The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1919-04-24
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J. WHY LEFT HOME. :

/ have often been asked by a great
many people the reason for my sudden
departure from my old home town
several years ago and for their ben
eft as we'll as the rest of my friends
| am going to tell the following tale:
1t was at the beginning of my SEN
! ior year IN the home town high school
and during the three years just past
j had earned the name of being bug
on mathematics and Ounce on all
other studies in the school, including
| the opposite sex. AS matter of fact,
up to the beginning of my last year in
school | do not believe that anyone
could honestly say that they had ever
seen me even talk to girl except to
pass the time Of day. And the fault
was neither theirs or mine guess, ex-
cept that l had terrible dread that
| if ever so much as walked home with
girl, everyone would think that l
was head over heels in love with her.
/ And as you will see, that is just ex-
actly what happened
I 1t started in the hallway just out
side of the assembly room in the old
high school and although l take my
| solemn oath that tried to get around
that bunch Of girls and into the as
sembly room. it could not be done,
and as there were three or four new
girls there Of course introductions
were in order. l took all the intro
auctions as l always did. Just heard
the names and Immediately forgot
them. That is, all but the last one.
She was vision of creamy loveliness.
and when she took my hand l forgot
everything else in the world and l
just simply held onto the hand and
stared at her. l don't know what she
said or what said in reply but it
must have been absolutely silly be-
cause when | came to my senses l
found the bunch laughing at me and
the vision was suddenly turned into
a fiery little ball of anger Where
upon l Immediately went away from
there without saying goodbye or any
thing else.
But in the next few days had time
to think things over and decided that
it was about time that l picked some
body at least for the rest of the year,
because there would be all kinds of
parties and ball games and other
things to go to during the last year
and unless wanted to look like wall
flower l had better find someone to
take to them. also decided that it
would be better to take the same girl
to all of them and thus avoid compli-
cations by taking the wrong girl to
the wrong party.
The first thing did was to take
her to a dance and I was somewhat
nervous about it because l did not
dance a step and / was afraid that
she would be rather peeved about it.
But when we got there T discovered
that she did not care for that sort of
fun either and that the fact that l
did not dance helped me along whole
lot. forgot to mention that it was
the vision in cream that I took.)
Well, in the course of human events
| naturally met her parents and there
| discovered another stumbling block.
They had their eye on prosperous
young lumberman and they seemed to
think that | was cutting in where I
did not belong and about the second
month that | had been calling l was
told as much in plain English. Every
one concerned was present and so to
save the feelings Of all as much as
possible | simply stated that believ-
ed that it we1 entirely up to Allie and
If she decided in my favor was GER
tainly willing to abide by it, just the
same as if she decided the other way.
l certainly had no wish to break in
on someone else. Meanwhile the ia
vorite was out of town and Allie
could not be expected to sit home and
tWiddle her thumbs until he came to
drag her away to his forest fortress.
This argument seemed to please
them and especially the older sister.
who Immediately took great liking
to me and so informed her sister. And
| declare right now that if she had
not been so much older that her sis
ter would soon have been put out of
the running, because she had a level
head and always treated me like there
was no one else on earth. And it soon
came to pass that the rest of the fam
lily did likewise. In fact l became the
favorite and Old Timbersmith the
"also ran" did not know at that
time that the only thing that saved me
| IN that house was my ability to make
the evening interesting for the whole
family instead Of sitting with Allie in
the front room and saying sweet
nothings. That is something that I
| have never done to anyone. MY ad-
| vice to young men is rather to tell the
girl you do not love her and say it in a
way that will make her think YOU
mean the opposite. than to be always
telling that old. old story, SO oft re-
peated. 1t makes hit with them.
It also makes them think thot they
are clever in reading you when you
try to impress them differently.
But l did not know all this then
any more than the rest Of the poor
chumps just out of knee trousers. /
thought thu, was the one and only
and that she was the only one for me.
And the farther we got toward the
end Of the school year the worse it
became. could not walk home from
school without first seeing her safely
to her doorstep and at least every
other night making arrangements to
spend the evening at her house or else
to take her somewhere. BY the end
of the Easter vacation had decided
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