Omaha daily bee., 1874-06-24
BEING BURGLED.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "sHIP AHoY !"
0TREAsuRE &c.

TREASURE HUNTERS" &c.
"And they took away all the plate
at the Smithers', dear"
"Only electro, my DEAR" 1 said.
"But it is so dreadful, love. Only
think if they were to come here
next"
"Ah, to he sure" 1 said, "they
might steal the babvw
"How can you be so cruel ?"
81 wonder how much a baby Is
worth to people of that class"
81 declare, FreI, if you keep on
talking such stuff, 1 won't stop in
the studio"
"Do you know what they do with
them"
"No. With what ?"
"Stolen babies"
"NO; Of course not, How can
you talk such nonsense ~
"Let them out for hire. A wo-
man has q couple in arms, two more
a size or so larger cling to her skirt,
and two more support her beloved
husband, who scrapes a psalm tune
-Ararat-on an old fiddle, and
gives out two lines of the psalm at
a time to the tinkling of fallen cop
pers on the pave"
"DO YOU wish to make me cry,
Fred?"
This very reproachfully, as 1 am
darkening the shadows beside q
pretty girls nose i'm my popular pic
ture of q party at the boat-race-
"Blue Bells"
"My dear, tears improve you;
but all the same, you are already so
near perfection that l do not wish
to see you improved, Still if baby
were stolen, what quiet nights We
should have! Pass me that tube
Ofivermillion, sill vous plait."
silence in the studio for awhile,
broken only by the click, click, of
busy needle and the creaking of my
easel as 1 shift its position. Then
my WHEY goes OH:
81 think, dear, we really ought to
move"
"Why, my dear >"
"Why? Because its quite dread
full to live i'm a place with such hor-
rble robberies always going on"
"And leave King Henry's Road ?
Why, what place could be a better
one for wives ?"
"NOnsense! The place smells of
nothing but paint, Fred, and you
know 1t. II you go out you are SURF
to meet some horrible snuffy dealer
! coming away chuckling with a can
a he has bought cheap, or else art
ists."
"Well, and if 1 do, what then?
Bayes is, Pm sure, a good fellow
1t almost makes me fancy that /
sniff the briny when 1 meet him and
think of his pictures; then there's
tall, good looking Wildes, who
always paints love i'm idleness; or
SaxOn-haired Forest. What a you
find to grumble about? Am not 1
here ?".
al see it's of no use to talk to you
to-day, Fred" said little wiley /;
"yOu have got one of your teasing
fits on, 81 l may as well hold my
tongue"
"NO, my dear, pray proceed; tits
like the silver murmur of the brook
upon mine ear, and sweetens the
task / have i'm hand"
"Stuffw
This is little wifey's exclamation,
i'm a very snatchy, pettish tone, but
she likes it all the same, and every
now and then the head will turn In
my direction. At the end of q min
ute the burglars break in once more
and she continues
"There have been no less than ten
robberies since Christmas, Fred
"Indeed, my dear! Then / shall
start a Burglary Insurance Com
pany. Why not? How does her
nose look now ?"
"Capital; but isn't it a little too
~retrOusse ?"
al love retrousse noses" l re-
spond. "Cupid's lose was a pug,
and pug-nOses were made to love.
I could never have endured coming
i'm contact with a Ratchet or cheese
knife fashioned organ in a sweet sa-
Lutte"
More stuff. But, all the same,
the bit of bantering f1attery does
not quite displease, and l paint
away.
"Did you hear how they cleared
out the Lemaines-thOse French
people ?"
"NO, my dear, / did not"
"Oh, but Ii was dreadful! They
took everything-even to the table
linen"
"Well, my dear, IL they come
here-bless 'em-what will they
get? Nothing worth having; for
our poverty is a sweet blessing in
disguise, which frees us from the
sad anxieties of those who suffer
from a Plethora of plate, a weight
of watches, or a generosity of gems.
W. have our tables and Our chairs,
1 my paints and brushes, you your
needlework and-and, well, your
good looks, which time alone can
steal. The only mutual property,
it seems to me, that We could lose
by the burglariOus burgling of bur-
glars Is the baby, and him you
homeopothically preserve
"What do you mean?"
"Similia similibus curantur, my
love-like cures like; that the
scoundrels who make harvest off
u neighborhOod may not spoil
your child and crib him (orib, my
dear, Is q more refined word than
prig), you spoil him yourself, and
keep him i'm a crib. Let the bur-
glars come. I should almost rejoice,
because of the disappointment they
would be called upon to meet.
There, l shall do no more to-day
the Blue Bellies may rest i'm their in
anity for a few hours, while we seek
flowers upon fair Primrose HILL"
did chat the matter over sagely
enough while we had our walk, and
the httle wife agreed that it would
not be wise to run away from a dan.
ger that might never come-in fact,
we might be running into its very
teeth. But, all the same, it was
a terrible nuisance, this constant re.
currence of petty robberies, and
keeping, as it did, the hearts of all
the hens and chickens of the neigh.
bOrhoOd in q constant state Of fluttel
lest the next visit of the fox should
be to their peculiar roost. !, for one,