Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-12-01
A TRUE STORY.


TRUE STORY.
Three little children sat swinging their
feet over the edge Of tho piazza The
weather was cold, but the sunshine had
frightened the world and made out Of
doors more CHEEKY than in the house.
Hunter threw an acorn to the fat hen
cycling him and said, Miss Janet keeps
talking Of Thanksgiving and has all
sorts of plans for Thursday, and
s'pose we will come off all right, but
some time I am going to ask her what
we have to make Thanksgiving over"
"Oh, Bud, you won't do that. Don't
let her think we are not like all the
other children" was Ruth's quick re-
| joinder.
"I'n bet the other children feel like
we do" was the sturdy reply. They
are getting up all sorts of things for
Thursday. but when they so home it's
| just like our home. What's a fellow to
| De thankful for when he helps make a
crop and sees the money paid out for
something that does nobody any good?
| This way of having a bed and chair
and a table and just clothes enough to
Keep covered is not making me love the
farm very much"
| Amy, the silent listener, spoke then.
But we are thankful for mother, and
I'd like father if he'd let me-"
Yes, that's 1t. If father would let
us, but he thinks more of his old bottle
than Of u.s." bitterly spoke Hunter.
| Mother says we must not think it's
father that is cross and fault-finding, it's
just the way whisky serves him, and he
doesn't know It"
I'm RIfh
usual, had the woman's intuition. And
| it would hurt her more than a lick if
we told the teacher that we didn't have
| a thing to be thankful for"
Amy again interrupted: How would
/ it do to just love father in spite of his
mean, old ways? Maybe he would get
ashamed of himself after awhile. May
| be Mr.. Spivey's bulldog would let loose
a bone just because of Nancy's loving
| him." sneered Hunter. "Why, Bud, you
don't think father and old Spot are
alike, do you? What would mother
say?"
Don't you say a word, Ruth. You
know mother is in the middle of trou-
BILE all the time. Here it is nearly the
end of the year, the hogs not killed,
nor all the cotton out of the field. Who
made the crop; who fattened the hogs,
and who's got a say-so about how the
| money Will goF
Ruth stood her ground. 81 know
mother and us children made the crop,
| but the hot sun makes father sick and
you know how little he eats. He"
! YES. and you know how much he
| drinks, and when he gets on the FLY
| he forgets he has wife and seven
| children. He just says, Molly and the
kids can turn off the work. and 1 feel
like saying L wish Molly would turn
him off and let the kids as he calls US,
show him how to make a real living.
When that bale of cotton goes out that
big gate he will step around as big as
a general and drop the money in Old
| Scratch's claws" Another acorn was
hurled at the hen.
| What about the Jersey cow? Do you
| think that he will sell her just because
| he owes Mr.. York;" Amy's lips quiv-
cred.
NO" both of the others spoke at
once. "He needs the milk to sober up
on, and as long as he needs 1t there will
be a COW. The baby gets some, but
that COW doesn't stay to feed the baby.
1 wish there was some way to make him
do without things like mother does"
IT'S a good thing we have such a
nice mother" reminded Amy. 'All we
know she has taught us. When we do
| get a chance to go to school we have no
books, and If mother did not hate 1t so
much, I'd say thing or two about our
clothes. It's a job, Ruth, to wash and
iron clothes after supper. 1 know it is.
I've got so every time 1 hear a man or
woman talk smooth I wonder how they
| do at homer"
The two old children looked at Amy
In establishment. Seldom did she say
as much, and so did the man on the bed
| lust inside the room. Their converse
| ton was a revelation to him. AS a
young man he had been thrifty. his wife
was a fine woman. and some people had
said that he had "out-married himself"
| She was we'll educated, ambitious an
| energetic. In the nrst years of their
married life she had put her shoulder
| to the wheel and he had gradually de-
pended on her too much, it now seemed
| Did she really have to take his part to
keep the children from despising him?
| Well, they all had one blessing. They
had a good woman in the home.
He was up to his neck in debt, If he
had listened to the working partner"
/ as he had learned to consider her. there
would be more milk and butter, more
eggs and chickens, moro vegetables in
the garden, and wheat to make flour.
She and the children could not do it all,
and cotton he would plant. his place was
in the field, yes, he knew it, and that
would have left some one to look after
chickens, the COW and garden.
! That SO he sent off for whisky would
have put wheat on the cutoff he had
for potatoes. Just listen to that Amy
child, actually mimicking his voice and
despising other folks because they
talked like her dad. That boy might
grow up and try to put him out of the