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Show 92 Papa had influenza and came out of it not only without a taste for tobacco, but an abhororrence for it and Mama knew her prayers had been answered. He quit smoking, but the Devil wasn't through with him yet. When Papa related his marvelous deliverance at the town store, vowing he would never touch the stuff again, Charlie Shelton laughed at him. "Ah, John. Your wife had been putting something in your coffee. " "The Hell you say!" said Papa. "You bet! That's the way with women. If they can't boss you one way they will another. " Papa came home incensed, with a fresh supply of Bull Durham and cigarette papers. "I want you to know that I'm not going to be ruled by petticoat government! " he informed Mama. No amount of denial on her part convinced him of her innocence-so far as putting something in his coffee was concerned. Now she didn't dare tell him about the answer to her prayer, as she didn't want the Lord included in his wrath. It was never so easy for him to quit again, and he tried many times. Once he went to Three Creek without his Bull Durham and stuck it out three weeks before he gave it up. He ran his horse almost all the way home to get his tobacco. He really wanted to quit, and Dell Gay took up a labor with him as they were riding on the range together. "John, you know, you're a good man. That cigarette is all that is keeping you from taking your wife to the temple and having her sealed to you for eternity. If you don't do it she will be given to some other man |
