"Turn over."

   "That there's my cousin, Alvy Burgstresser, weth his cornet. He plays in th' choir. First time pa heard 'm he says when he come home, 'That choir 'll never succeed till they dehorn Alvy,' he says.

   "Turn over."

   "That's ma's brother-in-law, Livingston Burney, out t' Kansas. He's a doctor, when he ain't out talkin' politics, which ain't often. He don't half pervide fer his fambly and onct his boy run away and went clean t' Chicago to my Aunt Sarah's and when she wrote Burney about it he sent back a sassy letter, sayin', 'I'll have you know, madam, that I'm th' father of th' pop'list party in Kansas.' Aunt Sade set right down and wrote him back, 'If you ain't a better father t' th' party,' she says, 'than you've been t' this boy, the party's in a bad way,' she says."

   "That's Mrs. Bemrose and her daughter, Lucreshy. They ust t' live neighbors t' us, but now they've moved t' Yates City. Mrs. Bemrose is a daisy musician. You'd jist ort t' hear her sing,

   "Them's Willie and Freddie Sparks. They was cute little fellers but it's awful t' think th' way they turned out, pa says. Willie's an editor and Freddie's a lawyer, and they work together jist fine. Willie gits into trouble, and Freddie, he gits him out."

   "Perfessor Leander Crabb, that is. He's principal of th' Ellumwood high school and he's a tumble coffee drinker—two quart a day when he was writin' his book, 'Tokens of Hope, or Is This, Then, All?' Pa, he read th' book through, then he says, 'Well, I hope it is,' he says.

   "Turn over."

   "Them's ma's cousin Peter and his wife and baby, down t' Beardstown. He ain't handsome but he's an awful good man. Pa says onct Cousin Pete was to a party where there was a game t' give a prize t' th' one what'd make th' homeliest face, and th' judge walked right over t' Pete and give him th' prize, and Pete says, supprised like, 'Why, I ain't begun yit,' he says. I reckon it never reely happened; jist one of pa's jokes, I guess.

   "Turn over."

   "That's Cousin Charlie Freemantle—pa's cousin, he is. He's a rollin' stone—first one place, then another; never satisfied and never gittin' nothin' ahead. He ust t' be allus comin' 'round tellin' where he was goin' next and what big things he was goin' t' do when he got there, till ma got most awful tired of it and says 

 Prev. P 7/8 next