The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1917-10-11

more fun than agreeing
with the boss when he wants to raise
my salary. When think Of what my
life might have been without having
her with me to wade into me every
night and assault me with her entire
large and well-chosen vocabulary while
trying to persuade me to revise my
language and squeeze the hot air out
of 1t or to stop holding Peter Ether
bridge Simmons. Jr., up by one leg or
to admit that am entirely wrong In
my claims concerning the weight of
Queen Anne, / hold up my hands and
bless Siwash college, which gave her
to me.
Quarreling with Martha Is more ex-
hilarating than shooting the chutes.
And it's a perfectly harmless pastime.
I've quarreled with her for about eight
years now-three Of them In Siwash'
and five more since then, and as far
as remember we have never settled
a single quarrel or quarreled over
subject that was worth settling. am
very proud Of our system. Sometimes
think we ought to patent 1t. No mat
ter what l really want to quarrel with
her about, or no matter what reason
she has for locking up The Hague tri-
bunal and calling out her reserves
against me, we always quarrel about
English history. It's bully idea. You
can put all the enthusiasm and Ia
basco you please into the discussion,
but you never get anywhere-most
especially you don't get around to
what you would really like to quarrel
about. That's why all of our quarrels
together have never panned out a drop
of brine. II ever made Martha cry,
/ think should 60 out to Lincoln Park
and feed myself to the lions.
l suppose we choose English history
to row about because 1t was English
history which first brought us together
when 1 was bowling young nuisance
at Siwash and she was a compendium
of useful information with twinkle
in her talk. got acquainted because
of English history-dOn't tell me a
college education hasn't its advan-
tages. And most of our quarrels end
up with a discussion as to when I
fell in love with her. She maintains
that 1t took three years of steady eff
fort on her part to land me. / claim
that 1t was q case of love at first
oi1ht. that che xynn mo hv dacIininO
to become acquainted with me, and
that long after l was her slave she
tried to give me away to fat girl
who wore No. 8 shoes. She always
shudders ut this, and so do l. 1t
wasn't a pleasant experience for me.
Martha and l went through college
practically hand In hand, and only
parted long enough afterward to en-
able me to sandbag Chicago bank
into paying me living salary. But
there was time-in my freshman
year-when if
Oh, well, for that matter the whole
affair is full of IFS. If | had gotten
as mad as should have gotten at
her indifference-if hadn't taken up
study to amuse myself that spring; If
/ hadn't seen that Martha's hair would
be beautiful If she fluffed 1t up instead
of tying it in hard knot that pulled
her eyebrows out of shape; and, most
particularly, If l hadn't gotten ire
mendOus crouch In the spring of my
xvntiIH hoUa
gotten Martha It's fun to figure out
all the ifs. Think of winning wife
by getting an acute case of dark blue
cOllywabbles If that wasn't top
heavy reward for foolishness, I'll give
1t up.
Now, I am not going to tell 1t all,
because, while I'm perfectly willing to
discuss other peoples love affairs l
simply can't seem 10 care to take the
lid off and let the world peer into ours.
How persuaded Martha to look upon
me as pleasant diversion, and how
I persuaded her to come down about
a thousand miles and decorate exist
ence for me-those are secrets. But
don't mind telling you how 1t all start
ed. After all, that's the important
part of these college affairs. It's just
like rolling SNOWFALL down hill--start
1t and you don't have to worry about
1t. 1t will take care Of itself. That's
all 1 really did about falling In love
with Martha. started the affair; but
didn't mean thing by 1t, either.
Neither did she mean anything. In
fact, she was a lot meaner than
about 1t.
It was the calendar that really be-
gan 1t all. One of the most mysteri-
Gus things In college life Is the way
the year slips by under you and goes
away before you are half through with
II. This never failed to surprise and
grieve me. A year is such cOnfOund.
eddy long affair when you look 1t In
the face-particularly college year.
When you consider, along in Septem.
ber that before June you have to go
to chapel 200 times, read through sew.
eral books written In decayed Ian.
guages, and figure out chubby vol.
ume of trigonometry problems that
look like airpiane wrecks when they
are put on the blackboard, the year
seems like a quarter-secti0n of eter.
nifty. But suddenly, just after you've