The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-11-16

y Little
FIowor-B Blossom

Little
Flower Blossom
BY JUSTIN WENTWooD =
oopyrisht, 1922. western Newspaper, Union.
TITS preposterous, shameful. intol-
cradle, unhumanr' said Mrs. Ander-
son.
$50 / told the cub myself, o I there.
abouts, replied her husband, Frank
Anderson, the banker. 'sBut It's hard
10 make him understand. You know,
he always was queer Ia social ways"
That's just the point" answered his
wife. And that's what comes Of tax
Ing up social work In the Sums"
&c NoWer-BIossom could have heard,
she might have let fall the two big
tears that trembled upon her dark
lashes, instead OF winking them away,
according to the Precepts of Women,
which she had learned from her hon
orable father before he left her, an
orphan, and she was adopted by the
mission school. s%&SS \
F1oWer-Blossom was eighteen now,
and she had been designed for a teach
or OF her own rae in this strange land
Of America That was before she met
Tom Anderson, fresh from college, who
meant to devote himself to all sorts
Of enterprises among the poor.
He drifted into the school one day
and watched Flower-B Blossom teaching
pothooks and hangers to a score Of
yellow-faced, black pigtailed children
from the purlieus Of Chinatown. = 81
Flower Blossom looked up at him
and-can a Chinese girl blush7 At
any rate, Flower-Blossom's pretty,
yellow cheeks became Enthusiastically
pinker than they had been before.
Many times after that Tom Ander-
son found himself in the mission.
There was no Mr.. Fower-Blossom to
ask him his intentions, but then Tom
was the soul Of honor.
It was just that which so irritated
his parents. They did not approve Of
anything that was not strictly moral,
OF course; but still, what was more
awful than Toms announcement that
he meant to make Flower-Blossom his
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. who had only
the haziest idea Of social conventional
All Wing, who sold dried soles and
ducks, and strings Of strange vege-
tables In his big shop, waylaid Flow
er-Blossom at the corner Of the street.
"Next week i sail for home" he said.
81 am rich. You come with me and
be my honorable second wife?"
Flower-Blossom shook her head toll
erably. She knew how hard it was to
eradicate heather ideas from her own
. people.
"a man has only one wife," she said.
"I will divorce her
F1ower-Blossom laughed at him,
though she felt far from laughing.
All Wing had been prosecuting her for
weeks past she would be glad when
Tom and she were married.
One day a strange woman came into
the mission school. Flower-Blossom,
looking up as she bowed to the visitor,
thought she looked a little bit like
Tom.
II want to speak to you," said Mrs,
Anderson. "You are the young girl
who Is to marry my son next week7''
Fower-Blossom humbled herself to
the ground, as If correct with ones
mother-in-law. Mrs. Anderson shifted.
"An absolute heather, Frank" she
told her husband afterward.
"You understand what this marriage
means?" she asked. "It means that
Tom viii be cut out Of his fathers
Will. He will never have a penny. He
has never been taught to work. What
are you going to do about it?"
Flower-Blossom looked like a pink
petal. my father" she said softly,
"was an honorable Mandarin"
ooh, I dare say" said Mrs. Ander
son. "But I'm not sur he himself
would have approved. East is east
and west Is west, you know"
'They told me-" said Flower-Blos
som, "when I went. to the mission
school, that all were equal in America
"Under the law, yes. I'm sure
don't know whether you can vote oa
not, butt don't want you to marry
Tom. For his sake" said Mrs. An.
.derson. - ~ sE.E5 ~. IT. X.
F. There were four days to the mar
riage. Tom saw F1ower-Blossom ey.
cry evening. %
II must see as much OF you as I can
even though we're going to have each
other forever after Tuesday," he said
Eyes," answered Flower Blossom.
Monday night came. Flower-Blos
som was not at the mission school
that night. Nobody had seen her; she
was not In her room. She had slipped
away quietly, because the Precepts d
Women says, eco softly when thou
goest, and, when thoH must wound
let thy steel be sharp and silent"
Parkway on board the liner Flower.
Blossom bowed herself at An Wing'a
feet.
ssThere is no need to divorce her.
she said humbly. IT will be thy hon.
orabIe second wife &'A$
Curious Copper Mining.
It Is said that about nine miles from
- - a y - 49, nEZag -