Litchfield enquirer., 1874-10-29

he was scarcely weaned before he began to carry milk around to other people.
 After reached home came supper and the delightful evening hours, when over my pipe q soon gave up cigars. as being too expensive and inappropriate, and took to tall pipe and canister tobacco) We talked, and planned, and told each other our days experience.
 One of our earliest subjects of discus sion was the name of our homestead. Flu phemia insisted that 1t should have a name. was quite willing, but we found 1t no easy matter to select an appropriate title. l proposed number of appella- tlons intended to suggest the character of our home. Among these were: Safe Ashore, y Firmly Grounded" and some other names of that style, but Euphemia did not fancy any of them. She wanted a suitable name. of course, she said, but it must be something that would sound like house and Dc like boat.
 "Partltionville" she objected to, and ''Gang. plank Terrace" did not suit her because 1t suggested convicts going out to work, which naturally was unpleasant.
 At last, after days of talk and cogita- ton. We named onr house "Rudder Grange
 To be sure, 1t wasn't exactly a grange, but then 1t had such an enormous rudder that the justice of that part of the title seemed to overbalarce any little inaccura- cy in the other portion.
 But we did not spend all our spare time Tn talking. An hour or two, every even ing was occupied in what we called ''fix- ing up the house." and gradually the in- side of our abode began to look like a conventional dwelling. We put mating on the floors and cheap but pretty paper on the walls. We added now a couple of chairs, and new table or something for the ketchen- Frequently, especially of a Sunday, We lad company, and our guests were always "harmed with Euphemia' s cunning littl, meals. The dear girl loved l good eating so much that she could scarcely fail be good cook. We re- moved our h2d to the extreme bow-part of the boat, and put up muslin curtains to separate it from the parlor. We worked hard, and were very happy. And thus weeks passed on.
 1 In th1s delightful way of living, only one thing troubled us We didn't save any money. There were so many little l things that we wanted, and so many little things that were so cheap, that I spent pretty much Ill I made, and that was far HUH tl1C p1L4OSCkiCdl p1du CI liVl00 InaG wished to follow.
 We talked this matter over a great deal after we had lived Tn our new home for about month, and we came at last to the conclusion that We would take a boarder
 We had no trouble in getting a board CT, for we had friend, young man who was engaged in the flour business, who was very anxious to come and live with us. He had been to see us two or three times, and had expressed himself charm | ed wlfh our household arrangements. So we made terms with him. The car penter partitioned off another room. and our boarder brought his trunk and large red velvet armchair, and took up his l abode at ''Rudder Grange
 We liked our boarder very much, but he had some peculiaritits. I suppose everybody has them. Among other things, he was very fond of telling us what we ought to do. He suggested more improvements in the first three days of his sojourn with us than I had thought of since we commenced housekeeping. And what made the matter worse, his suggestions were generally very good ones. Had 1t been otherwise I might have borne his remarks more complacent- ly, but to be continually told what yon ought to do, and to know you ought to do 1t, is extremely annoying.
 lie was very anxious that should take off the rudder, which was certainly use less to a boat situated as ours was. and make an ironing table of it. 1 persisted that the laws of symetrical propriety re- qured that the rudder should remain where 1t was-that the very name of our homo TUnn11 ho int L moval, but he insisted that ssIrouinp-ta- ble Grange would be just as good a name, and that symetrical proprietv in such case did not amount to a row of pins.
 The result was, that we did have the ironing table. and Euphemia was very much pleased with 1t. A great many oth- CT improvements were projected and car rled out by him, and I was very much worried. He made a fower-garoen for Euphemla on the extreme forward deck. and having borrowed a wheelbarrow. he wheeled dozens of loads of arabic dirt np our gang-plank aid dumped them out on the deck. When he had covered the gar den with a suitable depth of earth, he smoothed 1t off and then planted flower seeds. It was rather late in the season. but most of them came up I was pleas ed with the garden, but sorry 1 had not made it myself
 One afternoon got away from the of- ice considerably earlier than usual, and hurried home to enjoy the short period of daylight that should have before SUD- per. It had been raining the day before. and as the bottom of our garden leaked so that earthly water trickled down at one end of our bedroom, I intended to devote short time to stufing up the cracks in the ceiling or bottom of the deck-whlcheyeF seems the most appro- priate.
 But when reached bend in the river road. whence l always had the earliest view of my establishment, didn't have that view. l hurried on. The nearer I approached the place wksre I lived, the more herror-stricken I became. There was no mistaking the fact.
 The boat was net therei
 In an instant the truth flashed mon
 The water was very high-the rain had swollen the rlver-my house had aoated away.
 It was Wednesday. Gu Wednesday af- | ternoons our boarder came home early. . clapped my hat tightly on my head- and ground my teeth
 ''Confound that boarderl'' I thought. eHe has been fooling with the anchor. He always said 1t was of no use. and talk | ing advantage of my absence, he has hauled it up and has foated away. and has gone-gone with my wife and my homer
 Euphemia and ':Rudder Grange" had l gone of, together-where I knew not - | and with them that horrible suggester.
 I ran wildly along the bank. called aloud, shouted and hailed each passing | craft-of which there were only two-bnf | their crews must have been very inatten- 1 tive to the woes of landsmen, or else they | did not hear me, for they paved no atten- hon to my cries. ~
 Ismet fellow with an ax on his should CT. I shouted to him before I reached him.