erminable list of German Lutheran
papers. It grieved the old man that Vesta should not be allowed to go
to a German Lutheran parochial school, but Lester would listen to
nothing of the sort. "We'll not have any thick-headed German training
in this," he said to Jennie, when she suggested that Gerhardt had
complained. "The public schools are good enough for any child. You
tell him to let her alone."

There were really some delightful hours among the four. Lester
liked to take the little seven-year-old school-girl between his knees
and tease her. He liked to invert the so-called facts of life, to
propound its paradoxes, and watch how the child's budding mind took
them. "What's water?" he would ask; and being informed that it was
"what we drink," he would stare and say, "That's so, but what is it?
Don't they teach you any better than that?"

"Well, it is what we drink, isn't it?" persisted Vesta.

"The fact that we drink it doesn't explain what it is," he would
retort. "You ask your teacher what water is"; and then he would leave
her with this irritating problem troubling her young soul.

Food, china, her dress, anything was apt to be brought back to its
chemical constituents, and he would leave her to struggle with these
dark suggestions of something else back of the superficial appearance
of things until she was actually in awe of him. She had a way of
showing him how nice she looked before she started to school in the
morning, a habit that arose because of his constant criticism of her
appearance. He wanted her to look smart, he insisted on a big bow of
blue ribbon for her hair, he demanded that her shoes be changed from
low quarter to high boots with the changing character of the seasons'
and that her clothing be carried out on a color scheme suited to her
complexion and disposition.

"That child's light and gay by disposition. Don't put anything
somber on her," he once remarked.

Jennie had come to realize that he must be consulted in this, and
would say, "Run to your papa and show him how you look."

Vesta would come and turn briskly around before him, saying,
"See."

"Yes. You're all right. Go on"; and on she would go.

He grew so proud of her that on Sundays and some week-days when
they drove he would always have her in between them. He insisted that
Jennie send her to dancing-school, and Gerhardt was beside himself
with rage and grief. "Such irreligion!" he complained to Jennie. "Such
devil's fol-de-rol