The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-02-22
6 The Greater Glory 50

prance round before your betters,
that's what your want. Did | have
any education? Did your mother
have any education? What right you
got to expect US to support you while
you're learnin' education SOS to
prance round before your betters?
Oh [ got this all thought out. For
a long time | been turnin' it over in
my mind. For a long time l been
thinkin'."
"You married mother; and when
you married her you knew she had
me. 1t isn't fair now to go back
Oh"
"Who's goin' back on anything?
Don't give me no argument. Don't
try to down me with your education.
won't be downed. I got this thing
all thought out, tell you. You was
little when l married your MOTHER
little and helpless. You amt little no
more. You're able to take care O.
yourself. Yet you don't make no CT
fort to take care o. yourself; you
just laze around and wipe a few
dishes and do a little cookin' and
mend little clothes and do a few
high-fown chores like you was soEle
grand breed O. duchess; and think ]
ought to support you while you get
an education to prance around and
shame your betters. I'm sick of it.
| stood it as long as I'm agoin, to
stand it. So I-been-thinkin'!"
He had been thinking, for hundreds
of terrible evenings!
"Father!" she cried Historically.
81 don't mean I should do it no
more!"
''Father!"
81 don't intend to do it no more.
You heard what said tonight. Why
amt you gomez
II didn't think you meant it. At
least not SO soon. Not at once, to-
night"
didn't think I meant it! She says
after all the thinkin' I've done, she
didn't suppose [ meant it!
81 told you to get out! told you
to get out! I meant it when 1 said
get out. And I come home and find
you here. You know what happens
to willful young uns who disobey-i"
For a third time she uttered the
word "Fatherw but this time in a
whisper. Then she tried to scream
but no scream would come.
The man was drunk. He was more
than drunk,-he was mad The Ian
tern CLINT fell aslant on his face and
the girl caught the look in his eyes.
They were the eyes Of a person with
out reason.
She saw the green light blaze up
She saw the pupils dilate. She sens
ed that the worst had happened. The
silence eternal of the lonely New
England hillsides, the maddenino
quiet of the evenings, the lack of in
tercourse with people of education
and breeding, the months and months
of brooding before the kitchen stove
all had tended toward the inevi-
table. Something had SNAPPED in ST.
lent Wheeler's brain. Silent Wheeler
had become obsessed.
The step-father reached into his
clothes. From around the top of his
trousers he unbuckled a heavy belt.
Don't, father, don'tl" It was the
voice of a little girl beseeching an
irate parent to withhold punishment
for some childish disobedience. Yet
she was not a little girl. She was
woman grown and a CHASTITY pretty
woman.
Silent Wheeler laughed He had
not laughed for so long and the levi
ty was so uncanny that it paralyzed
the daughter as much as the deadly
thing he held in his hand. With the
laugh he reached over. He closed
his other hand around soft white
wrist.
The soft slumbering Spring night
was suddenly cut by screamsl
Monday Night-In which Slug Tru-