Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-06-30

shot, as Pa MitchelIs answer evidenced
at once:
Well, my wisdom tooth Amt achin'
a darned bit, and it tells me that there
old gun has got to be fired off tomor-
ways"
Ma looked at his lean old nutcracke r
race with all the majesty she could add
to her portly figure.
Wen see about that she remarked
grimly.
"Uh-huh!" groaned Lizzie. adding a
twinge to her tooth by sheer power of
the imagination.
Can't she git it yanked out?' in
CURED Charles, Fannie's oldest, hope
fully.
His grandmother reduced him to ter
rlfied silence with one look. At that
his mother, who submitted meekly to
her dependent position Of a widow with
three children earning their bread in
her parents house, bridled on the one
p~rovocation which could inspire her to
defy ma.
You needn't try to kill him, ma,
with them eyes Of yours she an
nounced. IF Lizzie had the sense she
was born with. she'd have that old
tooth out long ago."
Fannie" returned ma, for an ola
married woman you seem to a the
shortest memory about who's head of
the house, of any imbudent thing i
ever saw. When I was your age my
children didn't dast put their oar in
when grown folks was talking. 1 don't
wonder you never could get along with
your husband, If you run your house
that way
My husband" retorted Fannie, with
a nice adjustment of the barb that
aimed 1t to rankle in some wholly UNI
and that's more than yours ever had,
SO tar as i can elnelnOer.
You let me out of this!" ~intcrposed
pa, rising and making for the front
door.
Behind his tired ole form, as he
sought the cool stiffness of the evening,
the raucous quarrel rose to ITS due
climax; then broke in daughter Fan
MES usual rush of sobs and tears. The
scene and the words would not pass
from his thoughts, as commonly such
incidents did.
Fannie's pitiless blow had struck him
more deeply thar it did ma. A flash
of recollection Illuminated the two
score years of the tanning his high
spirits had suffered at mas relentless
hands.
For Pa Mitchell, when he wooed and
Won his wife, was a game sport and a
rousing, cheerful liver. He had k
his sedate bride by the gallant attacks
Of a dashing lover, and, until Fannie
was born, he had never suspected the
steady, ~changeless, unyielding force of
character that lay IN IN her,
awaiting, as in Fannie, only mother
hood to assert itself in every phase of
her existence.
Perhaps if he had fought her from
their first small dispute over HI rul-
ing Of their lives, he might have pre-
served at least joint authority. But he
was one of you fond, good naturea,
admiring souls who fall in owe one
and for all, and accept any fresh facet
of the jewel they prize as another ray
of beauty. Ma, to him, was all the
more adorable in her firmness and her
dignity. Thus a his simple nature
helped to rivet his shackleS upon him.
He still chung to the fiction of his
independence, still told himself he need
only assert his authority to run things
his way. But he never did it-except
on the Fourth of July. And he had
descended to base subterfuge, unwor-
thy of man, for that.
Down in his serene old heart Pa
Mitchell hadn't the smallest belief that
burglars would ever honor this poor
little dwelling with a visit. But when
Ma put her broad, unyielding foot
down on all f~irecrackers. squibs and
even torpedoes he liked to crack on
the doorstep with Charles and Horace
and Daisy, he had the sensation that
he was reduced at last to the mere
apology for a man. And he rebelled to
II kLC SAkSAS vi q AbAShA SAAS "
to the Glorious Fourth from the deep
barrel of the old cap and ball gun must
be observed.
It hung, always loaded, over the din
ing room mantelpiece. Ma regarded 1T
with mingled horror and trust. She
relied on it, in Pas expert hands. to
blow any gang of burglars into king
dom come; but she i've in chronic
apprehension that it would go off, or
blow up, or do one or all of the count
less other dreadful things a. loaded gun
can do if you so much as look at it.
Pas secret-often poignant-shame
was that he had told her no bur-
glars would apply. What he did aver.
his conscience clear, was that every
firearm must be shot off at least once
a year, to make sure it's in working
order. And, although he had to wage
battle for his rights and the guns on
every occasion. once a year he did fire
propriate occasion. Between Fourths
Ma called his attention sternly to such
items in the newspapers as recorded
the fatalities incident to the %discharg-
ing of guns that hadn't been fired for
a generation.
~toothache was putting into Mas hands
a powerful argument. Pa Mitchell re-
allied it's force only toe we'll. How
like an unnatural father he would APP
pear if he raised such a racket next
morning and strained poor Lizzie's all
ready tense nerves to breaking pitch!
For a man who all his life had cher
isfed a sublime faith in Providence he
was dangerously near to ~infidelity
when. with a sigh. he trudged back in
to the house at bed time. thinking of
the raw deal his Providence was Civ
ing him.
~-...Al ,,,~- ~ R-~-k r TIT.