The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-09-17
TIE EVENING STORY
Aunt Roxy's Divorce.
(By Lawrence Alfred Clay.

young man. That was about the best
that could be said of him. He got
less wages than any other hired man
| in Medina county, but he didn't kick
about that. He realized that he didn't
earn any more than he was paid.
Miss Roxy was hard working
young woman, and she detested a
lazy man. She married Adam be-
| cause she believed she could reform
him. She was told that such a re-
| form had never been worked in this
world, but she was a woman of self
confidence. When the marriage came
| off they retired to a little farm of
their own.
| For three years the wife had hopes.
| She pleaded and she argued and she
| led the way, and now and then Adam
would take a squirt and work like d
horse for half a day at a time. Then
his ambition would be gone. He
readily acknowledged his laziness, but
he just couldn't help it. If he was
found in shady fence corner while
the corn needed hoeing his argument
was:
THE Lord made corn to grow wild.
and it was never intended that man
should get the backache chopping
out the weeds. Nothing can hurt if
we leave things as the Lord made
EN-
There came a day when the wife,
after carrying sober, thoughtful
Adam, you put in about five days
work in the past month
AS much as that, Roxy" he asked
in surprise.
About that
well. the Lord never intended
that man should work. If He had He
would have given Adam som ething to
do except loaf around
Our crops won't be half a yield
this fall
= ezTI
just as bad off,
I'VE have made a poor showing for
three years.
We've got along, and no ones
back has been broke. What you fuss
ing about, Roxy?''
i've been thinking. Adam, and 1
have come to a conclusion. I have
hoped to make you a hustIing man,
but it's no use thinking of success.
I am going to leave YOU
Shoot"
Yes, going to get a divorce"
But what have I done?"
Its laziness. III get divorce and
work out again.
Tears came to Adams eyes and
he made promises. 1t hadn't been
the square thing for him to loaf
around the way he had, and he would
do better. He would begin that very
minute, and he went out and fed the
hogs and shut the hen house door to
denly come over him. Next morning
he built the breakfast fire for the
first time in two years, and for half
a day he welded the hoe with great
vigor. Then his wife came down to
the cornfieId and found him asleep
1t had been discovered, however, |
that any talk of divorce scared |
and the wife planned to use |
the weapon. About once month for |
years the matter came up. Now it |
II hot h. 10
again it would be what the tin ped |
dler said-then what she had con- |
Guided. Those talks" were always |
good to push Adam along for week. |
but as the years went on and the |
talks went on they lost their force
and got to be an old story. And, too,
the wife made a mistake by not con-
filming them to laziness alone. 1t
got so at last that when she wanted |
q new pair of shoes, for instance, she |
would threaten divorce to get them.
The weapon wore out at last, as she
might have anticipated. At break
fast one morning the wife quietly
asked:
adam, what about my teeth?'
'Got 'em, hain't your he replied.
i've got to have false plate"
Cows git along mighty well with
only one set
Il shall go to the village to-morror
and get the plate or a divorced"
Want a divorce, do your
81 do"
s'Then you kin have it!''
The rope had broken at last, and
the wife was so astonished that min
ates fed before she could as:
Adam, don't you care about my
teeth?'
s'Gaul darn 'em!" was the vigorous
very well; it shall be divorced"
Aunt Roxey, as the wife was now
Did enough to be called, had made
aer bluff and her hand had been call
ed She must either back down or go
ahead. 1t didn't take her minute to
decide Showing back from the table,
she said:
will leave the dishes for you to wash
"All right"
sisters, three miles away, and as she
1and:
adam, I set emptings last night and
rou'd better take a look at them pref
Y soon. They may sour on you"
He sat on the doorstep and watched
Ter go down the road, and when she
he house and went to bed and slept
he day through till shutdown. +
Whats the NATTER" asked Aunt
2oxey's sister when the house was
cached
''Divorce!" was the brief reply. II
For what?"
Adams broke away at last" E
'tShoo! You don't say!'
81 said I'd have the teeth or a di- 1
-orce, and he said gaul darn the
eethl" z
well, if it's come. then it's come. '
Did you leave him with clean sheets
nd pfller-cases? IL
\. fr4E Il r