The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-11-06
EVENING STORY
The Boy.
BY WILL T. AMES.

|
| have done better on straight cracked
corn He says the state people didn't
| take into account the live food our
fowls pick up in our run, with all that
swampy land near the brook. L sup
| pose he's right"
| From seowIing contemplation of
| four loaves of bread, burned on top
while not yet thoroly done, the wo-
man raised a flushed face. across
which wisp of her still black hair
| had strayed. There was more than
inpatience in the glance she shot at
| the~speaker. She drew the loaves from
the oven, protecting her hands with
her apron, and flung them, anyhow,
on the kitchen table. Then she dropped
into a chair and stared out thru the
window The man, basket with ten
eggs dangling from his hand, stood by
the door looking moodily at her.
Presently the woman laughed mirth-
lessly. How many different pieces of
advice does that make you have ac-,
cepted from Tom. Dick and Harry in
facing her husband suddenly with
wide open, angry eyes. Not about
the wretched poultry alone, but about
everything Again she ~turned to
the window, the toe of her worn slip
per tapping tho floor.
The mans lips parted. then drew
taut. He made no move. The flush
died from the woman's frowning face
and it grew drawn and older. She.
sprang to her feet and faced him, her
hands clenched tensely at her side.
Have you nothing to do but to
stand there and glare at me in that
foolish, melodramat way?'' she cried.
shrill, metallic thread in her voice.
Haven't you even yet learned that
the only way to slow up the process
of starvation in this miserable place
is not to go incoming around, gossip
ing with your loutish neighbors over
your own failures, but to work-to
work. work, work! INCREASINGLY to
work. like brute beast on an eternal
treadmill-like I do?
The man, too, had gone white. He
tore open the door and. with all his
might, threw the basket into the yard.
1t struck against the orchard wall, two
rods away.
ITO he'll with it! To hell with the
whole damned business. Failures?
Yes-all one rotten failure! Listen,
you. I failed in the old life, the old
business, because I was crazy enough
| to think a man could succeed and be
| decent at the same time. I've failed
here trying to make hard work and
determination serve the purpose of
capital and the know how-and with
the handspring of the whole effort
gone!''
He paused for an instant. The
woman stared from the window. He
| went on, And if 1 failed. what about
you? You're worse failure than
am. God Almighty doesn't make
brokers and farmers; men have to
learn; sometimes they can't. But he
makes every woman potentially one
thing-and you failed, you failed ut
| terly. shamefully. at that thing."
what do you mean?" The woman
was chalky to, the lips; her head
shook as with.a tiny palsy.
! You know we'll what 1 mean. I
mean the boy. When he came you
seemed to think you'd been picked
out and set apart to. be the mother
Ola god. You wanted the universe
to. be run just for him. You'd have
stumble in the dark, if you could. to-
| keep it from shining in his eyes. You
coddled him and squandered money
on him and kept our nose to the grind
stone. And after all, what was it you
did for him?''
The woman stared stoniIy without
words.
! I'll tell you what you did-yous
| robbed him of his chance. You made
a dollhouse thing of him. And then
a wastrel, that FILTERED away in club
! designations the little stamina you had
| left him You hate this place"-the
mans voice was thin and high-"this'
! dea@ening, hopeless life that neither
of US is fitted for. Well. what brought
us here but the way you filled YOUR
job as a mother? What but the des-
perate hope of giving him back the
health your wretched ordering of his
| life had wrecked 2"
And didn't it?'' The woman's
breath whistled on the intake.
Wouldn't he have been alive and
we'll today only for your wicked folly?
Didn't you fill his mind with the stilt-
ed, false theories you had sopped up at
second hand from politicians ballyhoo
that crazy thing you call patriot
ism Was If ANYTHING but yOrr ha d
teaching that made him lie to the doc
tors and cover up His history OF tuber-
culosis? Don't you know it was you,
and nobody and nothing else, that
sent him over there to die. when here
he could have lived? Could have
| lived. I tell youi Listen She strobe
| toward him. menaeing him with blaz-
ing eyes IF I spoiled the boy-you-
murdered-him,'
A wooden chair was Just behind the
man. His hand reached out convuls-
lively and gripped it by the back. Then
suddenly he slumped into it, covered
his face with his hands and groaned.
Il could have stood anything but
that-did stand everything!" the wo-
man walled; but oh, my boy. my
hDyf She flung herself down at the
table and sobbed dryly.- without tears.
/ There was heavy knock at the
door. The man, staring at the floor,
made no move. The woman arose.
shook her head as if to free 1t from
some tangible ENHANCEMENT, went to
the door and opened it. A telegram
had been brought out from town by a
neighbor. She tore the envelope and
read the message. She wheeled to-
| ward the man. her eyes wide.
"SteveI That mill girl-he mar
Observation-Disclosures
SThe,Ge0rpe M