Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1872-10-12
Sallie's Bedtime.

in the paper the other morning that the
Utica girls who want their beaux to
go home the same night they call, pull
n string at the proper hour which re-
verses picture, on the back Of which
appear the words. 10 O'Clock Is my
bedtime"
This father, who has daughter given
to late hours when d certain youth sits
up and helps her keep them, thought
he would try this Utica plan, so he
wrote in large characters, on the back
of huge portrait of George Washing
ton, this inscription
10 O'CLOCK is sALLIE's BEDTIME"
Then he arranged the picture so that
when he attached a string TO the frame,
he could reverse it from his bedcham-
Der. But when Sallie entered the room
an hour later, her aesthetic eye was out,
ragged by observing the portrait Of
George hanging slightly out OF plumb,
SO to speak, and in adjusting it her
fathers little game was revealed in all
its subtle ingenuity.
Sallie was not Utica girl, however,
so she just went to work and neatly
etfaced the figure co." leaving the |
standing solitary and uprigbt-which,
you will observe, made a few hours
difference in her bedtime That night,
as usual, Sallie received a visit from her
young man-which his front name it
was Henry-and her paternal parent
attached his string to G. WIS portrait,
and retired to his downy couch.
About 10 o'clock, while Henry and
Sallie We're deeply absorbed in some
knotty problem, with their heads so
contiguous that you couldn't insert a
piece of tissue paper between them, the
Father of his Country suddenly turned
his face to the wall, as if he was ashamed
to gaze upon such doings Henry, with
sudden start, glanced at the picture,
and saw the handwriting on the wall, as
1t We're, which read 81 o'clock is
Sallle's bedtime" Then Henry looked
at sallie with an interrogation in his
eye, which was partly dispelled by the
lar maid murmuring "It's all right"
Henry said OF course it was all right
that he had long known | O'Clock was
her bedtime, and he thought it was
plenty late enough for young girl to
be out of bed, but what business, he
said, had George Washington's portrait
to be Hopping about in that way? Then
Sallle explained, and the twain re-
sumed work on the problem, Henry
putting his arms around Sallie to pre-
vent her falling off the chair.
Meanwhile, the old man was listening
for the front door to open, and his
would-be son-in-laws footsteps pattering
over the pavement, with the toes of his
boots pointing from the house. These
sounds not falling upon his ears, and
thinking may be the old thing didn't
work right, he gave the string another
pull, and George w. again faced the
audience. Then he listened: but he
heard no footsteps,-nothing but
peculiar sound, something resembling
the popping of champagne corks.
Then he grew cross, and gave the
string another jerk, causing G. W. to
turn about with violent suddenness, lust
as 1t he was dreadfully out of humor,
too.
And still all is quiet below-except
that popping sound.
lhen the string was pulled again
ana agaln-and agaln-indicating that
the old fellow was just ready to explode
with rage. And for fully fifteen minutes
dld he have the portrait of the man who
could not tell lie turning excited flip
flaps and things on.the wall, like be-
Wltched gymnast, until he fell asleep
exhausted-Sallies father fell asleep,
not the portrait.
Henry kissed sallie good night at l
o'clock a. M, remarking, as he did so,
that 1t would seem like long, long,
weary year ere he would see her again
because, you know, he didn't expect to
day.
Thenext morning her father examined
that portrait, and, when he fully under
stood the situation, he was panied. He
she'd silent tear, detached the string,
sponged out the inscription, and walked
away with the weight of SIS years on his
shoulders, that being his age. He saws
girl who will go back on her father
that way would just as lief as not dis
grace her parents 10y marrying Con-
gressman.-B. Dadd, in Nouisto,on Herald.