Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1914-02-06

tousled-and his hands and face are uanswer-
able testimony to the fact that the rising genera
ton occasionally gets back to Mother Earth even
in the private city streets, pessimists to the con
trary, Notwithstanding. He has been having a
great time. st. Valentines night is almost as
much fun as Halloween, Valentines? Sure, he's
been giving valentines-but they aren't exactly
the kind Sister Lu or even little Jane received.
He's presented the Acknowledged Celestial down
at the corner with a most touching reminder or
how he looks when he irons a shirt-and he's had
a thrilling, hair-breadth escape from the aforesaid
washee-washee, who couldn't see it as a joke at
all. Pshaw, a Chinaman never could run anyway!
Then there was old Peanut Caruse, who kept the
fruit stand on the opposite corner. Poor, ex-
citable old Dago! If there hadn't have been quite
so many little American devils in the gang he
might have run one of them down and gotten his
revenge. But, if he did, what would become Of
his peanuts and his smooth, sleekly-polished ap.
pies in the meantime with all those other little
pests swarming around and yelling like Comanche
Indians?
And grandma and grandpa. They sit quietly
by in their big armchairs and smile complacently
at the enthusiasm Of the youngsters. In their
hearts are memories of other st. Valentines
eves-'way back in other days, in the dim and dis
tant past, when they both were young and the
fever Of love beat strong in their breasts. There
are valentines for them now, for they are old
and gray and their course of life is almost run,
and, somehow, st. Valentines day is a day for the
young. But wait. What is that on grandmas
lap? Can 1t be? IeS-it lS-itS a valentine!
Grandpa has remembered! 1t is not one of those
gaudily- painted modern ones of elaborate manu-
facture; no, but an old-fashioned one Of many
layers of carved and curlycued paper, framing
a tiny picture of the Madonna and bearing the
simple message: BE my valentine" 1t is the
kind grandma knew and learned to love long
years ago when grandpa, then as line a young
dandy as was to be found in all the country
round, came sparkling her. She smiles happily
and mods across at the old man, who understands
all that she eels-and remembers.
In the morning the mail man comes loaded
down with more valentines Indeed, it seems just
like another Christmas to little Jane, when she
beholds his pouch full to OVERLOOKING. But he
can't see it in that light at all, or in any other
light except that he has been Juggling that blamed
old pouch for ten squares, leaving something at
almost every door, and the darned old thing is
heavier than when he first started out with it.
Christmas is bad enough, and the people who
made these fool holiday stunts ought to be salts
fed with plagueing mail men once a year; but
instead, they don't give him time to recover from
the Christmas avalanche Of mail before they jam
all this crazy Valentino foolishness down his
throat. After that pouch has gotten to a re-
spectacle, convenient size-so that it feels more
like a mail pouch and less like a ton of coal
the mail man may appreciate the sentimental side
of the day. He may recall the flushed, eage-
faces that fairly hurled themselves almost
through the door in their eagerness to snatch the
mysterious letters from his hands. He may re-
call his own boyhood when he himself both gave
and received valentines with childish glee and
couldn't understand why in the world, on this Of
all mornings the mail man was so late. If so he
smiles good naturally and remembers that every
task, however onerous it may be, has its own re-
ward when viewed in the right light.
Watch your newspapers on st. Valentines day
for one particular news iten-eloping couples
who chose the day because 1t Is especially Cupids.
Some years they are many in number, and some
times but few and far between. But there is al
ways a haif-dozen at least. Cupid sees to that
himself. And to the lovers themselves, it is a
day of all days, for each gives himself to the other
as a really truly valentine for life.