The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1922-07-13
Il know, Liddy, l know"

together back in your own mothers
time, that there wasn't a boy in Spar
tan, from the Lowneys down, was
starchier of Sunday than Stevey.
/ Or"
Yes, yes, Liddy."
RAISED him and fed him by plait-
ing wire nettings when l ought to been
| playing dolls, tryin' and slavin' to
! keep that boy out of the Shelter horne
Don't tell me sister don't know"
''Liddy, Liddy, Steve amt forgot all
you done for him."
1T amt that! He's paid it back a
| thousand times, working himself up
to assistant foreman ut the Works,
! and as good a brother as comes and
all, but don't say | don't know him.
| Annie, anybody that's nurSed Il boy
/ from measles to marriage like l have
| him"
But, Liddy-"
That's why | know what I'm talk
| ing about when | say he amt Il drunk
/ ard in the bones, Steve amt His
/ father before him went through Il few
bad years just like Steve and after
his pledge lived in temperance till
he died in old age. 1t amt in his
bones, Annie; it's only tickling in
the palate"
That's what thought, Liddy, those
| three years while his breath was as
sweet as our baby'S, but"
It's the pledge thatll do the work
now, Anne"
"IIe-he won't listen!'
Hes Godfearing man, Annie.
like his father before him. If you
can only get him to take the pledge,
now that he feels himself sllppin'
back. If you only cant"
"Oh, God, nothing counts"
"Sh-h! l tell you it's just the hole
in his heart that drove him home that
way last night"
And don't forget the night before,
and the night before that! Three run
min nights"
/ IT'S drop to warm him, Annie,
before he comes home these first
nights to find his little one not here.
/ Just a drop to warm him."
And what about me? What about
me? Do l need a drop to warm me for
sitting here day in and day out, my
( baby gone? Do ~
1T was always a sin before the
Lord l used to say, man should
.rpJyI bn ,Nln e
heart over child, and his being taken
this way proves it. 1t was a sin before
the Lord how he banked ON that child,
running it with too much love. No
good can come of it, l always said,
and it's hard to live to see the day
how right I was"
"There-there just never was
father and baby like them together,
Liddy. You know for yourself there
just-never-was!"
Nov, now, dearie!"
And how he used to crawl on
all fours till his big bones ached,
Liddy, acting horsie for the boy to ride
him-fOr hours, Liddy, till l used to
get scared the baby wouldn't sleep
from excitement, and grab him up and
off his tired old back"
That's just what I'm saying to you,
Annie; it's these evenings with his
, baby gone have drove him back Il bit.
The thirst amt in his bones, tell you;
it's only he's low, and when big mans
low he"
'NO, no, Liddy. l tell you he's got
the taste of it on his tongue and the
burn of it on his inSdes again after
these three years. He says himself
the burn is like pain that don't hurt
when-when he gets that way. Says
+ it himself when the shame is on him,
and-and he tries toto make it up
to mer
Its one drop too much can send
Steve off, Annie. Two glasses make
him silly where another can carry six
and you know it. Steve never got
rough from it in his life; I've seen him
silly, but"
God! I'd rather he came home
beating me than-than the silly way
he does when he's-that way. God,
when he-gets silly"
But"
81 tell you it's his Stiffness, Liddy,
and the way he gets talking to him
self scares me more than his getting
rough would. You remember that
night he took all that cider over at
JOe's halloween, Liddy, and how l
ran over to you clear across the rail-
road tracks when he came home talk
ing to himself and tryin' to"
Nov, now, Annie, that's an four
years passed and"
Passed Like flash when / seen
him come through the kitchen door
these last three nights, his eyes all
red; like a flash, l tell you, it comes
back to me-"
annie, Annie, it'll come all right,
tell you. Wasn't | the one predicted
1t was the child being born would get
him intemperance, Annie, and didn't
1t? For them three years wasn't his
breath as sweet as hay, and didn't
predict it2 Didn't /? You was happy
them three years, Annie, and"
Happy" A fresh rivulet of tears