sharp
instrument prodded in'o her ample person. Thar,
she said the ready tears beginning to flow comfort
ably you cuss me all you want to, Abner;
I'm used to hit but for any sakes don't let the Elder
hear you. My sorrers is enough without public dis
grace"
The little old man was an emotioned creature iras.
chile swift to forgive, with a vertable volcano OF
feeling ready to spill upon every rihing matter
He looked at his wfe's large placid. vacant copnten-
ance; he was aware that in her fashion she rel
ished these scenes. and the knowledge wrought him
to frenzy.
what in thunder (here is nothing particularly
sacred about thunder, would say. yet Nolumnia
Wimbery shivered and moaned as her husband TOOK
its name in van), what in thunder would you do
ef my bein sech a devil of sinner wasn't the
talk of the two Turkey Tracks? Hits your calm
in life to be the suern' wife of the wickedest man
the Lord forgot to strike with lightnn. don
need to misbehave myself before the preacher
you'll run an tell him fast enough, without" And
the old mans thin red face grew redder with rage.
"Oh, my soul" solbed Aunt Volumnia quite en-
to know how best to bring this hyer sinful man to
a knowledge of his sins"
She addressed the cosmos generally. The small
section of its conscious intelligence there present
in the person of her erring spouse merely snorted
Hits about time for the quarterly" he commented
with biting sarcasm 81 looked for you to chune up
ayesterday You an your crowd air settin' out fer
the fo'teenth quarterly to gyether Abner Wimberly
in Well you'll not do IT, From the samples o per-
fessers I've got in my family, I'd ruther take my
chances outside bet chaw o terbacker the Old
Boy has got mighty hot skillet ready for the hypo-
n al a
when get aready, an III pay my debts whether I'm
ready or not Ef the Lord don't like my kind OF re-
volumnia rose with whoop, so that her husband
did not get to suggest that the Diety should lump
his religious views. When she was afoot, one saw
the contrast between them even more cleary. If he
looked a sparrow, with his quick movements and his
bright, black eyes, she seemed cacoolad tortoise
as she wadded slowly across the room, moaning that
she had merely wished to ask him to attend the first
meeting.
She was a dull woman, whose sluggish emotions
needed arOusing; she liked to have these stirred up
just fat, torpid cat loves to have its back rub
bed. When she married Abner Wimberly, more than
twenty-five years before, he not "a professor"
that Volumnia Stott's excellent example would
gather her young husband into the fold. How
ever infant Wmberlys 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. Thus matters rocked along
for many years Her husband was a kind man, il
somewhat quick tempered, a good provider. an ex
celent farmer, fond and devoted father. Occasion
ally travelling eXhorter would look upon tbs
WeukepL WlmDerly place DenOQ now BOOQly IL was
and regret that its proprietor was not among the
chosen he would make dead set to gather Abnel
in; Nolumnia would pOnderously second him; but ii
not till they had both come to late middle
and their children were married off, that, witt
the falling away of other employments and interests
she definitely undertook the role of prosecuted wife
1t might have been easier had the attempt beer
earlier made 1t has been said that the little
fond father; there tall and married
daughters who looked to him for counsel and whit
thought his word almost good that of Elder Jus
tice. That he should be brought low before his owl
children at every quarterly held up to them officially
the most abandoned Of sinners, intoerable
But in the mountains, to be profane swearer Il
the limit Of human vieness. Swearing is the ont
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, "a kind father; the word thus used touche
none Of these human relations. He may be all tina
moralist could ask, and yet merit this reproacl
If he be a man who uses profane expletives.
Now under the smothering aggravation of Aun
Volumnias martyrdom, Uncle Abner had develope
a free, fiery and forcibe vocabulary It was hi
outlet, and in this straightaced little commu
nifty it speedily making him social outlaw.