that we get off scot
free when we should have our jackets tanned does not seem to make the
injustice any easier to bear.

Dick McGill, the editor of the scurrilous Monterey _Journal_ was, as
usual, the chief imp of this as of any other deviltry his sensational
paper could take a part in. Of course, he would be on Buck Gowdy's side;
for what rights had such people as Magnus and Rowena and I?

"A wedding took place out on the wild shores of Hell Slew last week,"
said this paper. "It was not a case, exactly, of the funeral baked meats
coldly furnishing forth the marriage supper; but the economy was quite
as striking. The celebration of the arrival of the heir of the Manor
(though let us hope not of the manner) was merged in the wedding
festivities. We make our usual announcements: Married at the residence
of J.T. Vandemark, Miss Rowena Fewkes to Mr. Magnus Thorkelson. It's a
boy, standard weight. The ceremonies were presided over by Doctor
Bliven, our genial disciple of Esculapias, and by Elder Thorndyke, each
in his respective sphere of action. Great harmony marked the carrying
out of these usually separate functions. The amalgamation of peoples
goes on apace. Here we have Yankee, Scandinavian and Dutch so
intertwined that it will take no common 'glance of eye, thought of man,
wing of angel' to separate the sheep from the goats in the sequel.
_Nuff ced_."

He little knew the sequel!

I did not read this paper. In fact, I did not read anything in those
days; and I do not believe that Magnus and Rowena knew for some time
anything more about this vile and slanderous item than I did. It was
only by the way we were treated that we felt that the cold shoulder of
the little world of Vandemark Township and Monterey County was turned
toward us. Of course Magnus and Rowena expected this; but I was hurt
more deeply by this injustice than by anything in my whole life.
Grandma Thorndyke came out no more to red up my house, and exhibit her
samples of prospective wives to me. The neighbors called no more. I
began driving over to the new railroad to do my marketing, though it was
twice as close to go to Monterey Centre. When Elder Thorndyke, largely
through the contributions of Governor Wade and Buckner Gowdy, succeeded
in getting his church built, I was not asked to go to the doings of
laying the corner-stone or shingling the steeple. I was an outsider.

I quit trying to neighbor with the Roebucks, Smiths, and George Story,
my new