The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-02-13
Copyright 1908 by Benz. B. Hampton.

" OTH1NG shocked dreadfully when
~ first came to live with my uncle So
~ Ions family to how Indifferent
the children felt about their fathers
health, but now that have been here
q little while, have become Indifferent myself,
because you get used to persons being sick all
the time just you do to anything else sad in
life And then, the longer 1 live here, the less 1
can keep from wondering if Uncle Scion is as sick
as he thinks he is, and whether, it he didn't stop
thinking of his ailments they would trouble him
so much.
It's his stomach that's the matter with him. but
In spite of it's being troublesome, I've never
yet seen Uncle Scion sick that he couldn't eat
a hearty meal; and then afterwards he groans
about it. So I've become calous the rest
when Uncle Scion says after supper, THAT cake
sets very heavy" I don't look up from my book.
When I first came, I was so sympathetic that
he told all his symptoms, and everything that
he had taken for his attacks for the last fifteen
years, which very embarrassing from an uncle
that has hardly seen. We were never allowed
to speak of stomachs by mamma. She said
there were two things that gentlewoman never
referred to; one was her poverty and the other
was her stomach.
= Aunt Matilda takes Uncle Solon's ups and downs
seriously She's just as excited about every fresh
attack as the children Indifferent, and spends
evenings arguing with him about having doctor,
and fixing him hot drinks, and getting him to try
different remedies She says to the girls before he
comes home:
II do hope your fathers luncheon Will nave
agreed with him.
I've never heard any Of them answer her, or
take the slightest interest, except when Pauline
said:
81 wish to goodness, ma, you'd let get out
from under the shadow OF papa's stomach some
time!'
Poor Aunt Matilda shocked at this that
it touched Pauline's heart and she went out to the
kitchen and made peach fap-doodle for dinner,
which she makes very we'll: then Uncle Scion ate
much of it that Aunt Matilda had to spend the
evening putting hot congresses on him. =,
I tell all this here because you'll understand bet
ter the great Importance Of the few words which
Nelly let drop when came back from the art
school about>two weeks ago. She looked up with
her little, round face, and said:
"Papa's going to be sick again. Then
she read out of book which was spread open
the bed:
Fill in center of flower with chain stitch"
'What do you mean?" asked.
Mammals found way to cure him., Nelly
answered, looking to the magazine again to
see just how the needle was placed in the picture
to make a certain stitch, and pulling 1t through
exactly like it, Mammals got new book about
eating, and she's gone out to get the things it tells
you you ought to have. 1t isn't ind1gestions that's
the matter with him, it's his fat-and that's got
to off, Mamma said She read it in the
book" Nelly added conclusively.
what do you mean" I asked, when you say
that Aunt Matilda's gone out to get the things
the book tells you you ought to eat?''
Nelly took three stitches before she answered.
Then all she said was, II don't know"
Nelly IS my youngest cousin and room with
her. She is eleven years old, and very good
little thing-much better than her sister Gladys,
who is sometimes very exasperating, although she
has: a great deal Of good in her. and for some rea-
son I can't help being fonder of her than I of
Nelly.
1t would be very glorious thing indeed for. all
of if Uncle Scion could be cured, because as
Pauline said that day she got angry, live in the
shadow of Uncle Scion s-bad health. When he
is comparatively we'll, enjoy ourselves but the
times when he isn't both he and Aunt Matilda
so wrapped up in gloom and they talk SO constant
ly about every SYMPTOM that although the children
seem callous, yet none Of them escapes the de-
pressing influence.
You might say that my Uncle Solon's health is
the barometer which measures the happiness Of
this household. No could be happy even sup
posing you couldn't hear Uncle Scion grooming,
when Aunt Matilda comes out looking like some
1880 actress doing Greek play, holding up a
long finger and saying:
"H-s-s-h! Your fathers very bad tonight
I went out to the front room, where Gladys was.
She looked up from the evening paper and said
Hes confessed! I knew he did it all along.
But If I'd killed anybody, and had kept from con-
Tossing for long that, I wouldn't have con-
fessed What's the good? Men act so silly!"
Il hear auntie's found way to cure Uncle
Eolon," told her. I never encourage her to talk
about the awful things she's so fond of reading
In the papers,
"Its going to be fierce, isn't it," said Gladys
She stuck her head into the paper again How
much do you suppose it would COST" she said, Ito