Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1922-04-13
.Well To

DOnI you see Wnat you've done
you boys?' she said. "Don't you Sc,
what you've done with your absurt
telegram? That started the rest they
thought they all had to send telegranss
like that"
swell, the faculty"
"Even they mightn't have thought
Of it if it hadn't been for the first one.
Vengeance is the most terrible
thought; once you put it into peoples
minds that they ought to have it, it
runs away with them"
"Well, it isn't mostly vengeance
we're after, at all. There's a lot more
to 1t than just getting even with"
She did not heed him. you're all
blind! You don't see what you're do.
ing; you don't even see what you've
done to this peaceful place here
You've filled it full of thoughts of fury
and killing and massacre"
"Why, no." said Ramsey at wa.
those Dutch did that to US; and, be
sides, there's more to it than you"
mo, there isn't" she interrupted.
'It's just the old brutal spirit that ma
tons inherit from the time they were
only tribes: it's the tribe spirit, and
an eye for an eye and a tooth for
tooth. It's those things and the love
of fighting-men have always loved
to fight. Civilization hasn't taken it
out of them; men still have the brute
In them that loves to fight!''
81 don't think sO,' said Ramsey.
Americans don't love to fight don't
know about other countries, BUT we
don't. Of course, here and there,
there's some fellow that likes to hunt
around for scraps, but 1 never saw
more than three or four in my life that
acted that way. Of course football
team often has a scrapper or two on
it, but that's different"
NO." she said II think you all
really love to fight"
Ramsey was reused to become argu-
mentative II don't see where you get
the idea. Colburn isn't halfway, and
back at school there wasn't a single
boy that was anything like that"
"What!" She stopped, and turned
suddenly to face him.
"What's the matter?' he said, stop
ping, too. Something he said had
startled her, evidently.
"How can you say. such a thlng?"
she cried. "You love to fight! p
"Me?"
'You do! You love fighting. You
always have loved fighting"
He was dumfounded. "Why, never
had fight in my life!"
She cried out in protest of such pre-
varicatiOn.
"Well, 1 never did," he insisted,
mildly.
"Why, you had a fight about mel"
"No, I didn't"
"With Wesley Bender!"
Ramsey chuckled ''That wasn't a
fight"
ut Wasn't?"
Nothing like one. We were just
guyin' him abOut-abOut gettin' siicked
up, kind of, because he sat in front of
you; and he hit me with his book strap
and / chased him Off Gracious, no;
that wasn't fight!"
'But you fought Linski only last
fall"
Ramsey chuckled again. "That
wasn't even as much like a fight as the
one with Wesley. I just told this
Linski I was gOin to give him a punch
in the sn- I just told him to look
out because | was goin' to hit him, and
then / did it, and waited to see if he
wanted to do anything about it, and he
didn't That's all there was to it, and
it wasn't any more like fighting than
than feeding chickens is"
She laughed dolefully 'It seems
to me rather more like it than that !"
"Well, it wasn't"
They had begun to walk on again.
and Ramsey was aware that they had
passed the frat house." where his
dinner was probably growing cold. He
was aware of this, but not sharply or
insistently. CuriouSy enough, he did
not think about it. He had begun to
find something pleasant in the odd in
tervieW, and in walking beside girl,
even though the girl was Dora Yocum.
He made no attempt to account to
himself for anything so peculiar.
For while they went slowly to-
gether, not speaking, and without desY
tination, though Ramsey vaguely took
1t for granted that Dora was going
somewhere But she wasn't They
emerged from the part of the small
town closely built about the university
and came out upon a bit Of parked
land overlooking the river; and here
'Dora's steps slowed to an indeter-
inmate halt near bench beneath a
maple tree.
II think I'll stay here a WHILE" she
said; and as he made no response, she
asked: Hadn't you better be going
back to your frat house for your din
ner? l didn't mean for you to come
out Of your way with me; only want
ed to get an answer to my question.
You'd better be running back"