Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1931-12-18

ana entlreiy WlLnoul OppkO
wv brium to refer to Kester's
maternal instinct, his chill
dren, particularly his daughters, had
formed a sort Of unspoken compact
to retort with unanimity: "What's
the matter with paternal INSTINCT
Aside from being the best mother
alive, he's the best father"
1t was their subconscious way Of
protecting Kester from innuendo. AS
If innuendo could have attached Itself
to the normous-shouldered, six-foot
parent Of the brood of Ave youngsters
who clustered about his tall knees,
whenever those tall knees hove in
sight.
Kester would not have minded had
there been innuendo. Life was too
big, too busy, too harassed, too de-
lightful an affair, for fancied hurts or
pricks to flourish. Well, II he had ma
ternal instinct he hoped 1t was jolly
good one. Man with FIVE growing,
hungry, boisterous young ones needed
pretty nearly every instinct there was.
Lordy, what a gangl Five hungry
mouths yawning up at him when he
came home evenings, for all the world
like beaky birds In their nest. Fellow
got so he treated them precisely that
way. Night after night, 1t was his
custom to come home with a bag Of
one kind of fruit or another, in what
the children called his surprise peck
et." Cherries, berries, plums, fruit
balls, which he dropped into the lit
tie upturned mouths.
A blessed gang of ruffians was what
Mrs. McMurtry, who tended the brood
all day, called them. A blessed gang
of ruffians and their daddy no better
than the rest, flinging them around
from the minute he entered the house.
That scarcely held, because when
Mrs. McMurtry accused their daddy
Of boisterousness that matched his
children's, her eyes were ridiculously
out Of key with her speech.
Her idolatry Of Hester verged al
most on the absurd. She used to cry
over him while relating his various
attributes to friends. "He's a saint I;
the man is, disguised In an Overgrown
boys clothing"
It was rather on the basis of an
over-grown boy and his younger play
mates that Kester reared his children.
A man left at tVenty-elght with five
small youngsters on his hands doesn't
have time to work out a System"
At least Hester didn't. With the prob
lem Of earning their living, keeping the
home together, educating them along
the most economical lines possible and
above all, keeping them happy, Hester
plunged in without a theory.
So, in rearing his family, Kester
was just himself. Easy, indulgent,
ridiculously sentimental, unexactly,
playful, the adoring parent, and yet
withal so much the ideallst where his
children were concerned, that their
shortcomings, when they became seri-
Gus, could actually unnerve him to the
extent Of making him physically Ill.
For instance, Myron, the second boy
and his cruelty to animals: The scene
between Kester and his son the eve
ming his father found him In a group
nf boys tying cans to the tail of a
wretched street dog was one that Mrs.
McMurty. to the day of her all-too-
premature death, was to relate with
her face smeared with pallor
For n moment 1t looked as IL Kester
were going to beat his son batter him
across the sides of the head with his
fists. Miraculously that did not hap
pen, but a talk took place up In the
fastness of Myron's room that was
devastating in Its consequences. All
night Myron sobbed in his bed and
Kester did not appear at breakfast.
The evening following. Myron fell
asleep In Kester's arms, listening to
jungle story which he had asked
his father to repeat. He was a
strange boy and man, Kester was. A
| father and mother, too.
His brood grew and thrived. At sew.
enteen the eldest boy was high
school graduate and already a
draughtsman apprentice. Myron chose
medicine, and Hester somehow, on his
newspaper photographers salary, be
gan to make that possible. Two Of his
three girls moved along into quite con.
siderable beauty and the youngest
gave promise Of something more than
even that
OF course there were set-backs, In
rubus Of debt, worry Of illness and oc.
casIonally the need Of discipline Of one
sort or another. When she was four
teen, Leila. the second girl developed
typhoid fever and Kester nursed her
ns a mother would have nursed her.
The year following, the mainstay OF
the household blessed Mrs. McAlurtry
died suddenly Of heart stroke and that
was blow to Kester and his brood
Fortunately LILY, the eldest, eighteen
then, took over In total the duties
which size had hitherto shared Jointly
with Mrs McMnrtry. and Leila, Ed
NEE, and tie boys. all lent shoulder
20 the wheel ~ household. Kester as
always shared the burden. Absolute
~ without sense Of pride or artificial
%grrier he would think nothing OF
,aniing i-nrip ~ m evening washing
..,,t to,. ~ :, .t,,tpU .I.1 no opn ~ hia