The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-05-04
But 1t was a sin. l kept saying

1 L ulQl L care, lluuJs LID 1C Uluu
seem to love nothing on Gods gree
earth but that child. ! knew that, to
deep down in him for him to know |
he was loving me too with every kis
he gave the child. Lovin' me for beiI
it's mother. / never cared a bit, Liddy
when he came home evenings, yo
know how big and clean he can look
wasn't it town talk when he was
boy how May Wellington used to driv
past our house every evening In he
swell phaeton just for a glimpse Of hir
In the yard?"
Her and her long nose! With al
her money, Steve couldn't see pas
that"
"Just the same, you wasn't the onl,
one could have married above you
Annie"
81 never used to care, Liddy, 1 tel
you, when he used to come home eve
ming after evening and kiss the chile
a dozen times before he even seen ms
standing by and waiting for mine.
never cared, Liddy, so long as might
after night he walked home big and
strong and steady, and my baby could
look right down into his daddy's eyes
like they was cisterns and see to the
bottom of 'em. AS long as his eyes
wasn't thick like water with mud
stirred up, II knew, Liddy, | didn't
have nothing to be afraid Of"
81 know that look, Annie. When he
lived at home I always used to say
his eyes was like cistern water"
GAS long as l seen that look, Liddy.
I didn't care about nothing except ]
had him doing so well at the Works
and baby. Two babies, Liddy. because
those three years 1t was hard telling
which / had to baby most, Big Steve
Little Steve, Liddy. Two babies
l had"
He's a good boy in the bone, Annie.
God knows he is. It's that crowd of
mechanics used to come over here from
Granite City the year before he mar
ried woke up his taste for it,"
"Oh, we were happy all right, Liddy,
them three years. Him, too, Liddy,
him that wanted three or four of 'em
didn't ever care when there could
never be another. All that he wanted
was wrapped up right in our one; just
one child was his whole life,
Liddy, and now, oh, my God!"
"Everything's for the best, Annie.
coming home these few nights
don't mean nothing; it's the baby gone
ITO think that three weeks age he
was playing right here on this kitchen
floor while l was putting new collar
bands on his daddy's shirts and tryin'
learn him a new little trick to toddle
the door and holler to his poppa
when he heard him coming around the
tide yard, 'Giddy-app, Daddy-gidd-'"
annie, Annie"
"He never learned it, Liddy. 1t was
lext day, a Wednesday, when all of a
he quit playing and laid down
,ick-like next to his blocks, his little
,urls-curls-"
"His-his little yellow curls-how
did used to holler when his old maid
aunt corkscrewed 'eml"
."And only that morning, Liddy, God
me, l had slapped his little
lands, soft like, for grabbing at my
leedle when / sewed a snag in the little
blouse his pap bought for him.
Oh, my God, Liddy, what / got left?
And to think 1 slapped his-little-
And they wept, these two, crumpled
Onward in their chairs and the strings
If Renaissance plucked and %quivering.
Last night, Liddy, after he got home
rom the Works, and an hour late at
hat, he sat right down in the chair
you're sitting in, Liddy, while l was
kin his superior know the way
lie sits and stares and sits and stares
.hen-when-"
"I-I-know, Annie"
SCOT to talking to himself, Liddy,
about that time a year ago l went to
st. Louis to visit Lucy Beasley when
Ter old man died and they was threat
,ning to sell out her rooming house on
ler."
HE himself was the one wanted you
% go; said a body should go to her
,wn relations funeral, ven if he was
ne'er-do-well and seventy mile away"
Eyes, yes, that's just it. But last
light and the night before, Liddy, he
lept mumbling and throwing it up to
that THAT l was the n let him
ret the meningitis, and all. Me, Liddy,
was the one!"
annie !"
Eyes, like he don't remember how
he child slept that one night l was
rome all tucked up in your bed, and
low we laughed when you said your
;elf how you couldn't sleep for keep
ng him covered and watching his lit
lie curls all spread out over the pill
ow the way his daddy liked 'em."
"You mustn't pay attention to Steve,
Annie, when he gets to talking that
lway. 1 tell you just a drop makes a
lilly out of him. Just a drop!'
81 tell you, Liddy, it's killing mel
Poisoning me! l can't stand hearing