The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-05-24
The Angel over the Right shou'-
der or BEGINNING a New Year.
BY THE AUTHOR OF sunny SIDE"

BY THE AUTHOR OF SUNNY SIDE"
'There woman's work is never done.''
said Mrs. James 81 thought, for once, 1 was
through; butjust look at that lamp, now! ii
will not burn, and must go and spend hall
an hour over it, ..a a..E -..g
Don't you wish you had never been mar
ried?' said Mr.. James, with good-natured
laugh. .a. ......r -fa
''Yes"--rose to her lips, but was checked
by glance at the group upon the floor,
where her husband was stretched out and
two little urchins with sparkling eyes and
glowing cheeks, were climbing, and tum-
bling over him, as if they found in this play
the very esscence of fun. ,f a
She did say,"I should like the good,
without the evil, ifI could have it,
"You have no evils to endure" replied
her husband. E# 1n ao -s
"That is just all you gentlemen know
about it. What would you think, If you
could not get an uninterrupted half hour to
yourself, from morning till night? be-
lieve you would give up trying to do any.
thingy' r.at.
There is no need Of that; all you
want, is system. If you arranged your
work systematically, you would find that
you could command your time"
WELL" was the reply, "all wish is, that
you could Just follow me around for one day,
and see what have to do. fyou could re-
ducc it all to system, | think youwould show
yourself a genius ...... .......
When the lamp was trimmed, the conver-
sation was resumed. Mr. James had en-
ployed the "h,lf hour" in meditating on
this subject
''Wife," said he, rs she came in, 81 have
plan to propose to you, and | wish you to
promise me beforehand, that you will accede
to it. It's to be an experiment, acknowl-
edge, but wish it to have fair trial.
Now to please me, will you promise ~
Mrs. James hesitated She felt almost
sure that his plan would be quite impracti-
BILE, for what does a man know of woman's s
work yet she promised.
snow I wish you," said he, ''to set
apart two hours of every day for your own
private use. Make point of going to your
room and locking yourselfin; and also make
up your mind toilet the work which is not
done, go undone, if it must. Spend this
time on just those things which will be most
profitable to yourself. shall bind you to
your promise for one month then, if it has
proved total failure, we will devise some
thing else"
"When shall Begin
Tomorrow"
The morrow came. Mrs. James had cho-
sen the two hours before dinner as being, on
the whole, the most convenient and the least
liable to interruption. They dined at one
o'clock. She wished to finish her morning
work, get dressed for the day, and enter her
room at eleven. ta4aa
Hearty as were her efforts to accomplish,
this, the hour Of eleven found her with hel
work but half done; yet, true to her promise
she left all, retired to her room and locked
the door.
With some interest and hope, she imme.
diately marked out course Of reading and
study, for these two precious hours then
arranging her tables her books, pen and pa
per, she commenced schedule of her work
with much enthusiasm. Scarcely had sht
dipped her pen in rink, when she heard thu
tramping Of little feet along the hall, ant
then pounding at her door.
mamma mamma cannot find my
mittens, and Hanna is going to slide with
out me-" 'a
''Go to Amy, my dear; mamma i.
busy" ,uy
$50 Amy busy too; she say she can
leave baby"
The child began to cry, still standing to
the fastened door. Mrs. James knew th,
easiest, and the only way of settling til,
trouble, was to go herself and hunt them up
half an hour yet remained to her, and Of thi
she determined to make the most Blu
scarcely had she resumed her pen, whel
there was another disturbance in the entry
Amy had returned from walking out will
the baby, and she entered the nursery will
him, that she might get him to sleep. Nov
it happened that the only room in the house
which Mrs. James could have to herself witt
fire, was the one adjoining the nursery
She had become so accustomed to the ordi
nary noise of the children, that it did no
disturb her; but the very extraordnar,
noise which master Charley sometimes fel
called upon to make, when he was fairly ol
his back in the cradle, did disturb the unit,