Olson

This is an appeal from an order refusing to modify a divorce decree with reference to the care and custody of minor children.

Plaintiff and defendant intermarried in the year 1900 and lived together as husband and wife -until May 5, 1922. During that period plaintiff bore defendant seven sons, who at the latter date were of ages ranging from six to twenty years. At this time plaintiff filed her complaint for separate maintenance alleging cruelty on the part of defendant toward herself and the children. On May 9, 1922, in pursuance of an order to show cause Judge J. W. Summerfield ordered that defendant pay plaintiff alimony pendente lite, and the custody of the minor children was awarded to plaintiff. Defendant subsequently filed a cross-complaint in divorce charging desertion and cruelty. At the trial, with the approval of Judge Walton J. Wood, who presided, the complaint of separate maintenance and the cruelty charges of the cross-complaint were withdrawn by stipulation and a divorce was granted to defendant upon the ground of desertion. An interlocutory decree was entered in which the custody of the children was awarded to plaintiff. In August, 1924, defendant instituted…