The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-05-28
[From LIppincott,s MagazIne. !

lfrom Appincotts Magazne.I
We live in the quietest possible way,
my wife and /. We have nothing to
disturb us, having no children, and a
comfortable income securely invested.
Banks may collapse, argosies may sink at
sea; we have no calamity to dread short
of paying off the national debt.
/ don't say that We could not make
annoyances for ourselves. We have a
young man hired to superintend horse
and pheton, and to help in the garden,
who might be a source of perpetual anx-
iety; or our female servants--but, know
ing them to be human, we shut our eyes
to their follies; only when the straw
berries disappeared mysteriously between
night and morning my wife took an OPP
portunity of remarking on the circum-
stance to the household corps, and was
unanimously referred to the birds for an
account of the missing fruit. That's
all very WE'LL" she quietly said, but
you know birds don't wear shoes" On
an average we must have gone around
the garden at least once every day all
the season with one or more visitors, and
on each occasion my wife repeated this
little anecdOte with humorous appear
ance of Inconsistencies. listened with
a smile of appreciation, and our visitors
were amused---as they had every right to
be.
Although the main stream of time runs
quickly enough with us, / must acknowl-
edge the feeders are apt to lag; the years
flow rapidly past, but the hours and min
utes daily little sometimes. On the
Tuesday mornings we rouse ourselves
with considerable alacrity, that being the
day l always walk to neighboring vii
lage to settle our weekly account for
butchers meat. If it is fine day, my
wife accompanies me, and we get home
to dinner with an appetite, and feeling
that we have earned it. On Saturdays
always wind up two clocks and three
timepieces, and my wife squares her
household book. We give small dinner
party some half-dozen times year, and
people of the neighborhood. Our village
is most strictly exclusive and genteel
it is five miles from railway station
and as pretty place as you could see
The houses are all Old-fashiOned, but good
and commOdious, with well-stocked, we'll
grown gardens, while the rents are mi
raculously low, the consequence of which
is that the inhabitants are ultra genteel
mostly retired medical, military,and nava
men, with sons scattered over every land
and sea, and with daughters collected al
home of all ages, with very aristocrati(
manners, and high, distinguished noses
There is one house at the end of the
village which has even had the privilege
of being occupied by succession of in
digent noblemen--repeatedly have given
his lordship a seat in my ph@ton--and
we all enjoy the title, and work it dill
gently.
When dinner, the event of the day, il
over, my wife takes an easy-chair on one
side of the fire, and / take an easy-chail
on the other; she furnishes herself with
volume of some kind, and l produce
my notebook and pencil, to note dOwI
any thought that may suggest itself, o.
anything striking that has occurred--onl.
nothing striking ever occurs. Her bOOl
slips from her hand into her lap, my pencil
falls quietly on the carpet, the world re
cedes--probably the fire seizes the oppor
tunity, and recedes toO---and the mex
thing we are aware of is the clatter o
the tea things as they are brought in.
We don't always fall asleep, however
One afternoon lately, my wife got inter
ested and excited over her book, ant
finally shut it with bang, causing {
sudden dispersion of my ideas.