The Chicago whip. (Chicago, Ill.) 1919-19??, 1919-09-13

OLD ABNER
BY AGNES c. sRoeAN


morning hours passed slowly. With
this new ache in his back, he was I'M
able TO weed the garden. and Betsy
felt aggrieyed Betsy was his elder
sons wife and when her husband had
decided to make the farm their home,
after his mothers death, old Abner
had stayed on with them. But some
way or other the real home vanished
with Betsy's coming.
Abner couldn't understand 1t. Betsy's
biscuits were as fiaky as his wife's
had been, and the big house was kept
immaculate. Yet Abner preferred to
sit outside now ON the door stone. His
quavering whistle grew more plaintive
as he whitfield absently at a stick.
Violently Betsy threw open the front
door.
"Landl" she exclaimed look at
those shavings. Pick 'em up, father"
Abner glanced efficiently in his
young grandson's direction.
"Mebbe Dannie would do it for me-"
he ventured.
"Dannie will pick up his own shay
torted. land you can pick up yours"
As Abner bent painfully to his task,
he recalled time in his own child
hood, when he had spoken in what his
mother considered dsrespectful
manner to his grandfather. Abner
remembered also the shamed humility
OF his punishment.
"Times has changed" he murmured.
Betsy presented a pan of green peas
to the old man.
you can pod these as easy as whit
Ting" she said. So grandfather Abb
ner began on the peas, and as he
awkwardly podded he mentally con-
trasted the attitude of his younger
son in the city, and of the friends
whom he brought out to the farm,
with the actions of the elder son and
his wife. There seemed little prefer
ence between the two.
John, happy and thoughtless, had
succeeded remarkably in the profess
sion for which his parents had sacri-
ficingly prepared him. Old Abner
WINGED, remembering the good-natured
but irritating jokes of Johns friends,
"Times has changed" old Abner
murmured-he was very tired. Then
as he stared YEARLY down the long,
stretching road, his years of patient
submission were overwhelmed in a
sudden rebellion. He would submit
no longer to dominion or ridicule-nO
one really cared about him-he would
run away.
Again. memory brought day from
his forgotten boyhood, when in revolt
he had fled down the same country
road only to return at evening, re-
pentant, to welcoming arms. There
would be no welcome back now; still
he must go.
Tremblingly, he placed the pan of
podded peas on the step and hobbled
swiftly toward the woods.
A small, gayly painted Noah's ark
sort of a house, having the appear
ance. of being recently set down in its
place, attracted his attention. The
girl on the porch told him about it when
he stopped perplexedly to ask if he
was mistaken in thinking the house
had not been there before.
The girl laughed delightedly as she
explained.
ITS a portable house." she said;
father and | send it along wherever
we wish to stop. Father hunts speci-
mems, and | go to see that he's fed.
oil oh tf,Nry
If | were not there to remind him.
Won't you sit down." she asked kindly,
land rest upon our veranda?"
Gratefully, old Abner accepted the
invitation, the problem of his destina-
ton had been growing as he walked,
and it was big problem now.
Some way or other as he sat in the
restfui silence with the girls sympa-
thetic face near by, he found himself
answering her gentle questioning, with
the faltering story of his life. But
when his own eyes grew moist with
tears the girls blaZed defiance instead.
The pretty pink spots in her cheeks
grew even pinker.
"The pity of it !" she exclaimed, and
impulsively leaned over Abner's bowed
figure.
you are going to stay right here"
she declared, until you tire of us.
Now, listen while | tell you. 1t will be
no charity at all. Father is longing
for some one to trudge with him
through the woods-and to help him
examine his specimens.
So it happened. Miss Paula Provost
herself drove in her car to inform
Mrs. Betsy of the whereabouts of her
father-in-law and also of his resolu-
ton to remain where he was.
1t was John from the city who came
post haste to seek out his runaway ia
Their. He found him one summer after
noon seated upon the porch of a gay
little house, between a contented old
naturalist and his charming daughter.
Abner could not be persuaded to
IT. .,1,,, ,1,oaf,,1 ohnJo 81