Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1922-07-06
you done for him

n
1T amt that He's paid 1t back q
thousand times, working himself uI
to assistant foreman at the Works
and as good brother as comes and
all, but don't say l don't know him
Annie, anybody that's nursed a boy
from measles to marriage like have
him."
! But, Liddy-"
That's why I know what I'm talk.
i ing about when say he amt drunk.
ard In the bones, Steve amt. His
father before him went through a few
1 bad years just like Steve, and after
his pledge lived in temperance till
ne died in old age. It amt in his
bones, Annie; it's only tickling in
the palate"
That's what I thought, Li,ldy, those
three years while his breath was as
sweet as our baby's. but"
Its the pledge that'n do the work
now, Anne"
"He-he won't listen!"
"He's a God-fearing man, Annie,
like his father before him. If Won
can only get him to take the pledge.
now that he feels himself slippin'
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 !''
Its a 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 need drop to warm me for
sitting here day in and day out, my
baby gone? Do II"
1T was always a sin before the
Lord l used to say, man should
| crowd the whole world out of his
heart over a child, and his being taken
this way proves it. 1t was 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 l was"
"There-there just never was a
father and baby like them together,
Liddy. You know for yourself there
Observation-Disclosures!
Nov, now, dearie!"
"And how he used to crawl on
all tours till his big bones ached,
Liddy, acting horsie for the boy to ride
hlm-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 a bit.
The thirst amt in his bones, l tell you !;
it's only he's low, and when big mans
low he"
mo, no, Liddy. l tell you he's got
the taste Of it on his tongue and the
burn Of it on his insides 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-7and he tries toto make 1t up
to mel"
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"
Il 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"
"Now, now, Annie, that's an four
years passed and"
passed Like flash when 1 seen
him come through the kitchen door
these last three nights, his eyes all
red; like flash, l tell you, it comes
back to me-"
annie, Annie, it'll come all right,
tell you. Wasn't / the one predicted
it was the child being born would get
him intemperance, Annie, and didn't
it? For them three years wasn't his
breath as sweet as hay, and didn't l
predict it? Didn't l? You was happy
them three years, Annie. and"
"Happyw A fresh rivulet Of tears
flowed scalding over her words, chok-
ing speech. "Why, why, there
there just wasn't thing about them
three years, Liddy, II wouldn't live
over again. With our baby born, Lid
dy, all Of a sudden Steve got like one
himself. When he came home nights
the way he used to come In like choo-
choo, full Of play, for the kid-and-
oh, my God !"
"Annie-Annie! !"
"He was a new man, Liddy. 1t was
only ten months after he was born and
out Of clear sky that they made him
assistant foreman at the Works, Liddy,
and amt | told Won q thousand times