The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-07-01
tomorrow" remarked Mr.. Mitchell

mildly. will be the glorious FOURTH.
Lizzie says her wisdom tooth's been
aching her d~readfully," ~retoined Ma
Mitchell, with apparent ~irrelevance.
But it wasn't Irrelevant by a long
shot, as Pa Mitchel's 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-
row morning at 8 o'clock, same as al
ways"
Ma looked at his lean old nutcracker
face with all the majesty she could add
20 her portly figure. -..f#
Wen see about that" she remarked
grimly.
twinge to her tooth by sheer power OF
the imagination.
Cant she git it yanked out ?" In
quired Charles, Fannie's oldest, hope
fully. ~
His grandmother reduced him to ter
| rified silence with one look. At that
his mother, who submitted meekly to
her dependent position of q widow with
three children earning their bread In
her parents house. bridled. OF the one
provocation which could inspire her to
defy ma.
You needn't try to kill him. ma,
with them eyes OF yours" h an
nounced. If Lizzie had the sense she
was born with. shed have that old
tooth out long ago."
Fannie" returned ma, "for IN OLD
married woman you seem to have the
shortest memory about who's head OF
the house, OF any impudent thing l
ever saw. When I was your age my
when grown folks was talking. I don't
wonder o 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 It to rankle In some wholly un-
expected place, had a happy home,
and that's more than yours ever had,
10 far as I can remember" i
You let me out OF thisl" intcrposed
pa, rising and making for the front
door.
Behind his tired old form, as he
sought the COO 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 than it did ma. A flash
Of recollection illuminated the two
score years Of h tanning his high
spirits had suffered at mas relentless
hands. ..... .U. .r. - .M. ..-
For Pa Mitchell. when he wooed and
won his wife, was q game sport and a
rousing, cheerful liver. He had taken
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 dormant IN her,
awaiting, as in Fannie, only mother
hood to assert itself in every phase OF
her existence.
Perhaps IL he had fought her from
their first small dispute over the ruiz
ing OF their lives, he might have pre-
served at least joint authority. But he
was one Of your fond, good natured,
admiring souls who fall in love once
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 had his simple nature
nelped to rivet his shackles upon i'm.
He still chung to b fiction OF his
independence, stil 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 ver honor this poor
little dwelling with a visit. But when
Ma put her broad, unyielding foot
down on all ~firecrackers, 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 nan And he rebelled to
the extent of insisting that the salute
to the Glorious Fourth from the deep
barrel Of the old cap and ball u must
be observed.
1t hung, always loaded, over the din
4 inc rOnra FnanfalniaNa Ma. raRnr6n6 III
with mingled horror and trust. She
relied on 1t, in Pas expert hands, to
blow any gang OF burglars into king
dom come; but she lived in chronic
apprehension that 1t 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 loo at 1t,
PAS s~ecret--often poignant-shame
was that he had never told her no ur-
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 OF
every occasion, once q year he did fire
II off, the Fourth of July being the ap-
~propriate occasion. Between Fourths
Ma called his attention sternly to sue
items in the newspapers as recorded
the fatalities incident to the discharg-
ing of guns that hadn't been fired for
a generation.
This year their second daughters
toothache was putting into Mas hands
a powerful argument. Pa Mitchell re-
allied its force only too well. How
like an unnatural father he would APP
pear II he raised such a racket mex
morning and strained poor Lizzie's al
ready tense nerves to breaking pitch!
For q man who all his life had cher
ished 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.
breakfast on the morning of the
Fourth was a grewsome feast. Lizzie
appeared with her jaw bound up In a
towel and the odor Of arnica riotous.
Fannie, as the hour neared when the
die Of ceremony should be cast, gazed
with apprehension on the flags pro-
vided for her brood by Pa. as noise
less, tasteless substitutes for the tu-
multi children relish. Those flags Sig
nifled excitement and carnage. Ma
doomed po~rtentious and forbidding
waiting her chance to issue her awful
i decree. And Hannibal, the pup, named
by Pa In heroic remembrance of the
days Of his ~conquering youth, wore his
II - ~