Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-11-27
CHORDS AND
DLSCORDS
RILLY'S LETTERS.

only once every year / don't mind it.
There is one thing about accepting
invite to put your feet under table in
somebody eise's home. You got to eat
everything that is passed to you and
If you don't you're going TO get in bad
with the lady that does the inviting.
Guess where I was, Chas. Jens, your
right / diddent expect no invite
neither, and it looked as if it was go
ing to be for me just what the wealth
er man said it was to be, cold and
damp,
Thanksgiving is the time a lump
comes up in your neck when you amt
got no regular home and when you
are thousand miles away from any
body that looks like a blood relative
to you. That's my fix, Chas, and when
got note from Jen's Nav, asking
me to dine with them on Thursday ]
felt like that shipwrecked sailor that
the books tell about when he first saw
terra firma when he had given up hope
Of ever seeing nothing but water no
more. / got the invite on Tuesday and
wrote q answer without not min
ute's delay, and after I dropped the
letter in the postoffiee I saw the car
rier that delivers mail on Jen's route
and tolled him to be sure and see that
my letter got there without no loss of
time. 7 give him sample of my
handwriting so as he would reckonize
my note when he come across it in
the Office among the other letters that
he was to carry on his route.
It was Just family affair. There
was Jen's parents and their oldest
daughter and her husband and their
two youngsters. There was turkey
in the middle of the table that must
have set dad back several bucks and
it looked that tempting like that you
would just want to grab it up in YOUR
arms and give it embrace before the
knife was stuck into it. When We all
got seated at the table I got the wind
taken out Of me when Jen's dad look
ed over at me with frown. | guess
it's just natural with him, like if he
was going to stick me before he tackled
the bird, and he up and asked me to
say grace. Chas, / never did that be
/ fore in my life. and it looked to me
as if the old foxes was trying me out
I to see if I knew nothing which ! don't
claim to know any more than the law
allows, especially when it comes to
quoting from the bible, but / knowed
enough TO know that everybody had
something 10 be thankful for on
/ Thanksgiving and that there was peace
in the country and all them ideas
started running through my head as
Jen's dad kept looking straight at me,
and all the time he had his right hand
on the Clever that he was to chop the
turkey with. / remembered that the
night before I had read President Will
sons message in which he said how
thankful we all ought to be that we
was not sleeping in the trenches in
stead of in our home feathers at mites.
and you know that these is no kind OF
mites TO be outside When finely ! got
my breath I turned my eyes up to the
wall paper on the ceiling and the hrsa
thing | saw was a fly and | nearly
asked Jen why she had not swatted
. him, but / held my tongue bekose that
would have been in exceeding bad
taste Then grace that Chauncey
Depuw once said ran through my
mind. but I couldn't get hold of the
1 beginning of what Chauncey said You
know he's a grand speaker and he uses
/ language that he must make himself
/ it is so beautiful. It sounds like as if
( he might have It copyrited bek0se l
never knew no other man that said
such pretty words at the right time as
Mr. Depuw does
Well, I finely got a-going. I talked
about the crops and said l hoped some
day that I would he able to buy q farm
/ belEose when man owned q farm the
farm worked for him "a hours every
I day excepting in the winter when it
/ took a rest to get its wind to go back
to work when the birds begin to sing
( again in the spring, and when I got
/ that farm I would not have to work as
hard as l do now, which should be the
ambition Of every young man to lay
something aside fors rainy day SO
that he could bask in the sunshine of
his declining years. / thought that
was a strong enough tip to Jen's foxes
that was on the right track and then
| | said We ought to be thankful that we
had a grand democrat in the White
house and said that maybe If we had
somebody else except Mr. Wilson we
would now be at war with some for
eign country, and | prayed that he
would be spared to hold his job many
more years, and hoped that he would
have happy marriage, I was just
getting warmed up so ! could thank
everybody else that I could think oil
and | was not going to forget Jen's
foxes for their kindness to me when
dad busted in on me and wanted to
know if was a democrat.
| Maw's cheeks turned red, and Jen
pretty near slipped under the table
| said that my father was a democrat
and that he never voted no other tick
ct as long as he lived and I believed
/ that all good sons always took their
fathers advice and that was the rea-
son that | was democrat, Jen's paw
hrung the fork up over his head and
ne drove 1t into the turkey, knocking
a bunch Of gravy in the eyes of one oil
the children at the table. He diddent
pay no attention TO nobody at the ia.