The Glenwood post., 1923-07-05

start something. Turned loose in a
menagerie, he would have entertained
himself by thrusting sticks between
the bars of cages, that he might gloat
over the torture of animals deprived
of the power to give him the retalia-
tion he deserved He was naturally
batter of beasts: and In Lettie he
found a most satisfactory subject for
his ingenuity.
II hate him." declared Lettie,
stamping her foot. 81 hate him."
She eased her armful of driftwood
down on the accumulation In the cor
ner and Strengthened up with jerk,
her black eyes flashing.
Mrs. Penfield, salting the stew for
lunch, smiled at her composedly
That's one thing you got to get over,
Lettie"
The child stood still in the middle
of the kitchen and considered this
possibility. "1'll never get over it,"
she said slowly. "It's in me to stay"
"Oh, no, 1t isn't" contradicted Mrs.
Penfleld mildly. "By and by your ma
ture'll get widened out more, and all
the hate'll drain off naturally. The
only place that hate can live in is a
small dark hole where the sunshine
of good nature never can find 1t.
You'd be s'prised, Lettie, to know how
easy tits to scare hate out Of your
system. Why, if you SO much as let
smile get near it"
Lettie came nearer; her eyes shone
"Say, Penzie, honest, do you like Mr.
WoppleY'
There are times when Truth is an
inconsiderate master. Follow him
faithfully. cheerfully, whole-heart-
edly; and all of sudden he leads
you into an impasse, points a ua.
lic1ous finger at you, and shouts:
Now what are you going to do?'
Through the instrumentality of Let
tie, Mrs. Penfield was confronted by
difficulty. Evasion was no part Of
her policy; neither would 1t have with
stood the unerring instinct before her.
Playing for time. she replaced the
cover on the saucepan and smiled
lazily. "Why, Lettie. evidently you
got the wrong idea bout feelings. You
can't divide the world into folks that
you like and folks that you don't.
They're all the time hopping back and
forth over the line, from bad to good,
| and from good to bad. Way It's with
me, I like most everybody l know"
"And what do you do with the
others?" persisted Lettie mercilesslE.
| "Why, IL don't do nothing t all.
I'm willing they should live, cause !
expect the Lord knows what he made
'em for, even If l can't see 1t. They
don't never bother me, Lettie. l
don't scurcely pay much real 'ttention,
cause 'tain't worth while"
Lettie looked at her solemnly. "l
| get you," she said briefly.
The worst Of 1t was that she did In
unaccustomed silence she drew In the
advice with the implications that clung
to 1t, incubated 1t diligently, and in q
few hours developed product which
she was able to use most effectively.
AS soon as she had wiped the lunch
dishes, she set out on project
planned In the morning and persist.
Ing in spite Of Mrs. Penfield's at
tempts at encouragement. 1t was the
childs own notion that she must con
tribute as much as she cost, and hel
greatest zeal went to increasing the
supply of fuel, an item of consider.
able seriousness in household which
had no modern methods of dealing
with cooking and laundry work. Per
haps it was fortunate that Lettie's
industry was largely centered on gath
ering inflammable material of all de
scriptlons. And certainly she enjoyed
it. On this particular day she hat
discovered pile of cornstalks that
had been discarded as no longer use
ful-or even amusing to cows 1t was
part of Lettle's business to intercept
the process of natural dsintegratior
whenever possible. She believed thor
oughly that the vegetable worlt
should be wiped out by fire, and ir
her immediate locality she was rak
ing the earth fairly clean Of plant
life that was not thought much of by
its growers.
An enthusiastic co-WOrker was Eli
buster Caesar Penfield, the family
pup. AS Lettie dragged a heavy
company Of cornstalks around the
house. he followed after, plunging al
he long, rust1lng leaves. barking a,
this imagined prey, charging with q
force that severed the more brittle
sections and sent them flying. Flying
where? Why, over the walk, into the
side yard Of Mr.. Josiah Wopple. This
piece of trespassing was the easier
because there was no fence to inter
fere the boundary being marked only
by few old posts.
Returning from the second trip, Let
tie found results well under way. Mr.
Wopple, with highly Injured expires
sion, was ostentntiously sweeping tat