The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1908-08-26

habits Of his kind. He drank and
"gamboled" with the rest OF the boys;
but, by nature not being vicious and
low, the influences were not hopelessly
deadening to the better qualities of his
character. To his mother he was al
ways the strong, good hearted, manly
boy, better than all the other SONS in
the world. She believed in him. He
worshiped her, and 1t was not until he
was well up in the twenties that he
stopped to think that she was not the
only good woman In the world who de-
served respect.
Up in Albany lived the Widow Cole
man and her two pretty daughters.
Mrs. Coleman's husband died on the
battlefield, and she, like many women
In the north and the south, after years
Of moderate prosperity was compelled
to support herself and her family. She
had been a pretty woman, and one
readily could see where her daughters
got their personal attractiveness.
Not many doors from the boisterous
little eating house In which the rail-
road men snatched their meals as they
went through, the widow opened a
book and news stand. Her home was
on the floor above the stand, and 1t
was there she brought her little girls
to womanhoOd. Good looking, harum
scarum Dave Cable saw Frances Cole
man one evening as he dropped In to
purchase a newspaper. 1t was at the
end of June, in 1876, and the country
was In the throes Of excitement over
the first news of the Custer massacre
on the Little Big Horn river.
Gable was deeply interested, for he
had seen Custer fighting at the front
In the sixties. Frances Coleman, the
prettiest girl he had ever seen, sold
him the newspaper. After that, he
seldom went through Albany without
visiting the little book shop.
Tempestuous, even arrogant in love.
Gable, once convinced that he cared for
her lost no time in claiming her.
months after the Custer massacre they
were marri, i.
Defeated rivals unanimously and en-
viously observed that the handsomest
fireman on the road had conquered the
most outrageous little coquette be-
tween New York and Buffalo. AS d
matter of fact, she had loved him
from the start; the others served as
thorns with which she delightedly
pricked his heart into subsection.
The young husband settled down, re-
nounced all of his undesirable habits
and became a new man with such sur
prising suHdenness that his friends
marveled and-derided A year Of
happiness followed. He grew aecus-
toned to her frivolous ways, over
looked her merry whimsicalities and
gave her the "full length of free
rope" as he called it. He was con-
tented and consequently careless. She
chafed under the Indifference and in her
resentment believed the worst Of him.
Turmoil succeeded peace and content
ment, and in the end David Gable,
driven to distraction, weakly aban-
doned the domestic battlefield and fed
to the far west giving up home, good
wages and all for the sake of freedom,
such as 1t was. He ignored her letters
and entreaties, but in all those months
that he was away from her he never
ceased to regret the impulse that had
defeated him. Nevertheless he could
not make up his mind to go back and
resume the life of torture her jealousy
had begotten.
Then the unexpected happened. A
letter was received containing the COM
mand to come home and care for his
wife and baby. At once David Gable
called a halt in his demoralizing ca
reer and saw the situation plainly. He
forgot that she had "nagged" him to
the point where endurance rebelled; he
forgot everything but the fact that he
cared for her in spite Of all. Sobered
and conscience stricken, he knew only
that she was alone and toiling; that she
had suffered uncomplainingly until the
babe was some months old before ap-
pealing to him for help. In abject hu-
initiation he fastened back to New
York, reproaching himself every mile
of the way. Had he but known the