Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1922-06-08
Il know, Liddy, I know"

together back in your own mothers
time, that there wasn't 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 ought TO been
playing dolls, tryin' and slavin' to
keep that boy out of the Shelter home.
Don't tell me sister don't know"
'Liddy, Liddy, Steve amt forgot all
you done for him."
ut amt that! He's paid 1t back a
thousand times, working himself up
to assistant foreman at the Works,
and as good brother as comes and
all, but don't say don't know him,
Annie, anybody that's nursed boy
from measles to marriage like have
him."
"But, Liddy-"
"That's why know what I'm talk
ing about when l say he amt drunk
ard in the bones. Steve amt. His
father before him went through a 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 a 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 that'l do the work
now, Anne"
"He-he won't listen!"
"He's a God-fearing man, Annie,
like his father before him. If you
can only get him to take the pledge,
now that he feels himself slippin'
back. If you only can!"
"Oh, God, nothing counts"
"Sh-hl / 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 nightsI"
"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 need a drop to warm me for
sitting here day in and day out, my
baby gomez Do I?'
1T was always a sin before the
Lord used to say, a man should
crowd the whole world out of his
heart over child, and his being taken
this way proves it. 1t was sin before
the Lord how he banked on that child
running 1t with too much love. Nc
good can come of it, always said
and it's hard to live to see the day
how right was"
"There-there just never was q
father and baby like. them together
Liddy. You know for yourself there
just-nexer-was"
NOW, now, dearie!"
.And how he used to crawl OF
all fours till his big bones ached
Liddy, acting horsie for the boy to ride
him-for hours, Liddy, till 1 used tt
get scared the baby wouldn't sleeI
from excitement, and grab him up ant
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 bit
The thirst amt in his bones, tell you
it's only he's low, and when big man.
low he"
-'No, no, Liddy. tell you he's got
the taste of it on his tongue and the
burn of 1t on his insides again after
these three years. He says himself
the burn is like pain that don't hur
when-when he gets that way. Says
it himself when the shame is on him
and-and he tries TOTO make it VI
to mef'
Its one drop too much can SEND
Steve off, Annie. Two glasses make
him silly where another can carry si1
and you know it. Steve never goi
rough from it I'm his life; I've seen hin
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 sillyl"
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
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 fash when seen
him come through the kitchen door
these last three nights, his eyes all
red; like flash, / tell you, 1t comes
back to me-"
"Annie, Annie. it'll come all right,
tell you. Wasn't / the one predicted
1t YVES the child being born would get
him intemperance, Annie, and didn't
| 1t? For them three years wasn't his