Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-05-26


NEIoH5oRs.
BY Joanna Single.
Copyright 1910 by Associated Literary
Press.
The whole neighborhood held its
breath when the ,three-room cottage,
vacant for year, was bought by one
Reuben Farr. The place could not
be rented because of the Jones family.
Every Jones in the house made
trouble-even Mr.. Jones, two years
in his quiet grave, for his widow used
his name perpetually as a reason
why 'poor widow woman and her
young ones had ought to be let
alone"
Mrs. Jones talked as fast as she
worked, which speaks we'll for her
industry, and defended her chicks I'M
partially Name was really pretty,
with the courage of that prettiness,
and kept the girlhood of the little
street in a ferment by her wholesale
and constituencies annexation OF
their beaux. Sophie, red-headed and
gawky, and eleven, leased smaller
children and caused feuds and fights
among them. George, eight, cried II
anything or anybody looked at him,
and ran to his mother, who forthwith
sailed forth to protect her offspring.
At such times rows were rife, and the
probation officers, the police and the
Humane society had all been called
upon to arbitrate during the two
years since the demise of the husband
and father.
But the head and front of the
seph Jones, aged twelve and one-half,
the owner Of pigeons and rabbits and
guinea hens, all nuisances and tres
passers. Worse than that, Joe kept
chickens. That is, the neighbors kept
them They were ostensibly kept in,
and the widow was so neat and clean
and Industrious, SO valiant mother,
that officers were inclined to think
the neighbors we're simply down on
the tribe" and unwilling to condone
an occasional accidental escape of a
small boys pets. Also, the widow
had fine eye and plump red cheek,
not to mention an Irish tongue in her
head. The neighbors always came Off
second best. but they lived in hope
of some day seeing Joe Jones get
what was comm to him."
The Jones family owned and had to
live in their place. When Reuben
FAIR bought the place next door, in
spite of fears and hints, the public
breath was held. How would he stand
the Joneses-especially Joe?
The day the new householder took
possession the neighbors were hidden
behind curtains, or openly out in
yards and porches. Reuben Farr was
a year or two younger than Mrs.
Jones, tall and silent and gaunt, a
carpenter by trade, his own cook and
housekeeper. He nodded to every
body, said goodnight or morning
when he met them, but talked with
no one. He minded his own business.
It was bleak March when he moved in,
and at nights and odd free days he
tinkered about his little house and
got his affairs in order. In April he
appeared one night with horse and
pillow and broke up his entire and
generous back yard He was ques-
toned.
Garden" was his laconic re-
Spouse.
The next night he narrowed the
ground Then, he methodically made
beds and planted things, vegetables
and flowers, and set out bushes and
little trees. A few ones tried to warn
him of Joe's rabbits, his pigeons, his
guinea hens and, worst of all, his
chickens. But gossip, aimed at him,
seemed to die on the lip. The neigh.
bors finally decided to let him get his
own experience. But they admired
him. Moreover, he was rather fine.
looking, and not day older than
forty.
Name Jones tried to lure him into
a Irritation. But, to the Joy of the
interested, she did not succeed. He
was polite, that was all. AS for Joe,
he found no fault with the boy. But
one fine morning in May when he
found the pet rabbits had eaten the
tender tops from his upgrowing vege-
tables, he stood thoughtfully. That
night he fenced his place in high and
tight with chicken wire of the finest
and closest variety.
And the next morning as he went
to work, after getting his own break
fast, Joe, safe on his own porch, cat
called at him and made gesture of
scorn. 1t was awful to be ignored.
Used to raising trouble, Joe would
have preferred an open row to silence
and fence.
It was not long thereafter that, in
some indescribable manner, the
Jones's chickens got over the fence
miraculously, since they were clumsy,
heavy fowls without power of light.
They uprooted several fowerbeds
and gobbled off the tops Of the peas,
now we'll above ground. Reuben Farr
sowed more peas and lifted the hens
over the fence.
That night he called on the widow,
casually as If in passing. She well
coined him on the porch and babe
him smoke If he liked. He did not
talk more than a word or two, but
Name came out, in white and impu-
dence and inwardly much excited.
She wished her mother could learn to
know when she was not wanted. But
Mrs. Jones stayed, rocking intermi-