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Show lo77 "Yes I know." He ducked around a stand of poplars. , -A your mother ever t e l l you about the time she ^refused to marry me?" "Mama!" She smiled shyly. "Well, I d i d n ' t want to come into the family just because I'm Helga's s i s t e r or because my father suggested i t. I knew that I loved your daddy, but I d i d n ' t want him unless I knew he loved me the same way. " "She wrote a l e t t e r and said she'd changed her mind, that she wouldn't marry me a f t e r a l l . She c e r t a i n l y put me in my place! a dozen , I had to write a couple hundred l e t t e r s and make/T ' tripsfrom Los Angeles to Short Creek j u s t to convince her that I meant business." My mother laughed and winked at me. "You know how these Allreds exaggerate. My father was grinning. "She's the only one who ever turned •edown. I had to turn down a few myself - but she's the only one Soever stood up and said 'No' to me." He pulled her to him and kissed her perfunctorily. "Spunky l i t t l e wife." Spunky l i t t l e wife! My shy, placid-mannered mother? So he tailored her a l l along! Aunt Helga had not forced the marriage, nor tad my grandfather. The passion and tenderness I had seen as a chi tad been genuine - my parents t r u l y loved each other! My being did not depend on Aunt Helga alone. If my f a t h e r loved my mother, then certainly Ms love for me was a l s o r e a l . Perhaps we would not be separated through fte eternities, me caught in the t e r r e s t r i a l kingdom with a l l the famous people, or in the t e l e s t i a l kingdom with the thieves, ^Iterers, and murderers while he ignored me from jA h i s c e l e s ta to t r a n s l a t e i t s e l f from throne! Love was stronger than t h a t , able ^ sphere to another! Perhaps h i s label had been no |