The 13th Resolution by Charles M. Sheldon Read Free Book Online

Chapter One
    Framing the Resolutions
    James Blaisdell and his family sat around the breakfast table Saturday morning, January 1, 1929. James was an average citizen of Topeka, Kansas, with a pretty good business downtown. He was born in Kansas, and so were his pretty wife and his four children—two boys and two girls, Robert and Richard, Ruth and Rachel. “The four Rs we are,” Robert the oldest had said when he noticed the fact. “Readin’, ’ritin’, ’rithmetic, and—” as he paused for another R, Richard had suggested “rheumatism,” because the boy had, strange to say, been afflicted with a slight attack of that multiple disease. Neither James nor Mary, his wife, had intended to have such an alliterative family. They just happened to choose those names, and after the selecting was done, it could not very well be changed.
    The Blaisdell family all belonged to a church, the name of which you could pronounce if you saw it in print. Robert was studying law at Washburn College, Richard was taking a course in music at the college, and Ruth and Rachel were in high school. The Blaisdells lived in a very comfortable dwelling, they had nice clothes, and they had every appearance of being healthy. There was a good car out in the garage at the back of the lot, a fairly good account down at the bank, and James Blaisdell on the occasion of this breakfast meeting on the first day of the new year had reason to feel decently proud of his wife, his children, and his life in general. James looked at each member of his family, then began a little “head of the table” talk before the family would scatter for the day.
    “Now then, folks,” said Mr. Blaisdell as was his habit when addressing the family circle and speaking as the meal was finished, “I am going to make some resolutions for the new year, and I am going to read ’em to you.”
    In order to understand all that follows, a little more ought to be said about this Blaisdell family. The father was one of a very few men, perhaps, who had a habit of taking every member of the household into his confidence and discussing freely matters of interest to all. He had a habit also of encouraging free questions and answer talk around the table, a habit which sometimes led to embarrassing moments, especially when the children interrupted or told their own experiences. He gave them much liberty and restrained them only when he thought they might be going too far with it. His reading of New Year’s resolutions, therefore, on this first day of the year, was simply characteristic of a general habit known by all the members of the family.
    A word about Mrs. Blaisdell. She had been a farmer’s daughter; James and she had been classmates at Washburn College, where they began falling in love. Two years after graduating they had married and kept on falling for twenty-five years and were falling yet. Mary Blaisdell was not only in love with her husband, but she also had a real respect for him mingled with a continual amusement at his habits, among which were absentmindedness and a vein of left-handed humor that was continually surprising her. She looked at him now across the table with a gleam in her eyes that indicated a mixture of genuine affection and honest amusement.
    Mr. Blaisdell paused a moment before beginning to read his resolutions. He was thinking, I wonder what that woman does to keep so good looking. She isn’t any older than when I was courting her on the campus.
    A word about the four Rs. Robert was finishing his course in law school. He was twenty-two, tall, not especially good looking, but he had an honest face and a dignified manner. He rather took advantage of his age to overlord the rest of the family, but not in any way to provoke anything but good-natured protest.
    Richard was studying music with a fixed purpose to teach. He played several instruments, not any too well, it must be said, and not always with the cheerful consent of his sisters, who complained that