Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-03-23

not a raw of sunshine, in fact not ray OF
| light except when visitor is calling, and
| then they open crack. They're afraid of
| flies, and yet the, dear knows, they keep ev-
| cry looking glass and picture frame mutfled
| TO its throat from March 10 December. I'd
like for curiosity, to see what fly would do
| in our parlors"
| Wen,n said |, . can't you have some little
family sitting room, where you can make
| yourselves cozy?"
| Not bit of it, Sophie and Aunt Zeruah
| hav fixed their throne up in our bedroom,
and there they sit all day long except at call
/ ing hours, and then Sophie dresses herself
| and comes down Aunt Zernah insists upon
| it that the way is to put the whole house in
| order, and shut all the blinds and sit in your
| bedroom, and then, she says, nothing gets out
| of place; and she tells poor Sophie the most
| hocus-pocus stories about her grandmothers
| and aunts, who always kept everything in
| their houses so that they could go and lay
| their hands on il in the darkest night. FL
/ bet they could in our house. From end to
/ end il Is kept shut up and looking as If We
! had gone to Europe-not book, not pa
per- not a glove nor trace of a human be-
| ing in sight. The Piano shut tight, the book
| cases shut and locked the engravings locked
| up, all the drawers and closets locked. Why
| if | want to take a fellow in the library, in
1 the first place it smells like a vault, and |
| have to unbarricade windows, and rummage
| for half an hour before | can get anything ;
and | know Aunt ZcrHah is standing tip-toe
at the door, ready TO whip everything back
| and lock it up again. A fellow can't be So
| cial, or take any comfort in showing his books
| and pictures that way. Then there's our
| great light dining room with its sunny south
Windows. Aunt Zeruah got US out of that
early in April, because she said the flies
| would speck the frescos and get into the china
| closet, and we have been eating in little
! dingy den, with a window looking on the
/ back alley, ever since and Aunt Zeruah Says
| that now the dining room is always in perfect
order and that it is such a care off Sophie's
mind that | ought to be willing to eat down
| cellar to the end of the chapter Now, YOU
see, Chris, my position is delicate one, be-
| cause Sophies folks all agree that if there is
anything in creation that is ignorant and
| dreadful and mustn't be allowed his way any
| where, it's a man. Why, you'd think to
hear Aunt Zeruah talk, that we are like bulls
! in a china-shop, ready to toss and tear and
rend, if we are not kept down cellar and
| chained; and she worries Sophie, and So
| phie,s mother comes in and worries, and if
| try to get anything done differently, Sophie
| cries, and says she does not know what to do,
and so | give it up. Now if l want to invite
a few of our set in socially to dinner, | can't
have them eat where we eat, down cellar
| Oh, that would never do Aunt Zeruah and
! SOphie's mother and the whole family would
think the family's honor was forever ruined
| and undone. We mustn't ask them unless
We open the dining room, and have out the
! best china, and get the silver home from the
bank and if we do that Aunt Zeruah does
| not sleep for a week beforehand getting
| ready for it, and for week after, getting
things put away, and she tells me that, in
! Sophle's delicate state, IL really is abomn-
able for me to increase her cares, and so |
invite fellows to dine with me at Delmonico's
and then SOphie's mother says it doesn't hook
respectable for family man to be dining at
public places
Ny wife soothed the chafed spirit, and spake
comfortably INTO him, and told him that he
knew there was the old lounging-chair ALWAYS
ready for him at our Preside. "And you
know she said, . our things are all so plain
that we are never tempted TO mount any
guard over them; our carpets are nothing,
and therefore we let the sun fade them and
live on the sunshine and the flowers"
That's it" said Bill bitterly. Carpets
fading that's Aunt Zeruah's mOnomania.-
These women think that the great object of
houses Is to keep out sunshine. What a fool
| was when gloated over the prospect of our
sunny south windows, Why, man, there are
three distinct sets of Notifications against
the sunshine in those windows first, outside
blinds; then, solid, folding, inside shutters:
and, lastly, heavy thick, lined damaSk cur
tains, which loop quite down to the floor
What's the use of my pictures, l desire to
know They are hung in that room, and it's
a regular campaign to get light enough to see
what they are
But at all events you can light them up
with gas in the evening"
&" In the evening Why, do you know nv
81 +bar Tho
She says she has so much sewing to do, that
she and Aunt Zeruah must sit up in the bed
room, because it wouldn't do to bring work
into the parlor y hat if some threads should
drop on the carpet? Aunt Zeruah would
have 10 open all the Notifications next dav,
and search Jerusalem with candles to find
them No; III the evening the gas is lighted
up at halt-cock, You know; and if | turn IL
up, and bring my papers and spread about
me, and pull down some books to read, | can
feel the nervousness through the chamber
floor. Aunt Zeruah looks in at eight, and at
quarter past, and at half past, and at nine,
and at ten, to see If | am done, so that she
may fold up the papers and put a book on
them, and lock up the books in their cases
Nobody ever comes in TO spend an evening.
They used 20 Try 1t when we were first mar
ried but | believe the uuinhabited appear
ance of our parloTs discouraged them Ey-
-
Zeruah says it Is such comfort for now the
rooms are always in order How poor Mrs
Grow field lives, with her house such thor
oughf;ire. she Is sure she can't see. Sophie
never could have strength for it; but then,
10 be sure, some folks amt as particular as
others Sophie was brought up in a family of
very particular housekeepers"
NJ wife smiled with that calm, easy,
amused smile, that has frightened her sofa
for so many years.
Bill added, bitterly:
of course, I couldn't say that | wished
IA, whole set and system of house -keeping
women at the-what's his name, because So
phie would have cried for a week, and been
utterly forlorn and disconsolate | know it's
not the poor girls fault I try sometimes to
reason with her, but YOU can't reason with
the whole of your wife's family, to the third
and fourth generation backwards; but I'm
I sure It's hurting her health-wearing her out.
/ Why, YOU know Sophie used to be the life of
/ our set, and now she seems To be really eaten
I up with care from morning to night, there
/ are 50 many things in the house that some
/ thing dreadful Is happening all the while, and
\ the servants We get are 80. clumsy. WHY,
/ when / sit with Sophie and Aunt Zeruah, its