The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1869-08-07
She Albanp 8egjster.
SATURDAY, AUGUST I, 1869.
A FamIly Jar, and what Came of 1t.

| remember 1t as though 1t had hap
pened yesterday. 1t was the biggest row
we ever had in Gus family.
1t was Que cold, rainy evening in the
early part of December. We all sat
down to the supper table as usual, bat
not, apparently, in cur usual good humor.
BY "all,' | mean our family, which
consisted of father, mother, my two SIS
ters-Clara and Lizzie-Bob and myself
Bob Carver was one of our family, as
he said, 'sby "brevet" His mother and
my mother had been friends in girlhood,
and had never outgrown their intimacy.
Ever since Bob had lived in the city be
had boarded at our house, and he seemed
like one of us.
He was jolly good fellow, and appear
ed to think good deal of US all, especial
ly Clara, who, by the way, did not seem
to care particularly for him, though, of
course, she liked him swell enough" as
we all did.
The relations between these two had
caused me some pain full consideration. |
liked Bob very much, and would have
been glad to have him in the family more
fully than by sbrevet." Besides this my
regard for him made me feel warm
sympathy for his unreciprocated affection
for Clara. I was in love myself, and
thought if Maggie Cranston showed as
much Indifference to me as Clara did
sometimes toward Bob, that l should
have been .inexpressibly miserable.
Besides this, Clara seemed to take a
good deal of pleasure in the company of
that stupid Jim Bayne, whose chief de-
light seemed to consist In talking about
religion, politics and other subjects,
which bored me intolerably. was nine
teen, and poetical.
1t always seemed to me that Lizzie
would have suited Bob better than Clara,
. anyhow. They were both fond of music,
and often played and sang together; but
they never got along smoothly together.
They did not appear to agree about any
thing but music, and they quarreled about
that. Yet they would still practice to-
gether. Their voices harmonized well,
and L suppose they tolerated each other
for the sake of the music
could never understand Lizzie's con-
duet toward Bob It was absurd. Some
of his ideas that she argued against with
all her might, when he stated them, she
as warmly defended in conversation with
the rest of us. / believe she delighted
In being contrary.
Mother sometimes rebuked her for her
petulance to Bob, but father said it made
sical people to quarrel. He was quick
tempered himself, and Lib was more like
him than any of the rest of us were.
But to return TO that December even
ing. AS have said, Il e weather was
bad. For that reason, I suppose, the
boy had failed to leave the evening paper.
When father came in, he asked for the
paper, and said, ssConfound the boy"
When Bob came in; he asked for the
paper, and went up stairs to change his
boots, grumbling out something about
hanging the boy to the nearest lamp
post.
The girls were in bad humor, because
they had been unable to get out shopping
that afternoon on holiday shopping ex-
pedition: while mother was worried be-
cause the bread had not turned out well.
and the buckwheat cakes showed a ten
dency to become sour
Mother said something about the bread
said she had been over the baking all
day, and it seemed as though it never
would rise. She said, 81 think either
the -four or the yeast is bad"
Father, just to be disagreeable, sup
pose, said, "a bad workman always COM
plains of his tools"
Mother flushed up instantly. She was
good bread-maker, and she knew it.
She said, "That don't apply to me. We
generally have as good bread as any one.
Don't you think SO, Robert 2"
Bob, who looked as though he was
working out some problem in mental
arithmetic, answered, ~ don't presume !