The Topeka state journal., 1913-08-12
THE EVENING STORY
A Needed Lesson.
(By Grace Kerrigan.)

L
| "I think he is very stubborn
| "Wen, you and mother say that I
am"
"You surely are, and therein lies
the danger if you wed Rexford. Two
| stubborn natures are sure to bring
about clash
II think Hugh loves me we'll enough
to give me my way in most things"
said the daughter in tones of trust and
/ confidence.
Eyes, Just now, but how about later
| on &"
Father you are a dear, old, gray
| headed man, and you are over-anxiouS
about me. You needn't be, however.
Everything will be just lovelyi 1 know
| two different girls that married stub
| born men, and they have never had
the least trouble. They tell me that
| their husbands delight in giving up to
them
The father smiled and turned to his
paper. What was the use? Love sees
| the roses but not the thorns.
And Hugh Rexford'S mother said to
him:
my son, Miss Trenton is very nice
girl, but I've got a criticism to make"
You can't have, mother-not a
single one," he replied.
"She's got a stubborn disposition"
"She can't have"
But her friends say so''
E'And you anticipate we shall squar-
reI?''
''It can't be otherwise unless you let
her have her own way"
There will be no quarreling, moth
er. We are both too loving and sensf-
BILE for that. OF course, Lionel will
have her opinion about this and that.
as every woman has right to have,
| but it will be for me to decide any
question of moment"
| But if she refuses to surrender her
| opinion
"why find lions in the path where
there are none, mother? I don't
want q namby- pamby for a wife. L
want one with opinions! If she is
wrong on question 1 shall take great
| pleasure in discussing it and showing
her where she is wrong" 4...
The mother smiled and sighed.
The marriage took place, and the
newlyweds were very happy for time
If Hugh said the sky was green, then
green it was. AT least the young wife,
who knew it was blue, didn't dispute
his color. If she decided that the
piano looked better in the southwest
corner of the parlor he accepted her
/ decision without a word
Both firmly meant to avoid a clash
that would bring out their stubborn
ness, and for year things went very
well. They did not bring up religion,
politics or the color of the cats eyes,
and at the end of the year the bride
said:
.'Father was over here for awhile
; today, and when I laughed at the pre-
diction he made just before our we'd
ding he didn't know what to say"
What did your father predict?"
THAT we would clash and neither of
! us give up
THAT'S funny. Mother made the
same prediction
But we have not clashed.''
/ They would have lived together
| lifetime and not disputed as to wheth-
er, if rabbit had "a longer tail, the
| fox could catch him a minute sooner,
or the height and weight of Adam s
he stood in the Garden of Eden wait
| ing for Eve to come along and keep
| her date.
| There must be something more mo-
mentous than that. 1t was coming and
! was very close at hand, but they did
not see the shadow.
| One morning at breakfast the wife
| remarked as she slipped her coffe:
| Hugh. do coffee and tea grow on the
| same trees?"
Neither grows on a tree, dear. Cof-
fee grows on a bush and tea grows on
shrub
"I think you are wrong about that"
81 can't be. I know a fellow in a
| tea and coffee house."
But some one may bave deceived
| him. 1 have an uncle who lives in
! But neither tea nor coffee is
grown in Russia
Hugh, you must be thinking of
sugar beets.'
"And the land only knows what
you must be thinking Of
Very we'll; we won't discuss the
! matter further"
| II should hope not
It was a pretty cold parting when
! he started for the office, and but for
certain happenings both would have
! felt ashamed of themselves an hour
| later. The husband had seen a
| bracelet that he wanted to buy for
the wife, and to get the price he had
| sure thing, but he lost by yards.
Then some one called his attention
to the fact that he was getting bald
headed, and he was so mad about it
that he gritted his teeth. Again the
nickel that he depended on to get him
home on the street car turned out to
| be a base and low-down coin, and he
but had to walk mile and a half.
Meanwhile the young wife was
having her troubles. The telephone
went dead; the grocer's boy had a
| fight and was delayed an hour get
ting patches and plaster; she burned
i raised from chick started out to
| beat a neighbor's rooster at Growing
and fell over as dead as a door nail.
| The old chap with the cloven hoofs
had the way all paved and sprinkled
for a fine little row that was to come
off that evening.
The wife had half admitted tc her
self during the day that she had
made a mistake in the country but
when the husband sat down to his
dinner with a smile of half superior
ity and half pity she could not resist
saying:
! well. do you know any more