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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1914)
IT4 HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION Little Fellow's By Alice I ITTLE FELLOW was left at the g breakfast table alone. It was not the first time that his parents had quarreled and .finally separated in anger. The outside door slammed. That meant his Dad had gone to his office. Then away Off in the distance he could hear pis mother's sobbing. Bt was hard to eat. Things enoked him, somehow, but he was not going to let Katie see that he notices anything was wrong. "An" all alone agin!" she burst ont indignantly. "It's a shame, Lit- pe i'ellow." Little Fellow shifted uneasily on his chair. "My dad had to get off early to his office," he explained hastily, his face very red and his moutn Tery full. "An' my mother She was sick. She didn't want no breakfast." He lingered by his mother's door on nis way to school, his ear press ed ciose to the keyhole. She was BODDing yet. He bothered her. 'Still he loved her a lot, all the same Sometimes, when she wasn't busy sne told him stones lights. She certainly was "the1' with the stories. And one in' a whiln ho could coax her to get out her guitar ana sing those soft, sleepy songs of hers. Once his dad had found them together that way. He had stood In the doorway a long time before they knew it, mother and he; then he naa come in, and he had stayed! He heard Katie's steDS In the hall and drew guiltily away from his niomers door. But it was too late. She had seen him. She alwavs aw She drew in her breath with little Clucks of distress and handed him his lunch box. "There, there, Little Fellow." She would have patted his head if he had not artfully dodged and bolted past her. "Aw-quit," he said crossly. "Say, you didn't put in brown bread, did you, 'cause I hate it an' bananas, too?" He banged the door as he went out, to drown Katie's reprov ing voice, then kicked viciously at the graveled pathway. At the corner he met his dad. A sudden sickening fear pulled his heart down until it felt sagged. His father was going home to pitch into his mother some more, and maybe -his own heart began a decided tattoo against his ribs. He had heard what people said. Just be cause he was little they thought he didn't understand what they said! They talked with- big words, behind their hands, over his head, and even spelled words, but he knew. He "got them." He was six. They said his mother and father were going away from each other for good some aay. tie bad a startling vivid pic xure or himself alone with Katie ana ner pity. No, sir. Not much! He wouldn't stay. He'd run away, (oo go orr on a ship or something A lump kept coming up into his jwroai. it ached. Dad," he ventured. His father .was big so big! When he was a man he hoped he'd be just that big Then unexpectedly his father bent down to him. One leap and Little Fellow was held tightly, with his own arms twined about his father's necic. wnere you goin', dad?" he asgea. "I was coming back for you. Lit $le Fellow. I'm going to take vou Off with me. Say we go for some nunting now about it?" The child's face flashed with Joy. jnere naa been sudden reconcile pons like this before. Once, when he was only four and again only last year. "Can I go with you when you tell ner?" ne begged. "She was cryin frhejx I left. I heard her just e Jittle, away low." , A light crept into his father'i eyes. Little Fellow knew that things were not right. , "Oh! She. Well, I hadn't thought xt taking her, son. We're going Reconciliation V. Hall. "But she does," he persisted bravely, the lump coming back in his throat to bother him. "You why, you taught her to shoot your self! Besides, dad, we couldn't leave her alone with Katie. No man'd do that." "Katie! Why not? She's a good cook." "She well, you see " He paused uncertainly, at a loss to Gxniain then burst out passionately. "I hate ner! I bate her! She can't be sorry for nie. Nobody can." "So she's sorry for you, eh? Be cause of your father, I suppose." He stood back, survevine the staunch little figure of his son. The child s face was raised to his. He was struggling with his emotions. Oh, no, dad, he protested eager ly. "I heard her say that rou was as good-lookin' a man as she want ed to clap eyes on. I heard her. An' that mother was a dear, pretty little fool. It ain't that. It's cause " He stopped, groping for words. His father swore softly. "I see." he said. "So that's the lay of the land, is it? Well, we'll chuck Katie and get a Jap. Come! I'll fix that But how does the hunting idea strike you?" Oh, dad, could I have a gun?" he demanded. "A regular twentv- two? An' would you teach me to shoot?" "A go. Sure thing." The child breathed quickly with excitement His eyes danced. . "An' no- school! G-e-e!" "Well, come on," his father said. "Now this very second!" The idea was dazzling. For a second it held him. Then his face fell as sud denly as it had lit. "Why, dad, ain't we even goin' to tell her good by?" Little Fellow stared un at hla father, but the man's eves wer evasive. He had thought it all out, iney bad had their last scene to gether that morning, he and she. She'd never let him have the young ster, tnougn. He knew that Luck had played him- Into his hands for a while. He would take him. She could have everything else. "No, I guess not this time," he said abruptly. There was a long pause. The child dragged one sandaled foot back and forth, back and forth on the sidewalk with an irritating, grit ty sound. If only but nol His father wouldn't do it. He knew him. "Then why, then I can't go," he burst out decisively, recret sharn In his eager, fresh little voice. "I'd 'a' iisea to, aad ge-e-e, wouldn't I 'a' liked it but lt'd be too mean." The man whistled softlv. A lleht came Into his eyes again, not the flashing angry light that Little Fal low knew so well. It made him long to leap into his father's arms. But Malt Rainier is the Pure Malt Tonic For Mothers Who Require Additional Nourishment and Strength. ASK TOUB PHY3ICIAN For Bale by All Druggists he only drew a little closer. "I wish'd you'd take hex, too, , dad," he faltered. "I'd jlmmlny I'd like a gun!" A crowd of boys were crossing the empty lot across the street They called to Little FeUow. He backed away from his father. "I gota go," he said, with a sigtu "It's 'most time for school. Good by." His father watched him with in- faroaf watnhorl htm rrnRN ttlA fttrAAt and join the swarm of loud-talking, eager boys, watched him until hlfl little figure was swallowed up by a corner. . "That'd be too mean," he mut tered under his breath. "Urn um the devil!" He turned and went back towards his home. The roses were thick at thA wlnHnwa ThAv hnn? down over the lattice work. He had trained them that way because she loved them. The windows in her room were thrown open. He caught a clfmnsA nf hAr whltA dregs. She was moving about the room, humming softly to herself. Then her singing stopped. But a half hour later, when Katie shuffled hr to 1 In tun. oh heard voices, voices full of life and woven in with a woman's gay laugh and a man's hearty amusement Katie smiled contentedly. "The dears!" she muttered, as she fell to mopping with furious energy. 'The dears! But trust me it was ac count of the Little Fellow." 7 alone, just we two men. Women don't like hunting,"
