Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1908-07-02
CHAPTER VlI.-ccntinued.


know l got an awful tenper?"
"Pappy says So" sighed Seffy
He's right and you know! But |
Seffy-you can help me to cure it
will you?"
Joy leaped back into her life and 1t |
was very sweet. And would he? He |
left her no doubt-not the least She |
lowered about him bewitchingly. What
the peering moon saw shall not tell. |
And when the watchful old man saw
them coming out of the cotton woods
together he went singing home and
slept.
Oh, it was not entirely the pasture
field now. He did not forget that.
But Seffy whom he adored-perhaps
for the very gentleness and sweetness
which constantly vanquished his hap
piness-Seffy was going away from
happiness which sought him-and, for
this farmer, and this time and place,
where was little joy and much labor, it
seemed wanton-it was wanton! Do
you think it was slight thing that
kept Sephenijah P. Baumgartner, Sen
Tor, awake for five nights? For, let me
tell you here, all this had become
serious business to the old man-if
we do treat it lightly. For he loved
his Son-adored Sally-and valued the
pasture-field. Therefore, in striving
to bring them all into his keeping to-
gether, he was dealing with the things
Oittle things to YOU he loved most on
earth. You, of course, have greater
things. But you must, now and then,
try to feel the imperiousness of small
things in small lives.
l shall tell you of their conversation
as they came from the Poison spring,
the radiance of the moon in Seffy's
wan face, the very joy of the starry
heavens in that of the girl must tell
you what their talk was of. And | beg
you again to remember that these
small things, which you despise, were
all they had there and then. / have
wondered whether the wanton sacri-
fee of a child's toy when he is three is
not as dreadful as the sacrifice of his
love when he is 20. Do you know?
"Seffy," said Sally, with his hand
held so close under her beating heart
that it registered each avid pulsation,
II am most to blame and you have
forgiven me. But you are to blame,
too, and 1 hope you won't forgive
yourself too SOON"
For why?" querieG the dull Seffy,
with attention only for that wildly
beating thing-for, alas, that was his
bane as hers was something else-for-
getting future perils in present happi
ness.
Then you'll fix it before you dol"
Fix what?" asked the astonished
Seffy.
you let yourself be fooled. And
that raises my temper more than any,
thing else. l don't want no beau that
every one laughs at. You got to have
more backbone. When l am mean to
you'll can't help it when my temper's
up-and it's hard to get it down
mighty hard, when it's up-when l am
mean to you-curse met"
Seffy stared aghast. He would as
soon have heaped maledictions upor
the head of an archangel!
Cor hit mel"
Another stare-another conviction
of the utter impossibility of such &
thing!
Yes! With club! A flat-iron! A
potato masher! A poker!"
Seffy could laugh now. She was be
coming absurd. Had he only known
that she-poor futile woman!-was try
ing to secure in advance their happi
ness in the turmoil which she knew
would come!
"Yesl That is the way for such a.
me! The only way! And I'm uset
to it,"
Now Seffy was shocked,
MY father-or mother-or granny
or"-she hesitated-"S am-haVe, a
one time or another, used all thes
thins on me. / need the snaffle! Yo
need the whip"
And she laughed little herself, an
that was Seffys excuse for joinin
her.
You have no temper and / have
thousand times too much You ca
see how that will work. And, Seffy
you got a bad reputation about her
now, and / wouldn't like you to hav
1t always. SO you must brace up an
do things to make people like 80
again. | want you to be able to fac
any one at the store--and do 1t Il
front Of Sam"
The dull Seffy answered:
''Rut what can ] do?"