The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-02-13


one could have married above you,
Annie"
Il never used to care, Liddy, / tell
you, when he used to come home eve
ming after evening and kiss the child
a dozen times before he even seen me
standing by and waiting for mine. l
never cared, Liddy, so long as night
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 Railways used to say
his eyes was like cistern water"
"As long as 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 l. was hard telling
which | had to baby most, Big Steve
cor Little Steve, Liddy. Two babies
/ 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 even care when there could
never be another All that he wanted
was wrapped up right in our one; just
that one child was his whole life
Liddy, and now, oh, my God!'
"Everything's for the best, Annie
His coming home these few nights
don't mean nothing; it's the baby gone
that"
ITO think that three weeks age he
was playing right here on this kitchen
floor while / was putting new collar
bands on his daddy's shirts and tryin
to leapn him new little trick to todde
to the door and holler to his poppa
when he heard him coming around the
side yard, 'Giddy-app, Daddy-gidd-''
Annie, Annie"
HE never learned 1t, Liddy. 1t was
next day, Wednesday, when all OF
sudden he quit playing and laid down
sick-like next to his blocks, his little
curls-curlS-"
"His-his little yellow ,curls-hov
he did used to holler when his old mait
amt corkScrowad 'am 7"
And only that morning, Liddy, Cox
forgive me, 1 had slapped his LITTLE
hands soft like. for grabbing at m!
needle when sewed snag in the LITTLE
| sailor blouse his pap bought for him
Oh, my God, Liddy, what I got left
And to think I slapped his-ltttle-
| hands"
And they wept, these two, crumplet
| forward In their chairs and the string
of Renaissance plucked and quiverine
Last night, Liddy, after he got hom
from the Works, and an hour late a
that, he sat right down in the chat
! you're sitting in, Liddy. while I wa
fiKn' his superior know the wa,
he sits and stares and sits and stare
| when-when-"
| "I-I-know, Annie"
SCOT to talking to himself, Liddy
about that time year ago went {
st. Louis to visit Lucy Beasley whel
her old man died and they was threat
ening to sell out her rooming house Of
| her."
| He himself was the one wanted yo
| to go; said a body should go to he
own relations funeral, even if he wa
ne'er-do-well and seventy mile away.
Yes, yes, that's just 1t. But las
night and the night before, Liddy, b
| kept mumbling and throwing it up t
me that THAT I was the one let hiT
get the meningitis, and all. Me, Liddy
was the one!"
| "Annie!'
YES, like he don't remember hoy
| the child slepS that one night I wa
gone all tucked up in your bed. an
AOw We laughed when you said your
self how you couldn't sleep for keeI
ing him covered and watching his Iii
tie curls all spread out over the pi
low the way his daddy liked EN-"
You mustn't pay attention to Stew
Annie. when he gets to talking tina
away. l tell you just drop makes
silly out of him. lust a Drop
Il tell you, Liddy. it's killing Inc
Poisoning me! | can't stand hearin
it. II won't. It's the same as If b
tore the heart out of me and the soul
/ can't stand it, Liddy, | won'tr'
But. Annie"
Il can't! / didn't want TO call yol
in, al 4 h