The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-05-04
II know, Liddy, / know"

tNo1SOd iiAAh Inv H. ONhs 90
remember yourself when you was kids
together back In your own mothers
time, that there wasn't a boy in Spar
tan, from the Lowneys down, was
starchier of a Sunday thar Stevey,
Or"
"Yes, yes, Liddy."
RAISED him and fed him by plait-
irg wire nettings when l ought to been
playing dolls, tryin' and slavin' to
keep that boy out of the Shelter home.
Don't tell me a sister don't know"
"Liddy, Liddy, Steve amt forgot all
you done for him."
ut amt that He's paid it back a
thousand times, working himself up
to assistant foreman at the Works,
and as good a brother as ZONES and
all, but don't say / don't know him,
Annie, anybody that's nursed a boy
from measles to marriage like 1 have
him.
"But, Liddy-"
THAT'S why l know what I'm talk
ing about when I say he amt a 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. It amt in his
bones, Annie; it's only a tickling In
the palate"
THAT'S what I thought, Liddy, those
three years while his breath was as
sweet as our 5aby's. but"
ITS the pledge that'll do the work
now. Anne"
",'r-rie wont liSten!'
,-ni eca-ing man. Annie,
'."f ~ Tim. If you
Tie pledge
now that he feels himself slippin'
back. If you only can!"
"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 rum
min nights y
tits a drop to warm him, Annie,
DN1OAO hC NOhCo hOhO bhNPN AtSs
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
here day in and day out, my
baby gone? Do II" ]
ut was always a sin before the
Lord | used to say, a man should I
crowd the whole world out of his
heart over a child, and his being taken +,
his way proves it. 1t vas a sin before /
he Lord how he banked or that child, |
it with too much love. No I
it's hard to live to see the day '
right / was" 6
"There-there just was a
'ather and baby like them together,
1iddy. You know for yourself there I
|ust-never-wasl"
"Now, now, deariel" {
"And how he used to crawl on
all tours till his big bones ached,
Liddy, acting horsie for the boy to ride |
lim-for hours, Liddy, till / used to 6
ret scared the baby wouldn't sleep
rom excitement, and grab him up and
IF his tired old back"
That's just what I'm saying to you, q
it's these evenings with his S
,aby gone have drove him back a bit. {
The thirst amt in his bones, l tell you; 4
rs only he's low, and when a big mans !
ow he"
mo, no, Liddy. I tell you he's got
he taste of it on his tongue and the c
,urn Of it on his insides again after
hese three years. He says himself 1
he burn is like a pain that don't hurt t
Then-when he gets that way. Says
t himself when the shame is on him, f
% mel" '
Its one drop too much can send
Steve off, Annie. Two glasses make
lim silly where another can carry six 6
you know 1t. Steve never got s
from it in his life; I've seen him /
but" {
God! I'd rather be came home
me than-than the silly way
ne does when he's-that way. God, t
when he-gets sillyP {
But" 6
II tell you it's his Stiffness, Liddy,
the way he gets talking to him. I
self scares me more than his getting
'ough would! You remember that
hight he took all that cider over at G
Joe's halloween, Liddy, and how /
AN over to you clear across the rail-
.oad tracks when he came home talk
ng to himself and tryin' to-" t
Nov, now, Annie, that's an four G
years passed and" /
Passed! Like a flash when | seen S
him come through the kitchen door j
.hese last three nights, his eyes all
ed; like a flash, l tell you, it comes l
pack to me-"
annie, Annie, it'll come all right, ] 1
ell you. Wasn't / the one predicted 8
t was the child being born would get S
Tim intemperance, Annie, and didn't
t? For them three years wasn't his