The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-06-12

Elmira, quietlike, but not lodging
row, neither.
"And Company" says Hank getting
IN to his feet, like he always done
when he seen trouble coming. When
Old Hank was full Of Ticker he know
ed Jest the ways to aggervate her the
worst.
She might Of banged him one the
same as usual and got her own eye
BACKED also, the same as usual, but
jest then l lets out another big yowl,
and she gives me some milk.
1 guess the only reason they ever KEEP
me at first was 50 they could quarrel
about my name They'd lived together
a good many years and quarreled about
everything else under the sun and was
running out Of subjects. A new sub
| ject kind o. briskened things up fur
awhile.
But finally they went too far with it
one time. I was about two years old
| then and he was still calling me Com
pany and her calling me Dunno. This
| time he hits her a lick that lays her
out and likes to kill her, and it gets
him scared. But she gets around agin
after awhile, and they both see it has
went too fur that time, and so they
makes up.
"Elmira, give in," says Hank. ellis
| name is Dunno
"No," says she tender like. 'You
was right, Hank. His name is Com
| pany." SO they pretty near got into
another row over that. But they final
! ly made it up between 'em didn't
have no last name. and they'd jest call
me Danny, which they both done faith
| full ever after as agreed
| Old Hank, he was a blacksmith, and
! he used to lam me considerable, him
and his wife not having any kids of
their own to lick He damned me
when he was drunk, and he whaled ME
when he was sober. l never helt it up
| agin him much neither, not fur good
many years, because he got me used to
| it young. and l hadn't never knOwed
nothing else. Hanks, wife, Elmira,
she used to lick him jest about as Of
ten as he licked her and boss him jest
as much. So he fell back on me. A
man has jest naturally got to have
something to cuss around and boss SOS
to keep himself from finding out he
don't amount to nothing. Leastways
most men is like that. And Hank, he
didn't amount to much, and he kind O.
knowed it way down deep in his in
most gizzards, and it were a comfort to
him to have me around.
But they was one thing he never sot
no store by, and I got along now to
where I hold that up agin him more'n
all the lckings he ever done. That was
book learning He never had none him
self, and he was sot agin it. and he
never made me get none, and il I'd
ever asted him for any he'd of whaled
me fur that Hanks wife, Elmira, had
married beneath her, and everybody in
our town had come to see it and used
to sympathiZe with her about it when
Hank wasn't around. She'd tell em
| yes, it was so. Back in Elmira, N. Y,
from where her father and mother
come to our part of 1llinoise in the
early days, her father had KEEP a
hotel, and they was stylish kind O.
! folks. When she was born her mother
| was homesick fur all that style and
| fur York state ways, and so she named
| her Elmira.
But when she married Hank he had
| considerable land. His father had left
it to him. but it was all swamp land,
! and so Hanks father, he hunted
more'n he farmed, and Hank and his
| brothers done the same when he was
boy. But Hank, he learned a little
| blacksmithing when he was growing
up, cause he liked to tinker around
and to show how stout he was. Then
when he married Elmira Appleton he
had to 60 to work practicing that per
fession regular, because he never learnt
nothing about farming He'd sell fif
teen or twenty acres every now and
then, and they'd be high times till he'd
spent it up, and mebby Elmira would
| get some new clothes.
But when was found on the door
step the land was all gone. and Hank
was practicing regular, when not busy
cussing out the fellers that had bought
| the land. Fur some smart fellers had
! come along and bought up all that
swamp land and dreened it, and now
it was worth seventy or eighty dollars
an acre. Hank, he figgered some one
had cheated him. Which the Walterses
could Of dreened theirn, too, only
they'd ruther hunt ducks and have fish
frys than to dig bitches. All of which
hearn Elmira talking over with the
neighbors more'n once when / was
growing up, and they all says, How
sad it is you have come to this, Ell
mira!" And then shed kind O. spunk
up and say, thanks to glory, she'd KEEP
her pride. y.
Well, they was worse places to live
Lin than that there little town, even II
they wasn't no railroad within eight
miles ana only 400 soles In the hull
cooperation. which Hanks shop and