The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1872-11-07
sAHLIE'S BEDTIME.

A father not very far from here
read in the paper the other morn.
ing that the Utica girls who wanI
their beaux 10 60 home the same
night they call, pun a string at the
proper hour, which reverses a pie
ture, on the back of which appears
the words, 'Ten o'clock is my bed
time.'
This father, who had q daughter
! given to late hours when a 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 a huge
portrait of George Washington, this
inscription:
80 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 bed chamber. But when SaIlie
entered the room an hour later her
aesthetic eyes we're outraged by OBJ
serving 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 a Utica girl, how
ever, so she just went to work and
neatly efaced the co." leaving the l
standing solitary and upright
which, you will observe, made few
hours difference in her bedtime.
That night, as usual, Sallie received
visit from her young man-which
his front name was Hcnry-and
her paternal parent attached his
string to G., WIS portrait and re-
tired to his downy couch.
About ten o'clock, while Henry
end SaIlie were deeply absorbed in
some knotty problem, With their
heads so contiguous that you
couldn't insert q piece of tissue pa
per 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 a sudden start, glanced at the
picture, and saw the writing
on the wall, as it were, which read,
q o'clock is Sallie's bedtime"
Then Henry looked at Sally with
an interrogation in his ere, which
was partly dispelled by the fair
maid murmuring, Its all right. "
Henry said of course it was all
rfght-that he had long known one
o'clock was her bedtime, and he
thought that it was plenty late
enough, too, for a young girl to be
out Of bed, but what business, he.
said, had George Washington's por-
trait Topping about that way? Then
Sallie explained-and the twain re-
sumed work on the problem, Henry
putting his arm around Sallie to.
prevent her falling of the chair.
Meanwhile the old man WAS lis
tening for the front door to open
and his would-be son-in-law's foot
steps pattering over the pavement.
with the toes of his boots pointing
from the house. These sounds not
reaching his ear, r,and thiAking maybe
the old thing did not work right, he
gave the string another pull, and
George W. again faced the audience.
Then he listened, but he heard no
footstep-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 sudden
ness, just as if he was dreadfully
out of humor, too.
And still all was quiet below ex-
cept that popping sound.
Then the string was pulled again
and again-and again-indicating
that the old fellow was just ready
to explode with rage. And for
fully fifteen minutes did he have
the portrait of the man who would
not tell a lie turning fiiphaps and
things on the wall, ike a bewitched
gymnast, until he fell asleep exhaust
ed-Sallie's father fell asleep, not
the portrait.
Henry kissed Sallie goodnight at
one o'clock, A. N, remarking, as he
did so, that it would seem like a
long, long weary year ere he would
see her again-because, you know,
he didn't expect to see her again
until the evening Of that day.
The next morning her father ex-
amined the portrait and when he
fully understood the situation he
was panied. He shed a silent tear,
the string, sponged out
the inscription, and walked away
with the weight of ffty-five years on
his shoulders-that being his age. !
He says that a girl who will go |
back on her father that way would /