The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-11-27

eral discussion was bis extraordinary,
unbelievable. colossal meanness. This
so ecllpsed every other passion In the
man and doomed ~ bulkily and insis
tently in the foreground that had he
cherished q second vice no one would
have observed 1t. and II he really did
possess q casual virtue 1t could scarce
~ have reared It's head in such ugly
company.
1t might be said. to defend the fair
fame Of the church. that Mr.. Bakers
d~eaconhOod did not include very active
service in the courts Of the Lord. He
had experienced religion" at fifteen
and made profession Of his faith. but
all we'll brought up boys and girls did
the same in those ~days-their parents
saw to that: II change Of conviction
or backsliding occurred later on that
was not their business! At the ripe
age of twenty-five he vas selected to
I'll q vacancy and became a deacon.
thinking 1t might be good for trade. as
1t was. for some years. He was very
active at the time Of the "Cochrane
craze" since any defense of the creed
that included lively detective work and
~incessant spying on his neighbors was
particularly In his line. but for many
years now. though he had been regular
in attendance at church. he had never
oficiated at communion and his dea-
conal services had gradually lapsed
into the passing Of the contribution
box, q task of which he never wearied.
It vas such a keen pleasure to make
other people yield their pennies for a
good cause without adding his own!
Deacon Baxter had now been a wid-
owe for nine years. and the commun-
ity had almost relinquished the Idea Of
his seeking a fourth wife. This was u
matter of some regret. for there was q
general feeling that it would be a good
thing for the Baxter girls to have some
one to help with the ~housework and act
as q buffer between th%sn and their
grim and irascible parent. AS for the
women of the village. they were morti-
fed that the Deacon had been able to
secure three wives and refused to be-
lieve that the universe held anywhere
a creature benighted enough to become
his fourth.
The first, be it said, was a mere igno-
rant girl. and be q beardless youth of
twenty. who may not have shown bis
true qualities so early in life. She bore
him two sons, and 1t was a matter Of
comment at the time that she called
them, respectively, Job and Moses. hop
connected with these names might
somehow help them in their future re-
latiOns with their father. Pneumonia,
coupled with profound encouragement.
carried her of in a few years to make
room for the second wife, Waitstill's
mother. who a Of different fiber and
greatly his superior. She was a fine,
handsome girl, the orphan daughter Of
up country gentlefolks who had died
when she was eighteen, leaving her
alone in the world and penniless.
Baxter, after a few days acquaint-
ance, drove into the dooryard of the
house where she was a visitor and.
showing her his two curly headed boys,
suddenly asked her to come and be
their stepmother. She assented. partly
because she had nothing else to do
with her existence so far as she could
see and also because she fell in love
with the children at first sight and for
got. as girls will, that it was their
father whom she was marrying.
She was al plucky and clever and
spirited as she was handsome, and she
made a brave fight of it with Foxy.
long enough to bring a daughter into
the world, to name her Waitstill and
start her a little way on her life jour-
ney-then she. too, gave up the strug-
gle and died. Typhoid fever it was,
combined with complete loss Of illu-
sions and a kind of despairing rage at
having made so complete a failure Of
her existence.
The next year Mr.. Baxter, being un-
usually busy. offered a man a good
young heifer If he would jog about the
country a little and pick him up a
h~ousekeeper. a likely woman who
would If she proved energetic, econom-
ical and amiable be eventually raised
to the proud position of his wife. If
she was young. healthy. smart. tidy,
capable and a good manager, able to
milk the cows. harness the horse and
make good butter he would give q dol
lar and a half a week. The woman
vas found. and, incredible as it may
seem, she said Yes" when the deacon.
whose ardor was kindled at having
paid three months wages. proposed a
speedy marriage. The two boys by
this time had reached the age Of dis
erection. and one of them evinced the
fact by promptly running away to
parts unknown, never to be heard from
afterwards; while the other, a reckless
and unhappy lad. was drowned while
running on the logs in the river. Old
Foxy showed little outward sign of his
loss.
His third wife. the one originally Sc
cured for a h~ousekeeper. bore him a
girl. very much to his disgust. q girl
named Patience. and great was Wait
stills 6o1{nht NJ this addition IN klo