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Show 97 "What are you doing reading and the breakfast dishes not done?" he demanded. "Give me that book. I'll burn it up. " I was sick with fear when he opened the stove door to throw it in. He was capable, because he had done it with our playing cards when we got to playing with them too much-just swept them off the table and into the stove. We never had playing cards in the house again. Now I held my breath for fear E. W. Wright was going to follow suit. He hesitated, and was lost. "What could be in a damn book that's so all-powerful interesting?" he said, and opened the cover to the beginning paragraph. The story dealt with a forceful man a good deal like Papa, but dressed in bankers' clothers, and an irrigation project on the scale of the Imperial Valley in California. Some said the story was based on that. The romance was between his adopted daughter and the surveyor of the outfit. Papa stood by the stove, still leaning, with the door open on the licking flames for a few minutes, then he slowly shut the door, as slowly backed to a chair, lowered himself into it and went on reading. I opened my mouth to speak and Mama shook her head in warning. Soon the whole family was tip-toeing about rather than disturb the phenomenon of Papa reading beside the stove when the work wasn't done. Nothing disturbed him. He read on and on until noon, brought the book to the table and ate absently, oblivious to our mirthful exchange of glances. After dinner he went back to his chair by the stove and continued reading. I don't remember how long it took him, but he never put the |