The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-04-13

bands dying. I asked Peter one day
how soon folks did get married after
a divorce, but he didn't seem to know.
Anyway. all he said was to stammer:
"Er-yes, miss-no, miss, mean,
1 don't know, miss
Peter IS awfully funny. But he's
nice. 1 like him. only I can't find out
much by him. He's very good-looking,
though he's quite old. He's almost
| thirty. He told me. 1 asked him. He
takes me back and forth to school ev-
| ery day, so I see quite lot Of him.
| And. really, he's about the only one I
can ask questions Of here, anyway.
There isn't anybody like Nurse Sarah
used to be. ! Olga, the cook, talks so
funny I can't understand word she
SAYS, hardly. Besides, the only two
times I've been down to the kitchen
Amt Hattie sent for me, and she
told me the last time. not to 60 any
more. She didn't say why. Aunt Hat
tie never says why not to do things.
| She Just says, Don't" Sometimes 1t
seems to me as If my whole life had
been made up of "don'ts." If they'd
only tell us part of the time things
TO "do," maybe we wouldn't have so
much time to do the "don'ts." (That
sounds funny, but I guess folks'n know
what I mean.)
Well, what was I saying? Oh, I
know-about asking questions. AS l
said, there isn't anybody like Nurse
Sarah here. can't understand Olga.
and Theresa. the other maid, is just
about as bad. Aunt Hattie's lovely,
but can't ask questions Of her. She
isn't the kind. Besides, Testers al
ways there, too; and you can't discuss
family affairs before children. or
course there's Mother and Grandpa
Desmond. But questions like when
| it's proper for Mother to have lovers
I can't ask Of them, Of course. SO
there's no one but Peter left to ask.
Peters all right and very nice, but he
doesn't seem to know anything that
I want to know. So he doesn't amount
to so very much, after all.
I'm not sure, anyway, that MotherH
want to get married again. From IT.
tie things she says I rather guess she
| doesn't think much Of marriage, any
way. One day I heard her say to
Aunt Hattie that it was very pretty
theory that marriages were made in
! heaven. but that the real facts of the
case were. that they were made on
earth. And another day heard her
say that one trouble with marriage
was that the husband and wife didn't
know how to play together and to rest
| together. And lots of times I've heard
her say little things to Aunt Hattie
that showed how unhappy her mar
riage had been.
But last night funny thing hap
pened. We were all in the library
reading after dinner, and Grandpa
looked up from his paper and said
something about a woman that was
sentenced to be hanged and how a
whole lot of men were writing letters
protesting against having a woman
hanged: but there were only one or
two letters from women. And Grand
pa said that only went to prove how
much more lacking in a sense OF mt
ness of things women were than men.
| And he was just going to say more
| when Aunt Hattie bristled up and
toss,l FER chin, and said, real indig'
| nantly:
"A sense Of fitness Of things, in
deed! On, yes, that's all very well
to say. There are plenty of men, no
| doubt, who are shocked beyond any,
thing at the idea of hanging woman /;
| but those same men will think moth
ing of going straight home and max
ing life for some other woman so ab-
solutely miserable that she'd think
hanging would be lucky, escape from
something worse"
"Harriet!" exclaimed Grandpa in a
shocked voice.
"Well, I mean itr' declared Aunt
Hattie emphatically. "Look at poor
Madge here, and that wretch Of a hus-
band Of hers!"
And just here is where the funny
thing happened. Mother bristled up
Mother !-and even more than Aunt
Hattie had. She turned red and then
white, and her eyes blazed.
"That will do, Hattie, please, in my
presence" she said, very cold, like ice.
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