The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-06-09
Father Loved
Punishment
g
By FANNIE HURST
&c by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.)
(WNU Servicel

alone because widowered at thirty,
his middle years had been entirely
dominated by the heritage of a brood
Of five young children; not alone be-
cause with hands horny from labor,
nightly he would undress with the ten
derness that would have befitted the
wife who had left him in death, the
five noisy, brawling, often squalling
youngsters, who rode him with high
hand because of his apparently infal-
lible good humor.
To Kathleen, his second, his pathos
lay rather in the fact that he accepted
it all without question or rebellion.
There were five children to be reared
on his meager earnings as gardener in
one of the towns public parks; five
mouths to be fed; five small minds to
be trained; five pairs Of feet to be
shod and that was all there was to it.
No grumblings. No complaints. No
Stinting in so far as it was possible for
him to provide.
He was just the best old thing!
Time and time again, Kathleen's con-
clusions regarding him summed them
selves up in that rather defeated con-
clusion. He's just the best old thing.
Completely unaffected in the way
that Kathleen was affected were the
remaining four children Of Pat. EN-
ma, the eldest, had no particular at
titude about her father. That is, in
so far as she felt anything more than
the warm filial affection due a parent
from a dutiful daughter. The three
boys pretty rough, all Of them, from
the vagabonding childhood about the
streets, took their "old man" some
what for granted. "Pap's all right.
Little bit of dub, but Pap's all right.
Gives me a pain in the neck some
times, but Pap's all right"
Not one of the four would have
known quite what Kathleen meant had
she tried to explain the pathos that
cut into her heart where her father
was concerned. His patient way of
plodding off to the park, grateful for
coffee if Kathleen or Emma happened
to be up to give it to him before he
left; accomplishing and silent If the
kitchen stove were cold when he came
down and starting off to work with
roll taken from the bakers bag of
them at the kitchen door, as he made
exit.
1t was not often Kathleen let this
hannah hut thu hn hod
laid up with broken ankle, time and
time again Emma had lain oversleeping
and father had gone off without break
fast.
He had a way with the boys, too, of
letting them bully him. He was for
ever contributing out of his weekly
wage to tide them over this and that
dilemma. "Pap. If you don't let me
have flyer this week, might as
well throw up my job and it'll mean
the devil to pay. owe the till five
and it's got to be paid"
That patient, tired, horny old hand
sliding down into the worn pocket of
his baggy trousers! That patient,
walrus-shaped, sandy-colored old mus
tache, dropping with perplexity and
disapproval. Not a particularly eff
cient father, as fathers 60, weak with
his boys, vacillating in what few de-
mands he made and absurdly senti-
mental with his girls.
"My Katy's the queen Of them all.
My Emma is lark Of the morning."
This because, Emma, with a pretty
fluty voice which had been trained
from lessons sqeezed, dear knows how,
out Of fathers lean weekly envelope,
had created about herself, in the mar
row little household, somewhat of the
aura Of a prodigy.
Emma sang. Emma's voice was
something to be treated like jewel in
its casket. That was why 1t was
sometimes necessary for father to go
off to work without breakfast. A body
that contained voice must not be
overtried or overtired.
Father fell in with that. But Kath-
leen, who was on night shift as tele-
phone operator and did not always re-
turn home in time to fix father his
breakfast, would boil and then sob a
little, inwardly. at the patience Of ia.
ther. The dear, tired, gallant patience
of father.
For eighteen years of widowerhood,
father stood for all this, sweetly, a lit
tie tiredly, but so uncomplainingly that
sometimes it seemed to Kathleen he
must be made of the stuff Of saints.
Then. one by one, the boys married
and took themselves and their bicker-
ings and their demands and their I'M
couthness and their inconsiderate bull
Iyings out of the house; and next
came Emma. who inside of twenty
four hours met, fell in love with, mar
ried and went off with the orchestra
leader of a travelling musical show
which had come to town.
BY this time. resolutely, there be.
gan to take full shape in Kathleen's
mind half-formed dream which had
lodged there ever since she had been
old enough to cerebrate about the
stunted life of her father. He was
fifty-niGe by now, rheumatic. subject
to spells of asthma and bent from the
long years at gardening.
Father must have his day. Some.