River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1872-10-04
Sallie,s Bedtime.

a I2tner, not very lar from mere, fedu
in the paper the other morning that the
~" Utica girls who want their beaux to
go home the same night they call, pull
string at the proper hour which re-
verses a picture, on the back of which
appear the words, 10 o'clock Is my
bedtime."'
This father, who has daughter given
to h.te hours when certain youth sits
UP and helps her keep them, thought
he would try THE Utica plan, so he
wrote in large characters, on the back
of huge portrait of George Washing
ton, this inscription
$40 O'clock is sALLIE's BEDTIME"
Then he arranged the picture 80 that
when he attached a string to the frame,
he could reverse it from his bed.cham-
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 X, 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
effaced the figure 40" leaving the /
standing solitary and upright-which,
p'you will observe made a few hours
difference in her bedtime. That night,
as usual, Sallie received 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 were deeply absorbed in some
knotty problem, with their heads SO
contiguous that you couldn't insert
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
suddens start, glanced at the picture,
and saw the handwriting on the wall. as
it were, which read: ~ o'clock is
Sallie's bedtime" Then Henry looked
at Sallie with an interrogation in his
eye, which was partly dispelled by the
fair 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 way9 Then
Sallie explained, and the twain re.
sumed work on the problem, Henry
putting lis arms around Salle to pre-.
vent her falling off the chair.
Meanwhile, the old man was listening
, Tor the front door to open, and his
iewould-be son-in,law's footsteps pattering
over the pavement, with the toes of his
boots pointing from the house. These
sounds hot falling upon his ears. and
thinking may be the Old thing didn't
work right, ne gave the string another
pull, and George W. again faced the
audience. Then ne listened; but he
heard no tootsteps,-nothing but a
peculiar sound, something resembling
the popping of champagne corks.
Then he grew cross, and gave the
string another jerk, causing G. W. 10
turn about with violent suddenness, lust
as if he was dreadfully out of humor,
too.
And still all is quiet below-except
that popping sound.
Then the string was pulled again
and again-and sgsin-indicating that
the CID fellow was just ready to explode
with rage. And for fully fifteen minutes
did he have the portrait of the man who
soulo not tell lie turning excited flip.
haps and things on the wall, like be-
WI. ched gymnast, until he fell asleep
exhausted-Sallie's father fell asleep.
not the portrait.
Henry kissed Sallie good night at
o'clock q. M, remarking, as he did SO.
that it would seem like 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 examined
that portrait, and, when he fully under.
Stood the situation, he was panied He
''shed silent tear, detached the string.
sponged out the inscription, and walked
away with the weight of So wears on his
shoulders, that being his age. He says
2 girl who will go back on her father
that way would just as lief as not dis.
grace her parents by marrying a Con.
sressman.-B. DaHd, in Norris,o,sa Herald.
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