Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1908-06-11
His Love
Affairs
BY Ellis Parker Butler
(Copyright.)

your leave" l remember quite well
enough to be rid of him then; but
often now, when the world crowds
hard upon me, long to have him back
again, for he was light of heart, and
he knew how to bring the laughter to
my eyes, and the ready tears, too.
And now l can only laugh as tired
men laugh, and my tears are few and
bitter.
Oh, he was a jolly rake this fellow
"a very Ariel of Love! A Bacchus
for Kisses. And Argus for Love
looks. A born lover, forsooth! Even
before he could toddle across the floor
on his chubby legs he practiced the
wiles of a lover, and lavished his love
glances and pretty tricks on one old
enough to be his mother, smuggling
his curly head against her breast and
touching her lips and cheeks and eyes
with lsis soft hands. Or, again, he
would reach up and crowd kisses upon
her face and neck. And she, who was
old enough to have outgrown such
tlirtations, urged him on. But | shall
not blame her, for love excuses much,
and, after all. she was his mother.
| do not mean to claim for him a
heart differing from the hearts of
ly, in retrospect, since | decided to
chronicle his love affairs, and do not
intend to praise or to blame him. He
loved-persistently, frequently; but if
he hid his deeper feelings beneath
froth of playfulness, it was because
this heart of his was tender and
feared rebuffs. He had good reason to
know the pangs of one who has
proffered his heart only to have it
scorned. 1t was his earliest lesson in
the ways of women. 1t was about the
time he first donned the distinctive
garb of man, and it was at the sea-
side.
Why Is 1t that mans first love is
given to woman whose years exceed
his own? Geneyieve was at least
twice his age, but he loved her at first
sight-ravenouSly He was a thought
less fellow in those days, and to love
with him was to seek to possess. He
rushed upon her, casting away his
calmer senses, and threw his arms
about her neck in an ecstasy of at
lection, regardless that he had never
been introduced, regardless that an
other was her beau, regardless thai
she was building masterpiece OF
sandwork. He placed one foot on the
house of sand and the other on her
dress, and kissed her vehemently
Oh, woman. woman. What love you
throw away! She spurned him. She
grasped him by the shoulders anG
threw him down. and cried: You are
a bad, bad boy." and he, poor fellow
cast himself upon his face and wept.
Shall | tell all his love affairs? Bet
ter let them rest. Some of the fai.
creatures he adored during those
years are wives now, and husbands
are jealous There were kisses-love
kisses stolen from his sweetheart
before the very eyes of their com
panions, who imagined 1t was a mere
harmless kissing game" and did not
guile that made him kiss every other
girl in the circle before he chose the
| one he really wished to kiss. And
oh! the JOY when She ran screaming
| from him, to be pursued; and how She
fought when caught.-for then he
knew she wanted to be kissed,
There was one brown-haired sweet.
heart who lived in the land of faery,
and who led him, wide-eyed and half
afraid. to the fairy realm in the pas
ture back of the red barn, and then
cast him aside because he could not
see the fairies that she said she saw.
She could not understand that men
were made for sterner things-for
lighting Indians and a bold Swiss
Family Robinson life.
misunderstanding, yes, and deceit,
these are the portion of the heart of
man. For was there not the one with
honest blue eyes to whom he gave his
heart, and, under promise of eternal
secrecy, showed the robins nest, onl,
to find the secret betrayed the mo-
ment his back was turned?
Love is sweet, but there are mo
ments of the deepest pain. His love
| for his cousin was sweet, for he had
her much to himself when she visited
his house; but Of! the humiliation
and disgrace of having to battle and be
| combed before her! A mans heart
revolts at that. l think it was about
that time that he acquired the dislike
| for bathing that chung to him as long
| as 1 knew him. Nor is it soothing to
| see the one to whom you would gladly
| give up your last long slate-pencil go
ing to school under the umbrella OF
| your rival.
| | remember one sweetheart he had
who was sworn to marry him. Kate
was wealthy, he knew, because her
father kept two horses; but he did not
care for that. He cared for her snap
| ping black eyes and the manner in
| which she could tuck her skirts about
her knees and swing, head downward.